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This design‐based study explored the digital and linguistic practices of South Korean adolescents from a rural area within the Write4Change global online community, emphasizing their use of image‐driven tools. Framed within the cosmopolitan literacies perspective, these adolescents adeptly merge local and global dimensions, integrating their multilingual identities, and compelling visual narratives into their work. They navigate English, the dominant language of the online community, while incorporating multilingual elements to enrich community dialogues. These practices reflect their linguistic adaptability and digital literacies and underscore the significant role of cosmopolitan literacies in transforming literacy studies. The study highlights the impactful digital practices of South Korean adolescents, contributing to a broader understanding of inclusivity and diversity in global literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the heterogeneity of literacy profiles for adolescents with and without a specific learning disability (SLD) in the U.S. state of Florida Student subgroups displaying common patterns of performance in word-level skills and reading comprehension were identified through latent profile analysis. Results indicate most of the total sample demonstrated below-average performance in one or both areas with word-level skill difficulties being more common than difficulties in reading comprehension alone. Changes in reading performance by profile over time (Grades 6–8) were examined through a latent transition analysis revealing consistent patterns in the SLD sample and variable patterns in the typically developing sample. Resulting profiles were utilized to predict performance on an end-of-year broad reading comprehension measure indicating very little change in performance over time. Findings suggest large numbers of adolescents with concurrent word-level and reading comprehension difficulties likely need sustained intervention in word-level skills to support their reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When he returned to Amsterdam in spring 1945, Otto Frank discovered that not one but two versions of his daughter's diary had survived the Holocaust: the three notebooks of so‐called version A and the revision of that diary on loose sheets of paper, called version B. Other texts also survived, including a notebook Anne titled “Tales and Events from the Secret Annex,” where she collected more than three dozen short pieces of prose. Best known for its “tales,” the book is, in fact, mostly nonfiction, including numerous sketches of annex life. More self‐contained and literary than her diary entries, they show Anne experimenting as a writer. They also show her writing vigorously in the summer of 1943, a period unrepresented in version A since none of that year's diary notebooks survived. Yet, as Anne later wrote, it was “the second half of 1943” when her life changed: when she began “to think, to write.” My goal here is to better fit the “Tales” notebook into the story of Anne's life and work, a project made easier by the recent publication of Anne Frank: The Collected Works, which includes, for the first time in English, all of the author's writing, in one volume, in separate, continuous texts. To read those texts in the order in which she wrote them is to see Anne Frank not just growing as a writer but becoming a writer. The results are of interest not only to scholars of Anne's life and work but to teachers of young readers and writers, for whom Anne Frank has long been a model, if an imperfectly understood one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over a decade has passed since the publication and enactment of the first National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (NLNS; Department of Education and Skills. 2011. Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life: The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011–2020. Dublin: Department of Education and Skills). This paper provides insights into the reality of its enactment across a range of primary and post-primary settings. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews (n = 30) and quantitative data from a survey (n = 455) of primary and post-primary teachers, the paper charts commonalities and differences across these two sectors. Qualitative data indicated that the NLNS was successful in putting literacy on the agenda, with a range of consequent policy and practices reported by teachers. The teaching of literacy tended to be grounded in largely traditional conceptualisations of print-based reading and writing, with limited reference to digital or multimodal practices. Quantitative data highlighted the divergence of opinions between teachers from both sectors, particularly in relation to students’ literacy skills on entry to post-primary school and in DEIS settings. As policymakers prepare for the enactment of a successor strategy (Government of Ireland. 2024a. Ireland’s Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024–2033: Every Learner from Birth to Young Adulthood. Dublin: Government of Ireland), the paper concludes by addressing implications for the next decade of literacy-focussed policy in Irish schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the effects of a text-based argument writing intervention, Triple Q, on argument writing skills in a cluster-randomized trial where groups of middle schools were assigned to conditions within school-level SES blocks. The intervention comprised three 15-day units. Students read and discussed argument texts representing different positions on a policy-related question; examined the features and quality of arguments within and across texts; provided feedback on peers' arguments; and drafted and revised their own arguments. The study was conducted in 27 sixth- and seventh-grade classrooms (k = 12 intervention) in 13 schools with 494 students (n = 220 intervention) in the southeastern United States. Results from differences-in-differences analyses