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For the past few decades, stylistics has emerged as a discipline that encompasses both literary criticism and linguistics. The integration of both disciplines opened many opportunities for English literature and language teachers to get creative in their teaching--by introducing the stylistic approach in their classrooms. However, in a typical Southeast Asian classroom (Sadiman, 2004), several problems such as the lack of resources, scarcity of quality teaching strategies, time defciency, as well as the unfamiliarity of authentic assessment seem to impede the utilization of the mentioned approach or other learner-centered approaches. Moreover, only limited literature on the analysis, let alone the teaching, of the ballad adopting the stylistic method are evident. This paper could be described as an attempt to address these problems. It provides a fresh perspective in analyzing a well-known 18th century British ballad, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," in the syntactical/structural, lexical, and phonological aspects of stylistics. It also attempts to explain the evident theme of warfare based on textual evidences in the aforementioned aspects. In addition, it contributes to the existing literature advocating the stylistic approach in both the teaching of language and literature. Furthermore, it provides several potential comprehensive activities that take into account the challenging setting and situation of Southeast Asian English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, especially at the tertiary level. This paper also has implications on classrooms that experience the same aforementioned challenges, and is not only limited to the Southeast Asian context.

This case study was conducted in order to observe and investigate the critical reading discourse (CRD) of 27 freshman pre-service teachers of English at the department of foreign language teaching at a state university in Turkey. In addition, the study attempts to answer the question of how the critical reading discourse of the students is shaped through feedback, instruction, and time. The written and audio-visual data were collected in the Advanced Reading and Writing I and II courses, which are offered to first-year students in the Foreign Language Education (FLE) department. The results of the data analysis indicate that the critical reading discourse of the freshman pre-service teachers of English involves interpretive, evaluative, and responsive discourse. Evaluative discourse was found to be limited in students' written work and discussions when compared to interpretive and responsive discourse. The students also usually tended to evaluate the content of the texts rather than their form. It was also found that instruction about academic writing fosters critical thinking, but it was not sufficient to encourage critical reading.

Purpose: Scholars who advocate for equity-oriented educational practices have argued that the accountability era in the USA, now in place for two decades, has failed in its intended goal to improve student performance for traditionally marginalized student populations. This study aims to use a sociocultural lens to trace how a century-old conceptualization of reading--that discrete skills comprise comprehension and that multiple-choice questions can measure mastery of those skills--predominates today's standardized reading tests. Design/methodology/approach: This essay draws on the authors' collective experiences as literacy educators, school leaders and researchers. Findings: The authors critique two beliefs rooted in Eurocentric thinking borne from a long-held conceptualization of reading--that logical reasoning and the right background knowledge can promote achievement on standardized tests. The authors link the critique to their lived experiences and situate test design features in the broader sociopolitical educational landscape. Then, by presenting examples from an urban public high school, the authors encourage educational leaders to revisit the potential of authentic assessments as complex and meaningful activities that foster the critical thinking necessary for participating in democracy. Practical implications: Committing to authentic assessments takes the work characteristic of transformative school leadership, especially serving diverse student populations: A clear and ambitious vision that centers social justice and cultural relevance, frequent, shared opportunities for professional growth and shared norms for instructional practice and student growth. Originality/value: This essay encourages educational leaders, researchers and policymakers to revisit the potential of authentic assessments as tasks that can surpass external measures in informing teachers about how students' develop their literacy in school.

With increasing social media attacks on scholarship and individual academics, educators must be prepared to talk to their students openly about skewed threats from the ideological right. This assignment opens up dialogue against such attacks by introducing core tenets of information literacy in conversation with an instructor's academic work. The activity promotes open dialogue in ways that humanize those instructors who are the target of such attacks while teaching key aspects of information literacy. Course: Introduction to Communication, Introduction to Media Studies, Critical Thinking. Objectives: (1) evaluate credibility in online communication; (2) understand the major tenets of information literacy; (3) develop strategies for critical reading of arguments in scholarly work; and (4) create dialogue between students and instructors.

To engage in critical readings of literary texts, in ways that are also ethical and compassionate, requires readers to enter emotionally and imaginatively into the complex, textual worlds of others as they are portrayed in stories. Such stories have the potential to create new worlds that make visible our collective being in ways that allow us to enter into democracy with more empathetic and just lenses. In this regard, we discuss both past and recent work of scholars whose insights we believe are useful for rethinking and deepening what it means to read and respond to creative narratives with "one's heart as well as with one's mind." Given the popularity in recent years of teaching literary theory, and embracing the power of "critical" reading in English classrooms, the value of affective and imaginative ways of reading has been increasingly understated. We thus call for an engaged humanities reform we believe is ultimately crucial to creating reader-citizens who can successfully engage in community practices and decisions rooted in a general concern for the value of the lives of others.

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Communication Research Methods, Introduction to Communication Studies. Objectives: This is an introductory exercise that acquaints students with rhetorical criticism as a means of communication inquiry. By the end of the exercise, students will be able to: understand symbols as connected and contextual; define terms such as text, reading, criticism, and rhetoric; explain close reading and rhetorical criticism; and perform introductory-level rhetorical criticism.

We examined sixth graders' detection of inconsistencies in narrative and expository passages, contrasting participants who were monolingual speakers (N = 85) or Spanish-English DLLs (N = 94) when recruited in pre-kindergarten (PK). We recorded self-paced reading times and judgments about whether the text made sense, and took an independent measure of word reading. Main findings were that inconsistency detection was better for narratives, for participants who were monolingual speakers in PK, and for those who were better word readers. When the text processing demands were increased by separating the inconsistent sentence and its premise with filler sentences there was a stronger signal for inconsistency detection during reading for better word readers. Reading patterns differed for texts for which children reported an inconsistency compared to those for which they did not, indicating a failure to adequately monitor for coherence while reading. Our performance measures indicate that narrative and expository texts make different demands on readers.

This eye-tracking study examines how differences in sources' trustworthiness are used by readers to regulate and resolve conflicting scientific claims. One hundred forty-four university students were sequentially presented with two conflicting scientific claims (regarding nanotechnology) across two texts. The claims were indicated to stem from two high-trustworthiness sources, two low-trustworthiness sources, or one high-trustworthiness source and one low-trustworthiness source. After having read the claims, participants rated their subjective explanations for the conflict, their personal claim agreement, and behavioral intent and completed a source-memory task. In line with our predictions, trustworthiness differences resulted in increased visual attention to source information as compared to when both sources were of equal trustworthiness. Trustworthiness differences also affected subjective conflict explanations, claim agreement, and behavioral intent. We discuss these results in the context of the Content-Source Integration model and propose an additional differentiation between readers' consideration of source information for conflict regulation and conflict resolution.

Comprehension substantially benefits from attending to, thinking about, and mentally representing the sources of any presented information. Such processes require mental effort and unfortunately people do not always engage in such activities. The current article presents a nascent, evolving model of discourse comprehension that formalizes mechanisms to predict and explain people's strategic use of source information. The discrepancy-induced source comprehension (D-ISC) model and its theoretical assumptions describe the moment-by-moment cognitive processes in which readers engage when they interact with potentially contradictory or controversial messages presented by different information sources. The utility of the model is supported by evidence from a growing research base examining single- and multiple-text comprehension experiences. The D-ISC model is also useful for suggesting future directions that could help build more-nuanced understandings of the ways that diverse readers engage in sourcing activities within everyday discourse contexts.

Textbooks do not only offer information on specific topics and delineate competence development but provide insights into a society's socio-cultural norms and values by means of representations. In particular, this refers to the diversity with which classrooms, groups of friends and families are depicted in textbooks. The contribution at hand presents a critical analysis of current Austrian textbooks for the subjects German, Science, Maths and English as a Foreign Language used in primary education. Our analysis reveals a strong tendency towards the depiction of able, white and male protagonists as the norm, presenting an ideology of power from which they explain the world. Female characters are mainly reduced to the activities of wondering, listening to their male counterparts and following their lead. While there are few exceptions, further identities such as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPoC) or people with physical and/or mental varieties can hardly be found. Applying a qualitative and quantitative content analysis, this study not only considered a numerical diversity in terms of gender, BIPoC and physical and/or mental variety but also investigated the agency of respective characters. Thus, disempowerment amplifies when identity markers intersect.

