Education Commons^™

A Balanced Literacy Approach To The Classroom, Kayleigh M. Siaulys Mrs.

Senior Honors Theses

In recent years, educators and researchers have become conflicted and outwardly concerned over low language arts test scores. Students from various backgrounds with different learning styles are not reaching literacy and language arts goals of the 21^st century. To fix this present conflict, a new system has been formulated, officially known as the balanced literacy approach. This system incorporates all necessary elements to learn the English language appropriately by combining two or more approaches into the curriculum. Using these various approaches collectively, students will have the opportunity to learn the structure of the English language and will receive instruction …

Computer Lab Instruction In Elementary Schools: Time For Instructional Transformation Or Worksheet Substitution?, Julia Kara-Soteriou

NERA Conference Proceedings 2013

Lately, concerns are raised about the ways teachers integrate technology and about their students’ digital literacy skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary school teachers use their scheduled computer lab time. During this observational study emphasis was placed on the integration of literacy and technology and the extent to which integration supported the development of new literacies and promoted transformation of literacy tasks. The study took place in two elementary schools and included three weeks of daily observations in each of the schools. After the observations, interviews were conducted with teachers and school/district administrators.

Literacy Initiatives In Guatemala And Educational Fairness, Miriam Pepper-Sanello, Adrienne Andi Sosin

NERA Conference Proceedings 2013

The Consejo de Lectura de Guatemala, an affiliate council of the International Reading Association composed of literacy teachers and teacher-educators in Guatemala and the USA, is improving the lives of Guatemalan students and families through educational professional development. Observations conducted of Guatemalan literacy instruction demonstrate apparent gains in effectiveness and sustainability attributable to the Guatemalan Literacy Project and its companion initiatives in over twenty-plus years of continuous activity. Implications address the potential of the Consejo de Lectura to support literacy teaching and learning in Guatemala, and for this multi-faceted educational model to inform educators and policy makers in the …

Image And Multimedia Resources In An Academic Environment: A Qualitative Study Of Students’ Experiences And Literacy Practices, Krystyna K. Matusiak

Library and Information Science: Faculty Publications

The digital environment provides an abundance of images and multimedia and offers a new potential for using resources in multiple modes of representation for teaching and learning. This paper reports the findings of a case study that investigated the use of image and multimedia resources in an undergraduate classroom. The study assumed a contextual approach and focused on different class contexts and students’ literacy practices. The class, which took place in a resource-rich, multimodal environment, was perceived by students as a positive learning experience. The distribution of resources and their role in teaching and learning varied and depended on the …

Measure For Measure : A Review Of Outcomes Of School Education In Australia, John Ainley, Eveline Gebhardt

Assessment and Reporting

There have been a plethora of research reports providing information about the achievements of students in Australian schools and how those achievements differ among jurisdictions and among groups of students. However, each report has often been viewed in isolation from other similar studies. This report is intended to provide an integrated appraisal of the results of the international and national achievement surveys conducted since 1994 but with some references to earlier studies. In addition to limiting the task to manageable proportions, this time span corresponds to the widespread introduction of modern measurement methods so that there is a better basis …

A Teacher's Guide To Pisa Reading Literacy, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman, Lisa De Bortoli

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This report focuses on Australian students' performance on the PISA items that have been released in reading literacy. It includes an overview of the PISA Reading Framework, Australia's results in the PISA 2009 international assessment , examples of responses and marking guides, and the context behind achievement, e.g. enjoyment of reading, how often they read and high-level strategies for learning.

