Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Language and Literacy Education

2019

Literacy instruction

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Education

"They Almost Become The Teacher": Pre-K To Third Grade Teachers’ Experiences Reading And Discussing Culturally Relevant Texts With Their Students, Amy Clark, Jane Fleming Dec 2019

"They Almost Become The Teacher": Pre-K To Third Grade Teachers’ Experiences Reading And Discussing Culturally Relevant Texts With Their Students, Amy Clark, Jane Fleming

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This qualitative research study examined 13 preschool to third-grade teachers’ experiences reading and discussing culturally relevant texts (CRTs) with their students. Teachers worked at four schools in a large urban school district and with child populations from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. We employed provisional and open-coding to analyze teacher interview data. Three salient themes emerged from the data: children’s identity investment in reading and discussing CRTs, children’s interest in CRTs, and children’s depth of comprehension when discussing CRTs. Findings from teacher observations suggest that reading and discussing CRTs with children from nondominant social backgrounds can tap into children’s capacities …


Breaking Through The Noise: Literacy Teachers In The Face Of Accountability, Evaluation, And Reform, Catherine M. Kelly, Sara E. Miller, Karen Kleppe Graham, Chelsey M. Bahlmann Bollinger, Sherry Sanden, Michael Mcmanus Oct 2019

Breaking Through The Noise: Literacy Teachers In The Face Of Accountability, Evaluation, And Reform, Catherine M. Kelly, Sara E. Miller, Karen Kleppe Graham, Chelsey M. Bahlmann Bollinger, Sherry Sanden, Michael Mcmanus

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

In an era of increased accountability, it is important to understand how exemplary teachers navigate the demands placed on them by their schools, districts, and states in order to support student learning aligned with their beliefs of effective instruction. To understand these negotiations, tensions facing exemplary literacy teachers were examined through a qualitative interview study. Participants included nineteen experienced PK-6th grade teachers from across the U.S. Results of the study indicate that teachers experience discrepancies between their beliefs and state and local mandates, and they discuss a variety of strategies for negotiating these discrepancies. Findings suggest that schools can support …


The Impact Of External Audience On Second Graders' Writing Quality, Meghan K. Block, Stephanie L. Strachan Oct 2019

The Impact Of External Audience On Second Graders' Writing Quality, Meghan K. Block, Stephanie L. Strachan

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The overarching purpose of writing is to communicate; as such, the intended audience is a critical consideration for writers. However, elementary school writing instruction commonly neglects the role of the audience. Typically, children are asked to compose a piece of text without a specific audience that is usually evaluated by the classroom teacher. Previous studies have found a relationship between audience specification and higher quality writing among older children; this study examines the impact of audience specification on young children’s writing. Using a within-subjects design, the study compared writing quality when second-grade students wrote for internal versus external audiences and …