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Children's literature can be both a reflective mirror to readers' lives and a window to new worlds, making teachers' selection of texts for students an important professional activity. Researchers have consistently found that teachers' choices of literature contain limited representations of ethnicities, cultures, and disabilities, and reinforce gender stereotypes. Teacher educators, when working with pre-service teachers in university settings, utilize children's literature for literary, critical, and cultural pedagogical purposes. However, teacher educators rarely interrogate their text selections to explore patterns of representation, identity, and power. This paper describes and discusses a self-study into five children's picture books selected for modeling aspects of early literacy teaching in a pre-service teacher education unit. Critical content analysis was used to explore representation, identity, and power in the texts. The analysis showed some connections with trends found in research into early years and school teachers' selective traditions in the use of an older text and two texts without human characters. Other findings differed; agentive female characters, together with some variation of social, cultural, and ethnic groups and lives, were depicted in the three texts with human characters, likely because of the author's own bias towards expanding representation in texts. This article reports on an example of one teacher educator's selective literary tradition and shows how the texts used in education settings represent windows to specific worlds rather than standing in for 'diversity.' It makes suggestions for other educators interested in interrogating their text selections and invites dialog with other educators about representation, identity, and power in the texts they teach with. Keywords Children's literature * Teacher education * Representation * Diversity, 1 The importance of children's literature in education Children's literature is a ubiquitous and valuable part of early years and primary education. Literature 'illuminate(s) the human experience' (Saxby, 1991, p. [...]

Purpose Whilst survival in paediatric critical care has improved, clinicians lack tools capable of predicting long-term outcomes. We developed a machine learning model to predict poor school outcomes in children surviving intensive care unit (ICU). Methods Population-based study of children < 16 years requiring ICU admission in Queensland, Australia, between 1997 and 2019. Failure to meet the National Minimum Standard (NMS) in the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessment during primary and secondary school was the primary outcome. Routine ICU information was used to train machine learning classifiers. Models were trained, validated and tested using stratified nested cross-validation. Results 13,957 childhood ICU survivors with 37,200 corresponding NAPLAN tests after a median follow-up duration of 6 years were included. 14.7%, 17%, 15.6% and 16.6% failed to meet NMS in school grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. The model demonstrated an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.8 (standard deviation SD, 0.01), with 51% specificity to reach 85% sensitivity [relative Area Under the Precision Recall Curve (rel-AUPRC) 3.42, SD 0.06]. Socio-economic status, illness severity, and neurological, congenital, and genetic disorders contributed most to the predictions. In children with no comorbidities admitted between 2009 and 2019, the model achieved a AUROC of 0.77 (SD 0.03) and a rel-AUPRC of 3.31 (SD 0.42). Conclusions A machine learning model using data available at time of ICU discharge predicted failure to meet minimum educational requirements at school age. Implementation of this prediction tool could assist in prioritizing patients for follow-up and targeting of rehabilitative measures., Author(s): Patricia Gilholm [sup.1], Kristen Gibbons [sup.1], Sarah Brüningk [sup.2] [sup.3], Juliane Klatt [sup.2] [sup.3], Rhema Vaithianathan [sup.4], Debbie Long [sup.1] [sup.5], Johnny Millar [sup.6] [sup.7] [sup.8], Wojtek Tomaszewski [sup.4], [...]

With the explicit goal of today's school students being active citizens, critically engaged and democratically minded over the long course of their schooling, the authors of this article focus on the notions of rhetoric and, relatedly, rhetorical agency. While these notions are increasingly understood in secondary school contexts, their application in primary and early-childhood settings is under-explored. We define and propose rhetorical agency as a purposeful focus of school literacy practice and pedagogy, illustrating this with four examples in which rhetorical agency can be supported in the primary classroom. These relate to research we have undertaken or supported around children learning bilingually, students engaging in place-based investigations, rich text use, and critical literacy in the early years. Ultimately, we invite consideration of how primary classrooms and public schooling, and more specifically the practice of language and literacy education, might be enhanced expressly through a rhetorical lens. Keywords Rhetoric * Agency * Literacy * Pedagogy * Primary schooling, 1 Introduction: a rhetorical lens In this paper, we make a case for the concept of rhetoric, as a 'new' organising and framing principle for language and literacy studies in [...]

