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In this semester-long study in a high school English class that was online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a class of ninth graders engaged in communication with people outside of their classroom about their collectively chosen project topic: racism. The transliteracies framework was used to explore students’ participation in multimodal events and texts, as well as the teacher and students’ views of the projects. This study helps to complicate, contribute to, expand, and bring together the related pedagogies of youth participatory action research (YPAR) and critical literacy. More specifically, the findings of this qualitative study were that students used a variety of transliteracies practices to move with and against the projects. Self love and skepticism were themes that emerged and deepened the projects, while the teacher grappled with issues of control, legitimacy, and representation. More research and collaborative practice is needed that explores limitations and the role of emergence in YPAR.

The purpose of this post hoc analysis was to analyze if pre-intervention word reading skills contributed to intervention response on reading comprehension outcomes. High school students with reading difficulties were randomized to a business as usual (BaU) or treatment condition that provided 2 years of an intensive, multicomponent word reading and reading comprehension intervention. Participants were assessed on measures of word reading and reading comprehension for pretest and reading comprehension only for posttest. Findings revealed no statistically significant differences with word-level fluency modeled as a continuous variable between treatment and control on reading comprehension. Regardless of assignment to condition, higher word-level fluency scores predicted higher posttest outcomes on years 1 and 2 reading comprehension scores.

The purpose of this post hoc analysis was to analyze if pre-intervention word reading skills contributed to intervention response on reading comprehension outcomes. High school students with reading difficulties were randomized to a business as usual (BaU) or treatment condition that provided 2 years of an intensive, multicomponent word reading and reading comprehension intervention. Participants were assessed on measures of word reading and reading comprehension for pretest and reading comprehension only for posttest. Findings revealed no statistically significant differences with word-level fluency modeled as a continuous variable between treatment and control on reading comprehension. Regardless of assignment to condition, higher word-level fluency scores predicted higher posttest outcomes on years 1 and 2 reading comprehension scores.

This study investigated the different characteristics of not-pass (n = 174), adequate-pass (n = 173), and strong-pass (n = 114) text-based, analytical essays written by middle and high school students. Essays were drawn from the 2015-2016 Pathway writing and reading intervention pretests and posttests. Results revealed the use of relevant summary was an important difference between not-pass and adequate-pass essays where significantly more adequate-pass essays used summary in a purposeful rather than general way. In contrast, major characteristics that set apart strong-pass essays from adequate-pass essays involved providing analysis and including a clear conclusion or end. Factors that affected these characteristics such as whether the writer made claims and comments about the text are discussed, and some instructional strategies are suggested. Keywords: writing proficiency, writing instruction, adolescent literacy, text-based analytical writing, on-demand writing assessment

This study investigated the different characteristics of not-pass (n = 174), adequate-pass (n = 173), and strong-pass (n = 114) text-based, analytical essays written by middle and high school students. Essays were drawn from the 2015-2016 Pathway writing and reading intervention pretests and posttests. Results revealed the use of relevant summary was an important difference between not-pass and adequate-pass essays where significantly more adequate-pass essays used summary in a purposeful rather than general way. In contrast, major characteristics that set apart strong-pass essays from adequate-pass essays involved providing analysis and including a clear conclusion or end. Factors that affected these characteristics such as whether the writer made claims and comments about the text are discussed, and some instructional strategies are suggested. Keywords: writing proficiency, writing instruction, adolescent literacy, text-based analytical writing, on-demand writing assessment

Organized as a set of three manuscripts, this research draws attention to the academic learning experiences for adolescents with particular attention to adolescents with limited reading proficiency and the use of single case design research as a viable option for discovering solutions to a persisting research-to-practice gap in education. Data analyses included a systematic literature review with findings synthesized into themes using qualitative methods, a multiple probe single case design, a non-parametric statistical analysis, and effect size calculations. The first article is a systematic literature review on the relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension for adolescent with limited reading proficiency (ALRP) in grades 6-12. The results of 22 studies were synthesized into five themes and results suggest that knowledge of an adolescent's ORF provides helpful information about his or her reading profile, but is not sufficient to evaluate instructional needs nor measure progress. The article concludes with a discussion on the envelopment of ORF within the Simple View of Reading specifically for adolescent readers as well as implications for practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and assessment developers. The second article presents the findings from a study on the influence of a word level intervention on multiple reading component skills. Six students in two different intervention classes in Virginia participated. The primary analysis was based on a single case design, specifically a multiple probe across participants and settings design. Visual analyses of baseline and intervention phase data indicated a functional relationship between the word level intervention and multiple reading component skills. Statistical analysis (Tau-U) supported this finding with aggregated small effect sizes (0.14 to 0.54) for word identification, accuracy, and automaticity, and one moderate effect size (.70) for prosody. Secondary analysis showed a signif

This study investigated the different characteristics of not-pass (n = 174), adequate-pass (n = 173), and strong-pass (n = 114) text-based, analytical essays written by middle and high school students. Essays were drawn from the 2015-2016 Pathway writing and reading intervention pretests and posttests. Results revealed the use of relevant summary was an important difference between not-pass and adequate-pass essays where significantly more adequate-pass essays used summary in a purposeful rather than general way. In contrast, major characteristics that set apart strong-pass essays from adequate-pass essays involved providing analysis and including a clear conclusion or end. Factors that affected these characteristics such as whether the writer made claims and comments about the text are discussed, and some instructional strategies are suggested. Keywords: writing proficiency, writing instruction, adolescent literacy, text-based analytical writing, on-demand writing assessment

