Online Courses for Teachers

Small Group Practices to Reach All Readers and Writers

(Grades PreK-5) / Flex Course

PDI Course Number: 145T02 / UCSD Course Number: EDUC42626

Course Description

Do you find yourself searching for high-yield strategies to support your students’ widespread literacy needs? With the diversity of today’s classrooms, it is becoming more difficult to meet every student’s literacy needs. This online course for PreK-5 teachers takes a deep dive into the various stages of literacy. Teachers will explore evidence-based small group practices that are centered around how best to support the needs of their readers and writers across all literacy stages —emergent, beginning, transitional, and fluent and independent — in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. The course begins by presenting teachers with assessment practices geared toward getting to know students’ literacy needs so they can be better served in small groups. The course then guides teachers through all phases of literacy — from emergent to independent — so that they not only have a solid understanding of each phase, but they also have thoroughly explored several small group strategies for each of the foundational skills (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing), all of which are based on reading science to better support the specific needs of their readers and writers. Teachers will also gain strategies for working with students who are English language learners, have disabilities, and/or have experienced trauma, poverty, and/or have missed a significant portion of school. By the end of this continuing education course, teachers will feel more confident in their quest to leverage small group practices to better support their readers and writers throughout all the stages of literacy. This online professional development course is worth 3 ⅓ semester units/5 quarter units (50 hours of training) from University of California San Diego (UCSD) Division of Extended Studies. For detailed information on receiving university credit for your PDI professional development course, visit our credit page.

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