Reading Education: Professional Learning

Writing Sample Guidelines

The writing sample is designed for two purposes:

1. To demonstrate your ability to work in an academic graduate program; and
2. To help us get to know you better by learning about your background knowledge and interests within the field of reading education.

The piece of writing you submit must be your own original and independent work. You may adapt your sample from work that you have already written for another purpose.

If you have questions about the writing sample, please reach out to the contact listed further down on this page.

Topic:
Compose an essay that explores your position on a current issue in the field of reading or writing education. You should choose a topic that is relevant to your work with students or teachers. You may choose a broad topic (e.g., the role of RTI/MTSS in preventing reading difficulties, the importance of explicit and systematic instruction) or you may choose to focus on a more specific issue (e.g., the role of comprehension strategies vs. background knowledge in comprehension instruction, benefits of using decodable texts in phonics instruction).

Your essay should briefly describe the issue and clearly espouse a point of view. You must support your viewpoint with appropriate vocabulary, details, and sources.

Instructions:

1. Your essay should be a total of 3-4 pages long (not including reference list).
2. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, 12-point font.
3. You should use a formal writing style, such as APA or MLA, to guide your headers and citations.
4. You should cite a minimum of 4 sources within the body of the paper and as a reference list at the end. You should select quality resources that are credible and appropriate for your topic. You may choose to include one seminal resource that may be more dated, but otherwise your resources should be recent (generally from about the past 10 years).

Reading Specialist Endorsement

After completing the academic graduate certificate (21 credits), three years of successful teaching during which time the teaching of reading was a major responsibility, and receiving a passing score on the Reading Specialist Praxis test (#5302), a graduate can apply for the Commonwealth’s K-12 reading specialist endorsement to be added to their teaching license. The VDOE also requires that applicants hold a master's degree to add the endorsement. If you are hoping to add the endorsement but do not hold a master's degree, please see our M.Ed. in Reading Education program. Please note that the Graduate Certificate in Reading Education is NOT a route to obtaining an initial teaching license. 

Process for Adding the Endorsement:

• If you are currently employed by a Virginia educational agency, please work directly with your HR department to submit the paperwork for adding an endorsement to your license after you have completed your degree. You will need two things from UVA to complete this paperwork: 1) an official transcript and 2) a College Verification Form (CVF). Please wait until your degree is conferred to request these items from UVA.
• You can obtain an official transcript from the UVA Registrar. You may request a paper copy or electronic copy be sent to the VDOE.
• To obtain the CVF, email [email protected] with your full name (as it appears on your license) and date of birth. Once the dean’s office has confirmed you have completed the necessary coursework, the CVF will be emailed back to you along with directions for what to send the VDOE.