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Background: There is increasing concern that as students move through to adolescence, motivation toward reading declines. When there is limited desire to read, less time is spent with text, which can eventually impact on literacy acquisition. A systematic synthesis of research which has measured outcomes relating to motivation and/or engagement as part of a reading intervention was conducted. Despite the wealth of literature surrounding adolescent literacy, only six studies met the inclusion criteria. The review highlighted a number of affective factors that may contribute to effective reading interventions. However, to date there has been no research on how Educational Psychologists (EPs) might work with students to address affective factors in reading. Methods/participants: An affective reading programme structured around a Motivational Interviewing (MI) based intervention was implemented with three Year 8 students in one high-school. Students were identified as having a primary reading difficulty and perceived to be disengaged or low in motivation toward reading. Five- 50-minute sessions were facilitated on a fortnightly basis by the researcher. Analysis/ findings: Quantitative outcomes from pre-, post- and three-month follow-up indicated positive outcomes for two of the three students in relation to motivation and engagement toward reading. However, for one student, quantitative data were not indicative of self-report improvements across motivation domains. Qualitative data on the other hand suggested that all three students perceived the intervention to have a range of benefits. Four super-ordinate themes emerged from thematic analysis of the qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews, suggesting a perceived increase in motivation and engagement toward reading, in addition to increased self-efficacy. The current findings identified key factors in addressing reading motivation with adolescent students. Conclusion/implications: The present study adds a valuable contribution to current theory and research within adolescent literacy. It raises awareness in acknowledging and addressing the needs and complexities of addressing motivation to read amongst reluctant readers. A structured dissemination strategy is discussed, along with some of the potential implications for EPs. Further, a discussion with regards to evidence-based and practice-based evidence in the context of this study is presented.

This thesis examines the effects of a Bibliotherapy based intervention on literacy, behaviour, and self-efficacy of disaffected adolescents. This exploratory study sought to understand how the intervention was experienced by disaffected adolescents (RQ1/RQ2) and whether it revealed any changes in their responses to the texts (RQ3). It contributes to the existing knowledge and literature by demonstrating how Bibliotherapy, implemented in an educational context, can be a useful tool in designing an intervention for disaffected students at the secondary level by linking emotional development to development in literacy and overall learning. To begin, the purpose and study aims were to develop an intervention based on the principles of Bibliotherapy in order to address the challenges of literacy and behaviour among disaffected adolescents; to evaluate the various outcomes, which may influence the design or effective implementation of the programme; to revise and make changes based on the evaluation to produce a usable programme. From this, the study aimed to answer the following research questions: how useful is Bibliotherapy and/or its principles as a tool in designing a literacy programme for re-engaging disaffected adolescents? What is the perspective of the students in undertaking the programme in means of the process involved? What changes follow this programme in regards to the improvement of literacy and enhancement of attitude and interest in reading amongst disaffected adolescents? This study used a longitudinal mixed methods approach, taking place over three cohorts (school terms), and involving thirty two Year 9 students from five secondary schools in the United Kingdom. The design and evaluation of the Bibliotherapy intervention was underpinned by both a concurrent triangulation model and action research. The evaluation of the programme involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data; therefore, a pragmatic stance to the research was adopted that was positioned as mixed-methods. Qualitative data was analysed using a thematic approach and merged to complement the Quantitative findings offering a more thorough and valid interpretation. The qualitative analysis revealed four overarching themes from the participation in the programme: positive developments in Power Over Learning, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Impact to Learning, and New Reader Identities. The quantitative findings, for the most part, did not reveal any statistically significant changes in reading, self-efficacy, or behaviour; however, there were isolated cases among individual cohorts where the findings did reveal significant changes in fluency, reading, reading difficulty perception, behaviour, and with personal resiliency such as increased optimism, tolerance, and adaptability. This study supports findings from earlier studies suggesting that disaffected adolescents at secondary school levels can benefit from reading and behavioural intervention. It offers new knowledge regarding the effectiveness and use of Bibliotherapy as a tool to design an intervention for re-engagement, social and emotional growth through peer support, development of a deeper understanding of self, and reinforcement of reading skills necessary to achieve literacy.

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.

Literature in this field of English language learners (ELLs) in US public schools indicates that the needs of these adolescent ELLs are not being met due to a lack of language support and inaccessibility to content. This research examined the enactment of a curriculum with preservice teachers designed to address the specific needs of adolescent ELLs in content area classrooms and the implementation of components of the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model into their lesson planning and delivery. This study was conducted in an urban university in the Midwest within a single class for junior-level undergraduate content area preservice teacher candidates of adolescents. There were 31 voluntary participants who were preservice content-area teachers: art, n=2; English language arts, n=5; math, n=12; music, n=4; science, n=4; social studies, n=4. Coursework assignments were collected as data sources. Additional data collected included instructor notes/reflections on weekly class sessions. The research questions addressed the changes the preservice teachers showed in their knowledge of and capacity to explain and apply second language acquisition processes, a scaffolding model for ELLs called SIOP, and disciplinary-specific aspects of literacy in their content areas. Data analysis showed that there was evidence of improvement in their knowledge, ability to explain and apply, and integrate disciplinary literacy within the SIOP-related assignments including instructional planning. There were, however, different degrees of improvement in their acquisition of the key concepts amongst the preservice teachers individually and by content area. Mathematics majors demonstrated the greatest improvement, while social studies and music majors were less able to apply the ideas into their instructional planning. There would be value in future research to explore these differences to determine how key concepts might be more broadly acquired.

