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This study aims to augment the current understanding of how practicing teachers perceive and implement disciplinary literacy and in what ways they collaborate with researchers in a disciplinary literacy project. To do this, we collected and analyzed transcripts of the meetings from a disciplinary literacy project that was a university-school partnership between history teachers, literacy education researchers, and social studies education researchers. To analyze our data, we applied a constant comparative method and identified three salient themes: collaboration, text use, and instructional practice. Specifically, the teachers cited that the triangular structure of the collaborative expertise of teachers, literacy, and social studies education researchers was useful in constructing professional and instructional knowledge. In terms of text use, teachers expressed that the intentional selection and teaching of multiple and multimodal texts provided diverse perspectives and supported the various ways in which students read and learn. Finally, concerning instructional practice, the teachers revealed that disciplinary literacy and thinking skills should be intentionally taught and that methods for enhancing discipline-specific motivation should be considered. Based on these findings, key issues and implications are discussed.

This article argues that for disciplinary literacy to be addressed successfully by subject-area teachers and students, it needs to choose a different path than the one it has been on. It explains how the road disciplinary literacy has traveled to date has been marked by justifiable subject-area teacher resistance to requirements to infuse literacy teaching and learning strategies into their teaching without regard for disciplinary epistemologies or local perspectives. It argues for an alternative approach that immerses literacy experts in the hybridity of classroom disciplinary learning spaces with respect for literacy and disciplinary discourses as well as school and community subcultural beliefs, practices, and resources. It examines the ways such hybridity has been addressed by disciplinary literacy researchers in the "Journal of Literacy Research" to date, and it offers recommendations for advancing research, practice, and policy.

Post-assessments psychometric reports are a vital component of the assessment cycle to ensure that assessments are reliable, valid and fair to make appropriate pass-fail decisions. Students' scores can be summarised by examination of frequency distributions, central tendency measures and dispersion measures. Item discrimination indicies to assess the quality of items, and distractors that differentiate between students achieving or not achieving the learning outcomes are key. Estimating individual item reliability and item validity indices can maximise test-score reliability and validity. Test accuracy can be evaluated by assessing test reliability, consistency and validity and standard error of measurement can be used to measure the variation. Standard setting, even by experts, may be unreliable and reality checks such as the Hofstee method, P values and correlation analysis can improve validity. The Rasch model of student ability and item difficulty assists in modifying assessment questions, pinpointing areas for additional instruction. We propose 12 tips to support test developers in interpreting structured psychometric reports, including analysis and refinement of flawed items and ensuring fair assessments with accurate and defensible marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recounts the journey of three literacy teachers learning about classroom use of computers and developing a computer-driven unit on Australian animals. Describes the learning process--the teachers wanted their students to have positive experiences with computers. States that, as a result of the experience, an interactive unit was developed that transported students on a journey to Australia. (PA)

Examines the dimensions of preservice teachers' resistance to content reading instruction. Finds that preservice teachers hold surface misconceptions about content reading common among teachers. Finds resistance deeply rooted in beliefs and traditions of school life relating to teachers' roles and allegiance to content disciplines. Suggests modifications to preservice content reading courses. (RS)

This study aims to augment the current understanding of how practicing teachers perceive and implement disciplinary literacy and in what ways they collaborate with researchers in a disciplinary literacy project. To do this, we collected and analyzed transcripts of the meetings from a disciplinary literacy project that was a university-school partnership between history teachers, literacy education researchers, and social studies education researchers. To analyze our data, we applied a constant comparative method and identified three salient themes: collaboration, text use, and instructional practice. Specifically, the teachers cited that the triangular structure of the collaborative expertise of teachers, literacy, and social studies education researchers was useful in constructing professional and instructional knowledge. In terms of text use, teachers expressed that the intentional selection and teaching of multiple and multimodal texts provided diverse perspectives and supported the various ways in which students read and learn. Finally, concerning instructional practice, the teachers revealed that disciplinary literacy and thinking skills should be intentionally taught and that methods for enhancing discipline-specific motivation should be considered. Based on these findings, key issues and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the relations among general language competency factors such as word knowledge, comprehension, and paradigmatic/syntagmatic reasoning, and college developmental readers' ability to interpret two text formats designed to elicit either a literal or figurative interpretation. (DF)

Examines some of the intentions that guided research into story structure, considers some of the validity problems inherent in the research, and outlines some flaws in instructional practices resulting from misinterpretations of it. Concludes with some suggestions for using story structures as a teaching tool. (FL)

Explores whether the interpretation of figurative passages presents a comprehension problem different from that of any difficult text. Indicates that although some abilities important in processing isolated figurative expressions carry over to figurative passage interpretation, these figurative-unique abilities can not definitively account for the interpretation of figurative passages. (MM)

Surveys preservice teachers' attitudes toward content area reading. Concludes that although misconceptions about content reading instruction are prevalent among preservice teachers entering a content area reading course, research showed that most students no longer exhibited those misconceptions when they left the course. (MM)

The unstable mutation bz-m039 arose in a maize (Zea mays) stock that originated from a plant infected with barley stripe mosaic virus. The instability of the mutation is caused by a 3.9-kb mobile element that has been named Jittery (Jit). Jit has terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) of 181 bp, causes a 9-bp direct duplication of the target site, and appears to excise autonomously. It is predicted to encode a single 709-amino acid protein, JITA, which is distantly related to the MURA transposase protein of the Mutator system but is more closely related to the MURA protein of Mutator-like elements (MULEs) from Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa). Like MULEs, Jit resembles Mutator in the length of the element's TIRs, the size of the target site duplication, and in the makeup of its transposase but differs from the autonomous element Mutator-Don Robertson in that it encodes a single protein. Jit also differs from Mutator elements in the high frequency with which it excises to produce germinal revertants and in its copy number in the maize genome: Jit-like TIRs are present at low copy number in all maize lines and teosinte accessions examined, and JITA sequences occur in only a few maize inbreds. However, Jit cannot be considered a bona fide transposon in its present host line because it does not leave footprints upon excision and does not reinsert in the genome. These unusual mobile element properties are discussed in light of the structure and gone organization of Jit and related elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1908 the “author” of this manuscript criticized much of what was happening in reading instruction during his time. He has returned for a short visit and finds much to his dismay, that many of his suggestions offered in a previous work are still being ignored by reading practitioners. What follows is the result of his persistent haunting of the three ghostwriters. He offers “spirited” criticism of some present‐day practices but remains optimistic about the future of reading instruction. Most importantly, he promises to continue to haunt professionals in the field of reading education until more of his recommended changes are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Word recognition has been taught traditionally through a skills approach. The subskills method of teaching new words is based upon an assumption that individual components such as context clues, phonic analysis and structural analysis, when taught in a systematic fashion, can be later applied by the reader in unlocking unknown words. The feasibility of that assumption is examined and the skills acquisition view is modified through a focus on features and cues which readers note when encountering a variety of text. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]