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The purpose of the study was to examine how disciplinary literacy instruction influenced the quality of science informational text produced by second-grade students (N = 45) using the compare/contr...

Hypersensitivity reactions to drugs are often unpredictable and can be life threatening, underscoring a need for understanding their underlying mechanisms and risk factors. The extent to which germline genetic variation influences the risk of commonly reported drug allergies such as penicillin allergy remains largely unknown. We extracted data from the electronic health records of more than 600,000 participants from the UK, Estonian, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center's BioVU biobanks to study the role of genetic variation in the occurrence of self-reported penicillin hypersensitivity reactions. We used imputed SNP to HLA typing data from these cohorts to further fine map the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) association and replicated our results in 23andMe's research cohort involving a total of 1.12 million individuals. Genome-wide meta-analysis of penicillin allergy revealed two loci, including one located in the HLA region on chromosome 6. This signal was further fine-mapped to the HLA-B∗55:01 allele (OR 1.41 95% CI 1.33-1.49, p value 2.04 × 10-31) and confirmed by independent replication in 23andMe's research cohort (OR 1.30 95% CI 1.25-1.34, p value 1.00 × 10-47). The lead SNP was also associated with lower lymphocyte counts and in silico follow-up suggests a potential effect on T-lymphocytes at HLA-B∗55:01. We also observed a significant hit in PTPN22 and the GWAS results correlated with the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. We present robust evidence for the role of an allele of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I gene HLA-B in the occurrence of penicillin allergy.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a form of writing instruction designed to teach second-graders to write compare and contrast informational texts. 73% of the participants (N = 45) were White, 22% were Hispanic, 2% were Asian, and 1% were Black, with 63% of the students eligible for free or reduced lunch. 48% of the students were female and 52% were male. Data collection included pre- and post-instruction writing samples that were scored using both a holistic and analytic writing rubric. A paired samples t-test revealed statistically significant differences (p = .000 for both the holistic and analytic rubric analyses) in student writing scores before and after instruction with a medium (d = .52) and large (d = .95) effect size reported. These findings suggest that the integrated science and literacy instructional approach supported the second-graders as they learned to write science informational texts that employed a compare and contrast text structure. Because the analytic rubric produced ordinal data, a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to explore any differences noted for the individual rubric elements. Results in these analyses indicated that there were statistically significant increases from pre- to post-instruction for the use of science vocabulary and definitions, for word count, and for the use of periods. There were no statistically significant differences in the use of signal words to indicate the compare/contrast text structure, in the use of capitals, or an introduction or conclusion.

As student demographics continue to change in countries across the world, questions remain as to how well teacher education programmes are training teachers to teach students who are culturally div...

The purpose of the study was to examine how integrated science and disciplinary literacy instruction influenced the quality of science informational text produced by first-grade students and student perceptions these young children held about scientists. The disciplinary literacy instruction took place over the course of 8 weeks (three 20–30-min lessons/week) and incorporated reading, writing, speaking, and listening as literacy tools to make sense of science content. A single-subject design (N = 76) using a paired sample t test was used to compare results of the scores from the informational text writing samples using a writing rubric and the Draw-a-Scientist Test. Results revealed that students were able to produce higher-quality science informational texts in all areas being examined on the weighted writing rubric. However, the perceptions the first graders had regarding scientists remained essentially unchanged from beginning to end of the study. Implications for these findings are discussed. Educators should consider disciplinary literacy instruction as a way to support young children in learning to write science informational texts effectively.

With an increasingly diverse student population in the US and worldwide, it is imperative that teachers feel efficacious about their ability to teach children to read who are culturally and linguis...

The population of emerging bilinguals (EBs) is rapidly growing across the United States leaving many teachers wondering how best to teach these students to read and write effectively in Eng...

SummaryUnderstanding the mechanisms by which infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is of significant clinical interest given the mortality associated with severe and critical coronavirus induced disease 2019 (COVID-19). Neutrophils play a key role in the lung injury characteristic of non-COVID-19 ARDS, but a relative paucity of these cells is observed at post-mortem in lung tissue of patients who succumb to infection with SARS-CoV-2. With emerging evidence of a dysregulated innate immune response in COVID-19, we undertook a functional proteomic survey of circulating neutrophil populations, comparing patients with COVID-19 ARDS, non-COVID-19 ARDS, moderate COVID-19, and healthy controls. We observe that expansion of the circulating neutrophil compartment and the presence of activated low and normal density mature and immature neutrophil populations occurs in both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 ARDS. In contrast, release of neutrophil granule proteins, neutrophil activation of the clotting cascade and formation of neutrophil platelet aggregates is significantly increased in COVID-19 ARDS. Importantly, activation of components of the neutrophil type I IFN responses is specific to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and linked to metabolic rewiring. Together this work highlights how differential activation of circulating neutrophil populations may contribute to the pathogenesis of ARDS, identifying processes that are specific to COVID-19 ARDS.

