Literacy Learning: Fluency, Motivation, and Literacy in a Digital Age

Literacy Learning: Fluency, Motivation, and Literacy in a Digital Age

Exploring Fluency, Engagement, and Digital Reading Practices

Course Details

Course Type:

• Self-Paced, Fully-Facilitated
• Cohort, Fully-Facilitated

Course Length: 10 Hours

Course Access:

• Self-Paced: Each course includes 45 days of interactive access. If you purchase multiple courses within a single concentration at the same time, your total access period will be extended (e.g., two courses = 90 days, three courses = 135 days, etc.).
  
  Upon enrollment, your dashboard will initially display 45 days per course. By the next business day, your end date will be adjusted to reflect the correct total access period based on the number of courses purchased.
  
  After your enrollment period ends, you will continue to have read-only access to your courses.
• Cohort: Participants will follow a set start and end date, determined by their school district.

Course Description

In today’s classrooms, literacy spans far beyond printed pages—it lives in books, screens, conversations, and increasingly, in AI-driven environments. This course examines how educators can nurture fluent, motivated readers who navigate diverse texts with curiosity, confidence, and critical awareness. Participants will explore the interconnected roles of fluency, comprehension, and motivation in developing successful readers, and learn strategies for creating inclusive classroom libraries, designing meaningful reading routines, and integrating digital and AI tools to enhance literacy learning.

Through reflection, discussion, and practical application, educators will consider how reading habits form, how classroom culture shapes engagement, and how technology can support (not replace) authentic reading experiences. By the end of the course, participants will leave with actionable approaches for inspiring lifelong readers who engage deeply with both print and digital texts.

Course Objectives

Participants will be able to:

Foundations of Language & Early Literacy

• Explain major theories of language development.
• Connect real-world experiences with learners to these theories.
• Describe the relationship between oral and written language.
• Analyze the role of families and culture in early literacy.

Reading Theory, Fluency & Motivation

• Differentiate between code-based and meaning-based theories of reading.
• Trace the history of reading instruction in the United States, highlighting major shifts and debates.
• Analyze how past approaches to literacy education shape current practices and debates.
• Identify core components of reading from the National Reading Panel and International Literacy Association.
• Examine how fluency, comprehension, and motivation interact to support confident reading.

Instructional Beliefs, Equity & Classroom Culture

• Describe key learning theories and explain how they influence literacy instruction.
• Examine how teacher beliefs about reading influence classroom culture and engagement.
• Reflect on how teacher expectations affect students' identities as readers.
• Evaluate how beliefs about reading impact equity, access, and differentiation.
• Align personal teaching philosophy with research-based, student-centered literacy practices.

Digital Literacy, AI & Multimodal Reading

• Explain what digital literacy is and why it is essential for student success in a technology-driven world.
• Plan to use strategies that build students' digital literacy skills.
• Compare the impact of traditional literacy practices and digital literacy.
• Assess the readability and inclusiveness of print and digital texts.
• Identify the skills students need to engage with digital, multimodal, and AI-enhanced texts.
• Design strategies for integrating print, digital, and disciplinary literacy practices in equitable and engaging ways.

Professional Reflection

• Reflect on beliefs about literacy, motivation, and education.