Graduate Programs in Literacy: A lot more than just a training ground for reading teachers.

Keuka College’s graduate programs in literacy are designed to prepare you to become a full literacy professional—able to help students along the path from learning to read to the point where they’re “reading to learn.”

In addition, you’ll be able to serve as a resource for other teachers as they incorporate reading skills within their curricula.

“We don’t think in terms of ‘reading teachers,’ we think in terms of ‘literacy professionals.’ We look at it as a program of training professionals,” says Dr. Andrew Beigel, director of graduate education programs. “What we provide here is a supportive environment for the development of literacy professionals, an environment that encourages candidates to look beyond themselves, to see a different world.”

It’s a path with many strands — professional writing and demeanor, acquaintance with technology as teaching and learning tool, and Keuka’s customary focus on the practical application of skills within the field.

Programs Offered

Keuka offers two Master of Science in literacy degrees — for birth through grade 6, and for grades 5-12 — leading to initial certification. The curriculum is based on research, application of research-based best practices, and reflection on the efficacy of instructional practice and teacher decision-making — in essence, applying knowledge in a professional setting and considering how effectively it has been done. As with all of Keuka’s education curricula, special education is incorporated throughout both programs. The nine courses total 30 credit hours. (Prerequisites: New York state teaching certification, a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, and at least a 3.0 GPA.)

Program Structure

Students — or, rather, “candidates” — enter the program during a summer semester and continue through the courses together as a cohort. There are full- and part-time options: The full-time program is an intense pace including two summers and a fall and spring semester; the part-time program generally extends a little over two years. The course work includes a number of elements aimed at broadening and deepening participants’ experience, while helping them track their own growth and development.

Program Highlights

• A summer practicum working with children in a high-needs district. These are children who represent more realistically the kind of kids that teachers likely will be working with in their careers than a program set in a clinic setting. The candidates will take part in individual tutoring, small group sessions, large group sessions — and, at the end of the practicum, will meet with the parents of the kids they’ve been tutoring. That has been eye-opening for candidates — one remembered parents who said it was the first time anyone talked with them about what their daughter needed.
• A literacy autobiography. In that initial summer, candidates trace their own journeys into literacy — how they learned to read and developed over time — and find a way to present it to the class. While this project helps polish the skills needed in making professional presentations, it more importantly helps candidates realize the diversity and variety in how children learn (difference in rates, mechanisms, etc.) — a valuable lesson as they go into classrooms themselves.
• The capstone project. It’s first presented at the end of the first summer before faculty and peers, whose critiques help candidates refine, narrow and overall better focus the scope of their project. At the end of the program, the final presentation is made, again before faculty and peers. These presentations are put on CDs provided to the candidates, so they can track the journey from where they started to where they ended.

What Alumni Say

Overall, the program aims at both professional and personal development, with candidates growing over the course of the year as educators, professionals, speakers and, ultimately, people. Such development may be hard to quantify, but a number of alumni have testified:

“… At the start of the program I was not sure where I fit in the world of education. With my own struggles with reading I truly felt I was getting my master’s degree in literacy because it was required by New York State. Now having completed the program I have a new-found love for the teaching of literacy. I am more passionate about teaching literacy than any other subject. …”

“Throughout the course of the Master’s program at Keuka College, I not only gained a degree as a literacy specialist, but it supported my ability to be a life-long learner. I gained a wealth of knowledge that will allow me to make professional judgments that will effectively promote literacy development among my students. …”

“… Each assignment that I completed for this program had some sort of relevancy and made me a well-prepared literacy professional. Equally important, over the past thirteen months, I have felt a sense of growth as an individual; I demonstrate more confidence in my abilities, which has positively affected all of my commitments in the educational field. …”

Program Requirements