Postgraduate - UnitEDF4123 - Literacy across the years

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Education
Offered	Berwick Second semester 2015 (Day) Clayton Second semester 2015 (Day) Clayton Second semester 2015 (Online) Peninsula Second semester 2015 (Day) Peninsula Second semester 2015 (Online)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Julie Faulkner (Berwick); Dr Janet Scull (Clayton); Ms Sarah Rutherford (Clayton, online); Dr Jennifer Rennie (Peninsula)

Synopsis

This unit orients students to the notion of literacy practice as fundamental to living in the world and how we learn, both formally and informally. It positions literacy practices as being in relationship to learning. It examines literacy/literacies across the years as a set of practices which are socially situated, developing from birth and beyond. Students explore how meanings are made and communicated through various modes, including reading, writing, speaking and viewing. Digital technologies are explored as potentially powerful ways to support and enhance positive relationships and engagement with literacy across a range of settings. Developing communicative competence in these ways connects students' out-of-school practices with those associated with schooling. Through the course of the unit, students become observers of their own meaning-making practices and reflect on connections to the shifting contexts in which they live and work.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

understand literacy/literacies as socially situated practice through which students create and interpret meanings
appreciate how language shapes understanding across diverse settings (including everyday family practices, institutions, communities) and cultures
identify the ways that language develops from birth to 18 years of age
develop communicative competence in and across different modes, including reading, writing, oracy and viewing
understand digital technologies as potentially powerful ways to support and enhance meaning-making
understand the deeper structures of disciplinary knowledge; and the language and organisational principles and features that characterise disciplinary areas
develop knowledge of teaching and learning strategies in literacy across the years and plan effective literacy lesson sequences
consolidate their own personal literacy skills and application.

Assessment

A study of literacy practice (2000 words, 50%)
Planning for literacy learning across diverse contexts (2000 words, 50%)

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload equals 144 hours per semester comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

equivalent to 24 hours engagement in online, face-to-face or blended platforms

(b.) Contact hours for off-campus students:

equivalent to 24 hours engagement in online or blended platforms

(c.) Additional requirements (all students)

independent study to make up the minimum required hours per semester

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Janet Scull

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Early years education
Early years and primary education
Primary education
Primary and secondary education
Secondary education