The purpose of this study was to examine how an early literacy intervention, Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS; Mathes et al. Kindergarten peer-assisted literacy strategies (K-PALS): Sopris West, 2001), can be intensified to extend the positive outcomes to students who do not initially demonstrate an adequate response to intervention. K-PALS was intensified by incorporating a self-monitoring package that included self-graphing. An alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of K-PALS with self-graphing alone and K-PALS with a self-monitoring package to baseline/K-PALS for the purpose of increasing student performance on the early literacy measure of phonemic awareness. The results of the study indicate that while the self-monitoring package was the more effective intervention for two of the three student participants, the self-graphing alone intervention also resulted in positive outcomes for both of these participants. There was no change in the phonemic awareness performance for the third participant throughout the alternating treatment phase. Implications for intensifying academic interventions within the context of a Response to Intervention framework are discussed., Author(s): Chelsea Ritter [sup.1], Julie Q. Morrison [sup.1], Keara Sherman [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.24827.3b, 0000 0001 2179 9593, School Psychology Program, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, [...]

Parent engagement is often promoted as a remedy for reducing achievement gaps between students from high socio-economic and low socio-economic backgrounds. However, researchers have found mixed results when examining parent engagement and student outcomes. Drawing on a study investigating the effectiveness of summer literacy camps offered by schools in Ontario, I compare the influence of parent engagement on two outcomes: (1) spring snapshot of cumulative learning, and (2) summer literacy growth/loss. In considering summer learning in regression analysis, I aim to investigate the effect of parent engagement without the influence of schools during the academic year. Out of 14 parent engagement measures, I find only three (parents' aspirations, home resources, discussions of school with children) are positive predictors of spring literacy outcomes and that none predict summer literacy growth/loss. Family socio-economic status remains a powerful predictor of achievement for both outcomes. I interpret my findings within three proposed mechanisms of parent engagement: cultivation ethic, realist reaction, and expressive logic. Keywords: parent engagement, literacy achievement, socio-economic status, inequality, summer learning, summer literacy camp(s) L'engagement des parents est souvent presente comme un remede pour reduire les ecarts de rendement entre les eleves issus des milieux socioeconomiques eleves et faibles. Cependant, les chercheurs ont constate des resultats mitiges lorsqu'ils ont examine l'engagement des parents et les resultats des eleves. En m'appuyant sur une etude portant sur l'efficacite des camps d'alphabetisation estivaux offerts par les ecoles de l'Ontario, je compare l'influence de l'engagement des parents sur deux resultats: 1) l'apercu printanier de l'apprentissage cumulatif, et 2) la croissance ou la perte d'alphabetisation durant l'ete. En considerant l'apprentissage estival dans une analyse de regression, je cherche a etudier l'effet de l'engagement des parents sans l'influence des ecoles pendant l'annee scolaire. Sur quatorze mesures de l'engagement des parents, je constate que trois seulement (les aspirations des parents, les ressources a la maison, les discussions sur l'ecole avec les enfants) sont des predicteurs positifs des resultats de l'alphabetisation au printemps et qu'aucune ne predit la croissance ou la perte de l'alphabetisation lors de l'ete. Le statut socioeconomique de la famille demeure un puissant indicateur de la reussite pour les deux resultats. J'interprete mes conclusions en fonction de trois mecanismes proposes pour l'engagement des parents: l'ethique de la culture, la reaction realiste et la logique expressive. Mots-cles: engagement des parents, alphabetisation, statut socioeconomique, inegalite, apprentissage estival, camp(s) d'alphabetisation d'ete, Acknowledgement This research was supported in part by funding from a SSHRC Insight Grant [435-2013-0730]. Introduction Parent engagement (1) in children's schooling has received widespread support from education policy makers, [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 has had consequences for children's education globally, as schools closed and parents found themselves playing the role of teacher, alongside their economic and other community roles. This study aims to explore the experiences of parents in northern Nigeria as they attempted to support their primary school children's reading development while schools were closed. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 15 middle- and low-socioeconomic status parents in Kano State, Nigeria. Using thematic analysis, we identified challenges faced by parents as well as unexpected positive effects of the pandemic. Challenges included the lack of textbooks and other appropriate learning materials, time pressures, and lack of knowledge of strategies to teach reading. However, parents noted that the extra time they had spent together during lockdowns had led to improved relationships in the household, and that they had been able to spend more time discussing moral development and discipline with their children. In summary, this sample of parents believed that the pandemic would not have severe impacts on their own children, as they were making efforts to support learning at home. However, they had concerns for children in Nigeria more broadly, particularly those whose parents were not literate, as they would have little access to learning outside school. Recommendations for the Nigerian government and other stakeholders include making learning materials available for home use, increasing the use of educational radio and television programming, and developing simple literacy assessments for parents to monitor children's progress. Keywords literacy, primary grades, Nigeria, COVID-19, parental support, Introduction Due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nigerian government closed schools across the nation on March 19, 2020 to reduce the spread of the virus (Dixit, 2020; [...]