This study investigates learner's reading behaviors in a critical reading task in humanities course using learning analytics techniques. "A Critical Analysis of Literature and Cinema" course was selected as a context. The course activities evolved over 10 years, and for this instance, some face-to-face classroom critical reading activities were migrated to online mode by using BookRoll, a learning analytics enhanced eBook platform. Students (n=22 out of the 50 registered) accessed "Hayavadana," an Indian play uploaded on BookRoll, and attempted to identify performative elements and cultural references in the text and highlight them. In this study, we analyze learner's reading logs gathered in the learning record store linked to BookRoll during that activity. We extend our previous work where we identify four online reading profiles: "effortful," "strategic," "wanderers," and "check-out," based on learner's clickstream interactions and time spent with the content. We validate the profiles with qualitative interview data collected from the learners and illustrate the quantified learning behaviors of each of those profiles based on an engagement metric. Our work aims to initiate further discussion related to the application of learning analytics in humanities courses both to probe into the learning behaviors of the students and thereby enhance the experiences with the use of interactive learning environments and data-driven services.

This paper is predicated on an argument for presenting the Irish short story as a statutory recommendation within the A Level English syllabus in Northern Ireland (and also, perhaps, in syllabi set by Examination Boards in other parts of the United Kingdom). Employing a carefully considered literary-critical perspective, the paper offers a detailed evaluation of a representative selection of twentieth-century Irish short stories. The first part, sub-divided into two sections, provides, firstly, some observations about form in the Irish short story and, secondly, it offers some historical and social contexts which provide a backcloth to the evolution of the short story as the twentieth century progressed. The second part, in exploring a carefully selected range of stories, seeks to highlight both their thematic richness and their well-honed craftsmanship. Some of the themes which emerge, and which arguably have universal resonances, include the trauma of emigration, the changing role of women in a society beginning to loosen the shackles of patriarchy, and the inhumanity of war.

This paper examines the use of linguistic devices in a Chairman's Statement to foreground a positive self-image and background references to financial shortcomings in times of financial distress. Drawing on impression management theory and critical discourse analysis, we reveal the systematic use of language to portray an organization as a responsible entity caught up in uncertain times rather than one which is accountable for poor financial performance. The study draws attention to how business students may benefit from a critical reading course which heightens their awareness of how linguistic devices are used to shape reality for stakeholders while managing impression.

Critical thinking is one of the most highly sought skills in education, yet questions remain about instilling students with this elusive set of skills and dispositions. Is it generalizable or discipline-specific? How should it be taught? This article describes an approach by two middle school teachers who developed and taught an in-person and virtual humanities curriculum. They utilized an instructional routine involving discussion and writing to help students comprehend and think critically about challenging, disciplinary texts. Opportunities for discussion and writing before, during, and after reading allowed for scaffolded, deeper understandings of the texts.

Critical evaluation and analysis are essential skills of the scientific process which can be further developed through reading primary scientific literature. However, early stage scientists, including undergraduate and graduate students, often face barriers to reading and comprehending primary literature, which can make deeper investigation and evaluation of content even more challenging. To address this core skills gap, we designed a virtual journal club series. This series was designed to keep undergraduate students engaged following restrictions on in-person activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As this initiative was developed and led by graduate students, activities were designed with an emphasis on facilitating student-centered learning outcomes. We used several active learning techniques, including deconstruction of the main message through one-sentence summaries, collaborative student engagement via distinct team roles, conceptual diagrams to reinforce learning and develop communication skills through presentations, and word journals to encourage evaluation and synthesis of ideas across readings. We highlight how these strategies can be used for the design of literature-based training both inside and outside of the classroom. Further, we demonstrate that virtual journal clubs are an effective strategy for enhancing science literacy skills by facilitating student buy-in.

One of the many sources of information easily available to children is the internet and the millions of websites providing accurate, and sometimes inaccurate, information. In the current investigation, we examined children's ability to use credibility information about websites when learning about environmental sustainability. In two studies, children studied two different websites and were tested on what they had learned a week later using a multiple-choice test containing both website items and new distracters. Children were given either no information about the websites or were told that one of the websites (the noncredible website) contained errors and they should not use any information from that website to answer the test. In both studies, children aged 7- to 9-years reported information from the noncredible website even when instructed not to, whereas the 10- to 12-year-olds used the credibility warning to 'edit out' information that they had learned from the noncredible website. In Study 2, there was an indication that the older children spontaneously assessed the credibility of the website if credibility markers were made explicit. A plausible explanation is that, although children remembered information from the websites, they needed explicit instruction to "bind the website content with the relevant source" (the individual websites). The results have implications for children's learning in an open-access, digital age where information comes from many sources, credible and noncredible. Education in credibility evaluation may enable children to be critical consumers of information thereby resisting misinformation provided through public sources.

The aim of this research was to describe the errors and reading levels that 6th and 7th grade Chilean primary school children reach when working with line graphs. To achieve this objective, we gave a questionnaire, previously validated by experts with two open-ended tasks, to a sample of 745 students from different Chilean cities. In the first task, we asked the children to read the title of the graph, describe the variables represented and perform a direct and inverse reading of a data value. In the second task, where we address the visual effect of a scale change in a representation, the students had to select the line graph more convenient to a candidate. Although both tasks were considered easy for the grade levels targeted, only some of the students achieved the highest reading level and many made occasional errors in the reading of the graphs.

This article's focus was on transitioning middle grade students from the position of having a positive environmental attitude toward their exhibiting actual behaviors that address climate change. Using research by Newhouse's criteria of changing attitude into behavior, specific activities were developed and tested in a eighth grade classroom. The 5E model of instruction was the strategy used to build the series of activities. Thus, we began the class with a series of engaging questions for discussion to differentiate between attitudes and behaviors. Building a knowledge base about the negative outcomes of climate change as well as new technologies that exist to reduce carbon dioxide emissions were the initial explorations and strategies used to move students from attitude to behavior. The groups' development and implementation of classroom presentations where they learn about negative climate change outcomes and the technologies available to address these outcomes were described. Discerning what was accurate Internet information and post presentation discussions were some of the review strategies used for explanation to occur. The two foundation building presentation activities were followed by two behavior-based activities (i.e., extension/elaboration) for the purpose of moving students from positive attitudes to positive behaviors with regard to addressing climate change.

Aim: Previous research has focused on accuracy associated with real and fake news presented in the form of news headlines only, which does not capture the rich context news is frequently encountered in real life. Additionally, while previous studies on evaluation of real and fake news have mostly focused on characteristics of the evaluator (i.e., analytical reasoning), characteristics of the news stimuli (i.e., news source credibility) and the interplay between the two have been largely ignored. To address these research gaps, this project examined the role of analytical reasoning and news source credibility on evaluation of real and fake full-length news story articles. The project considered both accuracy and perceived credibility ratings as outcome variables, thus qualifying previous work focused solely on news detection accuracy. Method: We conducted two independent but parallel studies, with Study 2 as a direct replication of Study 1, employing the same design but in a larger sample (Study 1: N = 292 vs. Study 2: N = 357). In both studies, participants viewed 12 full-length news articles (6 real, 6 fake), followed by prompts to evaluate each article's veracity and credibility. Participants were randomly assigned to view articles with a credible or non-credible source and completed the Cognitive Reflection Test as well as short demographic questions. Findings: Consistent across both studies, higher analytical reasoning was associated with greater fake news accuracy, while analytical reasoning was not associated with real news accuracy. In addition, in both studies, higher analytical reasoning was associated with lower perceived credibility for fake news, while analytical reasoning was not associated with perceived credibility for real news. Furthermore, lower analytical reasoning was associated with greater accuracy for real (but not fake) news from credible compared to non-credible sources, with this effect only detected in Study 2. Conclusions: The novel results generated in this research are discussed in light of classical vs. naturalistic accounts of decision-making as well as cognitive processes underlying news articles evaluation. The results extend previous findings that analytical reasoning contributes to fake news detection to full-length news articles. Furthermore, news-related cues such as the credibility of the news source systematically affected discrimination ability between real and fake news.

Contemporary politics has brought the figure of the 'uneducated' into glaring view, from Trump's 'love' of the 'poorly educated' to analyses suggesting a supposed 'uneducated populous' is responsible for the rise of far-right politics. In this paper I respond to this so-called 'post-truth' contemporary moment by considering how education underpins many 'progressive' or 'left' responses to rightist political impulses and flesh out the repercussions of such a stance. Specifically, I explore the ramifications for the notion of the 'educated' through a critical reading of political philosopher Jacques Ranciere. I suggest the need to understand the question of education (and 'poor education') within the context of capitalist political interests and the linking of educational institutions with elitism and power.