showed that intervention students improved in overall argument writing quality compared to the control condition on a far transfer measure (ES =.44). To further explore the impact on specific dimensions of argumentation, we examined binary outcomes of conceptually robust indicators of argument writing skill. Results indicated greater increases in intervention students' likelihood of incorporating some dimensions of argumentation, such as supporting reasons with evidence and citing sources of evidence with specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a digital society, adolescents' lives are heavily influenced by various multimodal texts published on social media platforms. Digital texts challenge conventional forms of literacy teaching while requiring new forms of critical media literacy. Previous research has shown that teachers require professional development and support to include critical media literacy in the classroom. In this article, we report the findings from a study of two lower secondary school teachers and their students (n = 43; ages 13–14) in Norway. The study explored a framework for increasing students' understanding of multimodal texts and meaning making on social media. Drawing on theories of social semiotics, multimodality, and critical literacy, the study explored how students developed meta-semiotic competence to scaffold their ability to critically deconstruct, challenge, and produce multimodal, digital texts. The study indicates that multimodal analysis and production of self-representations can be an effective framework for developing critical media literacy in the classroom. The study demonstrates that students can compose intricate texts that are distinct from social media images when supported to understand the meanings behind the symbols they employ. It highlights specific kinds of semiotic understandings that must be introduced to students to enable them to approach social media texts analytically and critically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literacy skills are essential if students are to access knowledge and achieve academic success in middle school science. A key difficulty with interpreting literacy practices in any discipline is the problem of conceptualising what constitutes literacy. Our study contributes new understandings to the discipline of science where there are ongoing debates concerning the meaning of literacy and confusion regarding what constitutes essential literacies in the field. Our scoping review first identifies how literacy in middle school science is conceptualised in empirical studies published between 2006 and 2019 and, second, addresses a significant gap in understandings by identifying how dominant discourses inform practice. Specifically, our findings show the dominance of a narrow conception of literacy in the science classroom relating to skills-based pedagogic instruction. Based on our review, we conclude that the field of science requires a broadening of what constitutes literacy, and engagement with New Literacy Studies which focuses on literacy as a social practice closely interwoven with student identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

School requests for professional learning on adolescent literacy often stem from low or stagnant reading scores on state standardized assessments and legislative policies that require educators to complete literacy coursework. These decisions are often made without teachers' voices, requiring teachers to take coursework they may not need or learn in ways that may not align with their content. To address this issue, we used our researcher‐created and validated survey to ask middle and high school teachers about their self‐efficacy toward adolescent literacy based on various professional characteristics, such as years of experience, teaching grade levels, content area, and taking the state‐required literacy courses. Findings note that certain disciplines are more efficacious toward specific literacy practices, and taking state‐required literacy courses is insignificant. Our implications are written for literacy scholars and teacher educators to revisit the premise and promise of the 2017 ILA Standards for K‐12 literacy professionals, emphasizing the importance of being cognizant of our strengths and highlighting the need for collaborating and learning with and from teachers of all disciplines. School requests for professional learning on adolescent literacy often stem from low or stagnant reading scores on state standardized assessments and legislative policies that require educators to complete literacy coursework. These decisions are often made without teachers' voices, requiring teachers to take coursework they may not need or learn in ways that may not align with their content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent political excursions into classroom text selections by local and national politicians and pundits have made teaching canonical texts more appealing to many school districts and teachers. In this study, we used conceptions of Derridean hospitality alongside monster theory to examine what common canonical texts teach students about who is welcome and worthy of hospitality in American society and who is viewed as wholly monstrous and outside the bounds of hospitality. The results of our critical content analysis revealed that in commonly taught canonical novels, identity categories like race and gender shape determinations of who is welcome and who is othered. The findings suggest that critical readings of canonical texts cannot offer a hospitable welcome to marginalized and othered youth in ELA classrooms. Instead we offer a hospitable literacy approach to text selection in ELA classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the familiar imperative for educators to cultivate affective attachments between students and reading—to foster love or ward off hate, for books. It considers the interplay of this affective economy with other "economies" of reading long theorized in literacy studies: the moral economy, promoting