Abstract

ABSTRACTThis qualitative case study explored preservice teachers’ (PSTs) beliefs about disciplinary literacy as they engaged in a blog project with middle-school students to discuss historical texts. Twenty-eight PSTs, enrolled in a semester-long social studies methods course and participating in the blog project as a course assignment, constituted the case study. Data were collected through semistructured and informal interviews, classroom observations, questionnaires, audio/video recordings, and blog postings and analyzed using a constant comparative analysis. Emergent successive themes focused on positive PST perspectives about disciplinary literacy, the impact of practice on beliefs about disciplinary literacy, and the influence of continued blog writing on beliefs. Findings indicated how extended experiences working with middle-school students in a low-risk blog setting may promote positive beliefs about using disciplinary literacy in instruction, but those beliefs may be malleable as PSTs’ experience the literacy needs of struggling readers.

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