Education Commons^™

Teaching Language As A Political Act, Roberto E. Bahruth

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

"The most powerful act in the world is to name something" Noam Chomsky "Any way of seeing the world is also a way of not seeing the world." Gregory Bateson

An important dimension of critical pedagogy includes the questioning of traditional terminology used to explain reality. In the process of schooling people often learn language which supports the thinking of the dominant paradigm. Many become fluent in the language of impossibility as they are schooled. In response to this, I always try to keep in mind two central points as I teach languages: One is to undo the damage of …

Curriculum Materials For Elementary Reading: Shackles And Scaffolds For Four Beginning Teachers, Sheila W. Valencia, Nancy A. Place, Susan D. Martin, Pamela L. Grossman

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to learn how beginning elementary teachers understood and used curriculum materials for teaching reading, and how, in turn, these materials shaped teachers' instruction. We followed 4 teachers who worked in markedly different school situations and were provided a variety of curriculum materials, ranging from scripted reading programs to supplemental materials without teaching guides. Data were gathered through classroom observations, interviews, and curriculum artifacts over the teachers' first 3 years on the job. Our analysis suggested that curriculum materials interacted with teachers' knowledge of reading and reading instruction, and with the contexts in which …

Leisure Reading: Impacting The Affective Domain Across Borders, Stan Steiner, Dong Ro Shin, Diane Boothe

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Comparison of literacy in South Korea and the United States through the lens of a ten-year old exemplifies a comparative survey study conducted in both the United States and South Korea. The ongoing study measures students' reading habits and their perceptions of the adults in their lives as readers over a seven-year period. Some questions that have driven the study include, "What affective filters influence development of students' reading skills? Do teachers model leisure reading interests and habits through example? Do teachers share books with students or parts of books they are reading? Do teachers generate frequent discourse with their …