Organized as a set of three manuscripts, this research draws attention to the academic learning experiences for adolescents with particular attention to adolescents with limited reading proficiency and the use of single case design research as a viable option for discovering solutions to a persisting research-to-practice gap in education. Data analyses included a systematic literature review with findings synthesized into themes using qualitative methods, a multiple probe single case design, a non-parametric statistical analysis, and effect size calculations. The first article is a systematic literature review on the relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension for adolescent with limited reading proficiency (ALRP) in grades 6-12. The results of 22 studies were synthesized into five themes and results suggest that knowledge of an adolescent's ORF provides helpful information about his or her reading profile, but is not sufficient to evaluate instructional needs nor measure progress. The article concludes with a discussion on the envelopment of ORF within the Simple View of Reading specifically for adolescent readers as well as implications for practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and assessment developers. The second article presents the findings from a study on the influence of a word level intervention on multiple reading component skills. Six students in two different intervention classes in Virginia participated. The primary analysis was based on a single case design, specifically a multiple probe across participants and settings design. Visual analyses of baseline and intervention phase data indicated a functional relationship between the word level intervention and multiple reading component skills. Statistical analysis (Tau-U) supported this finding with aggregated small effect sizes (0.14 to 0.54) for word identification, accuracy, and automaticity, and one moderate effect size (.70) for prosody. Secondary analysis showed a signif

Early reactions suggest that secondary teachers need support implementing the Common Core State Standards, specifically when teaching close reading strategies with complex disciplinary texts to vulnerable readers. This mixed-methods study conducted in a formative experiment paradigm (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) aimed to provide explanatory theories generated by applying a grounded theory approach to data analysis. An ethnographic case study design framed the grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and the formative experiment. I wanted to understand how two teachers adjusted their curriculum and instruction to create a more rigorous experience for vulnerable readers. I also sought to explore how such an approach affected the academic identities of these students. Teacher surveys, teacher interviews, student interviews, student surveys, student work, reading assessments, classroom observations, and teacher planning sessions provided evidence about how readers in two classrooms make sense of text and the strategies that support their comprehension and engagement during two curricular units that involve close reading of disciplinary texts. The units were used by students in two Special Day English classrooms at two different school sites and were co-designed by each high school teacher and myself. Reflections upon the first curricular unit informed the planning for the second curricular unit in each class. Also, I followed three students into at least one of their other disciplinary classes to understand their experiences with discipline-specific literacy instruction, both in the language arts and their disciplinary classes. Finally, I interviewed students about their in-school and out-of-school literacy practices, again to look for evidence of transfer from the units to their everyday repertoire of practices. Results indicate that both teachers, as they implemented the collaboratively planned lessons, asked predominantly open-ended questions that expected stude

Teachers' attitudes are shaped by the language, culture, and power constructs surrounding the disability in our society. This qualitative case study investigated how a sociocultural lens supported an English teacher's efforts to plan and implement lessons that use literature to examine disability critically. The theories of Bakhtin (1981), Rosenblatt (2005), as well as literature that highlights the use of disability studies, social justice, and dialogic pedagogy guided the methods of the study. The sample included the teacher and one ninth grade English Language Arts class of approximately 25 students in a rural high school. Methods involved three semi-structured workshops which served to guide the teacher in an examination of the social discourses surrounding disability, encouragement of aesthetic responses to reading, and the facilitation of a dialogic pedagogy. Participant interviews, lesson plans, observation field notes, and reflective journals were transcribed and triangulated with researcher field notes. Attention was paid to the participant's learning as a social act which leads to a teacher's "ideological becoming" and development of the self as a "process of selectively assimilating the words of others" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 341). Therefore, the lenses of Transactional Analysis (Stewart, 2011) and content analysis (Schreier, 2014) was used to examine the context and process of planning and implementation for an ELA teacher in order to uncover the meaning-making processes that the teacher undergoes when using literature to examine disability critically. Findings give insight into the development of a teacher as he learns how to apply a sociocultural lens to literary study, as well as how he contextualized and situated his understanding of disability as connected to other forms of difference. While this study is not generalizable due to its qualitative nature, it can be transferable by providing insight into how a teacher guides students through texts that por

Early reactions suggest that secondary teachers need support implementing the Common Core State Standards, specifically when teaching close reading strategies with complex disciplinary texts to vulnerable readers. This mixed-methods study conducted in a formative experiment paradigm (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) aimed to provide explanatory theories generated by applying a grounded theory approach to data analysis. An ethnographic case study design framed the grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and the formative experiment. I wanted to understand how two teachers adjusted their curriculum and instruction to create a more rigorous experience for vulnerable readers. I also sought to explore how such an approach affected the academic identities of these students. Teacher surveys, teacher interviews, student interviews, student surveys, student work, reading assessments, classroom observations, and teacher planning sessions provided evidence about how readers in two classrooms make sense of text and the strategies that support their comprehension and engagement during two curricular units that involve close reading of disciplinary texts. The units were used by students in two Special Day English classrooms at two different school sites and were co-designed by each high school teacher and myself. Reflections upon the first curricular unit informed the planning for the second curricular unit in each class. Also, I followed three students into at least one of their other disciplinary classes to understand their experiences with discipline-specific literacy instruction, both in the language arts and their disciplinary classes. Finally, I interviewed students about their in-school and out-of-school literacy practices, again to look for evidence of transfer from the units to their everyday repertoire of practices. Results indicate that both teachers, as they implemented the collaboratively planned lessons, asked predominantly open-ended questions that expected stude

