EDS 824 - Literacy and Diagnostic Assessment for Students with Exceptional Learning Needs

3 Credit(s) This course strengthens candidates’ understanding of the underlying causes of literacy difficulties and teaches the administration, analysis, and interpretation of informal and formal assessments. Candidates will identify students’ learning strengths and needs, with particular attention to foundational skills in reading, such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, word analysis, spelling, comprehension, language development, and writing. Curricular, cognitive, and achievement-based testing results will be examined to design and implement specific instructional recommendations in a multi-tiered system of support. Standardized and non-standardized assessment tools in the fields of special education and literacy will be used for screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring purposes, creating goals and objectives, and designing and implementing universally designed lesson plans to best meet the needs of culturally, linguistically and academically diverse learners. Field experience required.
Prerequisite: EDU 725 or EDU 814