With the adoption of the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, writing has become an increasingly important area of instruction. Moreover, there has been an increased sophistication in the types of writing required of young children and the use of textual evidence expected in student writing. Historically, children have not been routinely taught explicit strategies for writing, but have been exposed to less rigid writing instruction such as Writer's Workshop. The current study examined an explicit writing strategy, the Read-to-Write Strategy, to determine its effectiveness in teaching young children how to write sequential text. A single subject design (N = 40) was used to compare the writing of second graders before and after instruction. Results indicated that the Read-to-Write Strategy significantly increased the quality of sequential text from the pre- to post-instruction with a large effect size reported. Implications and recommendations for educators and researchers are provided.

Much of the research exploring rural school settings has centered on ways to prepare, recruit, and retain teachers. However, little is known about the instruction provided by these teachers. Using a multiple case study design, we examined the instructional practices of five “expert” teachers from a rural school district in the U.S. Data consisted of a think aloud protocol, lesson plans, teaching observations, and semi-structured interviews. The teachers didn't write elaborate lesson plans or rely heavily on curriculum programs. Instead, teachers utilized teaching strategies, disciplined improvisation, knowledge of their students, learning outcomes, and formal and informal assessment to drive instruction.

Early elementary teachers are under great pressure to teach all children to read and write at highly proficient levels while simultaneously emphasizing STEM instruction to prepare students for the 21st century. Traditionally, literacy skills are taught in isolation from science instruction. However, reading and writing are the perfect tools to use for inquiry and reasoning, for creating a hypothesis, and for gathering, evaluating, and analyzing data. In this article, the authors describe how literacy and science instruction can be merged to create innovative, stimulating, and enriching learning experiences for young children.

Clark examines the critical juncture from teacher preparation to in-service teaching practice with respect to the malleability of teacher self-efficacy. Results indicate that overall, teacher candidates reported higher perceptions of their ability to perform instructional tasks at the conclusion of their program than they did at the completion of the first year of teaching. For those teacher candidates with the highest scores, there was even a greater drop in their self-efficacy score by the end of their first year of teaching. This chapter author purports that the transition from teacher education to in-service leaves questions about what is strong or high self-efficacy relative to years of practice. Readers are encouraged to ponder about whom holds the responsibility to enhance self-efficacy in novice teachers: teacher educators, mentor teachers, school districts, professional learning providers, and/or the novice teachers themselves? Clark provides implications and recommendations for school leaders and teacher educators in this chapter.

This study investigated the affordances of informational texts to serve as model texts for teaching text structure to elementary school children. Content analysis of a random sampling of children’s informational texts from top publishers was conducted on text structure organization and on the inclusion of text features as signals of text structure. Our findings showed three limitations to the affordances present in informational texts currently available for elementary school children. Implications of these findings are discussed.

In this self-study, a teacher’s in the moment recordings of emotional episodes were analyzed with the help of a critical friend, leading to the discovery of patterns of emotional responses. Initial emotional responses often covered up deeper emotional issues that implicated the teaching self. After dialog with a critical friend, those issues were recognized and contextualized, resulting in greater understanding of self that led to change in approach to future emotional episodes, leading to better classroom environments. Acknowledging deeper emotional issues empowered the teacher to manage herself and students with more emotionally healthy methods.

This study investigated differences in self-efficacy to teach literacy between two groups of pre-service teachers. The authors hypothesized that pre-service teachers enrolled in one program focusing on fewer grade levels (K–3) and requiring more literacy-focused courses would have higher self-efficacy than pre-service teachers enrolled in another program focusing on more grade levels (K–6) and requiring fewer literacy-focused courses. However, the opposite findings were realized. Moreover, results demonstrated that regardless of program, pre-service teachers felt less efficacious about teaching writing when compared to teaching reading. Implications for teacher educators and recommendations for literacy instruction are discussed.