The primary goal of this dissertation is to explore the use of cognitive apprenticeship (CA) with teachers and students in science classrooms. In particular, studies that make up this dissertation explore ways that teachers can improve the quality of students’ written scientific explanations and the supports that teachers need in order to promote such growth in their students. CA is a complex instructional model that is challenging for both teachers and students to use, especially in secondary classrooms. Other reports indicate the potential of CA for teaching disciplinary literacy in history classrooms, but this approach has not often been used to teach scientific writing. This project explores that, in inclusive settings with heterogeneous learners, and in an afterschool program, with students with learning disabilities (LD) and those who are English learners (ELs). The first part of the work reported here involved a systematic review of the literature on science writing instruction with these populations and with struggling learners. A total of 14 studies (three randomized control trials, nine quasi-experimental, and two single case design studies) that met established criteria as high quality studies were identified and examined to determine whether researchers were including instructional elements that have been found to be effective for these learners (e.g., cognitive and linguistic supports) and to determine learning and writing outcomes that resulted from the science writing interventions. The next project focused on an in-depth study of two middle school science teachers who participated in PD that was focused on science writing, culminating in the implementation of a CA on constructing and critiquing explanations for scientific phenomena in writing. The goal in this work was to examine how doing so impacted the teachers’ beliefs and their subsequent choice of writing tasks for their science instruction. After this PD, both teachers expressed changes in the

Ivan (pseudonym), the son of Mexican migrant farmworkers, rarely spent more than six months in the same school and by high school was still classified as an English language learner. This article traces Ivan’s experiences as a language learner and writer, telling his story in his own words through his writing and ethnographic data collected during his junior year of high school and his first year of college. I examine how literacy sponsors (Brandt, 2001) helped or impeded his reading and writing as he worked to change his life. Through Ivan’s writing and oral reflections, I argue that rather than solely supporting their reading and writing development, literacy sponsors for immigrant second language writers support learners as a whole. Central to Ivan’s evaluation of his literacy sponsors is the role of caring relationships—or lack thereof—that endured longer than the technical literacy skills he learned from any one sponsor.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Department of Teaching & Curriculum, 2016., The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how youth and their teacher make sense of new literacies ethos in a high school English class. The study’s ultimate goal is to highlight youth and teacher perspectives on ethos concepts such as affinity spaces, participatory culture, collaboration, distributed expertise, collective intelligence, multimodal meaning, and flexible identities, and the extent to which these ways of thinking come into play in the classroom. This exploration contributes to literature on new literacies ethos, ways of thinking that are so prevalent in the everyday literacies of the digital age, yet often ignored in school settings. An increased understanding of how youth and their teacher draw upon these ethos may result in English pedagogy and curricula that acknowledges and incorporates new literacies ethos to make school learning more relevant, engaging, and inclusive. This study utilizes a qualitative case study methodology with interview and participant observation in order to uncover student and teacher values informing their literacies. Resulting interview transcripts and fieldnotes, as well as other artifacts, have been analyzed according to the methods of grounded theory. The main findings of this dissertation indicate that classroom spaces can operate as particular types of affinity spaces – classroom affinity spaces, realized through peer feedback activities and multi-model projects; however, institutional structures and traditional expectations prevented fuller classroom affinity space realization. Analysis of these findings led to a theory of classroom affinity spaces that outlines features characterizing these spaces. Additionally, this dissertation also found that students and teacher in this class valued different forms of social connection, and the consequences of that difference illuminates the need to create classroom communities that welcome and honor social connection priorities representing a culturally and experientially d

Ivan (pseudonym), the son of Mexican migrant farmworkers, rarely spent more than six months in the same school and by high school was still classified as an English language learner. This article traces Ivan’s experiences as a language learner and writer, telling his story in his own words through his writing and ethnographic data collected during his junior year of high school and his first year of college. I examine how literacy sponsors (Brandt, 2001) helped or impeded his reading and writing as he worked to change his life. Through Ivan’s writing and oral reflections, I argue that rather than solely supporting their reading and writing development, literacy sponsors for immigrant second language writers support learners as a whole. Central to Ivan’s evaluation of his literacy sponsors is the role of caring relationships—or lack thereof—that endured longer than the technical literacy skills he learned from any one sponsor.

Close reading is an enigmatic term with a simple definition: special attention to texts. Key shifts in the Common Core State Standards have led to a renewed interest about close reading instruction among researchers and practitioners of K-12 education. Close reading is particularly salient in secondary settings, where calls to raise text difficulty and increase literacy instruction in the disciplines have placed new demands on middle and high school teachers. But even though close reading is now widespread in secondary classrooms, there is very little research to date on close reading instruction. As such we still do not know how these practices will affect students’ reading skills and motivation.In this dissertation, I offer three article-length contributions to the research base on secondary close reading instruction. First, I synthesize practice-based research on close reading instruction with the aim of identifying best practices for close reading in secondary classrooms. I then present two empirical articles that address gaps in the research literature on adolescent close reading instruction.In chapter 1, previously published in Adolescent Literacies: A Handbook of Practice-Based Research, P. David Pearson and I offer a vision for a 21st-century close reading pedagogy. This vision was influenced by a historical account of close reading’s place in adolescent classrooms over the past 75 years and a review of research on secondary close reading instruction. We argue that a 21st-century close reading pedagogy must encompass considerations of the reader and his or her sociocultural contexts, accept digital and everyday texts as candidates for close readings, and include purposes for reading beyond knowledge building. In light of these goals, we suggest five principles of adolescent close reading instruction: background knowledge, authentic reading and writing, metadiscursive awareness, critical literacy, and dialogically organized discussion.In chapter 2, I draw on

