Literacy Instruction

This study illustrates the need for classroom instruction to support student agency.  Given the increased demands of a competitive, global society, today’s educators must provide instruction that builds upon this important yet elusive construct. When students act on their sense of agency, they take action and initiate the direction of the instructional situation.  When teachers recognize and build upon student inquiries, spaces to foster student agency develop.  Using classroom vignettes, of a fourth grade classroom, student agency is explored through instructional actions and discourse.  Findings suggest that a central aspect of student agency is the ability for students to take the initiative and to act upon their understandings.  However, as evidenced by the teacher in this study, promoting student agency is a challenging and complex task.  Practical implications and future research is discussed.

Educators are expected to take into account students' linguistic experiences when designing literacy instruction. However, official school records traditionally provide limited information about students' linguistic histories. This article presents educators with a linguistic survey that can help bridge this gap. The survey is an easy-to-use classroom resource through which educators can gather information about their students' linguistic experiences. Notably, it is based on ideas about and research on bilingualism that are not traditionally discussed in mainstream literacy education. To illustrate the survey's potential for instruction, the article includes a case study of a 10th-grade student and discusses the implications of the type of information garnered by the survey for literacy pedagogy. As a whole, this article supports educators in making more linguistically informed decisions about literacy instruction.

Adaptive teachers are considered visionary and effective in their teaching. These teachers apply a flexible approach to instruction as they build upon students’ interests and inquiries. However, despite the intuitive and appealing nature of adaptive teaching, there is limited empirical data on teachers’ adaptations and rationales for adapting. Moreover, although adaptive teachers are considered visionary, there is little research that explores teacher visioning in relation to adaptive decisions. To meet this need, the current study provides an in-depth analysis of two teachers’ instructional visions, adaptations, and rationales for adapting their literacy instruction. Two upper elementary teachers were selected for this study based on teacher and principal recommendations. Classroom observations and interviews were used to gather data; qualitative methods were utilized to analyze the interviews and the field notes. Findings suggest teachers adapted their instruction to scaffold student understanding and to promote instructional tasks to engage and support student learning. Evidence was found for the influence of visioning on instructional adaptations. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

This non-experimental correlational quantitative study was designed to explore the effects of specialized professional development, age, gender, and years of teaching experience on the successful integration of iPads into classroom literacy education among K-6 students. The study uses the teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) scores to measure the successful integration of the iPads.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of literature circles on the reading achievement of college reading students using a mixed method approach. A literature
circle is defined in this study as students who form a group, read a novel, and meet on a regular basis to discuss what they have read. The researcher-developed intervention included three activities: collaborative oral re-tell, short written response to a prompt, and open discussion. The study employed an experimental design in order to examine the effectiveness of the intervention (literature circles); in addition, the sociocultural context of the college reading classes (and students) is described in detail. Grounded theory was employed to analyze reading attitude, reading motivation, response to participation in a literature circle, and textual engagement. Thirty-eight college students in required reading
courses participated in the five-week study. Students were randomly assigned to either the treatment (participation in literature circle) or control (independent reading) condition. Students were able to choose from four pre-selected high-interest young adult novels. At the conclusion of the series of literature circle meetings (or upon completion of reading the novel independently, for control group participants), comprehension was measured using three measures: an oral re-tell of the novel, a twenty question researcher developed
open-ended book-specific assessment, and a twenty question assessment on a two-part high school level passage from the Qualitative Reading Inventory (Leslie & Caldwell, 2011). Textual engagement was measured by coding and counting responses to a semi-structured interview. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect for group assignment, meaning that—when all four measures were combined into a linear function—the students assigned to literature circles outperformed the control group students. Given the significance of the overall test, the univariate main
effects were examined. Significant univariate main effects were obtained for the researcher developed test and textual engagement. Qualitative analysis revealed that literature circles improve reading comprehension, depth of textual engagement, and provides an opportunity for discourse, collaboration, and social interaction for its participants. These findings suggest that literature circles lead to both improved
comprehension and deeper textual engagement for college reading students.

This study examines the gradual increase of responsibility (GIR) model for teacher coaching (Collet, 2008), an adaptation of Pearson and Gallagher's (1983) Gradual Release of Responsibility model. In GIR, instructional coaches model, make recommendations, ask probing questions, affirm teachers' appropriate decisions, and praise in order to provide decreasing scaffolding, which moves teachers toward interdependence and collaboration.

