Education Commons^™

Negotiating Practicum Experiences In A Reading Specialist Preparation Program, Karen Rissling, Linda Kucan

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

In this cross-case study, we examined how two reading specialist candidates negotiated their yearlong practicum experiences in relation to university coursework and their previous teaching experience. Data sources included interviews, weekly teaching logs, and field observations. Findings reported in extended vignettes reveal how both interns were placed in positions that required them to negotiate instructional expectations at their internship sites and practices advocated in their coursework. In both cases, those two realities were often at odds when they were required to implement a program with scripted lessons and a required pacing guide. The findings raise important questions about the impact …

Community-Based Literacy Learning Spaces As Counterhegemonic Figured Worlds For African American Readers, Melanie M. Acosta, Shaunté Duggins

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Community-based literacy learning spaces are crucial to the enduring African American pursuit of literacy. This article reports findings from a study exploring the impact of a community-based literacy tutoring program for African American readers in grades 3-5. Findings also report on ways the community literacy site was similar to historic African American figured communities. Mixed methods analysis revealed significant improvements in decoding, and counternarratives that existed with the figured community cultivated by community volunteers. Taken together, both highlight the powerful role communities’ can play in promoting African American student success. Recommendations for community organizations, teacher educators, and literacy researchers are …

Rh Editorial Review Board V.57 N.3

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Concepts Of Online Text: Examining Online Literacy Skills Of Elementary Students, Jodi Pilgrim, Sheri Vasinda, Christie Bledsoe, Elda E. Martinez

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Reading online text presents unique challenges for elementary students as they develop and extend fundamental literacy skills to various media. Traditional assessments of concepts about print inspired the authors’ research, which applies a similar approach to address “screen handling” instead of book handling. The purpose of their ongoing research has been to develop an instrument to assess concepts related to online reading. The Concepts of Online Text (COT) assessment measures knowledge of online navigation and text features. Quantitative analysis of student performance data using the COT has the potential to provide developmental insight into elementary students’ proficiencies in conducting internet …

Probing The Promise Of Dual-Language Books, Lisa M. Domke

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Because dual-language books (DLBs) are written entirely in two languages, they have the potential to help readers develop multilingual literacy skills while acting as cultural and/or linguistic windows and mirrors. However, the ways in which publishers choose words when translating, format languages, and represent cultures have implications for readers in terms of identity, readability, and language learning. This content analysis of 69 U.S. Spanish–English dual-language picturebooks published from 2013–2016 investigated trends in DLBs’ cultural, linguistic, formatting, and readability factors. It also determined these trends’ relationships with publisher types, original publication language, and author and character ethnicity. Findings include that publishers …

What’S The Story With Children’S Literature? A Content Analysis Of Children’S Literature Courses For Preservice Elementary Teachers, Laurie A. Sharp, Elsa Diego-Medrano, Betty Coneway

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Developing knowledge and understandings related to children’s literature among preservice elementary teachers is a vital component of teacher preparation that should be addressed in a required course. The purpose of the present study was to identify essential learning outcomes addressed in children’s literature courses that were required coursework among elementary teacher preparation programs located in a Southern state. The goal was to discover “the story” in children’s literature coursework and determine to what extent current teacher preparation practices aligned with professional recommendations from recognized experts in the field. The present study employed a qualitative, directed content analysis approach that used …

Leisure Reading Behaviour Of Young Children In Singapore, Shaheen Majid

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Leisure reading is important for personality development and mental growth of children. Reading habits developed during early childhood are likely to continue rest of the life. The main purpose of this study was to investigate leisure reading habits and preferences of young children in Singapore. A questionnaire was used for data collection and 254 children, aged between 6 to 12 years, participated in this study. It was found that reading was among the top five leisure-time activities of the surveyed children. Mostly mothers, followed by fathers, encouraged children to read books. The major reasons for leisure reading were to learn …

Teaching Writing From The Inside Out: Teachers Share Their Own Children's Books As Models In Elementary School Classrooms, Ryan Colwell

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article describes The Bare Book Project, a writing and research project that challenged pre-service and in-service teachers to create their own original pieces of children’s literature, and use aspects of their personal writing as models for students in elementary school classrooms. Building on research regarding teacher modeling in writing classrooms, the author investigated teachers’ purposes for, and methods of using their own writing as models, as well as the benefits and challenges that teachers experienced when they incorporated their own writing during classroom writing instruction.

