Education Commons^™

Book Review: Visual Secrets For School Success, Paul B. Freeman Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Book Review

Community Mapping 2.0: Using Technology To Raise Community Awareness, Chris Sclafani

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Community mapping can be an important tool for educators who aim to freely allow students to share their own connections and experiences. During community mapping, students identify areas within their own localities that matter to them, and engage in various literacy events centered on those places. Often, classes will study foreign lands and cultures during the course of a school year. While this is a wonderful learning opportunity, do they take the time to look deeper into their own personal neighborhoods and surroundings? This study uncovers the nuances of community mapping, as a group of third grade students work through …

Incarcerated Fathers’ Experiences In The Read To Your Child/Grandchild Program: Supporting Children’S Literacy, Learning, And Education, Esther Prins, Tabitha Stickel, Anna Kaiper-Marquez

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

In response to rising parental incarceration, some correctional facilities and outside organizations offer family literacy programs for parents in prison. However, research on these correctional education initiatives is scant. This paper uses qualitative data to analyze how 11 fathers in a rural Pennsylvania prison were involved in their children’s literacy, learning, and education before and during incarceration and through the Read to Your Child/Grandchild (RYCG) program. Before RYCG, most fathers had taken steps such as reading to children, teaching reading and math, attending parent-teacher conferences, helping with homework, and singing and rhyming—and then sought to continue supporting their children’s learning …

The Benefits Of Providing Choice In Pre Service Teacher Education, Tami B. Morton, Agnes Stryker

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Traditionally, teacher educators provide structured lectures for their pre service teachers to impart knowledge of what will be encountered in the field once they begin teaching in schools. However, in this paper, two reading professors who are proponents of constructivist teaching, decide to provide choice in their seminars. Allowing choices provided an opportunity for students to encourage motivation, maximize performance, help increase independence and self-management skills and provide a feeling of control with their learning situation. Choices are evident in both informal and formal assignments throughout the semester. Pre service teachers who were able to share new knowledge in their …

Revisiting A Classic: A Book Review Of Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis Of Reading And Learning, Chris Sclafani

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Often, the teaching profession spends a great deal of time looking towards the future, or considering what might be the next big trend that will help students. However, it is sometimes important to reflect back upon the texts and ideas that set the tone for the profession. Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning by Frank Smith is a classic text that laid the foundation for teachers of literacy to move from an existence of teaching rules and exceptions to becoming an actively involved participant in the process of building and facilitating comprehension in students of all ages. …

Translanguaging Supports Reading With Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach, Dan Hoffman, Ju-Lee Wolsey, Jean Andrews, Diane Clark

The Qualitative Report

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. …

Innovative Web 2.0 Technologies To Support Struggling Readers, Haihong Hu, Mary Ellen Oslick, Donna Wake

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Most Web 2.0 technologies are either free or inexpensive, making them accessible for teachers to use for instructional purposes, especially to assist diverse students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This article discusses the qualitative findings of a mixed-methods study that investigated how a group of candidates in a reading licensure graduate program responded to Web 2.0 technology integration when working with struggling readers, including their perceptual reaction and their implemented practice. The results from the study may help K-12 classroom teachers and teacher educators better understand how to include technologies in working with teacher candidates and assist them in designing instructional …

Creating Spaces For Literacy, Creating Spaces For Learning, Christy M. Howard

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study represents the practices of a middle school social studies teacher as she focuses on integrating questioning, reading, and writing in her content area. This teacher uses literacy strategies to engage students in practices of reading multiple texts and writing to showcase learning. She creates opportunities for students to make connections to their learning, posing questions to enhance critical thinking and the use of multiple sources to support responses. Through these actions, she creates spaces for student reading, writing, and learning to occur.

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.

“Do You Have A Brother? I Have Two!”: The Nature Of Questions Asked And Answered In Text-Focused Pen Pal Exchanges, Elizabeth M. Hughes, Lea Evering, Jacquelynn A. Malloy, Linda B. Gambrell

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Authentic learning experiences are those in which students engage with texts as well as the behaviors of reading and writing within contexts of real-world use beyond traditional academic use. This study provides quantitative analysis of how students (n=200) engaged with an adult pen pal in a shared literacy experience. Findings indicate that students actively participated with their adult pen pals asking and answering more personal questions than literature-based questions. Data were disaggregated for reading ability and gender. Students who were considered above-grade level readers asked and answered significantly more questions than students considered below grade level in reading. Girls asked …

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 …

Café Culture: Promoting Empowerment And Pleasure In Adolescent Literacy Learning, Brandi Gribble Mathers, Amanda J. Stern

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The 160 third, seventh, and eleventh-graders involved in this study agreed, almost unanimously, that reading was“important.” Participants cited the empowering benefits of reading as they justified this opinion. However, with regards to the enjoyment of reading, fewer middle and high school participants reported “liking” reading than their elementary counterparts and fewer reported reading in their free time.

One solution to this dilemma involves providing adolescent students with a context devoted solely to pleasure reading. In doing so, educators can look to an institution that boasts both an historical link to literate culture and current-day pop culture appeal: the coffeehouse. When …