This study compared the efficacy of the Headsprout.sup.© Early Reading (HER) program with SENCO-delivered supplementary literacy instruction. Participants were primary school children (aged 6-9) in receipt of free school meals and supplementary literacy instruction. Data were collected within their school setting. The treatment group received HER intervention, while the treatment as usual (TAU) group received SENCO-delivered intervention, inclusive of guided reading, paper-based phonics training and word recognition tasks. It was hypothesized that children in the HER intervention group would significantly outperform those in the TAU group on measures of word/non-word recognition and sentence reading over a 7-month period. Thirty-two pupils with specific literacy difficulty were randomized to either HER (n = 17) or TAU (n = 15). Literacy skills were assessed using the Phonics and Early Reading Assessment pre- and post-intervention. ANOVA and t test analysis found that HER made significantly greater gains on measures of word/non-word recognition [t(30) = 7.55, p < 0.001], sentence reading [t(30) = 3.33, p < 0.05] and sight words [t(30) = 4.23, p < 0.001] than the TAU group. This study is the first to demonstrate stronger outcomes for children receiving computer-aided instruction over SENCO-delivered literacy instruction in a Northern Irish School., Author(s): Catherine Storey [sup.1], Claire McDowell [sup.2], Julian C. Leslie [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4777.3, 0000 0004 0374 7521, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queens University Belfast, [...]

Introduction The morning is quiet as a few roll out of bed, begin the coffee maker, and bring some snacks to the coffee table. The rest of the Collective make [...]

Introduction: Although HIV prevalence is exceptionally high in South Africa, HIV testing rates remain below targeted guidelines. Older adults living with HIV are substantially more likely to remain undiagnosed than younger people. Cognitive function and literacy could play key roles in HIV status knowledge due to the decision-making processes required around weighing the costs and benefits of testing, navigating testing logistics and processing results. We aimed to assess the independent relationships among each of cognitive function, literacy and education with HIV status knowledge in a population-based sample of older adults living in a rural South African community with high HIV prevalence. Methods: We analyzed data from a population-based study of 5059 men and women aged 40 years and older in rural South Africa (Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH community (HAALSI)). HAALSI surveys, conducted between 2014 and 2015, queried self-reported literacy, educational attainment and HIV status knowledge. Laboratory tests were conducted to assess true HIV sero-status. Cognitive function was assessed with a battery of cognitive tests measuring time orientation, immediate and delayed recall, and numeracy and coded using confirmatory factor analysis as a z-standardized latent variable. We estimated the relationship between the outcome of HIV status knowledge and each of three exposures: (1) latent cognitive z-score, (2) literacy and (3) education, using confounder-adjusted modified Poisson regression models in the study population overall and stratified by HIV sero-status. Results: We found that HIV status knowledge was higher among those with higher cognitive z-scores (adjusted Prevalence Ratio (aPR) (95% CI): 1.18 (1.14, 1.21) per standard deviation unit), and among literate participants (aPR (95% CI): 1.24 (1.16, 1.32) vs. non-literate participants). Taken together, the associations with literacy and cognitive function completely attenuated the otherwise positive association between educational attainment and HIV status knowledge. The magnitudes of effect were generally similar among laboratory-confirmed HIV-negative and HIV-positive participants. Conclusions: Campaigns that target older adults in rural South Africa with HIV testing messages should carefully consider the cognitive and literacy levels of the intended audience. Innovations to ease the cognitive load associated with HIV testing could prove fruitful to increase HIV status knowledge. Keywords: HIV testing; older adults; South Africa; cognitive function; literacy; education, 1 | INTRODUCTION HIV testing and status knowledge are critical first steps in identifying people living with HIV and transitioning them into treatment and care. South Africa is one of [...]