Close reading is an enigmatic term with a simple definition: special attention to texts. Key shifts in the Common Core State Standards have led to a renewed interest about close reading instruction among researchers and practitioners of K-12 education. Close reading is particularly salient in secondary settings, where calls to raise text difficulty and increase literacy instruction in the disciplines have placed new demands on middle and high school teachers. But even though close reading is now widespread in secondary classrooms, there is very little research to date on close reading instruction. As such we still do not know how these practices will affect students’ reading skills and motivation.In this dissertation, I offer three article-length contributions to the research base on secondary close reading instruction. First, I synthesize practice-based research on close reading instruction with the aim of identifying best practices for close reading in secondary classrooms. I then present two empirical articles that address gaps in the research literature on adolescent close reading instruction.In chapter 1, previously published in Adolescent Literacies: A Handbook of Practice-Based Research, P. David Pearson and I offer a vision for a 21st-century close reading pedagogy. This vision was influenced by a historical account of close reading’s place in adolescent classrooms over the past 75 years and a review of research on secondary close reading instruction. We argue that a 21st-century close reading pedagogy must encompass considerations of the reader and his or her sociocultural contexts, accept digital and everyday texts as candidates for close readings, and include purposes for reading beyond knowledge building. In light of these goals, we suggest five principles of adolescent close reading instruction: background knowledge, authentic reading and writing, metadiscursive awareness, critical literacy, and dialogically organized discussion.In chapter 2, I draw on

In this qualitative case, I explore the complexities of adolescent student writing within one project over the course of one trimester at a project-based learning (PBL) high school. With this study, I seek to both understand how students write within project work and open-up a conversation between the fields of adolescent literacy development and PBL. From my extensive collection of data—field notes; student writing samples; photographs; teacher artifacts; and audio records of teacher interviews, planning sessions, and implementation of writing activities—I sought to answer my overarching research question: What happens with student writing during one project in a PBL high school? With five research sub-questions, I present multiple perspectives on student writing. For analysis, I coded the various functions of student writing, conducted axial coding of project teacher interviews and instruction (Corbin and Strauss, 2007), presented a chronological account of teacher planning and instruction, and analyzed student writing from a literacy practices approach. From these findings, I explained my understandings of student writing as a contested space, how project teachers used writing to combat student resistance, and how student writing can be understood as students building relationships with the projects through writing. I concluded this study by proposing ways project teachers might implement a literacy practices approach to writing within PBL settings, suggesting project teachers support students as they maneuver between the material world of the project and the immaterial world of thinking as it is expressed through writing.

In this qualitative case, I explore the complexities of adolescent student writing within one project over the course of one trimester at a project-based learning (PBL) high school. With this study, I seek to both understand how students write within project work and open-up a conversation between the fields of adolescent literacy development and PBL. From my extensive collection of data—field notes; student writing samples; photographs; teacher artifacts; and audio records of teacher interviews, planning sessions, and implementation of writing activities—I sought to answer my overarching research question: What happens with student writing during one project in a PBL high school? With five research sub-questions, I present multiple perspectives on student writing. For analysis, I coded the various functions of student writing, conducted axial coding of project teacher interviews and instruction (Corbin and Strauss, 2007), presented a chronological account of teacher planning and instruction, and analyzed student writing from a literacy practices approach. From these findings, I explained my understandings of student writing as a contested space, how project teachers used writing to combat student resistance, and how student writing can be understood as students building relationships with the projects through writing. I concluded this study by proposing ways project teachers might implement a literacy practices approach to writing within PBL settings, suggesting project teachers support students as they maneuver between the material world of the project and the immaterial world of thinking as it is expressed through writing.

In this qualitative case, I explore the complexities of adolescent student writing within one project over the course of one trimester at a project-based learning (PBL) high school. With this study, I seek to both understand how students write within project work and open-up a conversation between the fields of adolescent literacy development and PBL. From my extensive collection of data—field notes; student writing samples; photographs; teacher artifacts; and audio records of teacher interviews, planning sessions, and implementation of writing activities—I sought to answer my overarching research question: What happens with student writing during one project in a PBL high school? With five research sub-questions, I present multiple perspectives on student writing. For analysis, I coded the various functions of student writing, conducted axial coding of project teacher interviews and instruction (Corbin and Strauss, 2007), presented a chronological account of teacher planning and instruction, and analyzed student writing from a literacy practices approach. From these findings, I explained my understandings of student writing as a contested space, how project teachers used writing to combat student resistance, and how student writing can be understood as students building relationships with the projects through writing. I concluded this study by proposing ways project teachers might implement a literacy practices approach to writing within PBL settings, suggesting project teachers support students as they maneuver between the material world of the project and the immaterial world of thinking as it is expressed through writing.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experience of improvement in reading comprehension of adolescent readers who have made gains greater than what might be predicted based on previous growth in reading comprehension measures. These research questions guided this study: What influences have impacted the lived experiences of these improving readers? What barriers to reading improvement existed for these students? In addition, what school-related reading experiences, if any, hold meaning for these readers? What characteristics are shared among adolescent readers who have experienced better-than-expected growth? Interviews, story chart artifacts created by participants, and observations of students’ process and self-talk while reading short passages were collected from 12 students at Placid High School (pseudonym). Analysis was conducted using Hycner’s framework and hermeneutic analysis in order to discover the essence of these students’ experiences as improving readers. Methodologically, this study ascertained shared characteristics and experiences that influenced the reading comprehension growth of these adolescents through inductive study of all data. Four themes emerged through the data analysis: Reading as Provocation, Reading as Displacement, Reading as Relationship, and Reading as Confluence.

