Offered in: Roosevelt Online

This program prepares licensed teachers in kindergarten through grade 12 and teachers in post-secondary settings for various teaching and supervisory roles in language and literacy education. The program is ideal for licensed teachers who aspire to enhance their knowledge of reading and literacy instruction and transform schools and classrooms to pursue social justice.

Course work is based on professional standards set by the International Literacy Association, and the program is nationally recognized by ILA and approved by the state of Illinois. The requirements for the Illinois reading specialist endorsement are integrated into the program. The program also offers courses that prepare teachers to obtain the ESL or bilingual endorsement. 

Core courses focus on the foundations of language and reading instruction, content area reading, the assessment and diagnosis of reading problems, and strategies and materials for teaching reading, writing, and language. In addition to completing the core courses, teachers develop their leadership potential through enrollment in one of the following concentrations: reading specialist or bilingual/ESL literacy.

A 200-hour clinical practicum completed during the summer semester in Schaumburg is required for the reading specialist concentration; upon completing this concentration and the required state exam, teachers can add the reading specialist endorsement to their teaching license. Upon successfully completing the bilingual/ESL literacy concentration, teachers can add a bilingual or ESL endorsement to their license.

Admission

A minimum undergraduate or graduate GPA of 2.7 is required for admission to the program, in addition to a valid teaching license. Applicants to the reading specialist concentration must provide evidence that two years of teaching experience will be completed before exiting from the program.

Prerequisites

Upon admission to the reading specialist concentration, a faculty advisor will conduct a transcript review to ensure that a special education survey course on exceptional children was taken as part of the completed teacher preparation program.

Requirements

To earn the MA in reading, students must complete 30 credit hours of course work and all clinical experiences. No grades below C may apply toward the degree, and no more than two courses with grades of C+ or C are allowed. The program faculty routinely assess students for evidence of professional dispositions.

In addition to the 12 credit hours of core courses listed below, students should choose one of the 18-credit-hour concentrations that follow (Bilingual/ESL Literacy or Reading Specialist):

In order to qualify for Roosevelt University's recommendation for a K-12 reading specialist endorsement, all requirements in effect at the time of application must be met, including passing scores on the ILTS Basic Skills Test or TAP, the K-12 Assessment of Professional Teaching or the edTPA, and the Reading content exam. The Reading content exam should always be taken after all course requirements have been completed.

Bilingual/ESL Literacy concentration

The Bilingual/ESL Literacy concentration does not require teaching experience, but it does require a teaching license. All courses are delivered online.

Reading Specialist concentration

The Reading Specialist concentration requires the reading specialist exam at the completion of the concentration and a minimum of two years of documented teaching experience. It is available online and at the Schaumburg campus.

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Select one of the following courses: READ 434 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS, READ 435 HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO TEACHING LITERACY TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES,  or READ 438 SUPERVISION OF PERSONNEL AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY