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This paper aims to report on a study investigating how young people and teachers interpreted reading proficiency and difficulty across different tracks of English language arts in the sole high school serving a culturally diverse city.

For six months, the researchers observed in three hierarchically tracked English classes. Participants were three teachers and 15 focal youths. The researchers also conducted semi-structured and open-ended interviews and collected classroom artifacts and students’ records.

Despite adoption of the Common Core State Standards and a school-designed common English curriculum, both of which were to contribute to shared literacy objectives, students and teachers built highly contextualized understandings of reading proficiency, which diverged across tracks and mediated instruction. Across tracks, however, deficit discourses about reading struggle persisted, and students and teachers attributed difficulty to students’ attitudes and behaviors. Young people never described themselves in negative terms, which suggests they resisted the deficit labels tracking systems can generate.

Findings extend research by showing how literacy-related tracking contributed to exclusionary contexts through which students were unproductively positioned at odds. Findings suggest a need for renewed rigor in the examination of tracking practices, particularly how notions of reading difficulty/proficiency position youths and mediate literacy instruction. Despite deficit conceptions of “struggling readers” across the school, youths never described themselves negatively and accepted reading difficulty as normal; how youths achieved such resourceful stances can be further investigated. These research directions will support the creation of English contexts that invite all youths into inquisitive, critical and agentive interactions with texts and each other.

Previous research shows that identity and academic learning are interdependent, so affecting one can affect the other. The purpose of this case study was to explore preservice English teachers’ reading identities and their perceptions of reading identity development in the context of English classrooms.

This study used qualitative collective case design. Data sources included analogy exercise about participants’ reading identities, participant-generated observations of reading identity instruction, questionnaire on reading identity, class discussions about reading identity and final written reflection.

Data showed examples of participants’ reading identities as taking a variety of forms, but when discussing what shaped their reading identities, the strongest codes related to positive interactions with people and texts. The data showed that participants related positive reading identities to both reading to learn and reading for pleasure. More participants’ perceived their professional identity as that of a literature teacher than a reading teacher.

Future research is needed on how to support preservice teachers’ positive reading identities in English education courses.

Our data suggest that learning about reading identity may help preservice English teachers think of reading as something that is developing in themselves as well as their students over a lifetime. By providing space in English methods programs to attend to preservice teachers’ reading lives, we can help them rekindle or find their love of reading.

This research is needed because helping preservice teachers construct and enact positive reading identities in turn aids guidance of their future students’ reading identities, and having a positive reading identity is in turn linked to positive student outcomes.

State and national initiatives provide teachers opportunities for interdisciplinary units with increased significance of non-fiction in English Language Arts and decreased reliance on the textbook in history and social studies. In these three disciplines, beginning in elementary school, students are expected to scrutinize multiple trade books of the same event, era, or person to construct understandings. Trade books are a logical curricular link between these three curricula. The initiatives, however, do not prescribe specific curricular materials; teachers rely on their own discretion when selecting available trade books. Historical misrepresentations have been found to emerge within trade books to varying degrees, yet only a few empirical studies have been conducted. We empirically evaluated trade books centered on the Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller’s teacher. Celebrated as the Miracle Worker, she remains a relatively obscure figure. As a child, Macy faced the desertion or death of every family member and struggled to overcome poverty and isolation. Macy’s story, thus, complements Keller’s in consequential ways. We report various historical misrepresentations within the trade books and provide ancillary primary sources for teachers interested in addressing the historical omissions.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instruction in information problem solving within the world wide web (the web) environment. The participants were 20 seventh and eighth grade students with a learning disability (LD) in reading. An experimental pretest‐posttest control group method was used to investigate the effects of intervention in which the treatment group was instructed in information problem solving with the Big6 Skills model. Both groups utilized an essay map organizer. The students researched science and social studies topics on the internet and the web and wrote reports over a three‐month period.

Experimental pretest‐posttest control group study, with a repeated measures design, and a repeated measures ANOVA analysis.

Both groups significantly improved in the quality of writing, text length, and navigation. The treatment group significantly outperformed the control group on the measure of text length and text organization. There were no significant differences between the two groups in prior knowledge, motivation, or gender.

The study was conducted predominantly with the researcher as the instructor in a number of individualized sessions, which limits the generalizability of the study.

This study reveals that students with a reading disability in reading could be taught information problem‐solving skills within the web environment. As technology reshapes our notion of what constitutes “basic skills”, learning with the web calls for instruction in which reading, writing, and information skills should be viewed as interconnected. This interconnection might be especially important for students with LD who are often engaged in practicing various skills in isolation.

This study experimentally examined information problem solving on the web with students with an LD in reading. Much research has been focused on basic reading skills for this group of students, but few studies have examined their learning within electronic environments.

Reading comprehension levels of elementary students have not significantly improved in the twenty-first century, and, as a result, the need for systematic and intensive reading interventions is as high as ever. Literacy clinics are an ideal setting for struggling readers to experience success through the implementation of a cyclical approach to individual assessment, planning, instruction and evaluation. Yet, additional research is needed to create current and relevant models of literacy clinics for today’s diverse learners. This paper aimed to measure the effects of an experimental approach to reading comprehension instruction for third graders within an off-campus literacy clinic; the intervention involved a scope and sequence of comprehension strategies in which students had to demonstrate skill mastery before progressing to the next skill.

