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This paper shares results from a critical content analysis of Newbery-winning titles from 1922-2019 for representations of race/ethnicity, gender, and disability. Each title was coded for the inclusion and representation of race/ethnicity, gender, and disability at both the book and main character levels. Lenses of critical race, gender schema, and critical disability theories were used to classify the ways race/ethnicity, gender, and ability of diverse populations are portrayed and represented in Newbery-winning titles. Results were then compared to U.S. Census and National Center for Education Statistics data about today's public-school population. Representations of diversity in Newbery-winning titles are not confluent with the race/ethnicity, gender, and disability of children in U.S. schools. Given the prominence of Newbery-winning literature in elementary schools, children are likely to come across these unrepresentative characters.

Newbery Medal-winning books provide cultural models for children's developing cultural understandings of themselves and others. This article presents results of a critical content analysis that used sociocultural and historical lenses to examine representations of race/ethnicity, gender, and ability of main characters across the Newbery-winning corpus and how these representations have changed over the history of the award, 1922-2019. Findings present a lack of consistent diverse representation across all fields, with increased diverse representation in the most recent decades. The discussion contextualizes findings against historical events. Understanding the representations of diversity in these texts and the historical contexts within which such texts have emerged provides grounding to problematize the status quo of the curriculum and suggests a need for critical questioning and grand conversations.

This article documents a collaborative inquiry between four parent-child dyads. Adopting an approach of duoethnography, the collaborative explored the question, "What happens when parents and children co-construct meaning regarding the challenges and opportunities in using digital technologies?" By positioning youth as co-researchers, the teams disrupted traditional hierarchical power structures in their homes. The inquiry uncovered a process of building mutual trust through open communication and mediated decision making that empowered adolescents to critique adults' and peers' technology practices while reflecting on their own literacy development.

Abstract This article provides an overview of the importance of and the steps to undertaking a classroom library diversity audit. It begins by situating the importance of the classroom library in children's development because literature can reflect and expand worldviews. Next, statistics of U.S. children's literature publishing and U.S. classroom populations are provided to contextualize the need for a diverse classroom library. The article then covers the four steps a teacher needs to take to complete a classroom library audit - visualizing, completing the inventory, reflecting on findings, and developing next-step plans. It concludes with a call to action for teachers to consider their responsibility as curators of diversity.

The long-standing research to practice gap and increased interest in scientific literacy instruction has contributed to the oversimplification of what is deemed as foundational skills in US early literacy classrooms. Invoking a homing pigeon metaphor, this article describes the distilling of decades of reading research into a message being received by literacy practitioners, policymakers and families which prioritises phonics instruction, drowning-out complex and nuanced findings supporting a more comprehensive approach. Grounded in an emergent literacy paradigm and applying a sociocultural approach to literacy in the 21st century with an eye towards equity, this article reframes what is considered 'foundational' early literacy teaching and learning to reflect the research base that supports proportional attention to constrained and unconstrained skills through integrated and contextualised instruction. To narrow the enduring research-to-practice gap, researchers must build authentic research partnerships with schools and support teacher educators' and teachers' enactment of comprehensive approaches to literacy instruction, curricula and assessment.

The article is a book review of "Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debate" by Faith Rogow. The book emphasizes the importance of developing inquiry skills related to media literacy in young children, shifting the focus away from limiting screen time and towards exploring the possibilities and opportunities that media can offer for education and development. The book is organized into three parts, providing an overview of the history and importance of changing our thinking about media and technology, defining and framing the task of media literacy, and offering suggestions for practice in early childhood settings. The author presents ten competencies for media literacy and emphasizes the role of inquiry-based learning and social construction of knowledge. The book also addresses anti-bias and anti-racist scenarios and provides concrete strategies for integrating media literacy into existing teaching practices. Overall, the book promotes a strengths-based view of children and encourages adults to guide and support media literacy in a developmental and culturally sensitive manner. [Extracted from the article]

The nature of the literacy assessments valued in the persistent accountability climate within U.S. public education, coupled with an increasingly polarized discourse around what counts as the science of reading (SOR), have resulted in instructional gatekeeping that privileges constrained skill teaching and learning in K-3 settings. The gatekeeper phenomenon is an urgent issue of equity, with children from minoritized populations bearing the brunt of the disparity. By highlighting how commonly enacted policies and practices around assessment and accountability withhold unconstrained skill teaching and learning due to pressure to prove student success via constrained skill mastery, we demonstrate how some students, often the most marginalized, receive insufficient literacy instruction in K-3. To fully actualize an expansive definition of the SOR, an expansive definition of assessment and accountability must also be adopted - one which attends to constrained and unconstrained skills while utilizing appropriate measures to document learning beginning in the earliest grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to determine the relationship among student- and task-level variables at play in the digital storybook listening experiences of 130 English-speaking preschoolers at risk of reading failure. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship among the (1) features of computer-based electronic storybooks, (2) preschoolers' competency in the task environment, and (3) preschoolers' background knowledge with respect to listening comprehension outcomes following a single digital storybook listening experience. The results indicate significant and strong relationships among the three variables under investigation and their consequent understanding of the digital storybook (i.e. explicit and implicit/inferential content related to the plot). The preschoolers' topic knowledge was the best predictor of comprehension. In addition, the interaction between the features of the e-book and the preschoolers' competency in the task environment also significantly predicted the outcome.

The article explores the challenges faced by middle school teachers regarding book bans and censorship, emphasizing teachers' autonomy in selecting and using literature in classrooms. Topics include the teachers' concerns about book bans and censorship, the influence of government and administrative oversight on curriculum choices, and the broader sociopolitical climate affecting teachers' autonomy in selecting literature for their classrooms.

