Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Understanding The “L” In Cslp Within The Literacy Conundrum, Julia Lynch, Andrea Perrone

Michigan Reading Journal

Rooted in culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally sustaining literacy practices (CSLP) focus on equity in education (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). Our view of CSLP emphasizes integrating the arts into literacy instruction to leverage students' cultural assets, stimulating their cognitive processes and recognizing literacy's interdisciplinary role in learning. As we align literacy practices with state standards, high-stakes testing, and research-based methods, it's crucial for educators and society to embrace them. Traditionally, literacy instruction has prioritized written language, creating hierarchical structures that lead to learning gaps and inequitable opportunities. An arts-based CSLP framework addresses these issues by ensuring literacy includes diverse …

Teacher Candidates Develop And Apply Pedagogical Content Knowledge To Support Multilingual Learners, Kyongson Park, Danielle L. Defauw

Michigan Reading Journal

To ensure English Learners (ELs) / Multilingual Learners (MLs) have access to well-prepared educators, one regional university integrates a seven-credit block of courses to ensure teacher candidates learn and apply English as a Second Language methods within clinical experiences. Teacher candidates must create a technology-integrated Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) lesson plan by utilizing the following key strategies designed to support EL/MLs’ literacy development for academic purposes: adding both content and language objectives, building background knowledge through connecting students’ cultural experiences, and developing comprehensible input in different proficiency levels.

Nurturing A Community Of Literacy Coaches: A Comprehensive Approach To Improved Literacy Instruction, Heather Rottermond, Colleen Whalen, Laura Gabrion, Joseph L. Musial

Michigan Reading Journal

Because equitable literacy practices provide students with access and opportunity, it is essential to build strong and supportive communities for literacy educators. At the center of these communities are literacy coaches who work extensively to cultivate trusting relationships to disrupt the status quo, thereby improving literacy instruction and student success. Literacy coaches build coaching structures and learning cultures that equitably expand educators’ knowledge, skills, and capacity to increase student literacy within and beyond classrooms. This article examines Years One through Three of the Wayne County COSA (Coach on Special Assignment) Initiative. It explores the value of building and sustaining an …

Reflections From A Summer Literacy Intervention: Unlocking A Love Of Literacy For Struggling Readers, Rory Cantwell

Honors Projects

Summer literacy interventions offer a solution to the devastating impacts that summer literacy loss can have on struggling readers and writers. However, these interventions should consider the impact of student attitudes towards literacy on their learning and strive to develop positive associations between literacy and enjoyment. Camp Curious, a summer literacy intervention developed as a collaboration between the Virginia Association of Teachers of English and Shrine Mont, a retreat and conference center, embodies this idea. The intervention, in the form of a week-long camp experience, strives to provide third through sixth graders with positive and varied experiences related to literacy. …

Losing Identity Or Regaining Confidence? A Collaborative Autoethnography On Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Geraldine Jiménez Grajales, Mariana Arias Torres, Keren Hapuc Guisao Bohórquez, Leslie J. Lopera

The Qualitative Report

This collaborative autoethnography analyzes the role of self-efficacy within our teacher identity crisis. As English teachers in training, we have experienced situations inside and outside the classroom that motivated a professional identity crisis and led us questioning our efficacy as teachers. Through this study we explore the intricacies of our very own selves as prospective English teachers. We blended storytelling and analysis through a set of data generation procedures that included collaborative witnessing, written personal narratives and semi-structured interviews, which allowed us to co-construct our stories. Our findings reveal three main themes that display the roles of self-efficacy within the …

Inquiry Into Equity Practice In A “White Space”: Student-Led Discussions And Academic Discourse, Caran Mullins

Journal of Practitioner Research

In this study I used teacher inquiry to explore how to better engage my Black and Brown elementary students in student led discussions that could enhance academic discourse. The research questions driving my work emerged at the intersection of my beliefs and commitment to creating an equitable learning environment. Specifically, I wanted to know: (1) How do I scaffold my minority students to increased participation in academic discourse?, (2) How might these scaffolds support their development of metacognition, reading comprehension, and deeper critical thinking?, And (3) How do these scaffolds contribute to student feelings about their voice and place in …

The Impact Of Early Teacher Bias And Academic Risk On Children’S Current And Future Academic Achievement, Damira S. Rasheed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The racial academic achievement gap continues to plague child academic outcomes in American public schools and teacher bias may be a contributing factor. Through the theoretical lens of critical race theory and the cultural synchrony hypothesis, this study contemplated how longstanding racism in the US may function to hinder the academic achievement outcomes of minority-race children. Moreover, cultural mismatches in the classroom between teachers and students may be associated with lower quality teacher-child relationships and perceived academic risk. A growing body of work has examined the association between teacher bias and child academic-risk factors—with risk defined by children’s sociodemographic characteristics …