Nepal is a multilingual country consisting of 123 languages as reported by the census 2011 (CBS, 2012). Linguistically, all languages are equal. However, there are ideological differences among scholars and stakeholders of language. Critical theorists see language as a tool of dominating the minorities whereas utilitarians see language as a path from local to global world. From ethnic perspective, language is an identity and for politicians and activists, it is a means to activate people and a matter of ideology. For pedagogues, language of instruction has always been a dilemma and a sensitive issue. In this context, this review paper analyses the existing language policy of using mother tongue based multilingual education in Nepal, is just the continuation of assimilationist ideology in disguise and proposes language coexistence approach with a choice in language of instruction in policy and practice as a solution to maintain linguistic identity of ethnic groups. Furthermore, translanguaging can be used as a pedagogical solution in multilingual classrooms.

While legislation and research have promoted inclusive education and the importance of literacy instruction for students with extensive support needs, the majority of literacy instruction research continues to occur in separate self-contained special education settings. This article is a call to action to the educational research community to elicit research on literacy instruction strategies, including collaborative planning, teaching, and material preparation related to grade-level general education curriculum in general education school settings. Findings from current research on literacy instruction in separate special education and general education settings are presented. Suggestions for future research and action are discussed.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the literacy practices of the families and communities of first-generation college students in Latin America, and how community and family literacies can inform the understanding of first-generation college students’ identity and cultural values.
Design/methodology/approach – This transnational ethnography was conducted in local communities around three public universities in Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica. Participants included nine fist- generation college students and more than 50 people in their families and communities (i.e. relatives, parents and friends). Data gathering occurred at the university outside the formal space of the classroom, at home, and in the community. Data were interpreted through the lens of the community cultural wealth framework.
Findings – The author found that first-generation college students and their families and communities engaged in rich literacy practices that have been overlooked in policy, research, and media. It is argued that the concept literacy capital is necessary to acknowledge the critical literacy practices communities engage in. Literacy capital was manifested in these communities to preserve cultural traditions, to sponsor literacy practices and to question and resist unjust sociopolitical circumstances.
Practical implications – The findings of this study should inform a culturally sustaining pedagogy of academic literacies in higher education. Beyond asset-based approaches to academic literacies in Latin America, critical perspectives to academic literacies teaching and learning are needed that acknowledge the Latin American complexities.
Originality/value – These findings are significant because they unveiled how people in local communities were informed about the sociopolitical dynamics at the national and international scale that affected or even threatened their local culture, and how they used their literacy capital to react critically to those situations.
Keywords Latin America, Higher education, Literacy, Community literacies, Family literacies, Literacy capital
Paper type: Research paper

At the core of every teacher is a set of beliefs and knowledge regarding teaching and learning. As a teacher develops her expertise, curricular practices are refined and self-efficacy is enhanced. Teachers possess varying degrees of efficacy and perceptions that impact literacy instruction within their classrooms. Yet, often times they are mandated to teach in certain ways to achieve desirable student outcomes, even when they may not agree with the methods or processes wholeheartedly. The purpose of this study is to explore some of the issues that change teachers' instructional practices in the classroom and to reveal some of the issues that influence as well as hinder instructional reform within that setting. This qualitative case study uses observations, interviews, and questionnaires to highlight teacher efficacy from four first-grade teachers. Testing data indicate students achieve both because of instruction and teachers' willingness to implement the reading program with fidelity. Findings from this study can assist in setting up professional development, serving as a guide for providing warranted support for student learning and teacher knowledge, and fostering considerations for including teachers in the important stages regarding the planning and implementation of classroom literacy instruction.

Desde una perspectiva sociocultural, el presente seminario presenta distintos aportes de la Lingüística Aplicada y la Educación para el estudio de la escritura en contextos educativos. Propone un recorrido por distintas investigaciones contemporáneas de campos como la Alfabetización temprana, la Académica, las Literacidades. Partimos de la definición de la escritura como práctica social para dar cuenta de algunos abordajes teóricos y metodológicos, con el propósito de aportar a la construcción de un panorama general sobre las investigaciones que toman como objeto la escritura en diversos contextos educativos: la escuela, la universidad, la formación profesional. Consideramos que este recorrido puede favorecer que lxs doctorandxs cuyas investigaciones aborden la escritura tengan contacto con los desarrollos teóricos y resultados de investigaciones actuales sobre el tema y puedan ponerlas en diálogo con sus propias investigaciones.
Para más información: http://posgrado.filo.uba.ar/SemDoc2022-Molina-Natale

This article explores three ways critical literacy educators might use Let’s Play videos in the high school classroom: as texts for analyzing video games, as models for media production, and as starting places for conversations about power and profit in the gaming industry.

Recent discussion about literacy in many advanced countries has focused on promoting students’ performance such that students are better prepared to compete in the global marketplace. But our literacy instruction has a larger purpose. In fact, Australia’s Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2014) put at the center of its recently revised curriculum a goal of the “successful learner, a confident and creative individual” who was also, and of equal importance, an active informed citizen.  Current global tensions make apparent the need for democratic nations and those striving to become so, to have educated and engaged citizens who are capable of contributing to the building of strong futures for all.  How can our literacy instruction address this need?  Five dimensions that together comprise essentials for civic competence - Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Values, and Intentions (Print & Lange, 2013) - provide the framework for this discussion of opportunities educators have through our literacy instruction to contribute substantially to the development of a competent and engaged citizenry.

In viewing online discussion groups and reading various articles related to reading instruction and struggling readers, I have noticed that the term ‘whole language’ is often used in a pejorative sense. In these discussions and articles it soon becomes clear that the author/writer usually does not really know what whole language is or might be, or else that person has a cartoonish version of it.  This short article describes what whole language is NOT

Three experiments investigated whether and how the learning of spelling by French university students is influenced by the graphotactic legitimacy of the spellings. Participants were exposed to three types of novel spellings: AB, which do not contain doublets (e.g., guprane); AAB, with a doublet before a single consonant, which is legitimate in French (e.g., gupprane); and ABB, with a doublet after a single consonant, which is illegitimate (e.g., guprrane). In Experiment 1, the nonwords were embedded within texts that participants read for meaning. In Experiment 2, participants read the nonwords in isolation, with or without instruction to memorize their spellings; they copied the nonwords in Experiment 3. In all of these conditions, AB and AAB spellings were learned more readily than ABB spellings. Although participants were highly knowledgeable about the illegitimacy of ABB spellings, the orthographic distinctiveness of these spellings did not make them easier to recall than legitimate spellings. When recalling ABB spellings, participants sometimes made transposition errors, doubling the wrong consonant of a cluster (e.g., spelling gupprane instead of guprrane). Participants almost never transposed the doubling for AAB items. Transposition errors, biased in the direction of replacing illegitimate with legitimate orthographic patterns, show that graphotactic knowledge influences memory for specific items. An analysis of the spellings produced in the copy phase and final recall test of Experiment 3 further suggests that transposition errors resulted not so much from reconstructive processes at the time of recall but from reconstructive processes or inefficient encoding at earlier points.

Reading centers are an important and active part of most elementary classrooms. As a teacher of young children in Saudi Arabia, I observed that there were times when students did not benefit from their literacy experiences, and at other times there was a good deal of activity around their experiences in the reading centers I had developed for them. As a result of this experience in my own classroom, I have continued to have great interest in the role of reading centers for young children's learning. This study is focused on the literacy activities in the reading centers in the elementary classroom. Specifically it is focused on exploring the differences between boys and girls as they participate in reading centers in their classroom. There are differences between boys' and girls' reading interests that have been documented in the research. This study seeks to examine these differences in one elementary second grade classroom.

This article tries to analyze instructional interactions in which one participant structures the overall solving of the task so that the other participant appropiates the skills and abilities that were accomplished jointly. Another primary interest is to examine the semiotic mechanisms involved in the instructor–learner interaction. Results from a study conducted with adult subjects grouped into dyads of instructor and learner are presented. Analysis focused on the instructional actions adopted by the instructor during the development of the task, on the structure and nature of actions of placing, its regulation, the strategical levels of these actions, and the use of different referential perspectives to solve the task. The results showed differences in some aspects of instructional interactions in relationship with participants' literacy level.

Ang papel na ito ay tungkol sa Academic Service Learning (ASL) project na isinagawa sa pakikipagtulungan sa Interactive Children’s Literacy Program (ICLiP), isang programang pang-literasiya ng Barangay Loyola Heights, Quezon City na naglalayong magturo ng pagbabasa sa mga batang kapus-palad na nahihirapang magbasa.