Mobile Expansion Of Teachlive™ Laboratory, Joan Walker

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

The Next Information Literacy Challenge: Partnering To Promote Deeper Engagement With Information And Better Writing, Wendy Holliday, Kacy Lundstrom, Anne R. Diekama, Sheri Haderlie

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Accessing Content Through Literacy Instruction, Jacquelyn Urbani, David Pearson

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Teacher-Student Writing Conference Reimaged: Entangled Becoming-Writingconferencing, Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Mindy Legard Larson

Faculty Publications

This analysis is experimental: we attempt to read data with the work of Karen Barad and in doing so ‘see’ teacher-student writing conferences (a common pedagogy of US elementary school writing) as intra-activity. Data were gathered during teacher-student writing conferences in a grade five US classroom over a six week period. One conference between a researcher and a male Latino student, a Student of Labels, is diffracted. Reading and writing and thinking with Barad disrupts our habitual ways of privileging language as representational. Rather, we consider the material-discursive practices of schooling that produce what comes to matter, leading …

Spanish Tutoring Center—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Lola Lorenzo

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this Portfolio I have one assessment of the Tutoring Center in Spanish during his first year of work. This center has one on-line component that students can use and also one face to face. I provide information about the type of students that use the Tutoring Center and also the reflection of the Graduate Students working in the Tutoring Center.

Literacy Strategy Journal: Planning Literacy Instruction In A Liberal Arts College, Antonio Causarano

Education Faculty Articles

This paper discusses the importance of writing, developing, and implementing a literacy strategy journal as a junior faculty teaching literacy courses in a University in the United States. The analysis of the content of the literacy strategy journal is carried out by applying a Bakhtinian dialogic framework to become aware and understand how dialogicality between the instructor and the content of the literacy strategy journal supported a systematic and in depth self-reflection aimed to improve teaching and pedagogy in the literacy courses taught. The author wants to demonstrate that the literacy strategy journal is not a static object, a legal …

Developing An Understanding Of Data Management Education: A Report From The Data Information Literacy Project, Jake Carlson, Lisa Johnston, Brian Westra, Mason Nichols

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This paper describes the initial results from the Data Information Literacy (DIL) project designed to identify the educational needs of graduate students across a variety of science disciplines and respond with effective educational interventions to meet those needs. The DIL project consists of five teams in disparate disciplines from four academic institutions in the United States. The project teams include a data librarian, a subject-specialist librarian, and a faculty member representing a disciplinary group of students. Interviews of the students and faculty members present a detailed snapshot of graduate student needs in data management education. Following our study, educational programs …

Rethinking The Literacy Capabilities Of Pre-Service Primary Teachers In Testing Times, Eileen Honan, Beryl Exley, Lisa Kervin, Alyson Simpson, Muriel Wells

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper demonstrates how teacher accreditation requirements can be responsibly aligned with a scholarly impetus to incorporate digital literacies to prepare pre-service teachers to meet changing educational needs and practices. The assessment initiatives introduced in the newly constructed four year undergraduate Bachelor of Education program at one Australian university are described and analysed in light of the debates surrounding pre-service primary teachers' literacy capabilities. The findings and subsequent discussion have implications for all literacy teacher educators concerned about the impact of standardised assessment practices on the professional future of teachers.

Investigating Synergies Between Literacy, Technology And Classroom Practice, Lisa Kervin, Irina Verenikina, Pauline Jones, Olivia Beath

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The ways educators incorporate technologies into their classroom literacy experiences and the implications these present for professional practices have been the focus of discussion for some time. We believe it timely to re-examine these debates in a period of 'digital reform' as we consider the realities teachers report as they use technology as a tool in literacy classrooms. In doing this, we acknowledge the potential of new technologies such as laptops, wireless connectivity, Interactive White Boards and mobile communication devices to reshape pedagogic activity within primary classrooms but aim to capture the reality reported by active practitioners. In this paper …

A Clinical Practicum Experience To Prepare Teacher Candidates For Early Literacy Instruction, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to explore teacher candidates’ tutoring experiences within a university clinical practicum to acquire an understanding about how their unique interactions with struggling readers and research-based methodology contribute to their pedagogical understandings of literacy instruction.

This article spotlights teacher education and addresses the question of how teacher educators can guide teacher candidates in putting theory into practice with early readers. The author describes a scaffolded clinical practicum in which preservice teachers have the opportunity assess, teach and reflect on their work with children.

Making A Difference : Improving Outcomes For Indigenous Learners, Michele Lonsdale

Indigenous Education Research

This publication highlights ACER’s contributions to Indigenous Educational research over the past decade. This contribution has included research, policy analysis, program evaluation, professional development, and the development of assessment tools and other resources.

