July 20, 1999

Dear TE 840 Students:

I write to welcome you to the fall '99 Literacy Masters Pro-Seminar. We will meet on Monday evenings from 5-7:50 PM. Our first class is on August 30, 1999. The purpose of the pro-seminar is to introduce you to graduate-level study of literacy and to induct you into our program. You will read, write, and speak about issues of theory, research, practice, and policy. You will also get to know the members of your cohort in the Masters program as well as the faculty within the program and across the College of Education who are doing work on literacy education.

Many of you have already asked our program secretary, Ms. Lisa Ingraham, for information about the upcoming fall course. For this reason, I have attached a copy of our new syllabus. In addition, I hope you will purchase and begin reading the first of our required textbooks. We will begin to study this book on the second week of class: Barton, David (1995). Literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. (ISBN 0-631-19091-0). It has been ordered along with our other course books at the International Center Bookstore on campus. In addition, other bookstores in East Lansing stock the course textbooks (e.g. Ned's on Grand River and The College Store in the Hannah Plaza). Also, recommended for purchasing course books is the on-line bookstore, www.amazon.com .

I look forward to meeting and working with each and every one of you. In the meantime, please enjoy the waning weeks of summer. If you have any questions prior to August 23, please contact Ms. Lisa Ingraham (517-353-3887; lisaingr@pilot.msu.edu).

Sincerely,

Susan Florio-Ruane, Ed.D.
Professor and Senior Researcher
Department of Teacher Education
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement