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Full-Text Articles in Education
Middle-Grades Students' Understandings Of What It Means To Read In A High-Stakes Environment, Mary Beth Schaefer
Middle-Grades Students' Understandings Of What It Means To Read In A High-Stakes Environment, Mary Beth Schaefer
Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications
In this practitioner inquiry, the teacher researcher found that a culture of high-stakes testing had pervaded her diverse, urban seventh-grade students' conceptions of reading; students associated reading with tests and skills-based worksheets rather than pleasure. Using students' voices, passions, and interests, the teacher researcher broadened students' reading conceptions and abilities by introducing them to Langer's reading theory. Students used the theory to develop deep understandings of their own and others' reading needs, skills, and desires. Students constructed understandings of self as reader, found pleasure in constructing personalized reading skills and strategies, and reconstructed notions of reading to assert authority and …
Becoming A Good Teacher: Struggles From The Swampland, Mary Beth Schaefer
Becoming A Good Teacher: Struggles From The Swampland, Mary Beth Schaefer
Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications
One seventh-grade English language arts teacher engaged in teacher research in order to become a more understanding, responsive, and confident instructor. Systematic inquiry into her own practice revealed a conflict between what students perceived as their literacy needs and desires (discrete reading skills) with what she perceived to be important and valuable (deeper literary understandings through reflective response to literature). The teacher sought to address the conflict by listening closely to students' talk, orchestrating activities to blend reading skills with responses to literature, and negotiating class conversations to produce knowledge.