Required Courses

Courses in this cohort are asynchronous, with optional synchronous class sessions. These will be recorded for any who cannot attend. Any synchronous sessions are in Mountain Time (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). Dates and times are determined by the course instructor.

These are graduate-level, credit courses, requiring between five and ten hours of coursework per week in the fall and winter terms (13 weeks). Courses offered in the spring and summer terms are condensed (six and three weeks respectively), so the amount of time spent on coursework is increased. This includes time spent on readings, assignments, presentations (group and individual), and writing papers.

Note: you must take a course in the term for which you apply. Course offerings are dependent upon sufficient enrollment.

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Summer Term

EDU 595 Literacies: Old, New and Emerging ★3

This course offers an introduction to new and emerging literacy practices and conceptions as they relate to elementary teaching and learning. The course will focus on how digital and multimodal texts and practices can be used alongside existing reading and writing instruction and pedagogy. Students will consider shifts in communication forms and practices, including the influence of the pandemic era and will have an opportunity to develop resources they can use in their own teaching context.

Fall Term

EDU 595 Literacies: Theory and Practice ★3

This course provides an orientation to current theoretical perspectives and approaches to literacy education. Participants will critically analyze the work of key theorists, researchers, and practitioners in addressing how children and youth develop language and literacy, with a focus on making connections to their own classroom practice.

Winter Term

EDU 595 Contemporary Approaches to Understanding and Addressing Reading Difficulties ★3

This course focuses on ways to identify the strengths and needs of learners with reading or writing difficulties, and the selection and adaptation of teaching activities and resources to meet their needs. Contemporary issues and controversies in remedial reading and writing education will be considered, including the different ways in which reading and writing difficulties are explained and addressed in contemporary research and popular remedial programs and various teaching practices.

Spring Term

EDU 595 Contemporary Perspectives and Approaches to Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom ★3

This course focuses on research and theories addressing linguistic, cultural and social aspects for multilingual and newcomer students in the contemporary English Language Arts classroom. It addresses approaches to instruction and assessment., and makes connections to multimodal and digital literacy practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students.