Much of the research on youth digital literacies relies on the experiences of exceptional cases, while less is known about more typical youth who share their writing in online spaces. Through the examination of a novice writer in an online space, this article explores the convergence of factors shaping young people’s networked writing and addresses recent critique of the New London Group’s (1996) Designs of Meaning framework. Data were gathered during a two-year ethnographic investigation of an online affinity space, The Sims Writers’ Hangout, and analyzed through a Designs of Meaning lens. Data sources include the writer’s posts in the site, responses she received from others, her Sims fanfiction texts, interview responses, and researcher field notes. Findings make visible the multiple factors influencing this writer’s choices, revealing how Available Designs from within and outside the site shape her creations and how she leveraged her online participation to Design products that met the expectations of this audience. This analysis contributes to the field’s understanding of how online affinity spaces shape youth digital literacy practices and argues that a Design perspective makes such shaping more visible. The article also argues for a more complicated notion of affinity space audiences as collaborators, rather than supportive reviewers. These findings suggest the need for continued study of typical participation in online spaces and future research to examine networked writing within classroom contexts.

Much of the research on youth digital literacies relies on the experiences of exceptional cases, while less is known about more typical youth who share their writing in online spaces. Through the examination of a novice writer in an online space, this article explores the convergence of factors shaping young people’s networked writing and addresses recent critique of the New London Group’s (1996) Designs of Meaning framework. Data were gathered during a two-year ethnographic investigation of an online affinity space, The Sims Writers’ Hangout, and analyzed through a Designs of Meaning lens. Data sources include the writer’s posts in the site, responses she received from others, her Sims fanfiction texts, interview responses, and researcher field notes. Findings make visible the multiple factors influencing this writer’s choices, revealing how Available Designs from within and outside the site shape her creations and how she leveraged her online participation to Design products that met the expectations of this audience. This analysis contributes to the field’s understanding of how online affinity spaces shape youth digital literacy practices and argues that a Design perspective makes such shaping more visible. The article also argues for a more complicated notion of affinity space audiences as collaborators, rather than supportive reviewers. These findings suggest the need for continued study of typical participation in online spaces and future research to examine networked writing within classroom contexts.

This study was designed to explore perceptions and lived experiences of avid adolescent male readers, in order to better understand their development as readers. This study explored: (1) how previous reading experiences influence the development of the avid adolescent male reader and (2) how the reading habits and preferences of avid adolescent male readers are socially constructed. Rosenblatt's (1978) Transactional Theory of Literary Work forms the theoretical framework of this study. Rosenblatt (1978) argued that as readers engage with texts, they bring an individual schema to these literary transactions. This prior knowledge and experience are the lens through which the individual reader understands the content of the text. Even when reading the same text, readers respond to the text in individual ways, based on their individual schema. Through the use of a naturalistic inquiry design, data was generated through a series of interviews with the participants. Data analysis was qualitative and iterative, triangulated with multiple interviews, interview mapping, thematic tables, dialogic memos, and researcher field notes. Data analysis led to a better understanding of the development of the avid adolescent male reader, including: (a) the role of family culture on reading identity, (b) peer group influence on reading habits of avid adolescent male readers, and (c) transactional responses of avid adolescent male readers both in and out of educational settings. Data generated during interviews illuminated the complex, individuated and interwoven nature of the elements present in the development of the avid adolescent male reader. Finally, this study gives insight into how understanding the development of these readers may provide teachers with instructional strategies and reading opportunities that support all developing readers.

Critical literacy focuses on the connection between literacy and power (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993a). It examines how literacy practices are inextricably connected to social, political and economic contexts. Critical literacy has been studied extensively for four decades in varied contexts of schooling, vocational education, higher education and adult education. Most of these studies have been in English-speaking countries (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993b; Pandya & Avila, 2014; Simpson & Comber, 2001). In the Philippines, however, critical literacy as a pedagogical practice has not been widely explored. As such, this inquiry aims to contribute to the growth of literature on critical literacy studies in the Philippines. This purpose of this inquiry is to investigate the influences that shape college teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching literacy at a university in the Philippines using the lens of Janks’ (2010) critical literacy synthesis model. Specifically, this inquiry seeks to examine three college teachers’ initial understandings of critical literacy, their engagement with professional learning opportunities designed to support their understanding and teaching of critical literacy, and the enablers and inhibitors they experience in the process. Three teachers from a private university in the Philippines consented to participate in this inquiry. Over one semester, the teachers engaged in professional learning workshops on critical literacy, implemented personally-designed critical literacy modules, and participated in action learning meetings (Aubusson, Ewing, & Hoban, 2009). A combination of inductive, deductive and cross-comparative qualitative data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) were used to interpret the findings of this inquiry. The findings indicate that action learning is a viable means of professional learning for teachers. Action learning helped teachers enhance their pedagogical knowledge of critical literacy, share their reflections on its possibil

Critical literacy focuses on the connection between literacy and power (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993a). It examines how literacy practices are inextricably connected to social, political and economic contexts. Critical literacy has been studied extensively for four decades in varied contexts of schooling, vocational education, higher education and adult education. Most of these studies have been in English-speaking countries (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993b; Pandya & Avila, 2014; Simpson & Comber, 2001). In the Philippines, however, critical literacy as a pedagogical practice has not been widely explored. As such, this inquiry aims to contribute to the growth of literature on critical literacy studies in the Philippines. This purpose of this inquiry is to investigate the influences that shape college teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching literacy at a university in the Philippines using the lens of Janks’ (2010) critical literacy synthesis model. Specifically, this inquiry seeks to examine three college teachers’ initial understandings of critical literacy, their engagement with professional learning opportunities designed to support their understanding and teaching of critical literacy, and the enablers and inhibitors they experience in the process. Three teachers from a private university in the Philippines consented to participate in this inquiry. Over one semester, the teachers engaged in professional learning workshops on critical literacy, implemented personally-designed critical literacy modules, and participated in action learning meetings (Aubusson, Ewing, & Hoban, 2009). A combination of inductive, deductive and cross-comparative qualitative data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) were used to interpret the findings of this inquiry. The findings indicate that action learning is a viable means of professional learning for teachers. Action learning helped teachers enhance their pedagogical knowledge of critical literacy, share their reflections on its possibil