In this paper we elucidate ways the deeper interactional underpinnings of dialogic discourse are found in the deep characteristics of the local classroom community. We analyse how, over one school year, a teacher promoted development of shared community values in her classroom of seven and eight-year-olds in the United States. We elaborate on the concept of a purposive value orientation in dialogic pedagogy. We show how the teacher used the social practice of Song of the Week (SOTW) to mediate the embodiment, enactment, and development of a shared 'chronotope' of 'our community values'. We argue that a dialogic value-orientation positively impacts how the talk and interaction of language and literacy practices are taken up in a classroom community. Our guiding research question was: In what ways does Song of the Week promote and develop shared community values in this second-grade classroom? Part of a two-year ethnographic case study, SOTW data included 55 days of video and transcripts (about four hours), field notes, lesson plans, interviews, and student poll and SOTW journals. We conducted discourse analysis of songs and talk about SOTW. Findings detail how the teacher carefully selected SOTW (from commercially available pre-recorded music tracks of songs by various musical artists) not only because they connected with the curriculum, but also for how she wanted the children to feel, and most significantly for the values that the songs contextualised. Findings also show how daily singing and talking about SOTW mediated the development of value-laden meaning gradually shared by the children, and created inclusive, embodied, enacted, cumulative experiences of shared values. This research is significant because it details an ethical-socio-epistemic-ontological-community building practice across time in an elementary classroom and shows how such a practice anchors classroom conditions where the dialogic values of attentive listening, taking student ideas seriously and engaging with multiple perspectives underpin the talk practices of literacy teaching and learning., Song of the Week: Developing We-for-us Dialogic Values 'Sing. Sing a song. Make it simple to last your whole life long.' (from 'Sing' written by Joe Raposo for the children's [...]

An educational chasm divides the Australian National Curriculum, which is permeated with detailed requirements for students to develop multimodal literacy, and the very substantially mono-modal literacy of the reading tests of the Australian National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). This paper proposes that mandated centralised large-scale testing approaches to literacy assessment, such as NAPLAN, need to be re-thought and reformed to be consistent with curriculum requirements in relation to multimodal literacy and with the multimodal nature of international tests such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and, most importantly, to influence and support teachers in ensuring that students acquire essential multimodal literacy competencies in the twenty-first century. This paper firstly demonstrates that the interaction of language and image in multimodal texts are integral to the nature of the multimodal literacy that is increasingly needed to negotiate the vast majority of texts we encounter in all domains of our lives, and are reflected in national curriculum documents. Secondly, analyses of international tests such as TIMSS and PISA show the significant proportion of assessment items that specifically address images and image-language relations for correct responses to test items. Thirdly, we provide analyses of the NAPLAN reading tests from 2008-2016, showing the minimal proportion of test items that deal with images and image-language relations. NAPLAN results contrast markedly with the former NSW Basic Skills Tests (BST), which show a significantly higher proportion of test items that dealt with image-language interaction. Fourthly, we reiterate that the paucity of attention to images in NAPLAN demonstrates that this mandated national literacy assessment does not assess multimodal literacy. This signals a strong need for re-thinking and reforming of NAPLAN, and similar large-scale literacy tests so that assessment approaches will more effectively contribute to enhancing the students' multimodal literacy development. Implications of the paper for supportive action by administrators, teachers and researchers towards such reform are briefly noted., Introduction There is an educational chasm that divides on the one hand, the Australian National Curriculum English (ACARA, 2018a), which is permeated with detailed requirements for students to develop multimodal [...]

Home literacy environment (HLE) is an umbrella term to describe a wide range of home activities and experiences that promote literacy development. The present study explored whether there is a relationship between certain components of children's language and literacy knowledge at school entry and their home literacy environment conceptualised in three different ways: active (e.g., reading books to the child), child-led (e.g., playing educational games on a tablet or smartphone), and passive or parent-led (e.g., parents reading articles for themselves online). A sample of 35 five-year old children and their parents participated. Children completed assessments of four indicators of early language and literacy development: receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and early word reading. Parents completed a questionnaire asking about their home literacy environment activities that were active, child-led, or passive. The results showed that active home literacy environment predicted receptive vocabulary, and vocabulary predicted the three measures of early literacy. Passive home literacy environment, that is, literacy behaviours of parents themselves such as reading books or articles online helped to predict children's phonological processing. It seems that oral language (facilitated by active home literacy environment activities and experiences) enables children to acquire phonological awareness, which in turn enables children to acquire letter-sound knowledge and early word reading., While individual differences in literacy development within and among schools are to be expected, inequalities in literacy knowledge seem to emerge even before children begin formal teaching instruction (Arrow, 2010) [...]