There has been no research reported about if or how well primary grade teachers can identify information text structures in children's authentic informational texts. The ability to do so accurately and reliably is a prerequisite for teachers to be able to teach students how to recognize and use text structures to assist them in comprehending informational texts. The authors report the development of the Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS2). Prior to training, primary grade teachers demonstrated low accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional expository text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts. Results after training with the ITS2 instrument showed significant improvements in the teachers’ accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional informational text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts after training with the ITS2 instrument.

As teacher educators, we implore teacher candidates to understand the cultures and experiences of their students to engage them in learning. Yet, preservice teachers are seldom asked what they hope to learn in their training to become teachers of young children. In this study, we examined the interests, resources, and expectations of millennial preservice teachers born between 1980 and 2001. We found that millennial preservice teachers saw themselves as accepting of differences, hesitant to learn about assessment, very impressed with their teaching abilities, but not highly skilled in their ability to provide critique and feedback. Suggestions for enhancing the teacher training experience for millennials are discussed, as are the possible implications of training teachers of young children.

Teacher education programmes (TEPs) are left with limited research on how the coursework they provide influences the perceptions teachers have about their ability to teach young children how to read – especially over the long term. The purpose of this study was to compare how teacher candidates rate their ability to teach reading at the conclusion of their TEP, and then again after a year of teaching. The matched participants (N = 126) were elementary education teachers representing five TEPs in one US state. Results revealed that the number of reading methods courses provided does influence the perceptions of pre-service and in-service teachers. Teachers who had two reading methods courses compared with teachers who had only one reading methods course reported statistically significant higher scores at the pre-service stage and were able to maintain higher scores at the in-service stage. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Recently, increased attention has been placed on the importance of having knowledgeable and skilled teachers in order to influence reading achievement. Yet many international reports suggest that large numbers of children are not learning to read. How can we better prepare teachers with the necessary knowledge to teach reading? The current study examined the reading instructional knowledge of elementary education preservice teachers (N = 87) from two teacher education programmes. Programme A required five reading methods courses and Programme B required two methods courses. Findings indicate that the preservice teachers presented fairly robust levels of knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary. However, we found statistically significant differences in knowledge based on the programme attended and the number of courses completed. Suggestions for improving reading teacher education are provided.

This study investigates how the culminating teacher preparation program (TPP) experience (either student teaching assignment or internship) influences the perceptions teachers report about their ability to perform instructional tasks required of teachers. A multivariate ANOVA test ( N = 502) was conducted to compare perceptions of student teachers (those who taught 15 weeks) and interns (those who taught a full academic year) at two points in time—once at the conclusion of their TPP and again after their first year of teaching. Results indicate that overall, student teachers report higher perceptions of their ability to perform instructional tasks than interns do at both the preservice and inservice teacher stages. Interns reported higher scores at the inservice stage on only the mathematics subscale, suggesting that there is some change in self-efficacy as teachers gain teaching experience. Findings suggest that the student teaching context provides more modeling and verbal support and produces teachers with higher perceptions of teaching ability than those who complete an internship.

With the increased emphasis on college and career readiness resulting from the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the need for students to be able to read and write proficiently has become well established. Social studies teachers are now expected to teach nonfiction reading and writing skills in their content-area courses. Many middle school teachers do not have a background in teaching literacy and are reluctant to incorporate literacy strategies into their curriculum because they feel ill prepared or inadequate to the task. They may also feel that their content instruction will suffer because of the time and instructional demands imposed on them by adding literacy to an already long list of learning objectives. The purpose of this article is to provide specifics on how middle school social studies teachers can incorporate content-area literacy skills without abandoning the curriculum and content of their classes.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the types and occurrences of explicit instructional moves recommended for teaching five essentials of effective reading instruction in grades 1, 3, and 5 core reading program teachers’ editions in five widely marketed core reading programs. Guided practice was the most frequently recommended explicit instructional move for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. Discussion was the dominant explicit instructional move recommended for comprehension. Modeling was the dominant explicit instructional move recommended for fluency. Core reading program lessons were found to provide ample explicit instructional move recommendations for explanations and guided practice, with less attention to modeling or discussing reading concepts, strategies, and skills. The core reading program lessons provided inadequate recommendations for the explicit instructional moves of monitoring student progress, providing students feedback, and moving...