dominant social norms; and the political economy, prioritizing workers skilled to meet the needs of the state. We examine the relations among these economies through a study of "book choice"—practices intended to give students greater autonomy (and pleasure) in their reading. Using interviews and artifacts from three middle-school classrooms in the U.S. south using varied configurations of "book choice," we report findings that suggest the affective aims of such programs often intermingled with moral and political economic directives. In conclusion, we suggest that attunement to these contradictions offers an alternate, and more capacious, orientation for literacy education and aesthetic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a term, "connective literacies" refers to the reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and critical thinking skills necessary for students to engage and interact meaningfully, productively, and safely in a variety of digitally connected spaces. Using a critical literacies approach to honor the voices of adolescents as producers and consumers of online texts, in the present study, researchers conducted two focus groups of nine eighth‐grade students. Adolescents shared their insights about their use of connective literacy skills in and outside of school, including how they use digital technologies, and how they connect with others in digital spaces. Researchers share and discuss five thematic findings, using transcript excerpts as illustrations to present adolescents' perspectives. Finally, we offer future directions for educators, policymakers, researchers, families, and students to advance adolescents' connective literacy skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonemic awareness is thought to be a causal factor predicting early reading acquisition while its influence diminishes as other reading skills develop. This is a descriptive study of 74, primarily African American, fifth- through eighth-grade students attending a small, inner-city school. The study sought to determine the relationship between phonemic awareness, developmental spelling, pseudoword reading, and sight word reading in adolescent students who struggle with reading. Correlation results showed statistically significant relations among all four variables with the largest between phonemic awareness and developmental spelling. Regression results revealed phonemic awareness predicted significant variance in developmental spelling (R2 =.51), but not pseudo- or sight word reading. A discontinuity test determined that the influence of phonemic awareness on developmental spelling was consistent across all levels of attainment. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When school buildings closed suddenly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educators relied on families more than ever to mediate their children's learning. This yearlong case study details the narratives of 14 Black and Latinx families as they negotiated literacy practices with their teenage sons during remote schooling. This study finds that families bolstered their sons' literacies through dimensions of family literacy care, a notion developed by the author to describe the material, emotional, embodied, and digital mentoring exchanged between caregivers and boys around literacy practices at home. Entangled in these narratives are the complex ways that families enacted their roles as caregivers and teachers during the pandemic, and in turn, how boys acquiesced to and resisted their parents' attempts at family literacy care. These findings texture and advance the field of family literacy scholarship to understand better the varied ways boys orient toward (and away from) texts in their family context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examines how youth participants in an ongoing community-based literacy initiative sought to increase awareness of racial justice among residents of their subsidized housing community in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in summer 2020 and throughout the 2020–2021 academic year. We utilize theories of racial literacy and critical arts-based literacy to examine youths' engagement in 44 weekly two-hour-long Zoom sessions of the literacy initiative held between June 2020 and June 2021. Specifically, we examine how youths designed, facilitated, and participated in critical arts-based literacy projects related to children's and young adult literature they chose to read focused on racial justice. Findings contribute new insights into youths' enactments of racial literacy, possibilities for art-making to support youths' racial literacy, and the urgent need for literacy instruction responsive to youths' voices and dreams, particularly during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore how teachers in a large, diverse district could use a complex adolescent literacy curriculum, and it coincided with the start of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic, also a time of great upheaval for this nation. The authors and district partners collaboratively designed document sets that could help students explore socially complex historical topics with discipline-specific reading and writing support. These challenges led to fully virtual PD and redesigned cognitive tools and lesson materials that could be used in a fully distanced learning environment. Design/methodology/approach: PD and data collection were ongoing and iterative, as the authors' goals were to understand variability in teachers' understanding and how the social unrest in the nation and the need for distance learning would influence their application of our curriculum. Data sources included teacher artifacts, interviews and implementation surveys and anonymized student work samples. The third author wrote memos during webinars and district meetings. The authors employed a grounded theory approach to analyze teachers' evolving understandings of how to teach students to make judgments, their lesson differentiation and their attention to social justice