In this article, we describe our collaborative work with the Mozambique Ministry of Education in re-imagining primary literacy teacher preparation through an initiative that promotes closer personal (literacy focused) relationships between preservice teachers (formandos) and primary-aged students during the formando's preparation program. Our work seeks to disrupt traditional notions of Mozambique teacher preparation, which are mostly didactic and disconnected from community-based interactions with children. We are working to move toward ideologies that recognize and draw on children's cultural and linguistic resources. Our collaboratively designed literacy methodologies call for building personal relationships, engaging in responsive teaching, promoting translanguaging, encouraging children to take the lead in their own literacies, and drawing on community resources in our work with formandos. This report will focus on a description of the literacy mentoring program we are enacting and the results of a feasibility study at the Instituto de Formac, ao de Professores de Chitima. We will summarize the mentoring program and the findings from research, discuss our successes and challenges and the ways in which this initiative has the potential to reframe the current mode for academic coursework in primary teacher preparation, and our next steps in Mozambique. This collaborative model stands to inform a re-imagining of teacher preparation that is situated locally and grounded in practice. Keywords Primary teacher preparation; Literacy mentoring; Hybrid spaces; Transformative practice; Mozambique, Introduction 'The child I am working with cannot speak Portuguese,' stated one of the formandos (a preservice teacher) in a group debriefing, following one of the literacy mentoring sessions at [...]

Can new literacies improve undergraduate students' academic achievements? Despite abundant new literacies research, few studies have explored their effects on discipline-based academic achievements in formal tertiary education specific to the Asian learners in the Asia-Pacific region. This study examines the complex relationships between perceived effects among undergraduate English students of new literacies and their disciplinary academic achievements in respect of their digital engagement levels. Using a mixed-methods research design, this study reports specifically on the empirical results of a survey conducted over two years with English language learners whose majors are predominately English (N = 66) within a formal Asian English language learning setting. Participants' survey responses were analysed with their semester-end course grades comprising individual assessment scores supplemented by additional qualitative data as triangulation. The results showed significant positive associations between participants' perceived effects of new literacies and academic achievements, concerning particularly 'academic literacies' and 'collaboration;' and between their digital engagement levels and the scores of the assessment tasks, involving especially the interactive and collaborative discourse. These results inform how 'efficacious learning' fostered by new literacies can transform the academic literacies essential for academic success. Pedagogical implications, methodological challenges and future research are discussed., Introduction Today's booming internet and digital-media electronics, including online social networks or OSNs (hereinafter referred to as 'digital-media technologies') are permeating our education, work, culture and daily lives (Giddens, 2003). [...]

This article details findings from research that involved a targeted literacy intervention developed for use with students with literacy learning difficulties (LLD). We discuss changes in the literacy skills of two groups of students with LLD over the course of the intervention that included explicit instruction in morphological awareness. Thirty-six students with LLD, from Years 4 to 6 participated in the two studies, which were held over one school year. Analyses indicated that in both studies students made significant gains in measures of literacy that included reading accuracy and reading comprehension. These findings suggest that teachers should consider how a focus on morphology and its associated derivational complexities, could benefit the literacy development of students with LLD., Introduction Although many children develop the ability to read and write without any apparent difficulties, there exists a group of students for whom literacy development presents ongoing and pervasive difficulties. [...]

