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Articles 61 - 81 of 81
Full-Text Articles in Education
Exploring How Secondary Pre-Service Teachers’ Use Online Social Bookmarking To Envision Literacy In The Disciplines, Jamie Colwell, Kristen Gregory
Exploring How Secondary Pre-Service Teachers’ Use Online Social Bookmarking To Envision Literacy In The Disciplines, Jamie Colwell, Kristen Gregory
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This study considers how pre-service teachers envision disciplinary literacy through an online social bookmarking project. Thirty secondary pre-service teachers participated in the project through an undergraduate literacy course. Online bookmarks and post-project reflections were collected and analyzed using a constant comparative approach to determine emergent themes. Results suggest varying levels of disciplinary knowledge among pre-service teachers, influences of pre-service teachers' envisionments on posted bookmarks, and considerations about standardized testing in disciplinary literacy instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed in light of these results.
Choice And Rigor: Achieving A Balance In Middle School Reading/Language Arts Classrooms In The Era Of The Common Core, Nancy L. Stevens
Choice And Rigor: Achieving A Balance In Middle School Reading/Language Arts Classrooms In The Era Of The Common Core, Nancy L. Stevens
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
While the advantages of reading workshops are well known (Atwell, 1998), there is currently a debate among scholars, practitioners, and politicians about the use of instructional/independent level texts in light of the Common Core Standards’ end-of-year requirement for students to be reading at grade level (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). Particularly in middle school, where motivation to read often declines, a workshop approach can help students develop and strengthen their interest in reading. A classroom survey completed by middle school students in a suburban school district in the Midwestern United …
“It’S Just Too Sad!”: Teacher Candidates’ Emotional Resistance To Picture Books, Aimee Papola-Ellis
“It’S Just Too Sad!”: Teacher Candidates’ Emotional Resistance To Picture Books, Aimee Papola-Ellis
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
The use of critical literacy with children’s books that focus on social issues and disrupt the status quo can be a powerful way to create spaces for conversations with students about social justice and empowerment. Teacher candidates in a semester long children’s literature course were asked to respond to a range of children’s texts that dealt with many social issues and disrupted the commonplace. Despite an explicit emphasis on critical literacy and social justice, the candidates were very resistant to using many of the texts in their own future classrooms. They had strong emotional reactions that prevented them from consideration …
Spelling Instruction In The Primary Grades: Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, And Concerns, Antoinette Doyle, Jing Zhang, Chris Mattatall
Spelling Instruction In The Primary Grades: Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, And Concerns, Antoinette Doyle, Jing Zhang, Chris Mattatall
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This study examined Canadian teachers’ beliefs, practices and concerns about spelling instruction in the primary grades. Data from surveys (n = 56) indicated that most teachers believe that spelling is important and plan for spelling instruction. For most teachers, the spelling words and activities used, and the instructional resources they chose, reflected an attempt to incorporate both holistic and traditional approaches to instruction. Teachers reported that substantial numbers of children experience difficulty with spelling. They suggested that greater emphasis be placed on defining spelling outcomes in the curriculum, as well as on teacher education and resources for teaching spelling to …
Successfully Promoting 21st Century Online Research Skills: Interventions In 5th-Grade Classrooms, Tara L. Kingsley, Jerrell C. Cassady, Susan M. Tancock
Successfully Promoting 21st Century Online Research Skills: Interventions In 5th-Grade Classrooms, Tara L. Kingsley, Jerrell C. Cassady, Susan M. Tancock
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This quantitative study was developed to explore the ability to impact elementary student 21st Century online research skills with a planned classroom intervention curriculum. The repeated measures quasi-experimental study randomly assigned all 5th grade classes in a Midwestern, suburban school (n=418) to a 12-week intervention or control condition. Analyses of the ORCA Elementary-Revised performance prior to intervention revealed significant correlations with traditional measures of reading achievement as well as limited influence from demographic variables. In the primary research question, results demonstrated that the intervention group showed significantly higher gains from pretest to posttest on the measure of online …
Fifth Graders Blog With Preservice Teachers To Discuss Literature, Lindsay Yearta, Katie Stover, Rachel Sease
Fifth Graders Blog With Preservice Teachers To Discuss Literature, Lindsay Yearta, Katie Stover, Rachel Sease
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
In this study, fifth grade students participated in a pen pal project with pre-service teachers where they blogged for eight weeks about the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. Partnerships were established to provide fifth grade students with an authentic audience in an effort to increase engagement in reading and writing. The authors posit that individualized instruction, access to an authentic audience, and the utilization of technology contributed to students' growth as readers, writers, and global citizens.
