Strategies for Increasing Literacy Among Elementary Students

CEU Course Description

Part 1: Students who develop strong writing skills at an early age acquire a valuable tool for learning, communication, and self-expression. Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers-2018 update is designed to help educators increase writing achievement for elementary students that will help them succeed in school and society. This course was developed using material from a U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) publication as a means to formulate specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations for teachers and other school personnel. The course provides practical, clear information on critical topics related to teaching writing and is based on the best available evidence as judged by experts. 

Part 2: Literacy and numeracy represent what could be perceived to be a basic set of counting, reading, and writing skills most often obtained in early grades. However, there is a significant imbalance in the communities and populations who achieve mastery of even these basic skills - which ends up contributing in large part to the achievement gap for disadvantaged populations later in life. Systematic early childhood instruction in literacy aims can help reduce these unwanted outcomes. By implementing specific literacy standards and working to understand how children’s brains change when they read, we can learn more about the ways that we can best help struggling students achieve literacy outcomes. 

CEU Course Objectives

Part 1: 

1. Evaluate evidence-based recommendations to improve writing strategies among young students, while identifying relevant research findings that support these recommendations.
2. Analyze strategies to provide daily time for writing instruction and practice as well as ways to teach students the writing process for a variety of purposes.
3. Identify effective methods for providing direct and explicit writing strategy instruction.
4. Outline methods to teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing.
5. Describe practical goals for increasing student motivation and engagement in the writing process and for creating a community of writers.
6. Discuss ways to encourage students to collaborate as writers and to provide students with opportunities to give and receive feedback throughout the writing process. 

Part 2:

1. Discuss the current barriers to and consequences of low literacy - and the benefits we can achieve as individuals and as a society by increasing literacy efforts
2. Brainstorm practical ways that schools can help students with literacy development
3. Review the neurological underpinnings of literacy development and recent research
4. Describe the ways that literacy can do more than help children read, and how a strong literacy foundation helps prepare fully-functioning and empathetic global citizens
5. Outline specific evidence and behaviors of schools that adequately support literacy education on the whole-school and grade-by-grade levels, and discuss strategies that can help schools achieve those standards