This co-constructed narrative was undertaken to gain insights into youth perceptions about schooling in Arizona, given the sociopolitical climate during 2020, to learn about how youth navigate multiple borderlands to establish their racial and cultural identities, and to consider their literacy practices in the work of navigating their identities. The two research questions guiding this study were: (1) How do Mexican/Chicanx/Latinx Arizona high school youth in the Borderlands work to engage with and preserve their culture, both in educational and personal spaces? (2) How are literacy practices enacted in students’ everyday cultural engagement? This work is situated at the center of Borderlands research, critical theories, and counterstorytelling. Youth participated as co-analysts and co-writers of portions of this work, designed as five individual case studies with each of five participants. This work was done with five youth between 15-18 years old who lived in Southern Arizona within 75 miles of the Mexican border, recruited via purposeful sampling. Data was collected remotely, and our work together spanned from May 2020 through May 2021. Data collected included recorded interviews, instant messages, media and artifact collection, and think-aloud sessions. Validity of findings was established through triangulation across these multiple data sources. Guiding frameworks were used to interpret data and codes developed using an inductive approach, and youth participants served as co-researchers who helped develop our codebook and guide our findings and narrative. Participants worked with me individually; they did not work with each other, but built on each other’s ideas as we progressed through analysis and development of themes and findings. Three themes that emerged included: (1) Negotiating self-identity, (2) Enacting resistance, and (3) Mexican-ness in the Borderlands. As youth negotiated their identities, they demonstrated that they were deliberate in their selection of and purpose for sharing texts; they deliberately consider and adjust the ways in which they represent themselves in public and social spaces; and they establish their identities in multiple borderlands and are aware of how they use these liminal spaces to negotiate who they are. In enacting resistance, youth engaged in conscious resistance as well as unconscious resistance, and they attempted to be deliberate in how much they engaged with political events—though this was not always possible. And finally, in considering Mexican-ness in the Borderlands, they thought deliberately and enacted agency in choosing whether, when, and how to perform Mexican-ness; they demonstrated a critical awareness of local and national issues; and they each were deliberate in the ways they crafted their narratives in this piece and in our work together.

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 significant effect for improved strategy knowledge and skill with a 0.90 effect size, but no statistically significant group effects for silent reading fluency and sentence comprehension. The third manuscript is a broad overview of adolescent literacy instructional recommendations and presents a vision for how all teachers contribute to the development of strategic learners when they support content learning through literacy-rich classroom environments.

A review of the research regarding the lack of literacy instruction at the secondary level by content area teachers. This review includes a short summary of the current best research-based literacy strategies. It reveals that graphic organizers, like the Frayer model, and projects like READI appear to be the easiest forms to add literacy instruction to improve literacy in content areas. It also recommends the creation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as one of the best forms of support by administration.

This dissertation explored the following central question: How can an arts-based learning process positively impact the literacy of adolescent students of color from high-risk and high-poverty communities? In this study, I examined the relationship between a pedagogical approach that incorporates arts-based pedagogies into hands-on, student-directed, and student-centered instructional methods and increasing the literacy achievement of students of color from high-risk and high-poverty communities. I explored if using arts-based pedagogies as an integral aspect of emergent and student-directed instructional methods is vital to improving adolescent literacy acquisition. In addition, this dissertation investigated what an arts-based and student-directed learning process looks like for the implementing teachers, how this approach can take the form of a culturally sustaining pedagogy, and how the art-making process mirrors the meaning-making process when engaging with texts.I utilized the methodological approach of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and the theoretical framework of Critical Multicultural Education Theory to develop a process for teaching and learning that incorporated both the arts and emergent student-directed instructional methods into the teaching of state-mandated, middle school English Language Arts standards in the general education classroom. I conducted this study at a public K-8 elementary school located within the city of Chicago. One 7th grade reading teacher and 19 of her reading students acted as study participants throughout the 2017-2018 school year. Additionally, I employed four main data collection techniques: 1) research journal; 2) correspondence log; 3) interviews; and 4) artifacts.The findings from the research illustrate that arts-based methods in the reading classroom have the potential to facilitate an emergent and student-directed approach to literacy instruction that enables students to take ownership as agents of their own learning. Additionally, arts-based methods in the reading classroom have a unique power to support students who would often not be successful in traditional classroom settings and would be labeled as struggling or failing readers on standardized assessments. Arts-based approaches accommodate diverse learning needs and value each child’s way of knowing as valid. Simultaneously, arts-based approaches allow teachers to assess understanding in multiple ways because they support the multitude of talents and abilities existing in the classroom and empower students to learn through their individual strengths. Furthermore, the study found that arts-based pedagogies facilitate the application of more equitable and democratic learning approaches while also having the potential to mitigate the risk factors often associated with students of color living in lower socioeconomic communities. Thus, the findings provide support for the critical argument that arts-based pedagogies are both an integral aspect of emergent and student-directed instructional methods and also a valid language through which to explore literacy learning for adolescent students of color living in high-risk and high-poverty communities.

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 portray disability.

The largest population of second language learners in educational settings in the United States is adolescents. Adolescent immigrant students, the focus of the current study, have had at least some education in another country and know a language other than English. They also have experiences and an identity associated with their native country. As such, they may encounter a number of challenges as they attempt to navigate the new social and educational settings in the U.S. An important issue for anyone facing challenging conditions is the resources available to them and that they choose to use to cope with the demands they face. However, little research has explored the use of resources during the movement across different cultures, languages, and educational settings, and in response to both personal and academic needs. This study examined a Korean immigrant high school student, Sooji, with respect to her strategic use of in- and out-of-school resources in the movement between her personal and academic lives. I employed an ethnographic, longitudinal single-case study design in a Midwestern city in the U.S. for one year and looked closely at her personal and academic lives as well as her movement across those lives. Multiple sources of data were collected and then analyzed inductively, with a particular interest in 1) the kinds of in- and out-of-school resources Sooji used in the movement between her personal and academic lives, 2) the notable features of her use of resources as she moved across her personal and academic lives, and 3) the factors that influenced her use of in- and out-of-school resources within her personal and academic lives. The findings revealed that Sooji had various personal and academic problems and issues, often related to her immigrant student status, and she drew upon a wide array of resources to resolve them as she navigated across her academic and personal lives. The kinds of in-school resources she used for her personal life included academic English literacy skills, academic learning experiences, and academic content knowledge. Regarding out-of-school resources used in her academic life, she was particularly adept at taking advantage of her lived experiences as well as her Korean background and identity to meet her academic needs. One notable feature of Sooji’s use of in- and out-of-school resources in her life was her ability to identify and use appropriate resources. She had learned how to locate and transfer these resources to cope with needs she encountered. Another feature in her use of resources was that Sooji was able to strategically use each of the languages (Korean, English) at her disposal, depending on the circumstances at hand. The primary factors guiding Sooji’s use of resources within her personal and academic lives were a strong degree of motivation as well as experiences of marginalization and isolation that reinforced her motivation. In this sense, she reconstructed isolation as a source of motivation. What will be of special interest to adolescent literacy researchers is how Sooji strategically utilized resources to try to resolve her immigrant-related frustrations, sense of resentment, and conflicts both in her personal and academic lives. In this regard, Sooji had learned how to treat literacy resources in these different domains as “tools” to be used in strategic ways. A key takeaway from this finding for researchers and teachers is how adolescent immigrants like Sooji can be resourceful in their identification and transfer of resources across domains and in response to specific needs, and how understanding this characteristic can be an asset, especially when applied to pedagogical practices.