Get Fit! With Math And Lit: A Pilot Program Of Physical Activity, Mathematics, And Literacy With Middle Grades Students Through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Christine L. Craddock, Brittany Pinkerton

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

In an afterschool program at a university literacy center, we piloted the integration of physical activity with multimodal mathematics and literacy exercises. We aimed to incorporate the three tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) including academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness with middle grades participants by utilizing a sports-based youth development model (SBYD), Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR). Participants participated in 30-minute sessions bi-weekly over two months, which included reflective discussions and journaling to begin and end activities, respectively. Participants were invited to suggest activities during sessions and interact cooperatively with facilitators and peers. They also engaged in …

Principal Agency 50 Years After The Lau Decision: Building And Sustaining Bilingual Education Programs For Asian Languages, Kevin M. Wong, Zhongfeng Tian

Education Division Scholarship

This study examined how three champion principals of Asian language dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs—Cantonese, Korean, and Mandarin—in California have navigated the oscillating language-in-education policies after the Lau decision. We explored principals' various roles through a lens of agency in a social justice leadership framework, specifically considering the opportunities and challenges for agentive leadership from three different phases: foregrounding and engaging, planning and implementing, and evaluating and sustaining. Findings demonstrate that the success of DLBE programs goes beyond the overarching language policies that supposedly enable bilingual education; rather it hinges on the bottom-up commitment, collaboration and resilience of principals, …

Coaching And Developing Non-Certified Instructional Staff In Key Literacy Practices, Holly Nicole Bigos

Masters Projects

Paraprofessionals are vital staff members of elementary schools that often provide small group instruction for struggling students to develop key literacy skills. Despite the critical contribution paraprofessionals can provide, schools often neglect to adequately train and develop these staff members to support students’ instructional literacy needs. This project explores the relevant history of paraprofessional staff in schools and the current need for increased development and support of these staff members. Additionally, modern sustainable solutions are explored to develop paraprofessional literacy knowledge and instructional skills for these vital staff members. Programming recommendations are grounded in adult learning theory, feedback and coaching, …

Exploring Early Childhood Teachers’ Experiences In Teaching Multilingual Children In Public Mainstream Schools In Tennessee, Maria Dias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study, grounded in a phenomenological perspective, delves into the lived experiences of early childhood teachers who teach multilingual children in mainstream classrooms in Tennessee. Amidst the rising number of multilingual learners in mainstream educational settings and the dearth of adequate teacher training to address their needs, this research illuminates the experiences of these teachers. Furthermore, it seeks to advocate for the integration of translanguaging pedagogy into teacher training programs and state policies. This study employed a qualitative study using the three-in-depth-interview series from a phenomenological perspective (Seidman, 2019). The first interview focused on participants’ overall teaching experiences and …

Sociocultural Environment And Agency In Identity Construction Of English Language Teachers, Bharat Prasad Neupane , Phd

The Qualitative Report

Identity is an emerging field in educational research focusing on how teacher education programs, training, reflective practices, and short-term interventions impact the identity negotiation of teachers (Gautam, 2018). However, this study reports how different levels of sociocultural environments influence teachers and what initiatives they take for professional development and identity construction. Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) notion of communities of practice and Norton’s (2013) investing, this study sought to uncover the interchange of the development of learning communities and teachers by investigating the life history of four secondary-level English language teachers derived through informal conversations and in-depth interviews. Teachers’ life stories …

Effects Of Flipped Explicit Reading Instruction On College Efl Trainees’ Reading Comprehension Proficiency, Getu Dagne Yalew, Abiy Yigzaw Filate

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The flipped classroom, a contemporary model, and explicit reading instruction, a widely recognized conventional approach, both offer unique benefits and have their own place in education. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Flipped Explicit Reading Comprehension Instruction (FERCI) on college EFL trainees’ Reading Comprehension Proficiency (RCP) and its impact on course achievement test scores. Conducted at Injibara College of Teachers Education in Ethiopia, the study involved 53 participants from October 7 to February 6, 2023, utilizing a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test non-equivalent group design. The participants were assigned into experimental (N=28) and control (N=25) groups. The experimental group received the …

“Without Boundaries, Something Great Might Just Be Created”: Examining Preservice Teachers’ Radical Imagination Through Becoming Writers And Teachers Of Writing, Erica Holyoke, Susan Tily

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study investigates how preservice teachers (PTs) created and enacted innovative views of writing instruction through course experiences in a field-based writing methods course as writers and teachers working with early elementary authors. Theoretically, we drew on radical imagination (Sailors, 2018) to interpret PT’s narratives and experiences in the course. We used constant comparative data analysis across sources, which included field notes, observations, and course artifacts. The findings explore interrelationships between being a writer, establishing a writing identity, and teaching and envisioning writing instruction through liberating perspectives through writing for social change. The implications of this work argue for integrated, …

Empathy And Readers – The Questions And Connections That Help Us Relate With Our Maturing Readers, Justin M. Stygles

Wellspring: A Practitioner-Oriented Journal of Literacy and Language Education

What motivates a reader? It may not be "interest" as commonly known, but affect. Affect can be considered a reader's thoughts about themselves including self-perception. When we know our students through through empathy, that is, because we've been in their shoes, we can create the foundation for stronger relationships and purposes for conferring.

