Students will engage in self-selected readings from professional educational journals within the last seven years (1993-2000) and write critiques of two articles.  You must select an article that is not listed for the required course readings.  A photocopy of the article MUST be ATTACHED to each article.  The critiques are to be typed, double-spaced, cited (using APA style), and should be limited to no more than 2 pages.  A list of suggested journals is provided in this syllabus.

TOPICS:      Article critique # 1 topic:  Emergent Literacy
             Article critique # 2 topic:  Multicultural education/cultural diversity and reading instruction

Critiques should include:
   1.  A summary of the article synthesizing the contents
   2.  Your reaction to the reading as well as what you have learned
   3.  A well developed explanation or description of how you will use what you have learned as a classroom teacher working with elementary students

Possible articles for Emergent Literacy:

http://www.aasa.org/SA/sept9701.htm

http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/archive/emergent.htm

Lesiak, J.L. (1997). Research-based answers to questions about emergent literacy in kindergarten. Psychology in the Schools, 34(2), 143-160.

McMahon, R. (1996). Introducing infants to the joy of reading. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 24(3), 26-29.

Barclay, Kathy; Benelli, Cecelia; & Curtis, Ann. (1995). Literacy begins at birth: What caregivers can learn from parents of children who read early.  Young Children, 50 (4), 24-28.

http://www.npin.org/pnews/1998/pnew498/pnew498b.html

Richgels, D.J. (1995, January/February/March). Invented spelling ability and printed word learning in kindergarten. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(1), 96-109.

Sulzby, E. (1991, March). Assessment of emergent literacy: Storybook reading. The Reading Teacher, 44(7), 498-500. (This article extends the acceptable "years" for this assignment, but it is of such quality that I find it acceptable.)

Sulzby, E., & Teale, W. (1996). Emergent literacy. In R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 727-757). Mahway, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum.

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li100.htm (This article has not been published in a journal, but does represent some of the best practices in early literacy education to date.  I will accept this as an article.)

  I did a quick check and found these resources pertinent to your second article review.  I only looked over these quickly, so read them out well before you use them.  There are MANY others available (search ERIC) but this might help.  I

Reading/Literacy and Diversity/Multiculturalism

http://www.nea.org/society/engonly.html
 

Weinstein, G. (1984). Literacy and second language acquisition: Issues and perspectives. TESOL Quarterly, 18(3), 471-484.
 

Wiley, T. ( 1991, July). Measuring the nation's literacy: Important considerations ERIC Digest.

Wong Fillmore, L. (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Research Quarterly, 6, 323-346.
 

http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/miscpubs/tesol/tesolquarterly/english.htm

Steinberg, E. R. (1992). "The Potential of Computer-based Telecommunications for Instruction" Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, Vol. 19, No. 2.

http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/resource/fedpol.htm

CENTER FOR MULTILINGUAL, MULTICULTURAL RESEARCH
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~cmmr/Policy.html#fulltext

This one is particularly good:  http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed407881.html

http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed286705.html