Affirmation, Analysis, And Agency: Book Clubs As Spaces For Critical Conversations With Young Adolescent Women Of Color, Jody N. Polleck, Terrie Epstein
Affirmation, Analysis, And Agency: Book Clubs As Spaces For Critical Conversations With Young Adolescent Women Of Color, Jody N. Polleck, Terrie Epstein
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This paper explores how female urban adolescents of color who participated in a literacy book club during their senior year in high school understood the impact of race, class, and gender oppression on the novels’ characters, themselves, and their communities. Based on transcripts from book club discussions and interviews conducted at the end of their senior year and the end of their first year of college, the authors illustrate how participants affirmed and asserted their voices; analyzed texts for racism, sexism, and classism; and promoted their own and others’ growth and sense of agency as resilient young women of color.
Preserving Social Justice Identities: Learning From One Pre-Service Literacy Teacher, Anne Swenson Ticknor
Preserving Social Justice Identities: Learning From One Pre-Service Literacy Teacher, Anne Swenson Ticknor
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
Identities that include social justice stances are important for pre-service teachers to adopt in teacher education so they may meet the needs of all future students. However maintaining a social justice identity can be difficult when pre-service teachers are confronted with an evaluator without a social justice stance. This article examines how one pre-service teacher preserved a social justice identity by actively resisting racial and cultural stereotypes of students in her student teaching field experience. Analysis of language data illustrates that pre-service teachers can enact social justice pedagogy in elementary classrooms and preserve a social justice identity. This report reveals …
Understanding Literacy Teacher Educators’ Use Of Scaffolding, Joyce E. Many, Eudes Aoulou
Understanding Literacy Teacher Educators’ Use Of Scaffolding, Joyce E. Many, Eudes Aoulou
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This inquiry examined four literacy teacher educators’ perspectives and practices as related to scaffolding by using document analysis (i.e. syllabus), observations, and interviews. Findings indicated these teacher educators used scaffolding to develop preservice teachers’ dispositions, strategies, and conceptual understandings. Faculty used scaffolding processes such as modeling, feedback, purposeful structured assignments, discussions, and reflective pieces. Participants’ use of scaffolding varied; with the participant with more years of teacher education experience exhibiting a richer and larger repertoire of scaffolding strategies. Findings also suggested some faculty might be unsure of how to monitor preservice teachers’ growth in order to provide subsequent scaffolding.