The purpose of this embedded mixed methods study was to examine how sixth graders with high and low reading attitudes perceive teacher read aloud. We utilized quantitative data by surveying sixth graders (N = 87) about their reading attitudes and then collected qualitative data by interviewing five students, interviewing the teacher, conducting classroom observations, and reviewing read aloud materials. Students with lower reading attitudes enjoyed the relaxed classroom setting, while those with higher attitudes enjoyed the books being read. Other themes suggested that all students engaged inconsistently with the text, and that students are indeed aware of the potential instructional benefits of reading aloud. Implications are discussed including the importance of pairing teacher read aloud with other strategies to help students engage more explicitly with the text.

It is believed that by classifying the branching patterns of the facial artery, surgeons will have a better understanding of arterial distribution across the face, resulting in a greater success rate with regards to facial reconstructive surgery using this vessel. However, there is still a dispute within the literature as to how the facial artery should be classified. The purpose of this study was to identify the branching pattern and termination point of the facial artery and to establish if these classifications corresponded to those in the literature. The facial artery was dissected in 21 adult embalmed Caucasian cadavers. A superficial pre-auricular incision was made in the coronal plane anterior to the auricle, extending from the tragus to approximately the mid-point on the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The skin and platysma were retracted anteriorly to expose the facial artery. Twenty-five different arterial branching patterns and six main termination points over 40 facial arteries were found. Some of the patterns found correlated with those described within the literature, whilst many were unique to this investigation. The wide variation in the branching pattern and termination point of the facial artery demonstrates the difficulty in producing classification patterns for this vessel. It also raises the question on the usefulness of producing classification patterns. With the increasing use of pre-operative imaging and planning, coupled with meticulous dissection of every branch of the artery intra-operatively, it may have no clinical relevance producing many sub-classification patterns of arterial variation.

In this study, we tracked elementary preservice teachers' (N = 41) perceived ability to teach reading as they moved through their teacher preparation program. After graduation, we conducted follow-up teaching observations and interviews with five of these novice teachers to explore their perceptions about their ability to teach reading. An analysis of these data revealed four distinct themes: (1) alignment of reading instruction practices with preparation program, (2) the influence of teacher education, (3) the need for more training on meeting the needs of individual students, and (4) the possibility of connecting with teacher educators once graduates obtain full-time employment. Suggestions are made to help teachers feel more competent and capable in teaching children to read and as they make the transition from preservice to full-time teaching.

Teaching children in the primary grades the text structures and features used by authors of information text has been shown to improve comprehension of information texts and provide the scaffolding and support these children need in order to write their own information texts. As teachers implement the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they will need support and training on how to meet these increased curricular demands. In this article, we describe how children’s information books can be used as exemplars of well-structured text models to teach young students how to write selected discourse patterns required in the CCSS. As children in the primary grades learn to recognize and use well-structured example information texts as models for their own writing, they will be better prepared to deal with less well-structured, more complex text examples in their reading and writing in the years to come.

Once hired, beginning teachers face the daunting and demanding task of setting up a classroom and becoming a teacher that influences student achievement in positive ways. This article addresses some of these challenges and provides meaningful suggestions for principals and administrators hoping to support, sustain, and retain their novice teachers.

Alphabet knowledge is consistently recognized as the strongest, most durable predictor of later literacy achievement. Recent research offers practical implications for increased effectiveness of teaching alphabet knowledge to young children. In this article, we outline Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge instruction (EAK), a method of practical instruction that early childhood teachers can use to organize, plan, and teach the essential skills of alphabet knowledge. EAK emphasizes identifying the letter name and sound, recognizing the letter in text, and producing the letter form, through flexible, distributed cycles of review based on factors that influence acquisition of alphabet knowledge.

This study examined the perceptions of elementary school beginning teachers (n = 136) across a Rocky Mountain state in the US regarding the mentoring support they received during their first year teaching. Beginning teachers were asked to report the types of mentoring support they received and to rate the helpfulness of this support on the Mentoring Support Survey. Individual item scores and scale scores are reported. An analysis of variance was then used to compare the scale scores of teachers with the administrator-facilitated mentoring supports of common planning time with their mentors and/or release time to observe other teachers. Results indicate that beginning teachers who received both common planning time with a mentor and release time to observe other teachers rated the mentoring experiences they had as significantly more helpful than beginning teachers who were not provided these mentoring supports. Of the two, provision of common planning time was the most important type of administrator-facilitated support.