issues. Findings: Teachers who attended the authors' online PD increased their knowledge of the authors' cognitive apprenticeship (CA) approach to instruction, demonstrating more sophisticated understandings of important historical thinking skills and the need to provide students with explicit instruction and appropriate cognitive scaffolds. By the end of the year, teachers also showed ease in using new technological platforms and a more flexible use of disciplinary thinking scaffolds in ways the authors hoped. Finally, teachers in the authors' sample (and their students) frequently made connections between topics and sources in the authors' curriculum and ongoing societal problems (such as systemic racism) in this nation. Research limitations/implications: The authors' original sample of teachers was over 70; however, this number eventually fell to nine teachers (about 12.5% of the eligible participants) due to many ongoing challenges (e.g. teaching while parenting) during this time period. The authors note that teachers who remained engaged with the authors had over 10 years of experience and all but one had at some point been in a leadership position such as a team lead or department head. It is possible that experience teachers found on the authors' curriculum intervention to be too challenging to implement during the pandemic. Practical implications: Online PD can be successful when sessions focus on content that teachers will use with students. We provided video models showing teachers how to teach historical reading and writing using the authors' tools and supports authors' platform. Although brief, the authors gave teachers opportunities for collaborative practice during webinars, and time to share challenges related to virtual teaching. In return, teachers shared what was working for them and allowed the authors to use anonymized student materials as the basis for subsequent materials for teaching students to make historical judgments. Social implications: All students, including those with learning or attentional disabilities/difficulties, emergent bilingual students, underrepresented students or marginalized students, must learn to grapple with complex historical and political information. Doing so will support their ability to make sense of conflicting and/or politicized information that pervades the media today and to judge for themselves what counts as evidence and truth. Originality/value: Although there are a small number of teachers, this study shows that a strong research partnership between a university and district office can support the successful implementation of a complex historical literacy curriculum that allows students to explore social justice issues while learning important disciplinary literacy skills. Future work will share student learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of vocabulary learning strategies has been identified as crucial in supporting learners' vocabulary development. Using interview data from 21 adolescent first language speakers of English identified as gifted students in the U.S. education context, I analysed the vocabulary learning strategies that they used to learn, remember, and make sense of new words. I also analysed the strategies that students reported as what English language arts teachers employed in classrooms and encouraged them to use. The findings showed that reading was the most teacher-adopted, teacher-encouraged, and student-performed activity. In addition, a significant number of students expressed unawareness of specific strategies they used to develop their vocabulary. I discuss implications and highlight the need to re-examine the importance of the awareness of vocabulary learning strategies in learning English as a first language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This review of research examines definitions of reading motivation, instruments for measuring reading motivation, reading motivation interventions and instructional designs, and student outcomes related to reading motivation. The population for this review was restricted to middle or high school students who: (a) have a qualifying disability in reading, (b) are identified as having "reading difficulties," or (c) present characteristics of dyslexia but are otherwise not identified. Definitions of reading motivation were generally ambiguous or ill-defined in relationship to the construct being measured. A variety of established reading motivational scales were identified, as well as some that were author-constructed. Although evidence from previous studies demonstrates a positive contribution of reading motivation to student outcomes, there were less significant relationships found between student outcomes and those students with reading disabilities or reading difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open discussion of text promotes students' reading achievement, yet classroom discussion is rare. The present study investigates whether teachers' knowledge for literacy teaching relates to their enactment of class discussion in the context of a high-quality literacy curriculum. Two sixth grade teachers (one who demonstrated high levels of knowledge for teaching literacy, and one who demonstrated low knowledge) were audio recorded teaching the same reading lesson. Lesson transcripts were analyzed with a focus on the questions teachers asked. Questions were coded as high – or low-level, and as authentic or display questions. Function of questions and quality of instruction were also explored. The teacher whose knowledge was higher asked more high-level questions, while the teacher with lower knowledge asked more low-level questions. Although both teachers asked more display than authentic questions, a higher proportion of questions asked by the teacher with high knowledge were authentic. The higher-knowledge teacher's enactment of the lesson also included more student voice, more topical coherence, and a richer understanding of the material. These findings emphasize the importance of teacher knowledge. This work also underscores the