The Professional Development Practices Of Two Reading First Coaches, Charlotte A. Mundy, Dorene D. Ross, Melinda M. Leko
The Professional Development Practices Of Two Reading First Coaches, Charlotte A. Mundy, Dorene D. Ross, Melinda M. Leko
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
To establish job-embedded, ongoing professional development recent policies and initiatives required that districts appoint school-based coaches. The Reading First Initiative, for example, created an immediate need for coaches without a clear definition of coaches’ responsibilities. Therefore, the purpose of this case study was to investigate how two Reading First coaches interpreted and enacted their professional development responsibilities. Cross-case analyses identified similarities and differences in coaches’ enactments. Findings revealed that while each coach engaged in similar professional development responsibilities (e.g. modeling, observing, and classroom walkthroughs) their approach to these responsibilities differed — collaborative versus expert driven. These differences in approaches indicate …
Building Conceptual Understanding Through Vocabulary Instruction, William H. Rupley, William Dee Nichols, Maryann Mraz, Timothy R. Blair
Building Conceptual Understanding Through Vocabulary Instruction, William H. Rupley, William Dee Nichols, Maryann Mraz, Timothy R. Blair
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
Instructional design is an integral part of a balanced approach to teaching vocabulary instruction. This article presents several instructional procedures using research-based vocabulary strategies and explains how to design and adapt those strategies in order to reach desired learning outcomes. Emphasis is placed on research-based principles that guide effective vocabulary instruction and on the importance of incorporating vocabulary instruction into all phases of the reading lesson framework--before, during, and after reading (Blair, Rupley, & Nichols 2007; Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz 2011). Vocabulary instruction should encourage students to make associations and accommodations to their experiences and provide them with varied opportunities …
Great Books For Late Summer Reading, Terrell A. Young, Barbara A. Ward
Great Books For Late Summer Reading, Terrell A. Young, Barbara A. Ward
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
For decades now, reading experts have expressed concern that the competence gained by struggling readers during the academic year is lost during the summer months. While academic enrichment and remediation programs can reduce that loss, one of the best practices to build better readers is by having them read during breaks from school. At least one study clearly supports this suggestion. In his study of 1,600 elementary students in the mid-Atlantic area, researcher James Kim (2009) found that regardless of previous achievement level or race or socioeconomic level, children who read more books performed better on reading comprehension tests in …
What Matters: Preparing Teachers Of Reading, Sara R. Helfrich, Rita M. Bean
What Matters: Preparing Teachers Of Reading, Sara R. Helfrich, Rita M. Bean
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
A descriptive study was employed to determine differences in knowledge of literacy instruction and perceived preparedness to teach literacy between two groups of teacher candidates enrolled in two different teacher preparation programs at one university. This study investigated which components — coursework, field experience, and collaboration — candidates perceived as best preparing them to teach literacy while enrolled in their program. Data collection instruments included the Survey of Perceptions and the Knowledge Inventory. Both groups of candidates, regardless of program and amount of time in the field, viewed both coursework and field experience as important. Few significant differences were found …
Depictions And Gaps: Portrayal Of U.S. Poverty In Realistic Fiction Children’S Picture Books, Jane E. Kelley, Janine J. Darragh
Depictions And Gaps: Portrayal Of U.S. Poverty In Realistic Fiction Children’S Picture Books, Jane E. Kelley, Janine J. Darragh
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
Researchers conducted a critical multicultural analysis of 58 realistic fiction children’s picture books that portray people living in poverty and compared these depictions to recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau. The picture books were examined for the following qualities: main character, geographic locale and time era, focal poor character (gender, age, and race), who demonstrated action, and the type of action (individual, community, systemic) demonstrated. Results of the analysis showed that while in some areas the books accurately reflect the reality in the United States today, there are other areas in which poverty is misrepresented. For example, while …
The Effect Of Props On Story Retells In The Classroom, Marie A. Stadler, Gay Cuming Ward
The Effect Of Props On Story Retells In The Classroom, Marie A. Stadler, Gay Cuming Ward
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of props on children’s narrative retells. Forty-two children in two comparable K/1 classrooms heard and practiced the same stories over eight weeks. This study found that the props had a positive effect on the children’s use of descriptive language, but there was no effect on the number of story grammar elements or cohesive devices used, nor for the length and complexity of the stories. Results support a balanced literacy program where children practice retelling stories with and without props.
