Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

A Study Of Preservice Teachers' Preparedness To Teach Reading, Kelli Williams-Page

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Only 35% of fourth graders in the United States can read at the proficient level, and only 34% of eighth graders can read proficiently (National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2022). The purpose of this study was to determine how preservice teachers (PSTs) describe their experience of the methodology of teaching reading in their literacy courses. In addition, what specific strategies for teaching reading do PSTs describe as the focus for their teaching reading preparation, and how do PSTs describe the potential of the strategies learned in their coursework to help them teach reading in their future positions? This study …

Narrowing The Achievement Gap: Culturally Responsive Teaching For African American Students, Haylee Batzer

Culminating Experience Projects

It is no surprise to educators that classrooms are filled with children of all different backgrounds. Most teacher preparation programs try their best to prepare educators to teach students of diversity and support inclusion in the classroom. However, educators are still finding themselves lacking the skills needed to incorporate culturally responsive teaching (CRT) into their classrooms. Students of all backgrounds need inclusive practices to be successful. It is important to all students that they feel supported and seen in the classroom, without these practices schools start to see a decline in graduation rates and an increase in dropout rates. Many …

Challenging Vocabulary Words In Graphic Novels: A Multimodal Content Analysis, Karyn Z. Mendez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recreational reading is in a decline for upper elementary aged readers, and along with this decline comes consequent declines in students’ ability to make meaning from what they read and their acquisition of different language forms, including the acquisition of new vocabulary words. However, one reading format is increasing in popularity: graphic novels. As graphic novels, along with other texts with both textual and visual elements, become an increasingly prevalent way of reading in the 21st century, it is important to look at the possibilities multimodal texts have for foundational literacy skills, such as vocabulary acquisition. To date, however, the …

Imagination To Innovation: Design Thinking For Young Learners, Lindsey Herlehy, Cassandra Armstrong

Publications & Research

Design thinking is the intersection of engineering design and social-emotional learning. Today’s learners must be empathetic problem solvers capable of defining problems and designing appropriate solutions to meet the needs of the user. In this session, participants will experience design thinking through literature-based scenarios appropriate for early learners. They will analyze and compare their own models to those of others and compose a lesson that will engage students in the design thinking process.

Becoming Knowledgeable Agents Of Change: Early Career Teachers Enacting Inquiry-Oriented Professional Learning, Tracy Harper

Journal of Practitioner Research

In pursuit of more effective professional learning for early career teachers, this paper presents findings from a multiple case study of practitioner inquiry with beginning teachers. The study examined the lived experiences of Kelly, Sally, and Donna as they took up inquiry-oriented professional learning in their literacy classrooms. Over the course of a semester, the teachers identified a problem of practice, co-constructed professional learning plans, explored relevant professional learning, and implemented new literacy practices. The findings demonstrated that the individualized and responsive nature of inquiry-oriented professional learning supported the teachers in developing agency and self-efficacy as they addressed areas of …

Toward A Theory Of An Integrated Theoretical Approach Of Literacy For Black Boys, Aaron M. Johnson

Michigan Reading Journal

In the education landscape the literacy of Black boys is viewed from deficit framing. Often, educators, politicians, and laypeople point to scores on standardized assessments such as the MSTEP, NAEP, ACT, SAT, and NWEA, these tests only tell a part of the story. The part of the story that those assessments do tell is the abject failure of schools’ ability to engage Black boys in school-based literacy and catapult them into proficient and advanced proficient reading levels. The part of the story that those assessments do not tell is the literate lives that Black boys lead. Furthermore, schools do a …

Infographic: Reading Instruction Strategies Used In Year 4 Lessons In Australia, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Recently released survey data from PIRLS 2021 (Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study) includes information on reading instruction strategies used in year 4 lessons. This infographic shows the percentage of Australian PIRLS 2021 students whose teachers reported using these strategies in every or almost every lesson.

Infographic: Australia’S Reading Results Within The International Context, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Teacher infographics

The new report, Progress in International Reading Literacy Study: Australia’s results from PIRLS 2021, reveals how the average reading performance of year 4 students in Australia compares to other countries. Find out more in today’s infographic.

Teacher Candidate Self-Efficacy And Ability To Teach Literacy: A Comparison Of Residency And Traditional Teacher Preparation Models, Doreen L. Mazzye, Michelle A. Duffy, Richard L. Lamb

Journal of Global Education and Research

This comparative study explored self-efficacy and ability for scientifically-based literacy instruction between a traditional and residency model of teacher preparation. Pre-/post-survey data was collected using the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy for Literacy Scale. Mentor teachers completed a modified version of the survey on candidates’ abilities. Data were analyzed using paired sample t-tests, independent sample t-tests, and a trend analysis. Results revealed that candidates in the Residency Model held higher levels of self-efficacy for literacy instruction than in the Traditional Model. Mentor teachers rated candidates in the Residency Model as more able to teach literacy than those in the …

Improving K-12 Classroom Literacy Instruction With The Model Of The Complete, Literate Student: Shared Perspectives By Msed Reading Program Graduates, Johannah Baugher

The Advocate

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an instructional model, used in a Master of Science in Education in Reading (MSEd) Reading program, on K-12 classroom literacy instruction. Recent, MSEd Reading program graduates had an opportunity to share their perspectives on The Model of the Complete, Literate Student. Findings from this research study will be utilized to better understand the impact of this instructional model on K-12 classroom literacy instruction, as well as current practitioners’ professional growth as literacy leaders.

