Early and Emergent Literacy K-2

Course Description

RED3309C – Early and Emergent Literacy K-2 is a 3-credit upper-division reading education course covering how children become readers and writers from birth through second grade, and what teachers do to make that happen. The C suffix reflects a required field component — typically around 15 hours of observation and participation in an approved K-2 setting.

The course sits at the center of Florida's elementary education requirements for a specific reason: learning to read is the single highest-stakes academic task of the primary grades, and unlike spoken language it is not acquired naturally. Reading must be taught, and the research on how to teach it is unusually clear and unusually often ignored. This course is where prospective teachers encounter that research directly.

Content covers oral language as the foundation of literacy — vocabulary, syntax, and the relationship between talk and reading; emergent literacy — concepts of print, book handling, environmental print, and early writing; phonological and phonemic awareness — the developmental progression from rhyme and syllable through blending and segmenting to phoneme manipulation; the alphabetic principle and letter knowledge; phonics — systematic, explicit, sequential instruction, and the difference between that and incidental exposure; decoding and word recognition — orthographic mapping and how words become sight-recognized; fluency — accuracy, rate, prosody, and its role as a bridge to comprehension; vocabulary instruction; comprehension — listening comprehension, background knowledge, and early strategy instruction; writing development — invented spelling, encoding, and the reciprocity of reading and writing; assessment — screening, progress monitoring, and diagnostic tools; differentiation and intervention — multi-tiered support and small-group instruction; reading difficulties including the characteristics of dyslexia; English language learners and early literacy; family and community involvement; and text selection including decodable and authentic texts.

Offered at Florida institutions with elementary education or reading programs.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the developmental progression of literacy from birth through second grade.
• Explain the relationship between oral language development and later reading achievement.
• Describe emergent literacy behaviors including concepts of print and early writing.
• Explain phonological awareness and its developmental sequence through phonemic awareness.
• Design and deliver phonological and phonemic awareness activities.
• Explain the alphabetic principle and its role in learning to read.
• Describe systematic, explicit, sequential phonics instruction and distinguish it from incidental approaches.
• Explain orthographic mapping and how words become recognized automatically.
• Describe fluency and its role as a bridge between decoding and comprehension.
• Apply evidence-based vocabulary instruction appropriate to K-2.
• Explain the contribution of background knowledge and listening comprehension.
• Describe the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing development.
• Interpret invented spelling as evidence of a child's phonemic understanding.
• Administer and interpret common early literacy screening and progress monitoring assessments.
• Use assessment data to group students and plan differentiated instruction.
• Describe multi-tiered systems of support as applied to early reading.
• Describe characteristics of dyslexia and appropriate identification and response.
• Adapt early literacy instruction for English language learners.
• Select and evaluate texts including decodable and authentic literature.
• Engage families in supporting early literacy at home.
• Plan and teach a K-2 literacy lesson aligned to Florida standards.
• Complete required field experience hours and document observations professionally.

Optional Outcomes

• Conduct a case study of an individual emergent reader.
• Analyze a commercial reading program against evidence-based criteria.
• Describe the history of the reading wars and the evidence that resolved them.
• Describe early literacy in preschool and child care settings.
• Create a family literacy resource or workshop plan.
• Relate course content to the Florida Reading Endorsement competencies.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Foundations — how reading develops and why it must be taught.
• The six components of reading — oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension.
• Models of reading — the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough's Reading Rope.
• Oral language — vocabulary, syntax, and the talk-to-text connection.
• Emergent literacy — print concepts, book handling, and environmental print.
• Phonological awareness — the progression from rhyme to phoneme manipulation.
• Phonemic awareness — blending, segmenting, and instructional routines.
• Alphabet knowledge — letter names, sounds, and formation.
• Phonics — scope and sequence, explicit routines, and application in text.
• Word recognition — decoding, orthographic mapping, and high-frequency words.
• Fluency — accuracy, rate, prosody, and effective practice.
• Vocabulary — selection, explicit teaching, and word-learning strategies.
• Comprehension — listening comprehension, knowledge building, and early strategies.
• Writing — developmental stages, invented spelling, and encoding.
• Assessment — screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome measures.
• Data-based decision making — grouping and instructional adjustment.
• Intervention — MTSS tiers, small-group instruction, and intensity.
• Reading difficulties and dyslexia — characteristics, screening, and response.
• English language learners — transfer, adaptation, and simultaneous development.
• Text selection — decodables, leveled text, and authentic literature.
• Family engagement — home literacy and communication with caregivers.
• Field experience — observation and participation in a K-2 classroom.

Optional Topics

• Individual case study of an emergent reader.
• Program evaluation against evidence criteria.
• History of the reading wars.
• Preschool and child care literacy.
• Family literacy programming.
• Reading Endorsement competency alignment.

Resources & Tools

• Reading Assessment and Instruction for All Learners, Words Their Way (Bear et al.), and Phonics They Use (Cunningham) — commonly assigned practitioner texts.
• Speech to Print (Louisa Moats) — the standard on the linguistic knowledge teachers need; demanding and widely regarded as essential.
• Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) at Florida State — free and outstanding: student center activities by grade and component, instructional routines, and the Reading Endorsement materials. The single best resource for this course, and Florida's own.
• FLDOE Just Read, Florida! — free; state reading initiatives, the B.E.S.T. ELA standards, and district reading plan requirements.
• IES / What Works Clearinghouse practice guides — free; the foundational skills guide for K-3 is short, specific, and evidence-graded.
• Reading Rockets (readingrockets.org) — free; practical strategies, video, and family materials.
• International Dyslexia Association — free fact sheets and the Knowledge and Practice Standards for teachers of reading.
• The National Reading Panel report (2000) and the Report of the National Early Literacy Panel — free; the primary sources behind the six components.
• Decodable text sets — several free collections exist; useful for the phonics application unit.