“I Know How Much He Cares For Our Learning”: Moral Life In University Elt Classrooms, Leila Tajik, Seyyed Abdolhamid Mirhosseini, Mahsa Kashkooli

The Qualitative Report

In Iran’s higher education English language teaching (ELT) context, we explored the moral nuances embedded in two conversation courses offered to undergraduate students majoring in English Literature at one of the branches of the Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Tehran. We collected data through classroom observations, field notes, and semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. Our content analysis revealed a range of moral values embedded in significant incidents, which we categorized into five themes: (a) relations, (b) rules and regulations, (c) assessment, (d) curricular substructure, and (I) culture. These themes were further subcategorized into more specific concepts that emerged from …

Addressing Language And Content In Civics Through A Language-Based Approach To Content Instruction For Multilingual Learners, Jia Gui, Luciana C. De Oliveira

Journal of English Learner Education

This study explores the integration of a language-based approach to content instruction’s (LACI) six Cs of support into an existing civics lesson plan to improve content and language learning for multilingual learners. We used the Civics for All curriculum from the New York City Department of Education to identify lesson plans that could be enhanced for teaching multilingual learners. The findings of integrating the LACI framework indicated that the existing lesson plans could be enhanced by adding all the Cs to ensure full support for multilingual learners. We conclude with strategies for integrating the LACI framework into existing civics lesson …

Beyond Credit: The Philosophy And Practice Behind A College Freshman Literacy Intervention Course, Jeremy Logsdon, Daniel Super

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

READ 101 is a college freshman literacy intervention course at a southeastern U.S. regional university created to increase student retention and persistence and to serve as an alternative to the traditional developmental reading model. READ 101 was created within a dedicated university infrastructure and is a credit-bearing course that counts toward student GPA and graduation requirements and is taught by full-time credentialed faculty. It utilizes a philosophy of intervention instead of remediation, requiring that instruction be based upon where students need to be rather than the level at which they currently read. READ 101 is structured around research-based literacy practices. …

Analyzing Common Mistakes In First-Year Medicine Faculty Students’ Paragraph Writing, Pervaiz Yaseeni, Fahim Rahimi, Fareed Sahil

Journal of Research Initiatives

Academic writing is a salient skill for medical students all over the world. Academic writing starts with composing effective paragraphs, laying the foundation for students' advancement in writing during college. This study investigated common mistakes in English paragraph writing committed by the first-year medical students of the Medicine Faculty at Kabul University of Medical Sciences. Additionally, it measured the challenges that Medicine Faculty students tackled in paragraph writing. This quantitative study was conducted through an action research design. The data were collected from 52 medical students, and their work was analyzed using the developed rubrics. The data were analyzed in …

Effects Of Plc At Work In Arkansas On Academic Outcomes, Sarah Mckenzie, Kate Barnes, Charlene Reid

Policy Briefs

This study evaluates the impact of Solution Tree’s Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work model on the academic achievement and growth of students in Arkansas schools. It provides the first large-scale evaluation of the PLC at Work model’s effectiveness in improving student academic outcomes. Using publicly available data from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), the analysis uses a two-stage matching process and an event study framework to determine the effectiveness of PLC at Work across six cohorts. The findings hold significant implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers interested in leveraging professional development to enhance educational practices and student outcomes. …

Professional Learning Communities And Student Outcomes: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Plc At Work Model In Arkansas Schools, Kate Barnes, Sarah Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This study evaluates the impact of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work model on student achievement and growth in Arkansas schools. Implemented through a partnership between the Arkansas Department of Education and Solution Tree, the program promotes collaborative professional development among educators. Using a matching process and an event study framework, we analyze longitudinal data on student performance in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics from multiple cohorts of schools.

