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This paper looks at students' motivation and engagement in the context of the "Read Like a Demon (RLAD)" project across a two-year period, in Melbourne, Victoria. This "RLAD" project was shaped over several years and targeted to students aged between 8 and 11 years. It utilized innovative reading experiences, including the influence of Australian Rules Football players as reading role models for students. The project aimed to promote wider reading among these students, many of whom are statistically likely to disengage from reading practices. The authors introduced new aspects to the project to broaden the avenues of influence for reading. Data from students and teachers were analyzed using the Engagement Model of Reading Development to explore the question "How did attention to classroom instruction affect students' motivation and engagement during the 'RLAD' project experiences?" The project found that an interplay of role models, authentic audience and choice positively affects students' motivation and engagement. Findings from this article will provide classroom teachers with insights into how project design can bring increased attention to the affective aspects of becoming a reader.

The aim of this scoping review was to systematically map and summarise recent peer-reviewed research on children with dysgraphia between 2015 and May 2021. The research included the perspectives of children, carers, and educators. Dysgraphia is a largely unrecognised specific learning disorder (SLD) in writing that manifests as a disability in handwriting, spelling, and/or composition skills during child development. Data from 77 studies from across five databases were charted to address four key questions and to direct future research. The findings included: (1) limited representations of participants using mostly quantitative methods; (2) children aged 9-14 as suitable for research recruitment; (3) thematic prevalence such as handwriting, spelling, and technology; and (4) low rates of international research output. Thus, future research may focus on compositional difficulties or research participants (children with dysgraphia, carers, and educators) sharing their lived experiences of dysgraphia. This may lead to improved awareness, professional development, and enhanced teacher resources.

When researching reading events, the depth to which we understand the student experience is all-important. Much insight has come from exploring sociocultural understandings, yet by focusing upon how the critical sociocultural dynamics of identity, agency and power relationships are mediated, we can understand differently the moment-to-moment negotiations undertaken. This article reports on a study that investigated how small groups of diverse students aged ten and eleven from two Melbourne schools experienced talk around two picturebooks that prompt thinking around important social issues. Some often surprising insights were revealed around shifts in student identity portrayals, degrees of agency and individual students' abilities to take some control in this, as well as how these negotiations can be beneficial yet somewhat unsettling at times. The article also shows that these shifts and negotiations can be both challenging and potentially rewarding for students as well as the teacher.

Picturebook discussions are commonplace literacy events in contemporary classrooms. The different experiences, backgrounds and ways of being that individual students draw upon during talk around texts prompt a broad range of ways to make, negotiate and share meanings. In addition to developing students' literacy skills such as oral language, vocabulary and comprehension, these discussions have been shown to be instrumental in developing students' interpretive competence which is important for achieving learning outcomes. In this article, we report a study that investigated how four diverse groups of 10- and 11-year-old students and teachers from two schools experienced such reading events. The study found that making sense of these books was more productive when students were given permission to switch identities and make connections to their out-of-school cyber and popular culture worlds. Using discourse analytic techniques, we uncover the identity work during a number of discussions around two different picturebooks and show how this enabled these learners to enter the academic space and demonstrate interpretive competence.

Children have the right to voice views on matters that impact their lives, including writing disability. In this study, five children diagnosed with dysgraphia used art‐based research to depict their experiences of dysgraphia. The children described the impossibility of transferring ideas from head to paper and the difficult emotions associated with writing. The results highlighted a symbiosis between writing and identity, with dysgraphia adversely impacting the children's identity development. The study highlights the value of using art to communicate children's perceptions, aligned with inclusive practices. The insights shared offers caregivers, educators, and others scope to develop affirmative writing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the experiences of two pre-service primary teachers in a teacher education subject focusing on mathematics and learning difficulties. It describes how bibliotherapy was a powerful reflective tool that provided them with the opportunity to respond cognitively and affectively to their own schooling. By analysing readings about school students' learning and issues such as mathematics anxiety, they reflected on and reconstructed their understanding of their own school experiences. In turn, this challenged their assessment of their capacity to learn and teach mathematics. Bibliotherapy was a healing process that generated both enthusiasm for teaching and an enhanced confidence as the pre-service teachers looked to the future. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Background: Primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) mortality and morbidity remain unacceptably high, possibly arising as glucocorticoid replacement does not replicate natural physiology. A pulsatile subcutaneous pump can closely replicate cortisol's circadian and ultradian rhythm. Objectives: To assess the effect of pump therapy on quality of life, mood, functional neuroimaging, behavioural/cognitive responses, sleep and metabolism. Methods: A 6‐week randomised, crossover, double‐blinded and placebo‐controlled feasibility study of usual dose hydrocortisone in PAI administered as either pulsed subcutaneous or standard care in Bristol, United Kingdom (ISRCTN67193733). Participants were stratified by adrenal insufficiency type. All participants who received study drugs are included in the analysis. The primary outcome, the facial expression recognition task (FERT), occurred at week 6. Results: Between December 2014 and 2017, 22 participants were recruited – 20 completed both arms, and 21 were analysed. The pump was well‐tolerated. No change was seen in the FERT primary outcome; however, there were subjective improvements in fatigue and mood. Additionally, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed differential neural processing to emotional cues and visual stimulation. Region of interest analysis identified the left amygdala and insula, key glucocorticoid‐sensitive regions involved in emotional ambiguity. FERT post hoc analysis confirmed this response. There were four serious adverse events (AE): three intercurrent illnesses requiring hospitalisation (1/3, 33.3% pump) and a planned procedure (1/1, 100% pump). There was a small number of expected AEs: infusion site bruising/itching (3/5, 60% pump), intercurrent illness requiring extra (3/7, 42% pump) and no extra (4/6, 66% pump) steroid. Conclusions: These findings support the administration of hormone therapy that mimics physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]