Footprints In Time : Who Am I? And Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Test : Report On Wave 2 Data, Sarah Buckley, Catherine Underwood, Nola Purdie

Indigenous Education Research

This report presents the results of administration of the Who Am I? and the Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Test for the LSIC Wave 2 data collection in 2009. Who am I? is a developmental assessment that requires the child to write their name, copy shapes, write letters, numbers and words in a small booklet, with simple instructions and encouragement from the interviewer. Who am I? is not language dependent and is suitable for children with limited English. The assessment takes about 10 minutes to complete and is suitable for preschool children and children in the first two years of …

Building The Systematic Teaching Of Reading Across Independent Schools: 2011-2012: Final Report, Deslea Konza, Paul Woodley

Research outputs 2013

The PALL project commenced in March 2011 with principals and other school leaders of 19 schools from the Association of Independent Schools in Western Australia, and concluded in November 2012. Participants attended five professional learning modules that centred on the leadership of literacy learning (specifically reading) and carried out activities between modules to connect their learning with practical action in their schools. Supporting these activities was a Mentor, whose task was to assist principals to understand and internalise key messages from the workshops, to implement interventions in reading consistent with the learning undertaken during the modules, and to support leaders …

Expanding The Vision: Synthetic Phonics In Action Ii, Deslea Konza

Research outputs 2013

The Yorke and Mid North - Roxby Downs Area School (YMN-RDAS) Literacy Project in 2013 was largely an extension of the literacy project conducted with the YMN region of the South Australian Department of Education and Child Development in 2012. The 2012 project outcomes were very positive (see Konza, 2013) and funding was made available for continuation of the main elements of the project with another cohort of primary schools in 2013. As was the case with the YMN 2012 project, it was designed to ‘value-add’ to the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) project which had been implemented in the …

2nd Global Report On Adult Learning And Education:Rethinking Literacy, Unesco Institute Of Lifelong Learning, 58 Felbrunnenstr., 20148 Hamburg, Germany

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

Drawing on data gathered from 141 countries, the second Global Report on Adult

Learning and Education reviews progress in implementing the Belém Framework for Action, the set of recommendations made by governments at the Sixth

International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) in Belém in December

2009. The report adopts a global perspective, describing the commonalities and differences of Member States as they work to improve their adult education

sectors.

This second Global Report has as its special theme ‘Rethinking Literacy’. UNESCO

hopes that this will help to position literacy as the foundation for lifelong learning. The report …

Engaging Teachers In Digital Products And Processes: Interview Feature Articles, Susan D. Martin, Sherry Dismuke

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Students sit in pairs interviewing each other--talking, laughing, taking notes with pen and paper. Computers begin to appear on tables, as students segue into drafting feature articles-- those splash-of-color pieces that go beyond straight news in magazines and news source. Conversation diminishes to a soft hum, as focus shifts to the interplay of thinking, written notes, and the emerging text on the computer screen. Words continue to waft over the room as comments and questions pertaining to content and processes are directed to others. Computer screens are filling up with these words…

Thus begins, the first day of writing workshop …

Critical Literacy, Common Core, And “Close Reading”, Aimee Ellis

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the time of implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) across the country, teachers are confronting new content and instructional shifts in their classrooms. One of these shifts is providing time for students to do "close reading" of complex texts in order to reach the expectations of CCSS. "Close reading" can be defined in multiple ways, and different approaches can be taken in the classroom to help students learn to read closely. In this paper, I suggest a critical literacy approach to texts that not only supports CCSS expectations for close, analytical reading, but extends even deeper to …

Using Text-To-Speech Reading Support For An Adult With Mild Aphasia And Cognitive Impairment, Judy Harvey, Karen Hux, Jeffry Snell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

This single case study served to examine text-to-speech (TTS) effects on reading rate and comprehension in an individual with mild aphasia and cognitive impairment. Findings showed faster reading, given TTS presented at a normal speaking rate, but no significant comprehension changes. TTS may support reading in people with aphasia when time limitations exist.