This study explored the impact of the think-aloud research methodology on multiple-documents comprehension outcomes. The participants in this study were 168 University students. The procedure included three steps. First, students were administered the tests measuring prior topic beliefs, topic interest, and topic knowledge. Then, students were given six documents to read, and were randomly assigned to two conditions, think-aloud versus silent-reading. Finally, students were asked to write an argumentative essay, judge the trustworthiness of the six documents and report to what extent they had used specific justification criteria. No significant differences were found in the argumentative essay, whereas the think-aloud condition partially influenced participants' trustworthiness judgments and use of justification criteria. Implications of the results are discussed.

Critical reading requires a deep and active engagement with the text. The goal of this study was to empirically determine what critical reading skills faculty believe students should develop. We asked faculty to rate how useful they consider several critical reading behaviors and how often they model those behaviors in their classes. Faculty considered more complex skills (e.g., Applying) as more useful, while simpler skills (e.g., Skimming) were considered less useful. Importantly, faculty spent more time teaching the critical reading skills they identified as most useful. A better understanding of what critical reading means for faculty, and to what extent these opinions influence what is taught in the classroom, can help intervention efforts to improve critical reading skills in university settings.

Critical thinking skills are widely considered to be important transferable skills gained from taking college-level economics courses that are also highly valued by employers. Yet, the literature on intentionally teaching critical thinking skills in undergraduate economics classes is still relatively sparse. The author of this article outlines an innovative approach to teaching critical thinking skills through class participation activities designed to promote critical reading of outside sources in an interdisciplinary climate economics course. The course goal is to equip students with the skills to articulate how economists contribute to the thinking on climate change and apply basic economics tools to explain and evaluate climate policy.

In this article, the author describes the use of primary literature readings in an upper-division undergraduate field course. One of the two main learning goals of the course was to teach students how to read academic articles in economics with a critical eye. This was accomplished by providing students with a structured framework for summarizing the main methods and results of each paper and feedback provided on short written reports and during in-class discussion activities. Based on his experiences in this course, the author offers observations and suggestions to instructors wishing to integrate non-textbook academic readings in their teaching.

Promising approaches to transforming English language arts classrooms into dialogic, democratic, and critical spaces for literature discussions involve the selection of compelling young adult literature (YAL) and the use of student-centered discussion strategies (e.g., literature circles). Scholars have demonstrated, however, the shortcomings of YAL and literature circles for interrogating sociopolitical content in literary texts and society. Drawing on a framework for critical literature circle roles, the authors examined how 23 undergraduate readers leveraged these roles to engage in critical conversations as they discussed John Green's YA novel, "Looking for Alaska." A qualitative, inductive analysis of discussion transcripts revealed how participants interrogated the text and society, especially in relation to gender stereotypes, and identified but also enacted stereotypes about culture and youth. Implications call for explicit support for readers in trying on critical literature circle roles and engaging in dialogic interactions that promote critical consciousness with YAL.

The authors describe Literary Analysis and Writing, an integrated instructional routine, developed through a formative experiment research project, that prompts students to uncover the deeper meanings of literary texts. The routine weaves together brief preteaching of carefully selected vocabulary words, whole-class assisted reading of text, close reading and discussion guided by high-level text-based questions, and analytic response writing. The authors discuss the research base for each element of Literary Analysis and Writing, present findings that demonstrate the benefits of the routine on third-grade students' performance in comprehension of literature, and detail the teacher researcher's planning for and implementation of each part of the instructional sequence.

The aim or the present study was to examine the relative importance of financial education in school and families and dispositional factors (competitiveness, work mastery, meta-cognition) in predicting financial literacy among Finnish adolescents. The data on the 4328 Finnish 15-year-olds was drawn from the PISA 2018 assessment. Financial literacy was measured by tests, and financial education and dispositional factors were assessed by adolescent questionnaires. First, the results showed that financial education in school was positively associated with adolescents' financial literacy skills, whereas parental involvement in financial matters did not relate or related negatively to financial literacy scores. Second, dispositional factors, such as competitiveness, work mastery, and meta-cognition (effective strategies to understand/remember information, to summarize information, and to evaluate source credibility) were the strongest positive predictors of the financial literacy scores. Overall, the present study emphasizes that certain social factors (schools and families) and especially dispositional characteristics (personality/motivation and critical thinking/learning strategies) may shape the development of the financial skills of adolescents.