The overall results reveal mixed outcomes. While no statistically significant improvements were observed in overall student achievement or growth, there were concerning trends for economically disadvantaged students. This subgroup …

Teaching Writing With The Digital Feedback Protocol: A Peer-To-Peer Intervention To Increase Elementary Student Writing Motivation, Karyn Keenan

Dissertations

Writing is a complex task, especially for elementary school writers; motivation in writing leads to greater writing performance and writing quality. Teachers enter their careers underprepared to teach writing and have to seek out professional development on writing for themselves. Technology can be leveraged in the elementary writing classroom, but it is an under researched area. The Digital Feedback Protocol is a case study dissertation study with an embedded professional development opportunity that supports teachers to implement a protocol for students to provide digital feedback to each other’s writing. The study was conducted with four third grade teachers and their …

How Do We Get These Kids Reading? Supporting Readerly Identity In Secondary English Classrooms, Jenelle Williams, Jay Haffner

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, we aim to clarify the specialized purposes for reading in secondary English language arts (ELA) classes. We will suggest ways ELA teachers can help build (or repair) students’ readerly identities while also ensuring they graduate with the necessary skill sets to transfer their knowledge into further studies, careers, and lifelong pleasure reading.

Infographic: Teenagers Reading For Pleasure, Max Hughes

Teacher infographics

A Deakin University study delves into secondary school students’ reading habits and explores the prevalence of reading for pleasure amongst teenagers. In this infographic we share some of the findings.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Practices In Early Literacy Classrooms: A Qualitative Case Study Of Two Kindergarten Classrooms, Elizabeth Carlton Phd

Dissertations

Students who attend school possess their own “funds of knowledge” from their home life and prior experiences (Moll et al., 1992). Yet, learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are not viewed from a strengths-based perspective but rather a deficit perspective. The deficit perspective perpetuates the oppression and marginalization of students of color and multilingual students. Using a qualitative comparative case study research design, the study is rooted in the tenets of Critical Pedagogy (Freire, 2000), Critical Literacy, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy as it sought to uncover insights into asset-based instructional strategies that allow multilingual learners opportunities to participate equitably …

Book Review: How Education Policy Shapes Literacy Instruction: Understanding The Persistent Problems Of Policy And Practice, Nicole Hertz

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Abstract: This review of How Education Policy Shapes Literacy Instruction: Understanding the Persistent Problems of Policy and Practice, edited by Rachael Gabriel, explores the most pressing educational concerns and their relationship to history and policy, written by scholars from all over the country, such as retention, intervention, early childhood and English language literacy acquisition, and coaching. With the current Science of Reading (SoR) movement and all the related laws that are being passed throughout the United States based on current educational reform measures, this review explores the relationship to past, present, and future literacy legislation, through a historical lens, …

Shifting The Balance: 6 Ways To Bring The Science Of Reading Into The Upper Elementary Classroom- A Review, Mary-Jo Morse

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

In recent weeks, the New York State Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled her “Back to Basics” plan to improve reading achievement in New York State. As part of her plan, Governor Hochul has proposed that millions of dollars be allocated in the state’s budget to train “20 thousand teachers in Science of Reading Instructional best practices and announced an expansion of SUNY and CUNY’s microcredentialing programs for teachers focused on the Science of Reading.” (Hochul, 2024). With the Science of Reading becoming a major component in reading instruction, this new text, Shifting the Balance: 6 ways to Bring the Science of …

Incorporating Books As Strength-Based Examples Of Characters With Dyslexia, Vera Sotirovska, Margaret Vaughn

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Incorporating books that facilitate inclusive understandings of dyslexia can be a challenging yet important pedagogical approach to promoting equitable practices. As realistically portrayed characters and stories provide a way for students to see not only themselves but also others, and enter different worlds, the need for multiple representations of children with dyslexia is necessary when working to create equity-oriented classrooms. First, we discuss strategies on how to select and use books with diverse representations of individuals with dyslexia. Next, we provide book selection criteria to guide teachers in curating their own classroom libraries with similar texts. Finally, we include activities …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Impact Of Iready On Student Reading Achievement For Students In Response To Intervention, Althia Gates

Dissertations

This qualitative case study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of the impact of i-Ready on student reading achievement for students in Response to Intervention (RTI). In this qualitative case study, participants were given an opportunity to voice their point of view and perceptions of the impact of i-Ready, including the benefits and barriers they experience when implementing i-Ready as an intervention tool for struggling readers. The need to hear teacher voices and perspectives on an RTI intervention tool is essential to providing students with the best learning experience and growth results. The study included five elementary teachers who implement i-Ready …

Key Benefits Of Small Group Instruction For Diverse Learners, Lydia Mcevoy

Master's Theses

Utilizing a mixed method approach this research study investigated the effects of small group instruction on the learning of diverse learners. Informed by a preliminary literature review that supports the use of small-group instruction, the researcher conducted a small-scale action research project to focus on three diverse learners in a 1st-grade classroom over four weeks. One of the findings of this project shows that small group instruction helps promote social and emotional skills as students feel more comfortable interacting with peers in a small group rather than in a whole group. Another finding indicates that students feel more encouraged by …