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 students to include textual evidence in their responses and did not have predetermined answers. This behavior was contrary to what I expected at the beginning of my study because I expected teachers might have predetermined answers. When responding to each teacher’s instruction, students referenced the text in supporting the claims they developed on their own. In both classrooms, some of the students’ academic identities improved during the study. All students reported rich relationships with text outside of school; however, only some students experienced success with reading complex disciplinary text in their English class. Overall findings suggest a positive effect of open-ended tasks that require students reference both the text and the knowledge that they bring to the task in forming arguments and applying understandings gained while reading. Future studies including a greater number of teachers from a range of disciplines who implement instruction with more students over a longer period of time would be beneficial in developing a more robust database about the power and influence of close reading practices.

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.

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.

Depictions of formal education are common in Young Adult literature, but there is little scholarship considering the way that formal education is positioned in the genre. This critical discourse analysis examines the relationship between formal education and adolescent agency in 12 Young Adult novels published between 2012 – 2015 that appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and earned a Kirkus starred review. This analysis answers the following questions: 1) What is the relationship between formal education and adolescent agency in popular, critically acclaimed YA novels? 2) How do authors use language to reveal the relationship between formal education and adolescent agency? With a critical lens, informed by the work of Freire, Bourdieu, and Delpit, and inspired by theories of language, literacy, and rhetoric of Burke, Bakhtin, and Rosenblatt, this study examines the positioning of formal education in the text set as it relates to adolescents developing agency. A content analysis of 12 books was coded for valence, agency positioning, and rhetorical choices of authors. Informed by the results of the content analysis, a cluster analysis of five books was conducted that examined what rhetorical choices by authors clustered around scenes coded positively or negatively as they relate to adolescent agency. Findings indicate that, although most portrayals of formal education in the text set positioned education as oppressive, emancipatory education was also depicted as present; emancipatory education existed on an individual level, but the formal education systems were not set up explicitly to develop adolescent agency. Authors used many devices to position educators in the text set, relying heavily on descriptions of pedagogical methods, physical descriptions, and portrayals of interpersonal relationships and interactions between adolescents and educators. Educators who used authentic assessment, demonstrated care for adolescents, and acted warmly towards adolescents were often found in agency-positive scenes. This study has implications for educators who wish to reflect on their own practice and hope to engage their students in critical discourse analysis in school, adolescents who are the target consumers for this media, society, which accepts and perpetuates a narrative of education that is contrary to some of the founding principles of public education, and book publishers, who may want to re-shape the portrayals of formal education in the genre to capitalize on a relatively static teacher narrative.

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 the principles of close reading instruction outlined in chapter 1 to co-design tests of close reading instruction with a high school chemistry teacher. In this formative experiment, I tested the effect of background knowledge activation on amount and types of questions written about a scientific article; I also tested whether allowing students to choose texts to read about a scientific issue affected the amount of information written on that topic and their motivation to read. In a challenge to Common-Core-era recommendations that background knowledge should be held at bay when closely reading texts, I found that students who had their background knowledge activated with pre-reading activities prior to closely reading an article wrote more argument-generating questions than students who did not engage in pre-reading activities. I also argue that students who were able to choose a text to read closely about a scientific topic online recorded as much accurate information about that topic as students who were assigned a text to read by their teacher.In chapter 3, I explore an understudied area of close reading instruction: students’ everyday digital close reading practices. This article is an ethnographic case study of students’ out-of-school digital close readings and their teachers’ approach to digital close reading instruction in the classroom. By comparing these two realms through the lens of cultural historical activity theory, I am able to surface tensions and synergies that may lead to recommendations for close reading instruction that leverages students’ existing funds of knowledge about digital literacies. Specifically, I found that when teachers designed digital close reading instruction in the service of promoting student-directed learning, it aligned well with students’ goals when they performed everyday close readings of digital texts at home.Together, these three chapters suggest new directions for adolescent close reading instruction and research. In chapter 4, I synthesize across the three articles to highlight common themes and conclude with ideas for future research and lingering questions about the nature of close reading.

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.

This quantitative, non-experimental, correlational study examined the relationship between secondary school staff perceptions of their school’s effectiveness and the change in student literacy over a one year period. The staff perception data was elicited through an anonymous, electronically administered survey, the SEDL’s School Professional Staff as Learning Community Questionnaire (SPSLCQ) (Hord, 1996). Perceptions were gathered and measured based on the responses to descriptors in the five PLC domains of shared and supportive leadership; shared vision and values; collective learning and application of learning; supportive conditions; and shared personal practice. The populations whose perceptions were measured were the staffs of middle and high schools in a large, urban school district in the south- central region of the United States. The staff perceptions of each responding school were correlated with that school’s change in student literacy data, as measured by normalized gain score representative of the difference in the percentage of the first-time tester student cohort who achieved the 2016 passing standard on the Grade 8 Reading exam (sixth-eighth grade schools) and the 2016 passing standard on the English 2 EOC exam (sixth-12th grade schools and ninth- 12th grade schools) in spring 2015 and in spring 2016. This study was grounded conceptually in the five components of a school operating as a PLC, as defined by Hord (1996, 2004) and expounded upon by Hipp and Huffman (2003). The angle of this research was based theoretically in the principal-agent theory (Bannock, Baxter, & Davis, 1992; Barney & Hesterly, 1996) and distributive leadership theory (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2007). The purpose of the study was to determine how the relationships between the perception data of the staff as a whole and of the distinct groups of administrators and teachers within a secondary school were correlated with changes in student literacy, and how differences in the perception data between the two distinct groups were correlated with changes in student literacy. This study contributes to the existing body of research by providing correlational data on which components of a PLC are the most highly correlated with changes in adolescent literacy in an urban school district in America.