Critical literacy focuses on the connection between literacy and power (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993a). It examines how literacy practices are inextricably connected to social, political and economic contexts. Critical literacy has been studied extensively for four decades in varied contexts of schooling, vocational education, higher education and adult education. Most of these studies have been in English-speaking countries (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993b; Pandya & Avila, 2014; Simpson & Comber, 2001). In the Philippines, however, critical literacy as a pedagogical practice has not been widely explored. As such, this inquiry aims to contribute to the growth of literature on critical literacy studies in the Philippines. This purpose of this inquiry is to investigate the influences that shape college teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching literacy at a university in the Philippines using the lens of Janks’ (2010) critical literacy synthesis model. Specifically, this inquiry seeks to examine three college teachers’ initial understandings of critical literacy, their engagement with professional learning opportunities designed to support their understanding and teaching of critical literacy, and the enablers and inhibitors they experience in the process. Three teachers from a private university in the Philippines consented to participate in this inquiry. Over one semester, the teachers engaged in professional learning workshops on critical literacy, implemented personally-designed critical literacy modules, and participated in action learning meetings (Aubusson, Ewing, & Hoban, 2009). A combination of inductive, deductive and cross-comparative qualitative data analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) were used to interpret the findings of this inquiry. The findings indicate that action learning is a viable means of professional learning for teachers. Action learning helped teachers enhance their pedagogical knowledge of critical literacy, share their reflections on its possibil

English Learners experience challenges related to comprehension of science text particularly at the high school level. The language of science differs significantly from that of conversation and expository text. Students benefit from collaborative interpretation of readings. Additionally, there appears to be a need to train adolescents in the oral language skills requisite for academic discourse. This study employed a sample of high school physical science students (N = 75) whose first language was Spanish and who were currently developing English language proficiency. It used quasi-experimental methodology with treatment and comparison groups, during the normal operations of the public school classroom. It tested the effect of training with a textbook summarization method and with an academic conversation strategy on the comprehension of state-adopted science textbook readings. Posttest scores of both groups were analyzed using an ANOVA. Posttest scores of treatment group members were analyzed in relation to prior science knowledge, reading level, gender, and level of English proficiency using a factorial ANOVA. Findings suggest that the treatment had a positive impact on the achievement of students who had a low level of English language proficiency. In light of the at-risk nature of this population, given low socioeconomic status and that a high percentage of families are migrant workers, this in encouraging. The basic premise of the treatment appears promising. Evidence collected pertaining to its effect relative to students’ general ESOL level, science background knowledge, literacy skills, and gender neither confirmed nor denied the viability of the strategy. The further significance of this study is that it adds to the body of research on strategies to support English Learners.

Approximately 15-20% of secondary students in Australia experience reading difficulties. For many, the cognitive effort required to decode words or the lack of automaticity in the elements that contribute to fluent reading prevents effective reading comprehension. Because reading comprehension is of critical importance across the curriculum, students with difficulties in this area are at significant academic risk. One effective method of improving reading fluency is ‘repeated readings’ (NICHHD, 2000). The purpose of this study was to examine whether the use of repeated readings delivered via a home-based program employing voice recognition software (VRS) could improve the reading fluency and self-perception as readers of adolescent students experiencing reading difficulties. The intervention was designed to overcome the problems associated with delivering a repeated reading program within a secondary English classroom. These problems relate to the amount of time required to conduct such a program within the constraints of the existing curriculum, and the reluctance of students to participate in a program that would draw attention to their reading difficulties. A treatment group participated in a home-based repeated reading program using VRS over a 20-week period and their results were compared to a comparison group who participated in a more traditional school-based repeated reading program. Reading fluency, comprehensions and reader self-perception were measured before and after the intervention. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and case studies. The intervention reported in this study resulted in improved reading rate, accuracy and comprehension for both the home-based treatment group and a school-based comparison group, with evidence of larger gains in the treatment group. The students’ perceptions of themselves as readers, however, did not show significant gains.

Twenty years after democracy, the legacy of apartheid and hitherto unmet challenges of resourcing and teacher development are reflected in a severely inequitable and underperforming education system. This paper focuses on second language writing in the middle years of schooling when 80% of learners face a double challenge: to move from ‘common sense’ discourses to the more abstract, specialised discourses of school subjects and, simultaneously, to a new language of learning, in this case English. It describes an intervention using a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) genre-based pedagogy involving 72 learners and two teachers in a low socio-economic neighbourhood of Cape Town. Using an SFL analytical framework, we analyse learners’ development in the Information Report genre. All learners in the intervention group made substantial gains in control of staging, lexis, and key linguistic features. We argue that the scaffolding provided by SFL genre-based pedagogies together with their explicit focus on textual and linguistic features offer a means of significantly enhancing epistemic access to the specialised language of school subjects, particularly for additional language learners. Findings have implications for language-in-education policy, teacher education, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in multilingual classrooms., Multilingualism and identities in and out of school: Urban youth on the Cape Flats

This study examined an aspect of adolescent writing development, specifically whether teaching secondary school students to use strategies to enhance succinctness in their essays changed the grammatical sophistication of their sentences. A quasi-experimental intervention was used to compare changes in syntactic complexity and lexical density between one-draft and polished essays. No link was demonstrated between the intervention and the changes. A thematic analysis of teacher interviews explored links between changes to student texts and teaching approaches. The study has implications for making syntactic complexity an explicit goal of student drafting.