BECAUSE OF PRESUMPTIONS OF educational deficiency, little was known about the education-related resources of new-immigrant families in Taiwan (i.e. one parent is a marriage immigrant and the other is from Taiwan). This study therefore aimed to investigate the household resources and knowledge that promote literacy in these families. Four Vietnamese immigrant mothers with children aged four-six years, their husbands and their children were recruited in this ethnographic study. It was found that the children learned oral language, literacy and cultural knowledge through literacy practices in various transnational contexts, including visiting Vietnam, making telephone calls to Vietnamese relatives, listening to Vietnamese songs and stories, going to Vietnamese restaurants and stores and socialising with their mothers' Vietnamese friends. Moreover, their literacy learning was intertwined with their engagement in parents' jobs, hobbies and life experiences and with their learning of Vietnamese cultural values and multiple languages. The understanding of these children's experiences provides insight into the incorporation of such resources into literacy curricula. For example, teachers could expand children's knowledge of Vietnamese food by reading books about Vietnamese agriculture., Introduction In Taiwan, a family in which one parent is a marriage immigrant (i.e. a recent immigrant from another country, and almost always the mother) and the other is from [...]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the home literacy environment (HLE) on the English narrative development of Spanish-English bilingual children from low-income backgrounds. Method: Longitudinal data were collected on 81 bilingual children from preschool through 1st grade. English narrative skills were assessed in the fall and spring of each year. Microstructure measures included mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words. The Narrative Scoring Scheme (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010) measured macrostructure. Each fall, the children's mothers reported the frequency of literacy activities and number of children's books in the home. Growth curve modeling was used to describe the children's narrative development and the impact of the HLE over time. Results: Significant growth occurred for all narrative measures. The HLE did not affect microstructure growth. The frequency with which mothers read to their children had a positive impact on the growth of the children's total Narrative Scoring Scheme scores. Other aspects of the HLE, such as the frequency with which the mothers told stories, did not affect macrostructure development. Conclusions: These results provide information about the development of English narrative abilities and demonstrate the importance of frequent book reading for the overall narrative quality of children from Spanish-speaking homes who are learning English., Latino children constitute the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and account for approximately 23% of the total child population (National Council of La Raza, 2013). As a result, [...]

What do parents who cannot speak or read English say about their involvement in their children's learning to read in English? To investigate this question, data were collected using a group interview with ten parents of a Standard 2 class in a village school about 100km from Gaborone. Respondents, many of whom said they were actually grandparents, indicated that it pleases them to listen to their children read in English even though at times they see that the child is struggling to read the words. Others said that they doubted whether the child could read the words correctly or not. Findings show that parental involvement in children's reading in English seems limited to watching or listening as the child reads. Despite their handicaps relating to English, the parents seemed aware of their responsibility and of the contribution of their involvement to the children's early reading development. While these results cannot be generalised to other areas, they indicate a need for teachers to appreciate this type of parental involvement as beneficial, however minimal. We recommend that, in order to increase effectiveness of the involvement, school outreach programmes targeting parents of early grade learners be mounted. Key words: parental involvement; early grade literacy; family literacy; home language; language of teaching and learning; reading literacy development., Introduction There is a growing body of research literature from print-impoverished contexts indicating increased direct involvement by parents in their children's literacy development (see Ngwaru & Opoku-Amankwa, 2010; Mathangwane & [...]

Learning to write is integral to literacy learning, while success with literacy is reported to lead to success at school and in life generally. How teachers respond to children's early attempts at writing (often a mix of drawings and print) helps to form children's attitudes towards writing and the paths their experimentations follow. The aim of the study discussed in this paper was to examine early years' teachers' responses to a sample of writing from a young literacy learner in the early stages of the first year of school. Many of the decisions teachers make, are based on teachers', on the run analysis of, and responses to, children's work samples. A teacher survey (N=228) provided three different forms of data: demographic information, responses to questions using a 5 point Likert scale and open ended responses to a sample of early 'writing'. The findings suggest that some teachers are focusing on print conventions and accuracy when reviewing young children's writing samples, and seemingly undervaluing their drawings. This may unintentionally, be making learning to write at school unnecessarily difficult for some children., Introduction and study context Children usually start formal schooling in Australia between 4 V and 5 V years of age, although they may be a little older. They may, or [...]

Making connections can facilitate learning in several ways, for example, linking new ideas to existing schema or cueing the use of available skills for use in different contexts. The paper focuses on links between reading and writing. Theory suggests common processes operate in reading and writing that are mutually supportive in learning; empirically the relationship between performance in reading and writing is significant. There is evidence that specific writing practices can improve reading and, similarly, that reading can impact writing. This paper presents and applies empirically a framework for analysing the nature of the links that teachers make in literacy learning settings. The framework encompasses both the sites for, and the types of, connection; it is applied using observations and the associated transcripts from two corpora of literacy lessons from guided reading and teacher-led segments of writing lessons at the primary school level. The framework and these data provide a tentative indication of typical practice and important information for professional learning., Introduction The importance of making connections in the context of learning, for example from known concepts to those to be acquired, from the literacy of the home to that of [...]