importance of developing more robust constructs for knowledge for literacy teaching, and quality of literacy instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part of a larger yearlong ethnography at a comprehensive, public high school in a Midwestern city in the United States, this article explores a telling case from a bookclub that was part of the school's Genders and Sexualities Alliance. Approaching curriculum as a question of what knowledges are valued in education, in this article I describe the layers of epistemic practices that youth in the bookclub co-constructed and the consequences of these practices for oppressive values with respect to sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and language. The telling case features youth talking about young adult author Sáenz's sexuality, his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and whether and how (literary) authors' identities affect their writing (of literature). My analysis of the case explores epistemological phenomena related to literature, curiosity, authenticity, #OwnVoices, and author–reader relationships, which I consider through critical, especially queer and trans, theoretical perspectives about epistemology, transparency, and opacity. The findings have implications for educators working to disrupt oppressive, anti-LGBTQ+ epistemologies in schools in an effort to encourage humanizing curiosity, promote compassion, and foster joy among and for LGBTQ+ students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since students' writing skills are largely shaped by the quality of instruction they receive, we can learn from what teachers report about their beliefs and approaches to the teaching and learning of writing. This study explores the state of writing instruction at secondary levels with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students through a mixed-methods approach using a sequential explanatory design. Two hundred and twenty-two teachers responded to a survey about writing instruction, and 10 teachers participated in follow-up focus groups. The findings indicate that the primary difference between the hearing middle and high school student population and the DHH population is experiences of language deprivation, which impact the preparedness of teachers of DHH students, as well as the time and focus of their writing instruction. Teachers reported that American Sign Language/English bilingual instruction was the greatest area of need in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter details how engaging students in digital comics creation might support adolescents in strengthening their narrative writing capabilities. This chapter first provides a more detailed explanation of the micro and macrostructural elements involved in narrative production. Second, the chapter provides an introduction to comics and important design features. The authors also illuminate the complexity of multimodal texts (texts that combine images and words) and link visual narrative pedagogy and curriculum to classroom equity and accessibility. Across these opening sections, academic standards are referenced to show how the comics medium aligns with national visions of what robust English Language Arts education entails. The chapter concludes with descriptions of specific pedagogical strategies and digital comic-making tools that teachers and interventionists might explore with students within various classroom contexts. Examples of digital comics designed using various web tools are also shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from data generated in a high school creative writing class, this article presents experiences and moments from a classroom‐sited research project that were considered through the theoretical perspective of response‐able pedagogies. Using postqualitative methods, this analysis addresses two framing questions: How does turning attention towards the unfolding relations in a writing class illuminate some possibilities of response‐able pedagogies? What becomes possible when the teaching of writing emphasises 'becoming' (rather than products/achievement)? In response to the first question, turning attention towards the unfolding relations in the class context made new ways of conceptualising writing possible: writing as following energies; writing as making; and writing as producing/traversing boundaries. Considered together, these interwoven practices contributed to the response‐able pedagogy of writing‐as‐becoming. In response to question two, the response‐able pedagogy of writing‐as‐becoming shifted the teaching emphasis from controlled outcomes to the affective experience of connection. This study shows the potential in reconsidering our commitment to teaching writing as (only) a process and to (also) imagine it as a means by which students can experience the vitality and joy of being present with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex learning happens through supporting inquiry and innovation, not through standardized control that constrains. However, national and international assessment of students are used in (re)structuring the educational priorities and policies that guide national educational systems. This paper is based of f of a qualitative dissertation study that explored how mandated high-stakes testing inf luences educators within a complex educational system in Texas. At each level within the system--the classroom, campus, and district levels--participants described the ways they perceive these inf luences and constraints on their decisions related to eighth-grade reading curriculum and instruction within their system. Using thematic analysis and complex adaptive system frameworks, the patterns at each level were mapped to identify tensions within and between these nested complex systems. Findings indicate a strong push towards standardization, and adaptive action is discussed as a way to identify and respond to this standardization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, one hundred secondary students were randomly assigned to a