Reading and Literacy Curriculum and Program Development, 2019-2022

I am including a special section for curriculum and program development because not only did it dominate my first two years here at AU, it continues to drive ways I can engage in both teaching and service responsibilities. The work completed during my first four years was done without any official title or buyout. as Literacy Director.

I am responsible for both the graduate and undergraduate literacy programming, inclusive of 13 licensure courses, an endorsement, and an M.Ed. To maintain these programs, I have to work across two departments with two different sets of operating procedures and curriculum. In literacy, this also means I work with hundreds of standards, all separate for graduate and undergraduate, including the Ohio Department of Education , CAEP P-6 Standards, CAEP Accreditation, the International Literacy Association, and our own Knowledge, Skills and Disposition requirements. It also means that any time any documentation is needed by any one of the above organizations, those responsibilities fall to me.

It is incredibly difficult to quality control all of those courses. I cannot teach them all. I teach most of the graduate literacy courses. Partly because I like teaching graduate, but also because I don’t know of any adjuncts with terminal degrees who could teach graduate literacy. But in undergraduate, I still strive to find ways to work with and communicate with our adjunct instructors to insure quality and compliance with the standards across all of the courses.

Curriculum and program dominated my first two years here because it required immediate attention. Our undergraduate syllabi and standards were out of compliance. We required a CAEP follow -up visit for undergraduate programming. That occurred my first semester, Fall, 2019. In two months, I pulled five syllabi, new standards, and a new grade band program update together without really knowing much about the COE programming at all. P-5 was first because CAEP has it’s own set of P-6 standards. Middle Grades and Adolescent Young Adult programming needed the same the following year.

Finally, I could not in any good conscience let the graduate program go. It was antiquated, not working, not meeting the needs of our graduate students, and not in compliance. And my name was on it. As soon as I had opportunity, I created a completely new Reading and Literacy M.Ed, combining the Reading Endorsement with the M.Ed., and added three new updated courses including a Literacy Capstone.

Now that all new programs and accompanying new or updated courses are up and running, I am able to reflect on my accomplishments. Rather than restating all evidence linked in service and teaching, the buttons below are the programmatic and curricular accomplishments of which I’m most proud.