This article provides a critical analysis of current and past studies that have investigated the impact of financial education interventions on consumer financial behavior and financial literacy. The authors consider how financial literacy is measured and examine how well the existing literature addresses whether financial education improves financial literacy or personal financial outcomes or behaviors. We conclude that, taken together, the literature does not succeed in establishing a causal link between financial interventions and the modification of an individual's spending, saving or investing behavior. The literature does, however, establish a positive correlation between financial interventions and increased financial literacy. Moreover, the existing literature suggests that financial literacy is essential to making optimal financial decisions Key Words: Retirement; Retirement planning; Consumer financial literacy; Financial planning: Financial interventions; Measuring financial literacy; Consumer financial behavior., Individuals are taking responsibility for a growing number of financial decisions. Arguably, the most important is preparation for retirement. In this new environment, where individuals have greater responsibility for determining [...]

Literacy practices and sociocultural contexts have greatly defined and influenced each other. The role language plays in mobilizing both revolution and progress is well delineated in Congchao Hua's article comparing [...]

Middle school learners are increasingly required to engage with curriculum-specific literacies as they transition from primary to secondary school. Teachers of middle school learners are correspondingly required to provide for learners' needs in identifying and making explicit the various literacy requirements of specific disciplines; and in utilising pedagogical models to assist learners to cope with these new demands. This paper describes a small-scale 'proof of concept' Design-Based Research (DBR) experiment conducted by a Year 5 teacher as part of a wider Australian Research Council project addressing new literacy demands for middle years' learners. The teacher investigated the benefits of explicit teaching of technical language in a science unit, aimed at increasing learners' facility, understanding of and confidence with scientific language in writing descriptions. She experimented with a DBR approach to allow for the gathering of multiple point sources of evidence to support her expectations and initial theoretical investigations, and for refinement and extension of her intervention as it occurred, based on analysis of data collected during the intervention phases. Positive outcomes of the experiment included increased learner confidence and facility in using scientific language, affirmation of the benefits of explicit subject-specific vocabulary teaching, and engagement by the teacher with a research approach that shows promise as a way forward in documenting classroom-based literacy research., Introduction The 'middle years' of schooling have been the subject of considerable and dedicated attention in educational research over recent decades. The adolescent learning years are often characterised as an [...]

THIS STUDY FOCUSES ON THE role of interpersonal interaction in early literacy development in one public preschool school in Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, it explores and analyses the nature of interpersonal interaction and collaborative activities the teachers employ in teaching literacy to children. The study involves observation of 82 children in literacy activities and interviews with three teachers. Framed and analysed in Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory, the results show interpersonal activities to be related to collaborative writing, collaborative story-reading, collaborative dialogic inquiry, collaborative meaning-making and child--child partnerships. The paper concludes that raising professional knowledge of the significance of interpersonal interaction, and focused professional development which builds and maintains teacher awareness of their teaching of literacy, would enhance children's literacy development in Thailand., Introduction This study explores the role of interpersonal interaction in early literacy development in one public preschool in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand. The literacy practices outlined in this [...]

This study assesses the environmental literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and concerns) of pre-vocational education teachers. A total of 124 teachers participated in the study. Data was collected through a closed ended [...]

'Puff, puff, chug, chug went the Little Blue Engine. 'I think I can--I think I can--I think I can.'' Words of encouragement, read lovingly to a child in the arms [...]

In 2007, a John Hopkins University researcher named Richmond High School in a national report as one of ten 'dropout factories' in the State of Indiana. The report described a [...]

When educators talk about a multiplicity of literacies--computer literacies, situated literacies, local literacies, eco literacies--it is as if there can be endless additions to the basic concept of (print) literacy [...]

It would be difficult to imagine a group of individuals more vitally interested in a child's literacy motivation than elementary school reading teachers. As a group, they are intensely and [...]