The aim of this paper is to critically review how social semiotics has contributed to the study of reading and to develop an agenda for further research. We consider the theoretical and methodological resources that social semiotics has developed to account for multimodal text in the contemporary semiotic landscape, and explore how they can be used to teach critical reading skills to young people to support their participation in different social domains. We reflect on the possibilities and limitations of different analytical frameworks, highlighting barriers and possibilities for advancing social semiotic scholarship on reading and beyond. We end with a sketch of a new research agenda for social semiotics, in the light of technological change and its implications for reading.

Studies show only 20 to 40 percent of students read assigned texts and are prepared for class discussions. To address this issue we created the "3-2-1 Reading Assignment," in which students engage in critical reading and deep learning by providing "three" points that summarize the text, "two" points that analyze it, and "one" discussion question. In order to assess the effectiveness of this technique, we conducted a content analysis of 1,511 student assignments. We found that the use of this technique led to gradual increases in students' ability to summarize and analyze readings as well as formulate higher-order questions.

The Great Terror of 1936--1938 and mass deportations of "enemies of the people" between the 1930s and the 1950s are among signature atrocities committed by Stalinist Russia. Claiming the lives of several million Soviet citizens and foreign nationals, these executions and deportations were a silenced topic until the collapse of the Soviet Union. When they emerged in twenty first century children's literature, stories of Soviet terror and deportations became a subgenre of trauma fiction--a large category predicated on mourning authentic historical traumas and appreciated for its truth-telling value. Recent criticism, however, has pointed at the limits of truth-telling genres in engaging audiences. In "A Literature of Questions" Joe Sutliff Sanders argued that nonfiction is more productive when texts share authority with their readers and invite critical engagement. What form can that engagement take in trauma genres? How can it be generative of dialogue or new knowledge? This essay offers a reading of Eugene Yelchin's ("Breaking Stalin's Nose," Henry Holt, New York, 2011) and Melinda Szymanik's ("A Winter's Day" in 1939, Scholastic, Auckland, 2013) to argue that truth-telling need not be antithetical to critical engagement. The argument is that even texts whose authority derives from representations of historical atrocities can communicate their truths in a way that invites readers to interrogate the process by which historical knowledge is generated, articulated and remains meaningful in the present.

Interventions to promote students' source evaluations have used various methods designed for the classroom context. In the present study, we tested an approach that is easily adaptable to online courses, based on eye movement modelling examples (EMME), that is, short videos displaying an expert student's eye gaze while s/he reads multiple pages on the Internet to learn about a conflicting topic. Using an eye-tracking methodology in a pre-post design, we analysed how an intervention using EMME changed students' attention to source information, and how this processing affected their learning. EMME increased participants' attention to the search engine results page, author information and decreased attention of texts from untrustworthy pages. In addition, EMME increased the number of participants who cited at least one document source at post-test. We discuss the potential benefits and limitations of EMME in teaching complex literacy strategies, and the importance of measuring processing data in educational research studies.

The purpose of this article is to isolate and detail various literacies deployed by youth when they composed multimodal texts that culminated in the production of student films. In particular, we focus on manifestations of young people's thinking in the forms of fast and slow literacies. Using data from a series of research studies in which we observed Grades 3-12 students create short films in course-embedded field experiences and summer movie camps, we examined how the composition of student-made films allowed us to interrogate and elaborate literacies, both fast and slow, and the fast and slow thinking that supported the creation of those literate manifestations. We suggest fast and slow literacies, broadly construed, alter theories of literacy learning.

We explored potential profiles of interest, attitudes, and source evaluation by performing cluster analysis in a sample of Norwegian upper-secondary students. Differences among the profile groups with regard to multiple-document use were examined. The profile groups were partly consistent with the default stances described by the cognitive-affective engagement model of multiple-source use (List & Alexander, 2017), resulting in critical analytic, evaluative, and disengaged profiles. However, the model's assumption that interest and attitude constitute one affective engagement dimension was not confirmed. There were no statistically significant differences between the profile groups in the processing of a set of multiple documents; yet there was a tendency for students who adopted a critical analytic stance to engage in a more thorough text selection process. Those students also included more information units from the selected texts in their written products and integrated information units across the texts more frequently compared to the other profile groups.