Adolescents who struggle with the academic literacy demands of high school have often experienced years of frustration and even failure with literacy learning. School districts are now accountable for making sure all students achieve a prescribed level of proficiency as measured by standardized and performance assessments. How can educators best help adolescents who struggle with literacy reach a level of proficiency that will facilitate their success not only on standardized tests, but will also help them become engaged citizens of our democracy? The purpose of this study was to listen closely to high school students who were identified as struggling readers early in their experience with school. The intent was to gain insight about how these students view themselves as readers and learners. Understanding this about students can inform effective literacy instruction and intervention. Three students in my high school Reading Enrichment class agreed to participate in this case study research. I conducted multiple interviews with each student and took observation notes both in and outside of class. I also collected students’ artifacts. The data was first analyzed for each case. Then, through cross-case analysis of the educational biographies of all three participants, three themes were identified that were present in all cases: the impact of elementary school literacy instruction and interventions, the importance to literacy interventions of a relationship with teachers based on mutual respect, and how standardized test-driven literacy instruction and interventions shapes students’ experience with literacy and with school. Implications for teachers, school administrators and policy makers are discussed as well as possibilities for future teacher-researcher case study research. Adviser: Stephen Swidler

Comics, graphic novels, and manga differ appreciably from textual narrative formats, and materials with increasingly visual elements have found their way into progressive and student-centered library collections. But many educators and librarians still resist inclusion of graphic narratives in school libraries and devalue the reading practice of students who prefer more visual texts. Using the framework of radical change, which posits that both text conventions and reader expectations for text are increasingly multimodal as they possess characteristics of evolving digital media, this study considered the relationship of the characteristics of text individual students prefer, particularly those they select from the school library, and their attitudes towards aspects of reading practice as evidenced through the Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile instrument. Survey data was supplemented with circulation history from the library management system to inform a correlational study punctuating attitudinal differences based on reader preferences. Findings include high school students who engage with graphic narrative text formats reporting more favorable views of libraries and reading. There is a demonstrable distinction in attitudes between students who prefer more visual text when compared with peers with more traditional print affinities. Student engaging with graphic narrative texts also report more frequent engagement with text overall. These demonstrated relationships should help to legitimize the inclusion of more graphic narrative text formats in school library collections.

Striving adolescent readers often find themselves with little or no support once they enter high school. The success of independent reading programs that target students' reading levels and accommodate student interest at the elementary level is well-documented. As students progress throughout their school years, such freedom is traditionally replaced with a strict adherence to lists of canonical classics of literature, most of which are well above a struggling reader's independent reading level. This study explored the value of such an independent reading program that addresses both student interest as well as student reading ability at the secondary level and sought to determine its influence upon adolescent reading achievement. This study compared/contrasted the effectiveness of incorporating an independent reading program into the 8th grade English curriculum to that of a more traditional English curriculum. The study took place at three public schools within Central Virginia and a causal/comparison design was used.

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 capital from which to construct identities or imagined futures. The second findings chapter follows the focal participants as they take up literacy-based resources as they engage in processes of authoring the self.The figured world of the high school classroom has a limited amount of roles for students to occupy. Often students are labeled and treated in ways that position them on a relative scale of academic potential and social behavior. Once students become positioned in particular ways (i.e., as the class clown, teacher's pet, slacker) they often accept these positionings and come to define themselves in relatively fixed terms. However, in an ELA class, literacy can serve as a medium for students to "try on" identities not always available to them in other spaces. The third findings chapter looks at how focal participants were positioned and at the positioning events that serves to either solidify or disrupt seemingly fixed identities.Implications of the study include: Instructional practices that treat ELA classrooms as spaces for interpretations not only of texts but also in ways that provide insights into students own lives. An examination of the multiple competing forces present in classrooms, from federal and state-mandated testing to the teacher's pedagogical stance, illustrates the complexity of classroom spaces, particularly in classrooms for students who have traditionally been underserved by schooling as an institution. The need to examine the spectrum of diversity among non-dominant youth so that young people are not further reduced or essentialized by progressive instructional methods is also considered.

Adolescents use literacies in order to build identities in a variety of figured worlds. Some identities become more powerful than others as adolescents attempt to understand and successfully utilize the valuations and literacies of the diverse figured worlds in which they participate. The goals of this study were to describe the figured worlds of football and the classroom of a highly recognized high school football program and school. My study involved four participants from the varsity football squad and the coaches and teachers who guided and shaped both figured worlds.I used a qualitative case study design to explore each figured world and the literacies demanded from my participants. Data were gathered from observations in both the football and classroom figured worlds, interviews with my participants, their coaches, and teachers. I also studied various artifacts from both figured worlds in order to describe the valuations and literacies endemic to both.Findings show that both figured worlds demanded key beliefs and valuations from my participants in order to gain power and positionality in each one. My study also shows that the football figured world expects players to comprehend key literacies in order to gain recognition and esteem. For some of my participants, connecting the valuations and literacies between the worlds allowed them to build strong identities in both. However, one participant was unable to take on the expected valuations and literacies in recognizable ways in the classroom figured world, and as a result, was unable to build a strong identity there.