Over the past several decades, research has documented strong relationships between social class and children's cognitive abilities. These initial cognitive differences, which are substantial at school entry, increase as children progress through school. Despite the robust findings associated with this research, authors have generally neglected the extent to which school absenteeism exacerbates social class differences in academic development among young children. Using growth-curve analyses within a three-level hierarchical linear modeling framework, this study employs data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) to examine the links between children's social class, school absences, and academic growth during kindergarten and first grade. Results suggest that the effects of schooling on cognitive development are stronger for lower socioeconomic status (SES) children and that the findings associated with theories of summer learning loss are applicable to literacy development during early elementary school. Indeed, although they continue to achieve at lower absolute levels, socioeconomically disadvantaged children who have good attendance rates gain more literacy skills than their higher SES peers during kindergarten and first grade. Keywords social class, inequality, achievement, attendance DOI: 10.1177/0038040710383520

MALAWI, IN SOUTHEASTERN AFRICA, is one of the world's least-developed nations. Many of its children are among the roughly 250 million worldwide who are not in school of any kind. [...]

Introduction Libraries have limited budgets and Collection Development Librarians can be faced with difficult decisions in the spending of their allocated funds. This paper discusses how the Tasmanian Polytechnic Launceston [...]

Peter (student names are pseudonyms), a 5-year-old boy, rushes into the classroom excitedly, bursting to share his important news from home. His uncle, visiting from Poland, will be arriving today [...]

It is difficult to deny that many U.S. middle and high school students are in need of special literacy supports. * Approximately two thirds of 8th- and 12th-grade students read [...]

This paper describes a unit of study in the Bachelor of Education program in one of the largest teacher education programs in Australia. A major part of this unit involved the analyses of classroom discourse, where students were provided with grammatical knowledge that would enable them to analyse lessons for the purposes of improving the effectiveness of their teaching. The analyses introduced to the students and the ways in which the students used this knowledge are further discussed., Introduction Currently in Australia there is widespread concern about literacy standards, a concern that extends to teacher education students and in some cases teachers themselves. There is an expectation, which [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01247.x Abstract: Recent findings demonstrate that the most effective reading instruction may vary with children's language and literacy skills. These Child x Instruction interactions imply that individualizing instruction would be a potent strategy for improving students' literacy. A cluster-randomized control field trial, conducted in 10 high-moderate poverty schools, examined effects of individualizing literacy instruction. The instruction each first grader received (n = 461 in 47 classrooms, mean age = 6.7 years) during fall, winter, and spring was recorded. Comparing intervention-recommended amounts of instruction with observed amounts revealed that intervention teachers individualized instruction more precisely than did comparison teachers. Importantly, the more precisely the children received recommended amounts of instruction, the stronger was their literacy skill growth. Results provide strong evidence of Child x Instruction interaction effects on literacy outcomes. Author Affiliation: (1)Florida State University (2)University of Michigan (3)Florida State University (4)University of Michigan Article note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carol McDonald Connor, Florida State University, Florida Center for Reading Research, 227 N. Bronough Street, Suite 7250, Tallahassee, FL 3301. Electronic mail may be sent to cconnor@fsu.edu.

The study examines the gap between literacy campaigns by the Peruvian government and what the 'illiterates' actually need. A bilingual Quechua and Spanish-speaking woman who only had a year of schooling and her correspondence with her family is analyzed, with literacy showing to impact family network in a migration context.

Abstract In order for a child's Reading Recovery program to be successful, there must be three links in the chain of support: the Reading Recovery teacher, the classroom teacher, and [...]

During the fall of 2003, Hayder (pseudonym), a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee from Iraq, told us that the scorpion bite in his neck prevented him from learning to read. He said [...]

Jamie (pseudonym) entered the room hesitantly. He took a few steps, stopped, looked around, and frowned. He was the last of the tutees to arrive at the tutorial center. I [...]

Current literacy campaigns intended for indigenous communities in Third World countries are reconceptualizations of earlier colonial projects as they conform to the needs of late-modern capitalism. Even though early anthropology may have influenced the discourses surrounding literacy, current anthropologists have charted important cultural and linguistic territories that provide vital information to use when conceptualizing indigenous literacy education.

Many students are facing difficulties in accessing academic content information because the information that reflects school knowledge is obtained through printed texts which will not provide opportunities to develop problem solving ability, developing other higher-level critical thinking skills. The real goal of education of students should be the development of literate thought.

The concept of universal design and multiple literacies are explored which are developed as a means of providing equal access to general education curriculum and instructional goals along with providing opportunities for the development of literature thought for all students including students with disabilities. The use of technological and non technological based strategies and methods of instruction are explored to find the impact of using universal design as a means of providing educational justice for all students.