An inservice training session triggered a crisis of confidence for the author, a veteran teacher, but it also inspired the author to rethink their approach to teaching reading and writing. While the author attended a conference, the state presenter explained that the new curriculum represents "shifts" in philosophy about teaching language arts. The first shift was a new emphasis on nonfiction, which would now make up 60 percent of what students read. Also, there would be a shift to more rigorous fiction; the literature our students currently read was too easy. The more the author got into close readings of the nonfiction texts in the new curriculum, the more they began to appreciate the genre, the engaging topics and rhetorical strategies employed by speechwriters and essayists, deciding that powerful nonfiction writing can have just as much impact on making us better humans as fiction can.

How should pupils use the internet to learn? This essay sets up two modes of using online sources, reading for information and reading for evidence, and evaluates their value for schools. The former is well known; pupils decide whether the source is telling the truth or not. The latter is more familiar in advanced historical investigation, namely deciding what this source's utterance means for the question in hand. One of these simply hands pupils information. The other requires them to understand what they are reading. It is argued that an education that only involves one of these cultivates passive pupils who are unable to adjust their own attention or listen to minority reports in science. Only when pupils also investigate primary sources will they experience developing their own knowledge, and believe in education.

Educators have long known that the Paideia Seminar format, an approach for close reading and class discussion, promotes critical thinking skills in young people and improves writing. Terry Roberts, director of the National Paideia Center, shows--with examples of actual Seminar dialogues--that these types of seminars also inspire creative and divergent thinking.

To learn challenging content, middle school students are expected to read and comprehend complex text. This poses challenges for content-area teachers whose classes typically include students with reading difficulties and disabilities who have a variety of literacy needs. Some students struggle to decode text while many students struggle with complex vocabulary and comprehending upper-level concepts. Teachers can use a variety of instructional methods to increase opportunities for students to engage with text to enhance their understanding of concepts and support reading comprehension. This article provides guidance on how teachers can implement a "critical reading" of text routine that includes peer-mediated instruction. Adaptations to this routine that teachers can use to address students' differing needs within the same content-area classroom are included. Resources are provided that teachers can use to differentiate and enhance implementation of the routine.

In this secondary-level lesson, students will generate and prioritize questions about the novel coronavirus and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative sources, assessing the evidence and usefulness of each source for answering their prioritized questions. This lesson consists of three segments: (1) connecting prior knowledge to the novel coronavirus global outbreak (lesson parts 1-2); (2) making sense of the novel coronavirus (lesson parts 3-4); and (3) examining people's negative bias toward people of Chinese descent at home and abroad (lesson part 5). Lesson part 6 offers students an opportunity for reflection on the lesson as a whole.

Problem Statement: Critical reading refers to individuals' thinking about what they read, assessing what they have read, and using their own judgment about what they have read. In order to teach critical reading skills to students, a teacher is expected to have knowledge about text selection, use of appropriate methods, preparation of functional learning and teaching processes, among other qualities; teachers must display critical reading skills as well. Purpose of Study: The aim of the study was to determine the critical reading levels of pre-service teachers of Turkish language as well as Turkish language and literature in terms of several variables in order to make inferences about pre-service teachers' potential to develop their students' critical reading skills. Method: The study group, which was selected using the descriptive survey model, consisted of a total of 173 students attending Balikesir University Necatibey Faculty of Education. A personal information form and the Critical Reading Achievement Test (CRAT) were used as the data collection tools. CRAT employs a multiple-choice format, and its KR 20 reliability was determined to be 0.81 and its mean difficulty 0.64. The data were analyzed using a t-test and variance analysis. Findings and Results: The study revealed that pre-service teachers' have moderate critical reading skills. In addition, in the analysis examining the relationships of pre-service teachers' critical reading levels to their department, a difference emerged in favor of students from the Turkish Language and Literature Department. In contrast, the analysis revealed that the variables of gender, achievement level, number of books read annually, the preferred book types, and the effective use of social media did not influence students' critical reading levels. Conclusions and Recommendations: Critical reading education constitutes an important dimension of language teaching programs that aim to improve comprehension and expression skills. It is important that pre-service teachers have critical reading skills and know how to teach critical reading. Therefore, critical reading practices and ways of teaching this skill should be included in appropriate courses (reading education, special teaching methods, etc.) in both Turkish language as well as Turkish language and literature teaching programs; additionally, these programs should be supported with optional courses such as critical reading and media literacy.

