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Full-Text Articles in Education
What Visualising Strategic Reading Means For Young Adolescents, Cynthia Reyes, Penny Bishop
What Visualising Strategic Reading Means For Young Adolescents, Cynthia Reyes, Penny Bishop
Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education Publications
Since middle school is a critical time for literacy learning in general and comprehension in particular, educators are left to ponder how best to teach these students. In addition, what role might student perception of reading strategies through visual depictions have in order to help teachers decide how best to guide their students with challenging reading. In this conceptual piece, questions that guided our research were, What can we learn from students about the strategies they use to read challenging texts? and How do these strategies challenge adult norms of what constitutes strategic reading for young adolescents? We collected and …
Balancing Freedom And Limitations: A Case Study Of Choice Provision In A Personalized Learning Class, Steven Netcoh
Balancing Freedom And Limitations: A Case Study Of Choice Provision In A Personalized Learning Class, Steven Netcoh
Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education Publications
This qualitative case study explored how middle school teachers and students experienced and perceived choice within a newly implemented personalized learning class. It found that teachers and students had different values, expectations, and interests related to student choice, which contributed to struggles for power and control within the personalized learning class. Findings suggest teachers may benefit from foregrounding personalized learning as a partnership in which students and teachers bring their voices into conversation while framing choice as a means toward collaboratively developed learning targets as opposed to an end in and of itself.
Professional Learning With Action Research In Innovative Middle Schools, Steven Netcoh, Mark William Olofson, John Matthew Downes, Penny Bishop
Professional Learning With Action Research In Innovative Middle Schools, Steven Netcoh, Mark William Olofson, John Matthew Downes, Penny Bishop
Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education Publications
This article illustrates how action research can be used as a model for professional development with middle grades educators in rapidly changing and technology-intensive schools. Drawing upon ten years of using this model, the authors present three examples of educator action research to highlight five characteristics of effective projects: (1) appropriate scope, (2) a collaborative approach, (3) accountability, (4) various data sources, and (5) a clear link to practice. Action research with these characteristics can help middle grades educators address emergent problems in 21st-century class- rooms and respond to the evolving needs of young adolescents.
Collaborative Action Research For Middle Grades Improvement, John Matthew Downes, Penny A. Bishop, Meredith Swallow, Mark William Olofson, Susan Hennessey
Collaborative Action Research For Middle Grades Improvement, John Matthew Downes, Penny A. Bishop, Meredith Swallow, Mark William Olofson, Susan Hennessey
Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education Publications
Technology’s rapid evolution applies constant pressure to educational organizations, suggesting a need to continually re-envision schools for the digital age. Yet educators often struggle to understand the growing chasm between students’ out-of-school and in-school technology lives. This gap is particularly noticeable during the middle grades years, when home technology use increases dramatically. The purpose of this research was to examine the experiences of teachers and students engaged in collaborative action research for middle school improvement in technology-rich settings. We begin by outlining our theoretical framework, emphasizing Fletcher’s Ladder of Student Involvement. We then describe our case-study design and methods. Findings …