At the time of this study, there were 165 Expeditionary Learning (EL) schools in the United States, but there was little research on the EL spaces of Crew, Community Meeting (CM), and Electives. The purpose of this study was to address that gap by (a) investigating the spaces of Crew, CM, and Electives in an EL school, (b) discovering the literacy events and practices that existed in these spaces, and (c) reporting on the student experiences in an EL school in regards to literacy, agency, and cultural diversity.This study drew from a theoretical framework that combined socicocultural theory, New Literacy Studies, and theories on agency and adolescents to foreground the socially situated nature of youth and their literacies. The qualitative research design was informed by ethnographic methods in order to grasp how those within the culture understood it and how they made sense of their experience. The data included observations, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis over a year long pilot study and subsequent four month study. In particular, this data reflected the stories of eight case study students across three spaces central to the EL school reform model, Crew, CM, and Electives, in a newly developed EL middle school in a large Midwestern city. Within the three school spaces, I focused my analysis onto two Crews who met every day for three months, fifteen all school Community Meetings, and three Electives that met twice a week for four months. The findings in this study are presented through descriptions of (1) the history and structure of EL as a school reform movement, (2) student experiences within this model, (3) literacy events and practices, and (4) claims about student experiences in Crew, CM, and Electives with regard to student agency, literacies, and cultural diversity. The findings of this study indicated that the EL model comes from and is perpetuated by a privileged, white, middle to upper class male, Christian, heterosexual, and European perspective, which can create certain tensions and possibilities when placed into an urban setting; that adults often determine the students’ experience in this EL school despite the emphasis on the co-construction of community through rhetoric featuring “we are Crew, not passengers” and the Design Principles; and that EL schools provide space for a rich culture of literacy even in the nontraditional spaces of Crew Community Meeting and Electives; however, students are living lives full of rich literacy practices on their own that are not always valued within the model.The study encourages teachers to consider the experiences that the youth in this study share through the data, to consider the rich literacy practices that are made possible through educational spaces like Crew, CM, and Electives, and to engage in explicit discussions and literacy practices involving cultural diversity and student agency.

This embedded case study of an eighth-grade English language arts reading classroom employed an ecological perspective based on Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to examine the ways in which a myriad influences, often conflicting and originating in a variety of settings external to the classroom, intersected in that classroom. The findings from this research point toward the reality of literacy classrooms buffeted by conflicting Discourses around writing that originate in official school structures, as well as the difficulty students and teachers have navigating the tensions created by those conflicts. The focal teacher for this study, a master teacher, navigated these conflicting discourses by being thoughtfully adaptive and balancing policy mandates with her own knowledge of and beliefs about literacy instruction, though she often made instructional decisions at odds with her knowledge and beliefs because she feared lack of compliance with administrative or district mandates risked her job. In this contested atmosphere, the teacher supported students in navigating the myriad literacy practices within the classroom, and the literacy practices from their lives outside of school, using writer's notebooks. These notebooks served as boundary objects because they incorporated a variety of influences and Discourses in a single tool. Even in creating a robust literacy ecology in her classroom through the use of writer's notebooks, thoughtfully adapting to the myriad policy mandates, and having departmental and professional support for her work, she left the school at the end of the year because she could not be the type of teacher she wanted to be in that school. The broader implication of her decision, and the research more generally, is that classrooms are not isolated from the settings within which they are embedded, and those settings often influence the classroom in ways that conflict and create tensions. Teachers and students, then, must make decisions about how to navigate those tensions, often at odds with their knowledge or beliefs. These conflicts and tensions within a classroom can be reduced, or mitigated through communicating, building trust, working toward consensus, and avoiding exercises of power.

This dissertation uses discourse analysis and ethnographically informed qualitative research methods in order to answer these research questions: What happens when teachers and students from different neighborhoods and communities in Central County participate in literacy and language events and practices in an alternative humanities class? When, where and under what conditions do spaces/places become engaging and/or community generative learning environments? The study examines a half-day humanities program for high school juniors and seniors, which is known as Connect. Applying trialectical spatial theories (Lefebvre, 1974/1992) and Holland et al’s (1998) theory of figured worlds, the researcher analyzed classroom data in the form of field notes of classroom observations, audio and/or video recordings of classroom observations, classroom artifacts, Facebook postings to the Connect group page, and interviews with both teachers and 5 focal students. Findings include greater understanding into the ways that teachers’ and/or students’ conceptions and perceptions interact with one another across spaces in ways that co-construct not only classroom spaces but also the collective figured world of Connect, the ways that fields of privilege, such as those involving race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and/or schooling, interact in classroom spaces, and the ways in which Connect spaces were (or not) community generative and/or engaging.

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.

This study was undertaken to identify specific instructional and professional differences between the most effective and least effective teachers of ninth grade students enrolled in intensive reading courses in one Florida school district. Teachers from eleven schools were invited to complete a survey that included categorical, Likert, and openended response items. Principals and assistant principals at these schools were also invited to complete a similar survey. Teacher respondents were then divided into three effectiveness groups based on the percentage of their students who met 2011-2012 FCAT performance targets established by Florida’s value-added learning growth model. Inferential statistics were used to identify specific attributes that differed among the most and least effective teachers. These attributes included years of classroom teaching experience, status of Florida Reading Endorsement, belief in collaboration with others as a source of effectiveness, valuation of classroom strategies including teaching students to self-monitor their progress and cooperative learning activities, and frequency of use of reading strategies including sustained silent reading and paired/partner student readings. School administrators and the most effective classroom teachers reported similar beliefs about valuation and frequency of use of the four aforementioned classroom strategies. Analysis of responses to open-ended response items resulted in the identification of three instructional themes—importance of building positive relationships with students, student practice, and student self-reflection—and three resource needs— increased access to technology, print resources, and professional learning

AbstractThis paper centers on three adolescents from rural Appalachia who highlight the complex ways in which adolescents negotiate circulating dominant discourses regarding Appalachian identity. The data is drawn from a year-long critical ethnographic teacher-researcher study in a senior English class located within a rural Appalachian high school. The research objective was to investigate how the students and the teacher socially position themselves, others, the local Appalachian community and communities outside of the region through literacy and language practices in the context of the English class. Data analysis indicates that the adolescents in this study constructed local definitions and identity positionings that complicated the dominant discourses of what it means to be from Appalachia. Central to this work was their reflexive positioning as holding epistemic privilege to describe Appalachian communities and to critique non-Appalachian’s assertion of authority in constructing Appalachia. Appalachian and Appalachian-heritage students’ experiences with language marginalization and monitoring of peers’ language variation were significant in defining insider and outsider positions. This study suggests that centering the literacy practices of the English classroom on affords an examination of local and dominant discourses of Appalachian identity supports adolescents' critical understanding of these available discourses, and their positioning relative to the discourses.