An after-school book club, led by the school librarian, was held to test the efficacy of the peritextual literacy framework (PLF) in teaching skills related to critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and media literacy. The PLF is an extension of paratext theory developed by Gérard Genette, which provides a typology of the functions of peritext; this extension results in a framework that can be used for research or as a scaffold for teaching. Twelve middle school students met once a month for five months to apply the PLF to an analysis of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) texts. The participants enjoyed the club and were able to demonstrate their ability to use peritextual elements to think critically about STEAM-related nonfiction books. Students were able to discuss how the functions of peritext affected their motivation to read a text and their ability to retrieve information from a text, and how peritext functions might affect their opinion of the credibility of information presented in a book.

This study is an attempt to identify the impact of exploration and thinking loudly strategies on analytical reading and linguistic intelligence among second middle grade female students in Najran, Saudi Arabia. Semi-Experimental method was adopted to achieve study objectives. The sample consisted of (60) female students divided into three groups, (20) students per each. The statistical analysis showed a positive impact for both exploration and thinking loudly strategies on analytical reading and linguistic intelligence among second middle grade female students in Najran.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the primary school second stage Turkish Education Curriculum effectuated in 2006 and the secondary school Turkish Education Curriculum effectuated in 2015 comparatively in terms of critical thinking. Of qualitative research designs, document analysis approach and content analysis were adopted for the study. The elements of aforementioned curriculums such as teaching approach, overall objectives, basic approach, basic skills, basic language skills, achievements, elements and methods were analyzed in terms of critical thinking. Both Turkish Education Curriculums have taken critical thinking as a basic skill, and have included critical thinking in the sections of overall objectives, basic approach and vision. On the other hand, 2006 Turkish curriculum is richer in methodological basis in terms of giving basic language skills, while 2015 Turkish curriculum is richer in terms of achievements.

This paper adds to the nascent literature on teaching research methods and what students learn from courses and assessment. Postgraduate students are often confronted with large amounts of reading, and the content of material can be intimidating. Convincing them also to engage critically with readings is even more difficult. We report on a successful strategy used to help postgraduate students in a qualitative research methods course develop the skills to read efficiently and critically. We outline the synopsis method and report on an evaluation of students' experiences of it as an assessment and learning tool. Evaluation showed that students saw their learning experience as challenging and rewarding and could articulate how the synopsis method was useful for specific reading/writing skills, critical engagement and reflexivity, content knowledge, and motivation. We were surprised students found it novel to be asked to question or critique "published" papers and articulate subjective reflections on them. Our evaluation shows that the synopsis method is an effective learning strategy to improve students' critical reading and writing skills. We argue that in learning the craft of qualitative research, students must understand not only how to summarise and critique but must also master the skill of articulating personal, reflexive responses.

Middle school is a crucial transition period for adolescents; in addition to beginning to grapple with the academic literacy demands of college and career readiness, they are working to find their place in public life and developing opinions about civic issues. This article presents debate as a literacy practice that is uniquely suited to helping middle school students increase their academic reading comprehension skills while also honing their critical literacy skills and capitalizing on their developing civic identities. Our study extends the established body of literature about the benefits of classroom debate by focusing on the impact of extracurricular, community-based debate among students in a large northeastern public school district. We use a critical literacy framework and mixed methods approach including analysis of standardized test scores of 179 debaters, as well as 34 interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, in order to explore the impacts of voluntary, community debate participation. Our findings demonstrate how debate encourages students to analyze complex texts, take multiple perspectives on controversial issues, and use their voices to advocate for social justice. Our findings speak to the power of community literacy initiatives to support academic development and foster critical literacies.

This qualitative research aims at linking recent findings related to cognition and self-regulated learning with complexity-driven educational framework that promotes Teacher-Learner communities of practice, in which knowledge is generated and constructed through a complex process of reflection and negotiation. Building on the data that was obtained through a textual academic literary self-report, we explore students' engagement and agency in the activities that are inherent to higher levels of academic education (Ph.D. studies), that is, researching, reading, writing, participating and interaction with other members of academic communities. The results are relevant for our deeper understanding of academic maturation from the cognitive and socio-cultural perspective within a complexity-driven, transdisciplinary educational paradigm.