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Despite the importance of and advocacy for developing literacy skills for successful and rewarding participation in the community, there remains a common perception that becoming literate is not possible for people with intellectual disabilities. Until recently, limited research has been undertaken to investigate the literacy skills of adults with intellectual disabilities. In particular, research related to opportunities for lifelong learning in community-based organisations, and to the kinds of literacy activities that might be both developmentally and socially appropriate to assist adults with intellectual disabilities to remain active as they age, is limited in relation to older adults with intellectual disabilities. This exploratory project used a range of instruments to gather information about the literacy skills of older adults to identify their literacy needs and wants, and to consider opportunities to enhance and maintain literacy skills existing in an ongoing activity program in one community-based service organisation. (Contains 4 tables.)

This article reports on a case study of an exemplary teacher who was a participant in a professional learning project, WriteIdeas. The teacher provided instructional support in writing to a targeted student with learning difficulties in an inclusive Year 8 English classroom. Analytical frameworks were developed and applied to the data that had been collected from various sources. The case study sheds light on the multi-faceted nature and complexity of providing responsive and tailored instruction in writing to students in an inclusive setting. (Contains 1 figure.)

There is limited information about specific research constructs developed by adults with intellectual disability in undertaking research despite increasing involvement in research "with" rather than "on" these individuals. Participatory research was used with three young adults with intellectual disability to collaboratively develop a training programme and investigate the skills used and developed when undertaking the research project. Three research domains--Knowledge, Conceptual understandings and Skills, were identified, within which 18 subsets were categorised. Development in all domains and subsets occurred for all young adults, with variations in gains across subsets and participants. These young adults attained research knowledge, understanding and skills that enabled them to become collaborative researchers within this project.

Current pedagogical approaches recognize literacy as a social practice and yet school-based conceptualizations continue to dominate understandings of literacy learning of individuals with intellectual disability. Such understandings lead to local or everyday literacy practices being devalued and overlooked. Thus, for adults with intellectual disability who might not possess a high level of proficiency in school-based literacy, it is important to develop understandings about their everyday literacy uses for such practices to be recognized as being socially and culturally significant. Approaches to research are needed, which enable collection of rich, detailed information about literacy use by adults with intellectual disability that go beyond standardized scores and rankings and outside of the classroom. This paper presents a view of methodologies that can be used to conduct future research in this area that will broaden the conceptualization of literacy for adults with intellectual disability.

In this article the authors report the findings of a collaborative partnership between university researchers and school teams of administrators and teachers and how different kinds of knowledge were negotiated during the process of undertaking action research. The authors' analysis sheds light on the subtle and complex negotiations that occur so that both groups can display their expertise in a variety of areas, while at the same time allowing the other the space to be experts themselves. They believe that this study contributes to the development of more complex understandings of how researchers and teachers develop and negotiate knowledge while engaged in collaborative research. (Contains 1 note.)

An action research investigation into the use of specific reading comprehension strategies with a group of six young adults with Down syndrome revealed a previously undocumented finding in the area of reading comprehension. This was a uniform deficit among the participants to understand the meanings of question words. This deficit was shown to have negative implications on literacy learning and assessment. For example, it affected their responses to strategic questioning; responses on assessments; maintenance of coherent, responsive dialogue; recall of prior knowledge, past experiences and texts; construction of meaning and their ability to retell. An intervention that focussed on the development of understanding the meanings of the question words "who, where, what, when, why and how" and the application of such understanding specifically in reading comprehension, was successfully implemented and is the focus of this paper. The findings suggest that the meanings of Question words should be taught prior to using questioning as a teaching strategy, and before administering assessments that require the learners to answer questions.

For adolescents and adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (or, in the UK, learning disabilities or learning difficulties), the achievement of successful engagement with, and construction of meaning from, texts necessitates the implementation and use of specifically designed and adapted teaching strategies and resources. The careful selection and application of appropriate resources is vital to allow learners with intellectual disabilities to engage and participate with texts in positive, enjoyable and meaningful ways. The challenge for teachers of adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities is to overcome the limited availability of suitable literacy resources for these learners. In this article, Michelle Morgan, who teaches literacy at the University of Queensland, and Karen Moni, director of the secondary programmes in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, identify the literacy needs and reading practices of adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities based upon findings from an action research investigation. They go on to explore ways in which teachers can meet the challenge of limited resources for these learners through the specific and deliberate adaptation and creation of suitable texts.

We previously reported how the opinions of second-year dentistry students and faculty members can be used to construct an assessment rubric to grade group-based concept maps in physiology (14). This article describes the second phase of this study of the subsequent year's cohort. A case study approach was used to investigate how groups of students used the criteria to complete their complex concept maps. Students' opinions about the assessment task and newly constructed rubric were sampled. Opinions across groups were correlated to academic achievements in the course. Two groups of four students volunteered to be videorecorded during a 4-h workshop, during which they completed their maps. The mapping task was not generally favored by students. However, those students who did favor the task achieved higher academic grades. Most students favored the newly constructed assessment rubric, commenting that it was easy to understand, fair, and appropriate, but reported that extra guidance from tutors and other resources were required. Coded videorecordings of the two observation groups revealed complex interactions around the three criteria of content, logic and understanding, and presentation. Two broad patterns of working were identified. One group distributed their efforts more evenly across the criteria, whereas the other group completed their maps by addressing the criteria in stages. These findings clearly indicate the academic challenges and social complexity in how students work in groups to complete complex concept maps in physiology. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