treatment or comparison group. The treatment group received a Reader's Theater version of a story to read aloud as a group. The comparison group received the same story in its regular format to read silently. Both groups' reading comprehension were assessed using a 10-question quiz related to the text. According to the results of the one-way ANOVA, students in the Reader's Theater treatment group signif icantly outperformed the silent reading comparison on the reading comprehension assessment, indicating that providing students with scripted stories and the chance to perform them can improve reading comprehension. Practical implications and limitations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the national media continues to highlight the tensions of cultural politics in education, there is a need for young people and educators to be equipped for the daunting local, national, and global challenges that mark their everyday lives. Many educators and young people alike are interested in engaging youth in civic reasoning and discourse that prepares them to meet those many challenges. This article highlights applications of civic reasoning and discourse in three contexts: a traditional high school social studies classroom, a hybrid school-community action project, and an out-of-school Youth Participatory Action Research program. We argue that these case studies show a path forward for developing students' civic reasoning and discourse skills because the students turn toward and lean into what we define as moments of critical dissonance : in each case, the students and educators work together to engage, rather than avoid, complex sociopolitical realities, even while holding a variety of racial, ethnic, political, and cultural identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the work of two female students in a rural school who were assigned to respond to a Shakespearean text with a Digital Video (DV) project. The study shows how the teacher provided students appropriate time, mediation, and space in allowing them to bring their out-of-school literacies and interests within an academic context. The students composed a DV interpretation of the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech from Macbeth. The research examines both the product and process of the students' work. They recursively planned, drafted, and edited as they composed a multimodal response that purposefully attended to the orchestration of visuals, audio, and text. Implications from this study demonstrate the importance of valuing students' identities in classroom settings, emphasizing multiple audiences for student work, highlighting the complexity of compositional decisions students made throughout the entire process of creating their video response, and providing multimodal assessments in academic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on youth literacies in formal learning spaces is a promising direction for asset-based literacy learning designs. However, in response to ways that academic spaces can deaden passionate literacy study, it is important to attend to the resulting affective flows of such practices. This study traces how affect was sustained and dampened in a high school English classroom that intentionally brought together academic and fandom practices. We listened to how affective encounters with the popular text Grey's Anatomy unfolded across the class, with a particular focus on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) focal students' experiences. We found derision and dismissal of certain texts and experiences by peers (undergirded by dominant narratives about fandom and literary taste) dampened affective resonance. All the same, collective intensities were sustained through respectful discourse between fans and potential fans as well as BIPOC women's fugitive literacy practices resisting dampening practices of White students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We charted how one educator's use of proleptic language—or language that invoked students' imagined future identities as if they are fully realized in the present—situated students in communities of academic and professional practice, both within the tangible community of the classroom and within those intangible communities consisting of college students, litigators, music producers, and activists which her students aspired to join. Students demonstrated transformative agency in aligning, resisting, and reinterpreting these proleptic bids, which appeared to create opportunities for students to engage in authentic uses of academic discourse as well as to develop critical rhetorical flexibility—or skill in using all language resources flexibly and critically as a part of participation in an array of social contexts. We suggest that the use of proleptic talk transforms the tenor of academic language instruction by centering students'—rather than teachers'—goals for language learning and by recognizing learners' past, present, and future selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This qualitative study aimed to investigate adolescent English learners' multimodal communicative competence. Grounded upon a social semiotic approach with the concepts of affordances and transmediation, this research was carried out in an after‐school programme at a secondary school in Korea. Three high school students participated in the multimodal composition project and produced narrative and argumentative multimodal texts. Multiple sources of data were gathered from interviews, video recordings with fieldnotes and student artefacts. The data were analysed using an inductive and deductive approach, along three orientations: modes as social action; modes as framing devices; and modes as agency representation. The students' multimodal texts were analysed based on multimodal text analysis. This study demonstrated that the participants personalised, avoided, modified and orchestrated semiotic modes to engage in multimodal composition. The study also revealed that the students' selection and use of semiotic modes were influenced by their audience awareness, genre knowledge and identities, and vice versa, all of which contributed to developing their multimodal communicative competence. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications for multimodal composition practices and suggestions for future multimodal composition studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resistance takes on many forms in modern society as people effectively engage in resistance literacies, the sending and receiving of meaning in culturally embedded contexts framed by unequal power. This article foregrounds two Mexican-identifying women who live in the U.S. through their testimonios of resistance to xenophobic and racist rhetoric in society. The purpose was to understand how both an adolescent and adult leverage literacy for resistance in this historical moment of xenophobia. Using critical race nepantlera methodology to collect and analyze qualitative data, findings suggest participants' resistance literacies emerge in their languaging and advocacy practices. Their collective counternarratives serve as examples of literacies that stand against quotidian injustice with implications for literacy research, by interrogating theoretical frameworks and methodologies in order to make effective changes that work toward justice rather than inadvertently perpetuating status quo inequities. Further, understanding how and why Women of Color express resistance through purposeful language engagement and advocacy work beckons literacy (teacher) educators to reimagine literacy instruction in ways that disrupt traditional views of literacy education by nurturing resistance literacies. Finally, the testimonios invite literacy researchers and educators to join the resistance as both scholars and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framed by theories of youth, culture, identity studies, and literacy identity formation, this article examines how youth articulate themselves as writers. Using interview transcripts, analysis explored writing identity from the perspective of teens in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that youth used various cultural artifacts, both conceptual and material, to feel and/or seem like a writer within multiple contexts. Specifically examined are the ways in which teens negotiated various identities as writers, including whether and how they drew on specific artifacts to embrace, resist and negotiate the following: (a) standardization, (b) meaning and relevance, (d) support, and (d) identities. In particular, findings illustrated the significance of spaces that provided opportunities for students to both feel and seem like a writer, and highlighted the nuanced ways in which seeming and feeling like a writer are shaped by social and cultural factors. Implications point to providing teens more opportunities to engage in the identity work of writers within multiple spaces, where support, choice, and time to talk about how society conceptualizes writing and what writing means to them are present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much of the work on increasing diversity of U.S. schools has focused on urban and suburban contexts, rural schools and communities have seen an influx of multilingual immigrant and migrant students. Using qualitative data collected in English classrooms at two different rural high schools as part of a larger study, this article profiles two rural ELA teachers who stood out as unique supporters of their multilingual students' literacy development. These profiles are contextualized in broader debates in writing studies about valuating language diversity and avoiding formbased approaches in instruction. In concluding comments, the author explores how these teachers don't neatly fit categorizations of effective writing teachers and argues that writing researchers need to work across increasingly polarized divides to help make rural schools more inclusive spaces for linguistically diverse students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore adolescent second language (L2) writers' composition across media (text‐based writing and digital multimodal composing). The goal was to investigate how and under what conditions these writers used semiotic resources when they engaged in both text‐based writing and digital multimodal composing. Grounded in the concept of adaptive transfer, this study was carried out in an after‐school program at a secondary school in South Korea. The researcher conducted this study and taught the class sessions simultaneously. Three adolescent participants joined the program, wrote two text‐based essays, and created two digital multimodal products. The researcher collected data from the interviews with each participant, class observations, and students' essays and products. Data analysis revealed that participants used and reshaped semiotic resources for both idiosyncratic and rhetorical purposes when composing across media. This paper offers suggestions for further research and outlines the educational implications of composition across media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stergios Botzakis, literacy scholar and expert on comics, is the co-author of Teach on Purpose!: Responsive Teaching for Student Success. He joined Jason DeHart for a great discussion covering their history with the comics medium, popular titles, and steps in helping students create comics.

