About this course [see also course flyer]
In many societies today, we live our lives surrounded by the written word. But did you ever stop to wonder how reading works? How do we go from looking at symbols on a page, sign, or screen to understanding the writer's message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading would best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through hands-on analysis of language and writing-system structure, as well as discussion of the primary research literature. Your final course project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.
Course goals and key learning objectives
- Develop an understanding of how speech sounds (consonants, vowels, syllables), words and their parts, and larger units like sentences are structured in the human cognitive system of language, and how these cognitive structures are part of the reading process
- Develop skills as an informed consumer of research articles and data graphics
- Become familiar with topics and experiment methods in linguistics and cognitive science
- Critically examine approaches to teaching reading, and evaluate their validity
Who should take this course?
- This course is a First-Year Seminar and satisfies the Research and Discovery requirement for IDEAs in Action
- This course is for you if you are interested in reading, reading education, or human language, and want to learn to think more critically about these topics
- This course emphasizes learning to read and understand quantitative (numerical) research results — a skill that is useful for understanding any social, physical, or natural science, and more generally helps us interpret and evaluate news stories and media reports in daily life
Course requirements
- Preparation and participation activities, on Canvas or in class
- Approximately 5 reflection essays (1-2 pages each)
- Article interpretation and presentation
- Final project development assignments
- Final project presentation