Being literate empowers individuals to be effective consumers, to be informed about lifestyle options, to read aesthetically for relaxation and enjoyment and to further their knowledge of people and places that can enable them to participate more fully in communities. However, there are limited literacy opportunities and programs specifically designed to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities across their lifespan. The aim of this Australian National Training Authority funded project was to develop and implement a training, teaching and resource package for the development of literacy for adults with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this project was to assess, develop, train and assist support staff in two community-based services for clients with intellectual disabilities to act as literacy tutors for their clients. The project was undertaken within two disability-service programs using an applied action research approach. The results indicated that the tutors learnt much about tutoring and about the literacy abilities of their clients. There was some initial resistance from the tutors about the value of literacy learning for their clients. However, resistance decreased as tutors developed confidence, and clients demonstrated interest, engagement and skills in the activities. Implications for the effectiveness of such programs lie in the needs to tailor any training specifically to the needs of the support staff; and to provide time for implementation, on-going support and access to appropriate resources. Session Log is appended. (Contains 1 note, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)

The authors detail the design, implementation and evaluation of an eConference entitled "Biohorizons," using a presage-process-product model to describe the development of an eLearning community. Biohorizons was a summative learning and assessment task aiming to introduce large classes of first-year Human Biology students to the practices of professional scientists. It was implemented in semester 1 for students enrolled in Pharmacy and Human Movement Studies degree programs, and in semester 2, for Science students. Pairs of students selected a topic of interest in Human Biology, registered into on-line clusters, then developed and wrote a short scientific paper and accompanying PowerPoint presentation. They then individually participated in an online Discussion. All three tasks were assessed using standards-referenced assessment rubrics. Learning was supported by eTutors, working in asynchronous mode. Biohorizons was evaluated by analyzing student achievement data, surveys and focus group interviews. Most students were able to achieve high academic standards (global mean scores for semester 1, 85-96%; semester 2, 81-90%). Student evaluations support: (1) the successful integration of eLearning into large classes of Human Biology, (2) the engagement of first-year students through collaborative learning, and (3) the fostering of learning through challenging assessment relevant to the core practices of professional scientists.

The teaching and learning of phonics are core elements of a balanced literacy program for people with intellectual disabilities. Studies have shown that individuals who have limited phonic and decoding skills will be unlikely to progress in their reading ability beyond an emergent level and are more likely to experience difficulty in comprehension. The authors discuss the challenges of integrating contemporary understandings about literacy practices (specifically the Four Resources Model) with a literacy program for a young adult with an intellectual disability. They identify three key strategies to meet these challenges: Knowing the learner; motivating the learner; and using multiple approaches and activities. These strategies and practical teaching approaches are illustrated with examples of the authors' work with a young man with Down syndrome. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

There is limited information available related to the literacy skills of adults with intellectual disabilities. In this project, information was collected about the contexts, current practices, and clients' abilities in literacy in two community-based disability service programs. Individual assessments were undertaken to collect details of the current literacy levels of adults with intellectual disabilities in day program settings. These assessments focused on receptive language, reading at the letter, word and sentence level, writing vocabulary and connected text, and literacy preferences. Audits were also conducted related to the provision of opportunities for clients accessing these services to engage with literacy including environmental print. Structured day program activities were observed to gather information about current literacy teaching and learning. Implications of the research findings and suggestions for provision of literacy education in these settings are discussed.

This article describes a collaborative and cross-curricula initiative undertaken in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The project involved developing an integrated approach to providing professional year pre-service secondary teacher education students with experiences that would assist them to develop their knowledge and skills to teach students with special needs in their classrooms. These experiences were undertaken in the authentic teaching and learning context of a post-school literacy program for young adults with intellectual disabilities. In preliminary interviews pre-service teachers revealed that they lacked experience, knowledge and understanding related to teaching students with special needs, and felt that their teacher education program lacked focus in this field. This project was developed in response to these expressed needs. Through participating in the project, pre-service teachers' knowledge and understanding about working with students with diverse learning needs were developed as they undertook real and purposeful tasks in an authentic context.

Discusses task sheets--written texts generated specifically for assessment purposes in high schools in Queensland, Australia. Task sheets attempt to make assessment transparent by explaining the criteria used to assess performance. Task sheets from two English classes are analyzed to investigate what they reveal about practices and relationships operating in classroom-based literacy assessment; how they document what counts as literacy and performance in literacy, and whether they can be transparent. (Author/VWL)

Tutoring sessions within a LATCH-ON (Literacy and Technology-Hands On) program were provided to a 19-year-old woman with Down syndrome. Instruction focused primarily on phonics instruction, as well as other decoding strategies. She developed the ability to associate consonant and vowel sounds with letter presentations and to recognize whole word patterns. (Contains references.) (CR)

Following an examination of the ways in which literacy is taught in the Literacy and Technology Hands-On (LATCH-ON) project at the University of Queensland, Australia, this article describes some of the reading-related literacy learning of 17 young adults with Down syndrome who participated in the 2-year course. (Contains references.) (CR)

This article describes a six-session program designed to help seven Australian young adults (ages 18-21) with Down syndrome understand friendships better. During the sessions, students explored and discussed various types of friendships and the emotions associated with them, using the students' own experiences and videos in conjunction with structured materials. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Describes the reported practices in literacy assessment, recording, and reporting in 12 Australian schools characterized by populations of diverse learners. Findings indicate the problems and challenges that teachers face in providing socially just and inclusive literacy assessment in heterogeneous classrooms. Recommendations related to literacy assessment are included. (Author/CR)

Explores how literacy is developed in communities of literacy practice. Reports on Literacy and Technology--Hands On (LATCH-ON), a 2-year literacy program for young adults with Down syndrome. Suggests that the concept of community has enabled the development of a program that supports these young adults and enhances their progress in literacy. (PM)