Career Pathways

• Elementary School Teacher (SOC 25-2021) — the primary destination; Florida Elementary Education K-6 certification.
• Reading Teacher and Reading Interventionist — with the Reading Endorsement or Reading K-12 certification.
• Reading Coach — a school-based position in most Florida districts, funded through state reading allocations.
• Exceptional Student Education Teacher (SOC 25-2052) — where early literacy expertise is central.
• Kindergarten Teacher (SOC 25-2012) and Preschool Teacher (SOC 25-2011).
• Title I and intervention specialist roles.
• Literacy Tutor and Private Practice Tutoring — structured literacy tutoring is in high demand and often well paid.
• Curriculum Specialist and District Literacy Staff — with experience.
• Educational Publisher and Trainer roles.

Elementary education and reading appear regularly on Florida's critical teacher shortage area list, and the Reading Endorsement materially improves employability across the state.

Special Information

The reading wars are over, and this course teaches the result

Worth stating directly, because students encounter conflicting claims. For decades American reading instruction swung between phonics-first and whole language, with "balanced literacy" as an attempted compromise that in practice often shortchanged systematic decoding. The accumulated evidence — from the National Reading Panel through cognitive science on how the brain learns to read — supports systematic, explicit phonics within a broad literacy program that also builds oral language, vocabulary, knowledge, and comprehension.

Two consequences for a new teacher. First, some widely used practices are not supported: teaching children to guess unfamiliar words from pictures or first letters (the "three-cueing" system) is specifically contraindicated, because it trains a strategy that skilled readers do not use. Second, a student may encounter a placement classroom still using materials built on that approach, which is professionally awkward and worth thinking about in advance. The course should give a student the vocabulary to recognize the difference and the evidence to explain it.

⚠ Florida law is unusually specific about early reading — and it changes

Florida has legislated in this area more than almost any other state, and prospective teachers should know the current framework rather than a remembered version:

• Universal screening for reading difficulties, including characteristics of dyslexia, is required in the early grades, with progress monitoring across the year.
• Third-grade retention — Florida law provides for retention of third graders who do not demonstrate reading proficiency, with defined good-cause exemptions. This makes K-2 instruction consequential in a way teachers feel directly.
• B.E.S.T. standards for English Language Arts govern what is taught, and districts operate under state-approved comprehensive reading plans.
• Instructional materials must meet state requirements for evidence-based reading instruction.

Requirements have been amended in successive legislative sessions. Verify anything you intend to act on against the current statute, FLDOE guidance, and your district rather than against course material, including this guide.

The Reading Endorsement is the credential worth planning for

Florida's K-12 Reading Endorsement is an add-on to a valid teaching certificate, built on five competencies — foundations of reading instruction; application of evidence-based practices; foundations of assessment; foundations and applications of differentiated instruction; and a demonstration of accomplishment — each carrying roughly 60 hours of study. It can be earned through district in-service or through approved college coursework, and newer routes package Competency 1 as a micro-credential with Competencies 2–5 through a literacy matrix.

The practical point: ask your advisor whether this course counts toward a competency. Many Florida education programs align RED coursework to the endorsement, and a student who plans deliberately can graduate holding much of it rather than completing 300 hours of in-service afterward. The endorsement is also frequently required for reading teacher and coach positions and is separate from the Reading K-12 subject-area certification, which requires its own FTCE examination.

⚠ The field hours require a background screening — start immediately

The 15 or so hours of observation and participation take place in an approved school setting, which requires district clearance and a Level 2 background screening (FDLE and FBI fingerprinting, with a fee). Districts process on their own schedules and placements are arranged through the college's field placement office, so the sequence — apply, clear, be placed, then complete hours — takes weeks. Students who begin in the last month of the term routinely cannot finish. The same screening governs Florida teacher certification, so any concern should be raised with an advisor early and confidentially.

Learn the linguistics; you cannot teach what you cannot hear

The genuinely hard part of this course for many students. Teaching phonics well requires knowing that English has roughly 44 phonemes, being able to segment a spoken word into them accurately, understanding syllable types, knowing common spelling patterns and why they exist, and recognizing that letters and sounds are not the same thing. Research on teacher knowledge has consistently found that many practicing teachers cannot do these tasks — and a teacher who cannot segment box into four phonemes cannot reliably teach a child to.

Expect quizzes on it, expect it to feel oddly technical for an education course, and treat it as the content that most distinguishes a teacher who can diagnose a struggling reader from one who can only follow a manual. Moats's Speech to Print is the standard resource if the course text is thin here.

Numbering and related courses

Florida carries early literacy under RED3309 and RED3309C, and closely related content as RED3009 (Early and Emergent Literacy, without the K-2 designation), RED4519C (diagnostic and instructional interventions), RED4043, and LAE-prefixed language arts methods courses. SCNS equivalency applies to the same number at the same level, never across numbers, and because these are program-specific 3000-level courses, a transferring student should confirm with the receiving institution that the course satisfies both the degree requirement and any endorsement alignment — the two are not the same question.