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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.

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.

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.

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.