ESS518 Reading Difficulties: Prevention and Intervention (8)

This subject focuses on the prevention of reading difficulties in the primary school years and in designing interventions for individual children. The subject content is grounded in the scientifically based reading research and provides a specific focus on the teaching of reading integrating the 5 big ideas (phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension). Explicit teaching is the pedagogy for instruction used in the teaching of reading in this subject. There is a specific emphasis on assessment and the role of careful instructional design and delivery in the teaching of children who are at risk for reading difficulties. Students will apply their understanding of assessment, explicit teaching, and instructional decision making. Students will be required to work with a child while undertaking this subject.

Availability

Session 1 (30)
Online
Bathurst Campus
Session 3 (90)
Online
Bathurst Campus

Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details: ESS518. Where differences exist between the Handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.

Subject Information

Grading System

HD/FL

Duration

One session

School

School of Teacher Education

Incompatible Subjects

ESS407, ESS408

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
  • be able to identify a child's relative risk for reading difficulties using a reliable curriculum-based measure;
  • be able to administer an assessment of decoding skills and identify a child's present level of performance;
  • be able to match student reading level with appropriate materials;
  • be able to plan a weekly overview of the explicit teaching of reading integrating phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, phonic or structural analysis, word lists, irregular words, vocabulary instruction, passage reading and comprehension;
  • be able to build a direct instruction lesson to teach reading skills;
  • be able to differentiate a direct instruction lesson to teach reading skills; and,
  • be able to reflect upon and justify their design and delivery from a theory to practice perspective. This includes the bigger picture implications for the quality reading instruction at scale in the school or setting.

Syllabus

This subject will cover the following topics:
  • Reading Risk
  • Assessing Decoding
  • Placement
  • Planning and Designing Instruction
  • Lesson Design
  • Differentiating Lesson Design
  • Theory and Practice

Indicative Assessment

The following table summarises the assessment tasks for the online offering of ESS518 in Session 1 2019. Please note this is a guide only. Assessment tasks are regularly updated and can also differ to suit the mode of study (online or on campus).

Item Number
Title
Value %
1
Identifying reading difficulties
50
2
Designing and delivering reading instruction
50

The information contained in the CSU Handbook was accurate at the date of publication: October 2020. The University reserves the right to vary the information at any time without notice.

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