This dissertation describes a formative experiment that investigated how strategy instruction paired with collaborative blogging could promote disciplinary literacy among eighth-grade students in a social studies classroom and among pre-service teachers in a social studies methods course. Qualitative methods were utilized to collect and analyze data in this study. To determine modifications to the intervention, an embedded, single-case study was designed to analyze data iteratively using constant comparative methods. Post-study, qualitative methods were also used to conduct retrospective analysis to connect overall findings to theory. Three modifications were made, in the middle-school setting, to the intervention, which enhanced participants' progress toward the pedagogical goals of the study. Results indicated middle-school students' disciplinary-literacy skills and pre-service teachers' instructional methods improved during the intervention. Findings suggested: (a) In-service and pre-service teachers may struggle with beliefs about disciplinary literacy and technology, but practice and experience may shift those beliefs; (b) writing on a blog may be motivating for adolescents and heighten their awareness of audience; and (c) eighth-grade students are capable of engaging in disciplinary literacy, but explicit strategies may be necessary for their success.

Books written for teenagers portray the lives of young people and frequently include depictions of teenagers as readers and writers. From brief mentions of writing to elaborate descriptions of reading, the representations of literacy practices contained in works of young adult literature (YAL) oftentimes bid readers to take notice. This dissertation examines representations of literacy practices in YAL and investigates the meanings that adolescent readers ascribe to them.Through analyzing a set of forty-seven award-winning texts written specifically for adolescents and through convening a book group with high school students, this two-phase research study brings together literacy, literature, and adolescents. In the first phase of the study, each reference to print included in the set of YAL was coded and used to map the range of literacy practices represented in the books. Four types of representations emerged, each functioning differently in the narratives and each providing different information about reading and writing: (a) mentions are short references to literate activities; (b) descriptions are more elaborated and detailed depictions of literacy practices; (c) constitutive events are portrayals of reading and writing that serve as turning points in the narrative and that bring forth literacy as a part of life; and (d) extended articulations are representations of writing and reading that extend across and throughout texts, driving the stories and animating lives that include literacy.With these types of representations forming an analytical framework, the study then explored the literate identities of the characters in the books in more depth, attending especially to connections between literacy practices and adolescence. At the transition from childhood to adulthood, the adolescent characters' many identities are in transition and their literate identities are likewise in flux. Further their identities as readers and writers intersect other identity work that they do. In the second phase of the study, eight teenagers read books from the set of YAL used in the first phase, explicitly focusing on the books' representations of literacy practices. Drawing from interviews, surveys, and discussions, the research reveals ways in which the participants understood the reading and writing depicted in the books. As the teenagers interpret the activities of represented readers and writers, they identify with the characters and negotiate and display their own literate identities.

Recent data indicate that only 34% of American eighth grade students are able to demonstrate grade-level proficiency with academic reading tasks (NCES, 2011). The staggering nature of statistics such as this is even more profound when considering that high level literacy skills combined with mastery of digital texts have become practical requirements for success in secondary education, post-secondary education, and virtually all vocational contexts. Despite this incongruent scenario, little research has been conducted to evaluate instructional methods and reading comprehension strategies with digital texts. To address this critical issue, the present study examined the effects of a metacognitive reading comprehension instructional protocol (STRUCTURE Your Reading [SYR]; Ehren, 2008) with eighth grade students using digital texts in a standard social studies classroom in an urban American school setting. The focus of the protocol was on teaching strategies and selfquestioning prompts before, during, and after reading. The study employed a randomized controlled design and consisted of three conditions with a total of 4 participating teachers and 124 participating students. The study was conducted over 25 instructional days and two instructional units with 13.83 treatment hours within the standard, social studies classes. Hierarchical ANCOVA analyses revealed that when controlling for pre-test measurements, the comparison and experimental groups performed significantly better than the control group with instructional unit test scores (Unit 2), reading strategy use in all stages of reading (before, during, and after), and self-questioning prompts during reading. Comparison iv and experimental groups did not significantly differ in these gains, indicating that this instructional protocol is effective with both paper and digital text. These findings suggest that the SYR instructional protocol is effective with secondary students in content area classrooms when using digital text. Furthermore, they suggest that metacognition and reading comprehension strategy instruction are able to be successfully embedded within a content area class and result in academic and metacognitive gains. Clinical implications and future research directions and are discussed.

This study presents a view of reading instruction based on investigating motivation and engagement related to adolescent literacy practices through graphic novels. A case study utilizing the graphic novels grounded in the theoretical approach of critical literacy demonstrated increases in motivation toward reading from a more critical social lens. Participants in this case study were chosen from a set of ninth grade literature classes in a rural high school. The students were placed as a result of the random selection of heterogeneously mixed student abilities providing a rich mix of perspectives and motivational levels among the students. Allowing students to view character experiences in graphic novels through both graphic and traditional text opened possibilities for opportunities in improving reading comprehension by increasing motivation and engagement. A change from traditional viewpoints that focus on mastery of skills to a critical view about text has the potential to allow adolescent students to question, to challenge, and to seek the unknown which in turn motivates this same learner to read. The primary findings include: (1) a positive connection between student attitudes toward reading and their engagement with text; (2) the reaction of students to elements of popular culture that included graphic novels created a bridge to traditional literature and improved student relationships with reading standard text; (3) challenging students to view text whether from a traditional standpoint or through the medium of sequential comic art supported the students' ability to redefine reading from critical perspectives; (4) critical readings of traditional text and graphic novels gave voice to the students as direct agents of their own learning particularly as it related to real-world social issues; and (5) student motivation toward independent and academic reading was improved by teacher passion and commitment to the understanding and connection of text and graphics to the literature formats. Further study is recommended in the areas of the impact of the teacher on student motivation. Additional study is recommended related to the use of popular culture to enhance learning and motivation.