Democratic Disagreements. A Book Review Of Lived Democracy In Education. Young Citizens’ Democratic Lives In Kindergarten, School And Higher Education, Sonja Helkala, Julia Jaakkola, Tuukka Tomperi

Democracy and Education

As the title Lived Democracy in Education suggests, the predominantly Norwegian writers of the book share a deep and robust vision of democracy. Drawing on deliberative democratic theory and many other theoretical perspectives, the authors blend theory, practice, and empirical case studies to illuminate these modes of “lived democracy” in educational contexts. In particular, the book’s chapters examine different communicative interactions between children and young people, presenting these as examples of learning to live with controversies in communities of disagreement. The book contains valuable perspectives on democratic discussion in education. As several authors are experts in mathematics and science education, …

“How Come There’S No Spelling?”: What Spontaneous Comments Teach Us About Student Thinking During Vocabulary Learning Tasks, Susan J. Chambrè

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Vocabulary development remains an active and robust research area, yet little is known about what students, particularly young students, think during vocabulary learning. A commonly held assumption is that young learners employ few, if any, cognitive and metacognitive strategies when engaged in literacy tasks. Conversely, decades of research confirms that older learners with active metacognitive tools are better equipped to make meaning from text, of which vocabulary is a crucial component. To better understand the strategies and metacognitive actions young students make when learning vocabulary, student comments (N = 35) spontaneously produced during two experimental vocabulary learning tasks were reviewed …

Infographic: Basic Literacy Skills And The Gap Between Male And Female Students, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

NAPLAN’s National Minimum Standard is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. Ahead of the 2023 tests, we compare the percentage of male and female students in year 9 achieving at or above the standard in Literacy, over time.

Infographic: Basic Skills And The Gap Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Students, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

In the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, the national minimum standard (NMS) is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. This infographic looks at the performance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Year 9, over time.

Examining Elementary Teacher Perceptions And Experiences Of Transitioning From Knowledge-Based To Inquiry-Based Social Studies Standards, Benjamin Stephen Pinnick

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Elementary educators are responsible for the earliest years of student learning in a public setting. The amount of content students are expected to master continues to grow in scope, and the methods that are utilized shift to align with educational research and social momentum. After a decade of Common Core policies, social studies education in elementary schools has become a deemphasized subject. Reading and math, as well as science, have taken a greater precedence in today’s classrooms.

Yet, expectations for the creation of knowledgeable and participatory citizens continue to serve as a goal in elementary schools. Conceptualization of citizenship form …

Wakanda: Opening The High School Classroom To Afrofuturism, Carrie M. Mattern

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Afrofuturism has a solid place in high school classrooms thanks to the current work of Ryan Coogler, but also to those who have been in this work for decades including the Mother of Afrofuturism herself, Octavia Butler, adrienne maree brown, dream hampton, and a litany of Black poets and artists. This article leaps inside an Afrofuturistic unit curated for high school seniors with feedback and insight from their teachers and also the students who buckled up for a journey through time, space, and place.

Time To Escape! Using Escape Rooms In The Middle Grades Classroom, Rebecca Harper

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

Motivation and student engagement are at the forefront of quality instructional design and implementation. While traditional teaching methods may have been effective in the past, today’s diverse student body, with their rich literacy experiences in both print and digital worlds, demand unique classroom engagements. Because problem solving and critical thinking skills are ones that are required for student success both in and out of school, instructional opportunities should be designed with this in mind. One way to address the diverse skills and needs of today’s students, along with the instruction of academic skills needed for success, is through the implementation …

What Counts As Literacy In The Polytechnic Hispanic Serving Institution? Culturally Sustaining Frameworks For Writing Assignments, Assessment, And Language Use, Lisa Tremain, Jill Anderson, Beth Eschenbach, Nicolette Amann, Kerry Marsden

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article theorizes and describes classroom pedagogies that support the development of students’ disciplinary literacies through culturally sustaining, socially just approaches. Drawing primarily from the framework of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) (Paris, 2012; Alim, Paris & Wong, 2020), the authors suggest strategies for writing assignment and assessment designs that support students’ multilingual and multiliterate ways of knowing. These strategies intentionally invite and integrate students’ multiple ways of knowing and being in and outside of the polytechnic HSI. They also ask instructors to decenter the ways that whiteness operates in their curricula and programs. The authors conclude the article by arguing …