This dissertation examines the identities of "marginalized" adolescents as they engage in literacy-based activities. Using ethnographic and qualitative research methods (including surveys/questionnaires, audio recorded interviews, video recorded observations, classroom artifacts, and observational notes), a multi-case study occurred over six months. The study took place at South Bay High, a small public charter school, located in a poor and working class neighborhood of major city in Northern California, serving non-dominant youth. Twenty two juniors, and of these, six focal participants, elected to participate in the study, which took place in their English 11 class. The study utilizes socio-cultural theories of learning and identity, transactional theories of pedagogy, and applies figured worlds and positional identity theory in its analysis. This work is in conversation with a growing genre of scholarship referred to as literacy and identity studies (Moje, 2009). The relative fragility and durability of a student's academic identity is considered. In addition to examining individual identities, this work also takes up the collective classroom identity as a site for examination. By taking into account local histories of cultural and social contextual matters, and by examining classroom culture (i.e., norms, discourses, routines), the classroom studied offers the first case studied. Specifically, I consider the effect of ideologically divergent approaches to literacy instruction on the academic identities of the collective.Adolescence is a time when young people are in search of narratives and discourses to offer understandings of the past, security in the present, and imagined trajectories towards the future. How one comes to see oneself (and one's future) is often determined by the narratives made available - from peers, media, families, schools, and other institutions. Non-dominant youth have less access to identity resources imbued with social and academic capi

Levels of aliteracy have been found to rise in adolescence, and this article explores the potential influence of parents on this trend. The views of adolescent students who took part in semi-structured interviews for the West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading (WASABR) provide insight into how parental support may change in the adolescent years. Student perspectives support earlier findings that there is an expiration of parental encouragement in many cases, though this sometimes occurs as children are avid readers and thus the support is no longer deemed necessary. The experiences of students with parents who provided continued encouragement into adolescence are examined, with consistent characteristics emerging from the qualitative data. The article identifies optimal mechanisms through which parents can play an important role in supporting their children's recreational book reading into adolescence.

This dissertation examines the identities of "marginalized" adolescents as they engage in literacy-based activities. Using ethnographic and qualitative research methods (including surveys/questionnaires, audio recorded interviews, video recorded observations, classroom artifacts, and observational notes), a multi-case study occurred over six months. The study took place at South Bay High, a small public charter school, located in a poor and working class neighborhood of major city in Northern California, serving non-dominant youth. Twenty two juniors, and of these, six focal participants, elected to participate in the study, which took place in their English 11 class. The study utilizes socio-cultural theories of learning and identity, transactional theories of pedagogy, and applies figured worlds and positional identity theory in its analysis. This work is in conversation with a growing genre of scholarship referred to as literacy and identity studies (Moje, 2009). The relative fragility and durability of a student's academic identity is considered. In addition to examining individual identities, this work also takes up the collective classroom identity as a site for examination. By taking into account local histories of cultural and social contextual matters, and by examining classroom culture (i.e., norms, discourses, routines), the classroom studied offers the first case studied. Specifically, I consider the effect of ideologically divergent approaches to literacy instruction on the academic identities of the collective.Adolescence is a time when young people are in search of narratives and discourses to offer understandings of the past, security in the present, and imagined trajectories towards the future. How one comes to see oneself (and one's future) is often determined by the narratives made available - from peers, media, families, schools, and other institutions. Non-dominant youth have less access to identity resources imbued with social and academic capi

Levels of aliteracy have been found to rise in adolescence, and this article explores the potential influence of parents on this trend. The views of adolescent students who took part in semi-structured interviews for the West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading (WASABR) provide insight into how parental support may change in the adolescent years. Student perspectives support earlier findings that there is an expiration of parental encouragement in many cases, though this sometimes occurs as children are avid readers and thus the support is no longer deemed necessary. The experiences of students with parents who provided continued encouragement into adolescence are examined, with consistent characteristics emerging from the qualitative data. The article identifies optimal mechanisms through which parents can play an important role in supporting their children's recreational book reading into adolescence.

Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students because of the infrequency with which they are tasked with producing these types of texts

Despite the emphasis on increasing the frequency with which students engage in analytic writing, we know very little about the ‘writing diet’ of adolescents. Student notebooks, used as a daily record of in-class work, provide one source of evidence about the diversity of writing expectations that students face. Through careful examination of the notebooks written by four middle-graders in 12 content area classrooms (290 texts), the present study help us to understand the ways in which these writers were acclimatized in one school year to the norms of writing in these diverse disciplinary contexts. In particular, results of this study suggest that adolescent writers may be afforded little opportunity to produce cognitively challenging genres, such as analytic essays. Notably, in content area classrooms, students engaged in very little extended writing.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between student engagement and social studiesliteracy, exploring the possible connections between students’ reading interests and practices andsocial studies learning. With a sample of 802 secondary students from five schools in one urbancommunity, we use complementary methods to explore survey and interview data. Descriptiveanalysis of survey data indicated that study participants often perceived social studies educationin school as boring and irrelevant. Nevertheless, qualitative analysis of interview data from asubsample revealed that many young people describe using texts to explore dimensions of theiridentities as well as themes of struggle and conflict. We use these findings to illuminateconnections between youths’ concerns and interests and the enduring problems taken up by thesocial sciences, arguing that attention to these connections has the potential to engage studentsand develop their thinking and literacy practices in the social studies.