This qualitative, action research study was guided by two primary research questions. First, how do students negotiate aesthetic, efferent, and critical stances when reading a novel set in Afghanistan? Second, how do aesthetic and efferent stances contribute to or hinder the adoption of a critical stance? A large body of research exists that examines student responses to literature, and much of that research is based on the transactional theory of reading. However, it remains unclear how critical literacy fits into this theory. This study describes how one group of high school students’ aesthetic and efferent responses to a novel set in Afghanistan supported their development of critical stances. Six students enrolled in a ninth-grade English course participated in this study. Data were collected for 13 weeks. Data included two individual interviews with each student, student writing assignments in the form of 6 assigned journal entries and 7 assigned essays, transcriptions of 12 class discussions, field notes, lesson plans, a teacher researcher journal, and research memos. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Three major findings emerged from this study. First, class discussions provided a context for students to adopt stances that were not evident in their individual written responses to the novel, which were completed prior to the discussions. Second, the discussions provided scaffolding that helped several of the students adopt world-efferent and critical stances. Third, both the aesthetic and the efferent stances contributed to students’ adoption of critical stances.

The goal of this case study of a mindful literacy teacher in a middle school social studies class was to describe the nature of one teacher's differentiated text choices in one seven week unit. The participant was nominated by an administrator, a district supervisor, a university professor, and the researcher based on characteristics of mindful literacy instruction. Classroom observations and teacher interviews described four differentiated text events: an historical fiction novel unit; primary source oral histories; expository non-fiction articles; and picture books, magazines, and an anthology set. Interview transcripts were coded using constant comparative analysis and revealed the teacher's belief in stories, student choice, her resistance to standardized testing, and her own teaching confidence and activist spirit. The discussion addresses the teacher's effectiveness in the areas of collaboration with students, the assignment of varied and plentiful texts, the expectation of high achievement for herself and students; and her effective management of the differentiated texts in the classroom. The researcher also concluded that this teacher did not have the expertise to diagnose or remediate basic reading deficits but her disposition in seeing herself as a reading teacher, challenging mandated curricula, and working to offer appropriate choices for all of her students supported her decision to offer differentiated text choices.

Secondary instructors have long been faced with students who struggle to read and write effectively. There have been many explanations for these struggles, ranging from students not being taught effectively in their elementary grade levels, students being passed from one grade to the next without mastering the skills required of that grade level, or students simply being lazy and not putting forth adequate effort (Hall, 2005). Regardless of the explanation for student struggles, secondary teachers recognize there is a need to add literacy instruction to their secondary classrooms and career-technical labs. Many of these teachers have already found ways of including these skills, others are open to the idea of adding literacy skills as long as it does not come at the expense of their content area, and a few believe that their class time is already too short and there is no room for added content. Increasing the literacy skills of secondary students will help them be more successful and more productive citizens in society.

This project was my attempt to rewrite the discourse of schooling within the context of my own classroom to transform it into a dialogic, multilingual, multi-literacy and critical literacy site that offered students opportunities for rigorous and relevant intellectual work. The purpose of this study was to deepen my understanding of the teaching and learning of language and literacies in diverse urban schools so that I might enhance my practice and contribute to the knowledge-base in the field. To that end, I asked: what happens when I broaden what counts as academic discourse and academic texts? Engaging in practitioner inquiry, I studied the discursive space of my ninth grade literacy class in the urban public school where I teach. Throughout the 2008-09 academic year, I collected data in the form of audio-recordings of class discussions and student interviews, student work and a teacher journal. Using critical discourse analysis, I analyzed the discursive space and situated those findings across local, institutional and societal domains. My analysis of the data suggests that urban schools need not rely on scripted and low-expectations curricula that limit ways with words in academic contexts. Instead, I argue that a student-centered and dialogic pedagogy, which centers students not only in classroom discourse, but also in the curriculum by including texts and instructional practices relevant to their lives beyond the school walls, creates a context for student engagement in rigorous intellectual work. To that end, teachers need not devalue particular literacies or ways with words as inappropriate for classroom discourse, but should instead draw on students' funds of knowledge as legitimate resources for learning.

This multi-site case study examines literacy practices across four theatre companies for young adults. The study draws upon ethnographic methods including interviews, field notes, and video data to show how composing practices situated with acts of design fostered multiple entry points through text, a multimodal stance when reading, collaboration, play, shared response, and sustained engagement in the orchestration of available modalities in the creation of characters. Drawing upon theories of multimodality, play, and masculinities, the study links literacy practices in drama with the configuration of historically subordinated, non-normative masculinities, including self-identified gay youth. These young men reported excessive self-monitoring and identity management strategies within heteronormative school contexts, but took-up a plurality of masculinities as they engaged design practices that encouraged play, risk-taking, and the appropriation of available media in their design of characters. The study cultivates an awareness of how literacy practices in drama intersected with affirming construction of non-normative gendered and sexual identities typically subordinated in school settings, but that were reportedly more aligned with informants’ sense of self. The study draws implications for how educators may help young people critique structures of heternormativity and hegemonic masculinities that often limit the identities and masculinities available in school. In addition, the study draws implications for classroom practice in the language arts that position youth as designers of multimodal texts that allow for multiple representations of the self.

The objective of this study was to listen to the perceptions of the experiences of adolescents from a multicultural background as those experiences related to their literacy learning acquisition. Each of the adolescent learners were enrolled in the English for Speakers of Other Languages program in one of the middle schools in the state of Virginia. The experiences, whether positive or negative, would inevitably shape the literacy learning of these multicultural learners as they interacted with family members, with members of the community, and in the academic setting at school.Open ended interview questions were used to gather data for this qualitative, ethnographic research study. This type forum allowed for an open dialogue between the researcher and the adolescent learners. As the researcher, I examined the data to determine how the learners' perceived experiences impacted their literacy learning.This study seeks to contribute to the knowledge base on adolescent literacy. The findings can be used by policy makers and educators who are dedicated to improving the quality of the educational lives of our multicultural learners. It is possible that the findings of this study could be used to inform guidelines for establishing future policies, practices, and strategies implemented in the English for Speakers of Other Languages program in the public schools.