Insert Student Here: Why Content Area Constructions Of Literacy Matter For Pre-Service Teachers, Kristine Gritter
Insert Student Here: Why Content Area Constructions Of Literacy Matter For Pre-Service Teachers, Kristine Gritter
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This article explores content area pre-service teacher beliefs about disciplinary knowledge, perceptions of effective content area teaching, and existing beliefs about how to integrate literacy into the content areas. Ten pre-service teachers across ten secondary content areas were asked to describe three important variables in secondary teaching: 1) the knowledge of their content area, 2) characteristics of a successful content area teacher, and 3) literacy activities that would optimally convey disciplinary knowledge to students. Content area responses to the first two prompts yielded comparatively static, teacher-centered notions of knowledge and teaching. However, responses to the third prompt indicated at least …
Culturally Relevant Texts And Reading Assessment For English Language Learners, Ann E. Ebe
Culturally Relevant Texts And Reading Assessment For English Language Learners, Ann E. Ebe
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This article reports on a study that explored the relationship between reading proficiency and cultural relevance of text for third-grade English Language Learners (ELLs). The author presents the Cultural Relevance Rubric that helps define and determine cultural relevance of texts. Participants used the rubric to rate the cultural relevance of two stories from a standardized assessment. While the two stories were identified as being the same reading level, the participants differed in their reading of each story. Reading accuracy scores for both stories suggest that the participants were within their instructional or independent reading levels. However, miscue analysis and retelling …
Examining One Class Of Third-Grade Spellers: The Diagnostic Potential Of Students’ Spelling, Molly K. Ness
Examining One Class Of Third-Grade Spellers: The Diagnostic Potential Of Students’ Spelling, Molly K. Ness
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
The purpose of this article is to examine the developmental spelling levels of one class of 17 third-grade students. In analyzing over 600 student spelling samples, results indicate that these students spanned four spelling stages: (1) letter name, (2) within word pattern, (3) syllables and affixes, and (4) derivational relations (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008; Henderson, 1981). The article provides convincing evidence of the diagnostic potential of spelling analysis as a means to comprehending students’ orthographic understandings. Implications for small-group word study instruction are provided.
Students Learn To Read Like Writers: A Framework For Teachers Of Writing, Robin R. Griffith
Students Learn To Read Like Writers: A Framework For Teachers Of Writing, Robin R. Griffith
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
This study provides insight into the role of the elementary school writing teacher in helping students learn to “read like writers” (Smith, 1983). This case study documents how one fourth-grade teacher employed a gradual release of responsibility model as she deliberately planned activities that drew students’ attention to well-crafted writing. Findings indicate that this teacher played an important role in helping her students learn to read like writers and that through carefully crafted lessons she significantly influenced students’ knowledge of and implementation of crafting techniques.
“If It’S Not Fixed, The Staples Are Out!”: Documenting Young Children’S Perceptions Of Strategic Reading Processes, Bette S. Bergeron, Melody Bradbury-Wolff
“If It’S Not Fixed, The Staples Are Out!”: Documenting Young Children’S Perceptions Of Strategic Reading Processes, Bette S. Bergeron, Melody Bradbury-Wolff
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
The purpose of this article is to describe how teachers can foster strategic reading processes in their early literacy classrooms, and how to incorporate a Strategy Perception Interview to assist in documenting students’ use and perceptions of these strategies. Descriptions of classroom instruction incorporating literacy strategies and implementation of the Interview are discussed as well as results from the administration of the Interview and specific classroom implications.
Learning To Teach: The Influence Of A University-School Partnership Project On Pre-Service Elementary Efficacy For Literacy Instructionteachers’, Denise Johnson
Learning To Teach: The Influence Of A University-School Partnership Project On Pre-Service Elementary Efficacy For Literacy Instructionteachers’, Denise Johnson
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
Bandura’s (1986) theory of self-efficacy suggests that efficacy may be most malleable early in learning; therefore, some of the most powerful influences on the development of teachers’ sense of efficacy may be the experience of teaching during field placements and student teaching. Unfortunately, pre-service teachers may not be exposed to good role models for teaching during field placements. This article describes a qualitative study of the influence of vicarious experiences modeled by a teacher educator and master teachers on the development of pre-service teachers’ sense of efficacy for literacy instruction. Results indicate that the vicarious experiences positively influenced pre-service teachers’ …