Effective classroom instruction is a critical element to improving outcomes for low performing students and optimizing the effectiveness of multi-tiered systems. Middle school is a particularly important area to address in improving classroom literacy instruction as it becomes a place where students learn skills that allow them to transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Professional development literature has suggested some effectiveness with the use of coaching, but study results have been mixed. One potential solution is the inclusion of a consultation with performance feedback model into the professional development process. This study proposed to examine to what extent instructional consultation with performance feedback increases teacher behavior in implementing targeted elements of quality instruction as well as student engagement and literacy skill acquisition. Teachers from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at an urban middle school took part in instructional consultation with weekly performance feedback. Observations were conducted and single case design with combined concurrent and non-concurrent multiple baseline was utilized to determine treatment effect. Results indicated an effect on use of random response in instruction and an overall increase in student engagement. Implications for these findings are discussed as they relate to the consultation literature and practical applications for school psychologists.

The purpose of my article is to provide an opportunity for reflection on the merit of incorporating Silent Reading into secondary learning programmes. The role of Silent Reading in the learning programme has been the subject of recent research, yielding mixed findings. I explore the current issues that have arisen in research which warrant the consideration of practitioners, with a particular focus on adolescent learners. These issues are subsequently examined in light of findings from the recent West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading. Qualitative data from semi-structured, dyadic interviews were gathered and analysed, with the reflections of students providing insight into the current status of Silent Reading in secondary schools, and the efficacy of elements of contemporary models of Silent Reading.

Learning to write analytic genres may be particularly challenging for middle grade students because of the infrequency with which they are tasked with producing these types of texts

Despite the emphasis on increasing the frequency with which students engage in analytic writing, we know very little about the ‘writing diet’ of adolescents. Student notebooks, used as a daily record of in-class work, provide one source of evidence about the diversity of writing expectations that students face. Through careful examination of the notebooks written by four middle-graders in 12 content area classrooms (290 texts), the present study help us to understand the ways in which these writers were acclimatized in one school year to the norms of writing in these diverse disciplinary contexts. In particular, results of this study suggest that adolescent writers may be afforded little opportunity to produce cognitively challenging genres, such as analytic essays. Notably, in content area classrooms, students engaged in very little extended writing.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between student engagement and social studiesliteracy, exploring the possible connections between students’ reading interests and practices andsocial studies learning. With a sample of 802 secondary students from five schools in one urbancommunity, we use complementary methods to explore survey and interview data. Descriptiveanalysis of survey data indicated that study participants often perceived social studies educationin school as boring and irrelevant. Nevertheless, qualitative analysis of interview data from asubsample revealed that many young people describe using texts to explore dimensions of theiridentities as well as themes of struggle and conflict. We use these findings to illuminateconnections between youths’ concerns and interests and the enduring problems taken up by thesocial sciences, arguing that attention to these connections has the potential to engage studentsand develop their thinking and literacy practices in the social studies.

Effective classroom instruction is a critical element to improving outcomes for low performing students and optimizing the effectiveness of multi-tiered systems. Middle school is a particularly important area to address in improving classroom literacy instruction as it becomes a place where students learn skills that allow them to transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Professional development literature has suggested some effectiveness with the use of coaching, but study results have been mixed. One potential solution is the inclusion of a consultation with performance feedback model into the professional development process. This study proposed to examine to what extent instructional consultation with performance feedback increases teacher behavior in implementing targeted elements of quality instruction as well as student engagement and literacy skill acquisition. Teachers from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at an urban middle school took part in instructional consultation with weekly performance feedback. Observations were conducted and single case design with combined concurrent and non-concurrent multiple baseline was utilized to determine treatment effect. Results indicated an effect on use of random response in instruction and an overall increase in student engagement. Implications for these findings are discussed as they relate to the consultation literature and practical applications for school psychologists.

The thesis is a Foucauldian genealogy of adolescent, or secondary school, literacy discourses within Aotearoa New Zealand. It links cycles of competitive tension between local discourses of adolescent literacy to larger conflicts between national and international socio-economic discourses. Using Foucault’s view of discourse as epistemic formations that reflect the material contingencies of their time and place, I analyse why certain historical conditions generated particular taken-for-granted truths, knowledge and beliefs about literacy education and schooling for adolescent New Zealanders between the years 1870 and 2008. I apply Foucault’s analytic tools of discipline and control, biopower and governmentality to explore the complex relationship within New Zealand between adolescent literacy and early discourses of colonial economic development and social control (1870-1935), mid-twentieth century Keynesian national economic reconstruction and socially progressive education reform (1930s-1970s), and recent neo-liberal market and globalisation reforms of education (1980s-2008). In particular I examine the effect of international neo-liberal economic rationalist discourses advocated by the Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD) since the late 1960s, on contemporary conceptualisations of adolescent literacy and secondary schooling. I explain how the OECD’s international Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests reflect the OECD’s deeper discursive advocacy of managerial rationalist principles to frame an international policy consensus for national education policy making and reforms. Since 2000, PISA has emerged as a powerful global instrument of neo-liberal education policy standardisation that aims to comparatively measure the effectiveness of national secondary schooling systems and their teachers to generate literate adolescents as privatised human capital necessary to service the demands of the neo-liberal global economy. I co

The purpose of my article is to provide an opportunity for reflection on the merit of incorporating Silent Reading into secondary learning programmes. The role of Silent Reading in the learning programme has been the subject of recent research, yielding mixed findings. I explore the current issues that have arisen in research which warrant the consideration of practitioners, with a particular focus on adolescent learners. These issues are subsequently examined in light of findings from the recent West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading. Qualitative data from semi-structured, dyadic interviews were gathered and analysed, with the reflections of students providing insight into the current status of Silent Reading in secondary schools, and the efficacy of elements of contemporary models of Silent Reading.