This investigation used a classic controlled experiment design by randomly assigning half of the literacy clinic participants (30) to either a control or experimental group. The previous year-end’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores of the participants were used as indicators (or base lines) of each participant’s preexisting level of reading achievement.

There was a statistically higher achievement rate in the experimental group as measured by the CRCT statewide assessment with a Cohen’s effect size value (d = 0.79) suggested a moderate to high practical significance.

This study’s findings are relevant to those involved in literacy remediation, including literacy clinic directors, preservice educators and curriculum directors.

This paper is one of a kind in that it is the first to trial a scope and sequence of evidence-based comprehension strategies for comprehension improvement in primary school students. The findings call for major changes to thinking about how we improve students’ reading skills by focusing on depth rather than breadth.

The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis of the teacher education program focused on the development of the research competence of the preservice teachers, difficulties they encountered in conducting action research and the need to provide them with realistic research opportunities.

This qualitative study made use of data sources taken from observations, feedback sessions, presentations and follow-up written interview of 133 randomly selected preservice teachers.

Findings reported that the multicultural preservice teachers have novice research skills and that the real-world application of their research skills developed their research competence. However, they encountered difficulties creating their action research, such as in the literature review and the research conceptualization.

Aside from the self-reported experiences of the students, the training on the action research mainly focused on the conceptualization, design formulation of interventions and proposal writing stage but were not implemented due to course constraints.

This study can assist policymakers to integrate a mandatory research course as part of the curricular offerings and for the university to create space for students to practice their research skills based on real-life problems in the basic level institutions.

Understanding the challenges, difficulties, and basic competence in the research development of the preservice teachers would strengthen the research practice of the future teachers for evidence-based teaching in the schools.

The limited literature focus on the development of research competence on teacher education students using action research, including the difficulties that university students experience in doing research based on a societal context.

Despite the benefits of historical thinking pedagogy, many teachers continue to require students to read textbooks. Contained within textbook narratives are particular types of implied causation, asyndetic constructions, which may limit students’ abilities to fully comprehend certain textbook passages. This study examines how asyndetic constructions influence students’ comprehension of causal events. Twelve middle school readers were asked to read a US History textbook passage and answer questions related to the asyndetic construction. They also were asked to reason about their answers. Findings suggest that good middle school readers do not identify asyndetic constructions as problematic to their comprehension even though they often incorrectly answer questions related to these constructions. Findings also indicate that, when middle school readers recognize the asyndetic sentences as causally related, they often disregard and/or overlook the mental processes in the text that provide clues for explaining that relationship. Based on these findings, teachers need to recognize the complexity of textbook language and structure when assigning such readings, taking special care with poor readers who have fewer linguistic resources for making meaning of asyndetic constructions than good readers.

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

The purpose of this work is to describe the current sociopolitical context and complex consequences surrounding elementary literacy education in one Midwestern US state and consider how power works through language.

Using qualitative methods and critical discourse analysis as a theory and method, surveys and interview data from teachers, administrators and parents, policy documents and other artifacts were analyzed and described to explain the sociopolitical climate.

Using Fairclough (2015) and Gee’s (2015) tools, the authors identified the discourses of deficiency, efficiency and gatekeeping in the data. Foucault’s ideas about governmentality and regimes of truth are used to explain the ways teachers took up the policies and resisted them.

The authors argue that a new testing regime is on the move, and more unity and critique by elementary and secondary teachers and administrators will be important for restoring and sustaining quality literacy instruction and decision-making in all classrooms.

Continued research is needed to understand how particular reading assessments exacerbate and perpetuate the ranking and sorting in schools and the loss and struggle children face when they are denied literacy experiences that validate their lives outside of school and give meaning and purpose to reading in school.

As the reality for secondary education language arts teachers begins to shift to a more restrictive curriculum, a loss of academic freedom and frequent testing, the authors see an opportunity for new professional alliances to form in support of a complex theory of literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the social and scientific rationale for book clubs, whose members read wordless books together, and give examples of storytelling with picture books in libraries and other community settings for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.

The authors consider the impact of book clubs reading picture books without words, alongside an understanding of the underlying neuroscience (see Table I for search strategy). The authors compare differences in the neuroscience of information and emotion processing between pictures and words. Accounts from book club facilitators illustrate these differences in practice.

Many readers who struggle with reading and comprehending words, find pictures much easier to understand. Book clubs support community inclusion, as for other people in society. A focus on visual rather than word literacy encourages successful shared reading.

No research has been published about the feasibility and effectiveness of wordless books in community book clubs or shared reading groups. There is very little research on the impact of accessible materials, despite a legal requirement for services to provide reasonable adjustments and the investment of time and resources in developing storylines in pictures, or “translating” information into easy read formats.

Book clubs whose members read picture books without words are growing in number, especially in public libraries in the UK. Expansion is dependent on funding to pay for training for librarians and volunteer facilitators.

There is a shortage of fully accessible activities for adults with intellectual disabilities in mainstream community settings with a primarily social purpose.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper describing the theory and impact of wordless book clubs for people who find pictures easier to understand than words.