In the field of adolescent literacy studies, writing has been neglected in both research and instruction (Juzwik, Curcic, Wolbers, Moxley, Dimling, & Shankland, 2005; Graham & Perin, 2007; Scherff & Piazza, 2005; Troia, 2007), especially in urban settings. Given the importance of writing instruction in secondary education, this qualitative case study investigates the writing experiences of five urban adolescent writers in a high school in a major city in the Southeastern U.S. Research questions included: (1) What are the writing experiences of urban adolescents in and out of school? and (2) In what ways do urban adolescents make use of multiliteracies in their writing experiences? This multicase study (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995) includes data collected from interviews, observations, field notes, samples of student work, and electronic messages. For a period of six months, five key participants acted as co-researchers by providing feedback and collaborating on inductive analysis of the data. Findings revealed that students employed multiple modes and genres of writing, and that they viewed social and technological contexts as important factors in their composing experiences. Despite these findings, the students did not have many opportunities to take advantage of recent advancements in 21st century writing approaches. The new ―Age of Composition‖ (Yancey, 2009) has not arrived in urban environments where concerns of power and access remain. This study contributes to the field of literacy studies by illuminating the experiences of the participants and providing recommendations for educators in urban contexts. As Yancey recommends, educators need to design a new model for 21st century composition instruction. The findings of this study suggest the following instructional implications for secondary classrooms: 1. 21st century composition instruction should include multimodal compositions and multimedia projects. 2. 21st century composition instruction should give a central role to the use of technology. 3. Students should have opportunities for personal expression and identity exploration. 4. Teachers should create composition lessons that engage and empower students. 5. 21st century composition instruction should be transformative.

This dissertation investigated the media literacy experiences of middle school students enrolled in a Texas school. The literature review suggested that middle school students may be overlooked as a distinct population in media literacy research. The primary guiding questions for this inquiry were (1) How is media literacy exhibited by middle school students within a formal school context? (2) How does an elective film and media class impact middle school students' media literacy? And (3) How do middle grade students' responses to media correspond with theoretical models for media literacy? The phenomenological research methodology included a reflective analysis of students' textual responses to non-print media clips (N=24) and a reflective analysis of follow-up personal interviews with a smaller group of middle school participants (n=5). A questionnaire completed by participants provided descriptive statistics about the sample group. Additionally, theoretical models of media literacy were used to evaluate participants' media responses in relation to theoretical constructs for media literacy. The findings resulted in 11 emergent themes which can be used to further discourse about media literacy and its role in middle school curriculum. The dissertation includes implications for educators based upon the emergent themes, as well as recommendations for further research.

Research (Clary, 1974; Hodges, 1982; O'Brien and Stewart, 1990; O'Brien, Stewart, and Moje, 1995) has established that educators often fail to incorporate reading into the content areas. This becomes a problem for those students who struggle in the area of reading. The study will be conducted through a phenomenological case study approach with the purpose of understanding the essence of why teachers incorporate or fail to incorporate reading into content areas. The goal is to examine perceptions of educators and the mechanism through which they incorporate reading into the content areas. The researcher will distribute surveys and participate in semi-structured in-depth interviews, complemented with classroom visits. A purposeful sampling of three teachers will be chosen from the secondary grades. The results of this study can be used to enhance literacy activities across the curriculum, which could lead to changes in statewide mandated testing.

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of reading instruction in Ohio high schools. Research supports continuous reading instruction throughout the duration of a student's education. This study was completed to determine if Ohio high schools were providing the kind of instruction that research says is necessary for adolescent students. Representatives (principals, English teachers and guidance counselors) were asked to respond to questions about perceived student performance in reading, the kind of instruction provided to high school students, and procedures in place to support those giving reading instruction. Ohio Graduation Test scores were collected to verify student performance in reading for each school. The data collected were analyzed to determine the types of patterns that existed among the representatives' responses.The conclusions revealed a large discrepancy between what research says adolescents should have in reading instruction and what is actually provided in Ohio high schools. Data showed that performance on the reading Ohio Graduation Test dictates the need for reading instruction. Because of this, the students who struggle to pass the test (those identified as special needs, ELL, IEP or having already failed the test) are the only students who receive any reading instruction. Content area reading and post-secondary reading success are not valued as reasons to give reading instruction. Focusing on test passage creates a mindset about reading instruction that leaves teachers unprepared to teach reading skills and students unprepared to handle the reading tasks they encounter in and beyond the classroom. This study calls for a change in attitude about the need of reading instruction for adolescents, implementation of systematic reading programs, and training for those responsible for giving reading instruction.

Given that schools are an elemental force in the lives of adolescents, ELA classrooms might provide opportunities for students to engage in relevant literacy practices. Teaching for social justice is one way to provide authentic literacy practices that meet the current needs of adolescents. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how secondary English Language Arts (ELA) educators understood teaching for social justice as it related to the texts they chose for students to consume and produce. The literature review hinges on the argument that teaching for social justice is complex, and the understanding and implementation of it is individualized by educators based on their understandings. Precisely 22 secondary literacy educators were interviewed using a three-tier process with regard to how they defined social justice, the purpose of teaching for social justice, and texts they utilized as tools to do so. Three kinds of qualitative data were collected: in-depth, open-ended interviews, classroom texts, and written documents. I found considerable dependency on reader response in the classroom; central to that were students’ affective responses with particular teacher concern for safety and comfort. Participants frequently had to negotiate a variety of institutional obligations such as administrative and school policies and standardized tests. There was a pervasive pattern of fear with regard to institutional obligations and frequent compliance and self-monitoring. Canonical texts were most commonly used with little critical reading of the canon itself. The genres most frequently chosen for students to consume were nonfiction articles and narratives. Students were most often required to produce class discussions. Few enter literacy courses with an inclination to problematize, question cultural assumptions and ideologies, or examine feelings of boredom or shame (Greene, 1998). I argue that to meet the needs of adolescents, get students engaged in texts, and create critical thinkers, this problematizing and questioning must be done by teachers and teacher educators. This can be achieved by maintaining a vibrant and collective dialogue. ELA teachers and teacher educators might differentiate between the study of literature and an active literacy, teaching for social justice as a means of doing so.