Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

A Wide-Angle View Of Prekindergarten Through 12th-Grade Teachers’ Beliefs About Language Correction, Mike Metz, Matthew J. Gordon, Thanh Nguyen

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article explores patterns in teachers’ reported correction of student language use in speech and writing. The authors use the concept of language correction in student writing and student speech as a proxy for prescriptive approaches to teaching about language. By conducting a large-scale survey of all language and literacy teachers from preschool through 12th grade across an entire state, the authors were able to identify patterns in teachers’ approaches to teaching about language that smaller case studies and nuanced qualitative studies have not yet documented. They examine differences in teachers’ self-reported correction of student language use across teacher characteristics …

"So Many Hopes": A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Children's Picture Books That Portray Refugees, Janine J. Darragh, Jane E. Kelley

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Researchers used content analysis to analyze 40 award-winning and “best of” children’s picture books that portray refugees to answer the questions: How are refugees depicted in picture books? What messages are embedded in those depictions? Results show patterns and themes regarding depictions of trauma and violence in conjunction with setting as well as the portrayal of the arts as a vehicle for refugees to ignite personal agency in coping with the trauma they experienced. Implications for practice are discussed.

“We Treat Them Like Animals In A Cage”: A Dialogic Exploration Of Refugee, Rachelle Kuehl

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Immersion in fiction narratives like Alan Gratz’s (2017) Refugee can help students recognize and acknowledge our common humanity when discussed in a dialogic classroom using a critical literacy pedagogy. Following the literature on using novel discussions to help students understand pressing societal issues (e.g., Boas, 2012; Hsieh, 2012; Thein et al., 2011) and guided by critical multicultural analysis (Botelho & Rudman, 2009), a dialogic (Bakhtin, 1981) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970) was used to lead a small group of sixthgrade students in biweekly discussions of Refugee. Prior to each of 10 sessions, students wrote dialogue journal entries in response …

Self-Efficacy And Attitudes For Vocabulary Strategies Among English Learners And Native Speakers, Qizhen Deng, Guy Trainin

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study examined university students’ self-efficacy and attitudes for employing vocabulary strategies in four learning contexts. The contexts are characterized by input modality (reading vs. listening) and purpose (academic vs. leisure). Another goal was to compare the self-efficacy and attitudes between English learners (ELs) and native speakers. A total of 112 participants responded to four short scenarios by rating their self-efficacy and attitudes toward employing vocabulary strategies under each scenario. Among the results, students reported higher self-efficacy using morphological analysis and dictionary use when reading, and higher self-efficacy to seek help when learning for academic purpose. There were no differences …

Supporting English Learners Through Practice-Based Research, Catherine Lammert, Erica B. Steinitz Holyoke

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Learning to use critical practice-based research as part of teaching is an important goal for preservice teachers, especially for those who plan to teach English learners in linguistically diverse settings. In this study, we examine the experiences of preservice teachers who were introduced to a framework for enacting iterative, transformative action research, and used the framework to study their own teaching in a one-on-one writing partnership with young English learners. Using an established self-efficacy survey instrument, as well as qualitative measures such as course artifacts and observations of teaching, we conducted a mixed-methods study to examine the impact of research …

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 …

Professional Development For Educators To Promote Literacy Development Of English Learners: Valuing Home Connections, Leslie Grant, Angela B. Bell, Monica Yoo, Christina Jimenez, Barbara Frye

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

While families play a vital role in the early literacy skills of young English Learners, their educators often do not share the same backgrounds or cultures, and may not know how to connect with parents who are linguistically and culturally different. As part of a year-long grant funded professional development project, the authors led teams of educators from two districts through a series of workshops which included ways teachers could increase home-school connections to support the children’s literacy. Data from participant surveys with Likert-scale and open-ended questions provided evidence that the professional development experiences resulted in an increase in the …

Middle Level Multicultural/Social Justice Art Education Curriculum, Meghan E. G. Andrews

Masters Theses

The way in which children are taught matters a great deal and influences not only their worldview, but also how they view themselves with that world. Through my experiences as an art teacher, I have witnessed a growing need for teaching students in a way that focuses on multicultural and social justices issues in order to help students gain a more well-rounded world view. The art classroom has to power to serve as a safe and effective place to explore these issues. Determining why there is a growing need for a multicultural and social justice oriented art curriculum was important …

English-Spanish Cognates In The Charlotte Zolotow Award Picture Books: Vocabulary, Morphology, And Orthography Lessons For Latino Ells, José A. Montelongo, Anita C. Hernández, Roberta J. Herter

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

English-Spanish cognates are words that are orthographically and semantically identical or nearly identical in English and Spanish as a result of a common etymology. Because of the similarities in the two languages, Spanish-dominant Latino English Language Learners (ELLs) can be taught to recognize English cognates thereby increasing their bilingualism and bi-literacy for these two languages.

There are over 20,000 English-Spanish cognates, many of the academic vocabulary words. Despite their vast educational potential, however, cognates are typically excluded as a word category in the language arts curriculum, thus denying Latino ELLs of a resource for acquiring English-Spanish bilingualism and bi-literacy.

English-Spanish …

The Negotiation And Development Of Writing Teacher Identities In Elementary Education, Shartriya M. Collier, Suzanne Scheld, Ian Barnard, Jackie Stallcup

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Identity development in writing is a unique process. While many studies have explored the process of developing a professional identity among future teachers, few studies have investigated how teacher candidates develop a writing teacher’s identity. This study explores the development and negotiation of writing teacher identity among 21 pre-service multiple-subject teacher candidates at a large public institution in California. More specifically, the study examines the students’ journeys as they transformed from students of writing in a university methods course to student teachers of writing in a local school district. Our findings indicate that the use of a sociocultural-based approach to …

Similar Settings, Different Story Lines: The Positioning Of Esl Teachers In Two Middle Schools, Mary Mcgriff, Maria Selena Protacio

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

As the need to better support English learners’ achievement in academically rigorous content area classes increases, so does the call for expanded ESL teacher – content area teacher collaboration. However, the nature and outcomes of such collaboration depend on how these professionals are positioned within their school settings. Using positioning theory as an analytic lens, this article investigates the collaborative interactions of two ESL teachers in two separate, but demographically similar suburban middle schools. It examines the impact of these ESL teachers’ collaborations on ELLs’ opportunities for academic language and content area learning, and it calls for the field to …

A Formative Study: Inquiry And Informational Text With Fifth-Grade Bilinguals, Lindsey Moses

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article includes the findings from a formative experiment implementing inquiry with informational texts in a fifth-grade bilingual classroom after the completion of state assessments. The pedagogical goals were focused on facilitating engaged reading and writing for native Spanish-speakers and building content knowledge and related academic vocabulary in English. The intervention was designed to emphasize modeling of research, strategies of the inquiry process, self-selected reading, informational text-creation and peer interactions, discussions and feedback regarding inquiry. In this article, the author shares initial instructional plans for implementation as well as modifications that were made based on factors inhibiting and advancing the …

The Role Of Socialization In The Process Of Political Life: An Analysis Of Gender Roles In Elementary School Textbooks On Taiwan, Chien-Hong Lee

Masters Theses

This thesis contains both theoretical and applied research. In the theoretical part, political socialization is the main theme to be studied; and an incorporated model is designed to examine how political socialization can be viewed in the process of political life. In the applied part, three sets of elementary school textbooks have been examined and we have found that those textbooks contain clear sex-typed images of adult behavior; and male characters are emphasized more than female characters, which might contribute to the understanding why women are rarely seen in any positions of power in any realm on Taiwan.