This article contributes to an emerging body of scholarship on multimodal composition in the poetry classroom through a study of Finnish lower secondary students' digital videomaking in response to poetry. The study explores students' use of semiotic resources in their interpretive work in transmediating a poem into a digital video, with a particular interest in their use of sound elements. Based on social semiotic theory of multimodality, the analysis shows how the students in a variety of ways used sound elements, together with other semiotic resources, to explore their interpretation of the poetic text. Sound elements in particular became a key resource in the interpretive work, giving the students the opportunity to elaborate on topical issues of interest and importance to them while reinforcing their social agency. The study demonstrates the relevance of sound elements in students' digital composing and explorations of poetry. Furthermore, it reveals how the students showed a capacity as well as a willingness to act, to have influence, and to make substantiated claims for recognition regarding critical issues related to sexuality and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I systematically review evidence on the relations between oral reading fluency (ORF) and reading comprehension (RC) for adolescents with limited reading proficiency (ALRP) in Grades 6 to12. I organized findings from 23 studies into five themes: (a) unclear role of ORF in the simple view of reading model for ALRP, (b) ALRP have distinct reader profiles, (c) ORF consists of more than automaticity, (d) the role of ORF varies, and (e) oral reading automaticity has tenuous predictive value for ALRP. Results suggest that knowledge of an adolescent's ORF, as commonly defined and assessed, provides helpful information about an adolescent's reader profile but is not sufficient to evaluate instructional needs or measure progress. I conclude the article with a discussion on implications for researchers, assessment developers, practitioners, and school administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of supplemental word recognition strategies on students receiving intensive (Tier III) remedial reading instruction. Two-hundred and thirteen middle school students with reading difficulties received an intensive reading intervention (i.e., Corrective Reading Decoding strand) delivered by trained school staff (n = 21) at three middle schools. The 213 fifth through eighth grade students (121 males, 92 females) enrolled in three northwestern school districts (two rural and one urban). Of the 213 students, one-hundred and seven also received supplemental word recognition instruction using Reading Excellence: Word Attack and Rate Development Strategies (REWARDS). Using a pre-post quasi-experimental design, the effects of the Corrective Reading Decoding (CRD) program was compared to CRD combined with the REWARDS program. The REWARDS program produced statistically and educationally significant changes in the basic reading skills of students over and above Corrective Reading Decoding alone. Students in the REWARDS condition demonstrated statistically significant mean changes on the WJ-III Basic Reading Skills cluster and associated subtests and the DIBELS ORF probe compared to those in the comparison condition. Results, implications, and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a quarter of a century the annual What's Hot, What's Not in Literacy Survey has interviewed literacy leaders to identify the literacy topics at the center of current attention. In this article the 25 years of longitudinal survey data are analyzed to identify the topics that were: (a) deemed the "hottest" and "coldest", (b) received the most attention while being featured on the survey, and (c) ranked "should be hot" most frequently across the survey's history. Findings indicate that the "hottest" topics were assessment and accountability, English language learners, and adolescent literacy, while the "coldest" topic was motivation and reader engagement. Topics receiving the highest amounts of attention while being featured on the survey were the science of teaching reading and dyslexia. Most rated topics for "should be hot" were English language learners, adolescent literacy, comprehension, and struggling readers. Historical context for each of these topics is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By crafting a dramatic script about struggling high school readers that I then shared with real students in my Reading classes, I applied Arts-based education research (ABER) methods. Through the writing, presentation, collection, and reflection on student feedback, as well as during the script rewriting process, I was allowed to engage in a unique and motivating research experience. This approach allowed me to attend to three challenges with my Dissertation in Practice (DiP). First, instead of being part of this big, scary, abstract world called ‘research’, it allowed me to demonstrate inquiry though a means that I was more familiar and confident with—writing and theatre. My confidence working in these areas allowed me to initiate and remain engaged throughout the dissertation work. Second, it allowed me to take on a problem in my practice—the skepticism of many high school students in Reading classes about being in those classes. This helped me better understand my students, and thus inform and guide in the identification of best practices. Third, it positioned me to work with colleagues and administrators in my building and across our school district to rethink how we offer reading support to the heterogeneous cross-section of students who currently are being identified as needing such support. This account summarizes my DiP and, I hope, positions other classroom teachers who double as EdD students to imagine new and effective ways forward as they engage with problems of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the need for Response to Intervention (RTI) in secondary grades, research is scant with most studies exploring state-level policy guidance and RTI implementation surveys in classrooms. Additionally, state and federal policy has generally been vague regarding specific information for RTI implementation in literacy. Our national survey reports data on RTI implementation from 209 secondary grade teachers. Response profiles and statistical significance tests were conducted, determining that many secondary level classrooms are using research-based recommendations for RTI implementation and practice across the country. However, significant regional differences exist in how RTI is being resourced and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]