Rh Editorial Review Board V.57 N. 2

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Unpacking Japanese Culture In Children’S Picture Books: Culturally Authentic Representation And Historical Events/Political Issues, Su-Jeong Wee, Kanae Kura, Jinhee Kim

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study investigated culturally authentic representations and perspectives on historical events and political issues presented in children’s picture books on Japanese culture. Our analysis of the representation of Japanese culture in the texts and illustrations was based on a sample of 37 children’s picture books written in English or English/Japanese and published in the United States between 1990-2016 for ages 3-8. The majority of the sampled books were found to portray a visible and concrete level of Japanese culture, including clothes, food, holidays, festivals, and traditional activities, some of which had outdated and inaccurate descriptions and illustrations. Social customs and …

Markers Of An “Inclusive” Reading Classroom: Peers Facilitating Inclusion At The Margins Of A Fourth Grade Reading Workshop, Mary R. Coakley-Fields

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

What are indicators, or markers, of ‘inclusive’ reading classrooms? As elementary school teachers across the United States are increasingly required to teach reading to diverse, heterogenous groups of students within the same classroom space, practitioners and researchers seek to identify what constitutes 'inclusion' in reading instruction. This study explores how two fourth grade friends – one labeled ‘struggling’ and one labeled ‘average’ by normative reading assessments – transgress classroom expectations around quiet, leveled reading behaviors while also facilitating each other’s inclusion in the classroom reading community. Combining ethnographic methods and D/discourse analysis, this study explores the dominant cultural Discourses that …

Editorial Review Board Rh V.57 N.1

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Preservice Teacher Sense-Making As They Learn To Teach Reading As Seen Through Computer-Mediated Discourse, Angela J. Stefanski, Amy Leitze, Veronica M. Fife-Demski

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Abstract

This collective case study used methods of discourse analysis to consider what computer-mediated collaboration might reveal about preservice teachers’ sense-making in a field-based practicum as they learn to teach reading to children identified as struggling readers. Researchers agree that field-based experiences coupled with time for reflection benefit preservice teachers as they learn to teach reading. However, research is not as clear about which features of practicum experiences lead to preservice teacher learning, which may contribute to preservice teacher misconceptions, and how learning about reading instruction might be rendered more visible to researchers. Grounded in sociocultural perspectives, analysis focused on …

Searching For Mirrors: Preservice Teachers’ Journey Toward More Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Tanya Christ, Sue Ann Sharma

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Culturally relevant text selection and pedagogy support students’ motivation, engagement, literacy outcomes, and positive identity formation. Nevertheless, there is limited research on teacher preparation that fosters these outcomes. We explore 17 preservice teachers’ challenges and successes with culturally relevant text selection and pedagogy for their students’ literacy instruction. Data sources include reader responses, lesson plans, and reflections. Emergent coding and constant comparative analysis yielded four categories of challenges (resistance, limited view of culture, lack of knowledge about students’ cultures and identities, and lack of opportunities for students to develop critical consciousness) and three criteria for successes (knowledge about the students’ …

A Collaborative Children's Literature Book Club For Teacher Candidates, Tara-Lynn Scheffel, Claire Cameron, Lindsay Dolmage, Madisen Johnston, Jemanica Lapensee, Kirsten Solymar, Emily Speedie, Meagan Wills

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This paper highlights the two-year journey of an extra-curricular book club for teacher candidates as they explored children’s literature in order to further their teaching practice. Initial themes were confirmed and refined as the journey of the book club concluded after two years. A sociocultural theoretical framework guided this work and considered Cambourne’s (1988) conditions of learning, specifically immersion in texts, as well as the important role of social contexts in developing shared text meanings. A qualitative methodology, drawing on participatory action research (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005) and taking a case study approach to sharing the "case" of this collaborative …