This course syllabus for Bank Street Graduate School of Education’s Teaching of Reading, Writing and Language Arts course (EDUC 563) examines how young children ages 4–8 acquire reading and writing. This course seeks to explore the relationship between reading and writing and language development. This course gives students opportunities to learn a variety of effective strategies to promote reading comprehension, decoding, and fluency. In addition, students learn to use formal and informal assessments to guide next steps in the literacy development process. Students also become familiar with the importance of supporting language development in young children, and with ways to ensure the language development process acknowledges children’s diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.