There is widespread agreement with in the field of early childhood education that vocabulary is important to literacy achievement and that reading aloud can support vocabulary growth. However, there are unexplored and significant problems with the ways we assess young children's vocabulary learning from read-alouds. This paper critically reviews the forms of vocabulary assessment commonly used with young children, examining the benefits and drawbacks of each. This review found: (a) general vocabulary measures are not practical, meaningful measures for vocabulary learning of specific words from books read aloud, (b) researcher-developed measures for specific words from books read aloud that mimic normed general vocabulary measures include serious threats to validity and reliability, and (c) other forms of measurement, such as soliciting definitions from children, are difficult to score reliably. This critical review of existing vocabulary assessments of word learning from read-alouds concludes that researchers and practitioners should carefully consider their needs for assessment data so as to choose, design and balance the uses of assessments to meet their needs for meaningful, reliable data.

e-Books share some key features with traditional printed picture books, but also include distinct features such as live animation, interactive components, and the operation of the technology that require new approaches to shared reading with young children. The purpose of this paper is to better inform adults working with young children (teachers, child care providers, and parents) of important factors to consider when choosing and sharing e-books with young children. We discuss why to share e-books with young children; types of e-books and how to evaluate them; how adults can best support young children's language and literacy development through shared readings of e-books, including examples of shared readings of an e-book with young children; and an exploration of the potential of e-books to support meaningful interactions around texts.

The high level of acceptance in US society of the preschool years as a critically important time for building early literacy skills has led to a flurry of activity in early childhood research and policy. The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) report "Developing Early Literacy" (2008) is one example of this activity. The NELP report is part of a larger movement in the past decade to ground educational practice in scientifically based research results. In this article the authors examine recommendations for practice emanating from the NELP report and related documents designed to lead educators toward better early literacy classroom practice. They begin by describing the recent influences on early literacy, including the NELP report and other documents that interpret the report's findings. They then review the implications of literacy practice for preschoolers recommended in the NELP report and in publications that draw on NELP. The authors intend to make clear for practitioners, administrators, policy makers, and those involved in early childhood professional development which of the instructional recommendations made for early literacy are warranted and which may well create problems for some children's later reading success if implemented by preschool teachers.

This article discusses the potential positive and problematic influences of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; 2008) report on prekindergarten and kindergarten classroom instructional practice. The authors support the instructional importance of the majority of the foundational skills identified in the NELP report as having "clear and consistently strong relationships with later conventional literacy skills" but also detail a number of concerns about NELP-influenced instructional recommendations drawn to date, arguing that the NELP report is both insufficiently clear and overly narrow with respect to what preschool teachers should be focusing on instructionally in early literacy. (Contains 1 note.)

Addressing beginning reading instruction in urban schools, this article proposes that a curriculum gap exists in many K-3 classrooms that operate under the guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act and Reading First. The authors make a case for the inclusion of systematic and sustained instruction in comprehension, content knowledge, and writing in the early grades as well as attention to the Reading First emphases on phonological awareness, decoding, word recognition, and reading fluency. (Contains 1 table.)

The article presents literature that provides a variety of perspectives in exploring and valuing the world around with high-quality children's and young adult literature. Topics include Sharice Davids' path into her career as a Congresswomen had obstacles. In her autobiographical account of her journey; and "Unsettled." by Reem Faruqi, offers Muslim immigrant family through verse, henna-inspired spot art, a family tree, and an emphasis on hope.

This case study examines the presence of digital tools and the inclusion of digital activities in a grade two classroom for one unit of study on the countries of the world. The researcher sought to: identify the range of web literacy activities and digital skills; describe the ways in which the teacher and students balanced analog and digital texts; and, present the features of the tools and texts used in literacy instruction in the classroom. Data were collected across six hours of classroom observation time spanning three days of instruction. Field notes, photographic stills, and audio-recorded and transcribed teacher interviews served as data sources for the study. 100 randomly selected entries in the field notes and the remaining data from the stills and interviews were coded using a constant comparative method for a range of variables related to the users, tools, texts, modes of meaning in the texts, curricular places, and web and digital skills and competencies. Results indicate 1) there were limited opportunities for children to participate in web literacies, despite the many opportunities to write/compose and read/consume digital media; 2) there is a balance between printed and analog text, and students move fluidly between the paper and the screen; 3) more modes of meaning are utilized in reading/consuming texts than in writing/composing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology in various forms is permeating more and more of everyday life, it is important to consider what we know about child development, social interaction, and literacy development as they relate to a child's experience with technology. Caregivers, researchers, and educators are faced with the complex task of determining the quality of an e-book in terms of potential educational value, appropriateness, and suitability for individual children as well as the possibility for adult supports, or the ways in which the adult can verbally or gesturally support the child's engagement with and understanding of digital text. This cross-sectional case study situates and analyzes the e-book reading experience of young children in the context of a supportive adult interaction. The study examines two children's experiences during a shared ebook reading with a parent in order to describe aspects of development, including effortful control, and the role of the caregiver/child interaction as they impact the literacy experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of seating arrangements and duration of the read-aloud activity on student engagement during read-alouds in preschool classroom. Topics include a rationale for considering student engagement for effective read-alouds, a study of the relationship between student engagement and seating arrangement and duration, and other factors affecting engagement such as the content of book and individual characteristics of students.

This article discusses the potential positive and problematic influences of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; 2008) report on prekindergarten and kindergarten classroom instructional practice. The authors support the instructional importance of the majority of the foundational skills identified in the NELP report as having "clear and consistently strong relationships with later conventional literacy skills" but also detail a number of concerns about NELP-influenced instructional recommendations drawn to date, arguing that the NELP report is both insufficiently clear and overly narrow with respect to what preschool teachers should be focusing on instructionally in early literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]