Literacy Growth Research Articles

Two students' responses to, and literacy growth in, a whole language curriculum

This research investigates the different responses of two third grade bilingual (Spanish and English) students to an English whole language literacy curriculum. Specifically, the research examines: (1) how the students resisted, appropriated, and/or internalized a whole language curriculum and (2) the relationship between student curricular interactions and their literacy development. Teacher instructional mediations and student interactions with these mediations were observed and examined for one academic year. In addition, pre and post reading, writing, and spelling data were collected and analyzed. Findings indicate that the two students, although of similar linguistic, cultural, and instructional backgrounds, had very distinct responses to the curriculum. One student immediately began to engage in the curriculum as intended due to his apparent interest in the curricular topics as well as his desire to explore his own personal interests through the use of literacy. The second student resisted the curriculum and continued to define literacy as acts of “sounding out” unknown words and spelling words conventionally. The two students also demonstrated significant differences in literacy growth, with the student most engaged in the curriculum showing the greatest growth. Several factors that may account for the dissimilar student interactions are explored.

Knowing Literacy

Knowing Literacy: Constructive Literacy Assessment by Peter H. Johnston is a resource that guides teachers in using assessment tools to facilitate literacy growth. The purpose of Johnston's book is to present a theoretical framework for appropriate assessment practices in literacy and to provide techniques to effectively implement literacy assessment in the classroom. Knowing Literacy is a partial revision of Johnston's Constructive Evaluation of Literate Activity. The Knowing Literacy volume explores transforming literacy assessment from the classroom out (p. 1). Johnston notes that the companion volume is intended to focus on the debate surrounding assessment practices. Knowing Literacy: Constructive Literacy Assessment is divided into four parts: Basic Issues, Noticing Details, Documenting and Keeping Track, and Talking About Children's Literacy Development. The product also includes reproducible forms, a list of professional resources and references, and an audiotape. The book is 368 pages long, with wide margins, encouraging the reader to interact with the text. The information provided in this text is relevant for anyone interested in learning more about current literacy assessment practices, including teachers, administrators, and parents.

Putting parents in the picture: Maternal reports of preschoolers' literacy as a predictor of early reading

Emergent literacy research has demonstrated that children begin constructing notions of literacy during the preschool years and that early experiences support children's literacy growth. Given that parents may have valuable insight into their preschool children's literacy development, we examined the hypothesis that parental reports from the preschool years could be good predictors of early literacy development once their children enter school. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of literacy development among low-income children, we correlate reports prepared by parents when their children were three and four years old with the children's subsequent performance on individually administered tests in kindergarten and grade one and grade one teachers' evaluations of children. Correlational analyses reveal significant correlations between parental reports and grade one teacher reports and assessments. Regression models reveal that parental reports account for about a quarter of the variance in kindergarten tests and grade one teacher assessments and over a third of the variance in a decoding assessment given near the end of first grade.

Metalinguistic Awareness, Reading and Spelling: Roots and Branches of Literacy

Studies on the role of metalinguistic awareness in emerging literacy have established that metalinguistic abilities at phonological, syntactic, print and pragmatic levels are linked to later attainments in literacy. Few have examined the interplay among these skills and developing reading and spelling. Using time‐reversed path analyses, this study explores the possibility that metalinguistic awareness registers stronger direct effects on literacy than early pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling skills. Sixty children aged 54 months (initially) were given measures of metalinguistic abilities, pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling on three occasions. This allowed the exploration of reciprocal relationships between pre‐conventional reading, invented spelling and metalinguistic abilities. On the fourth occasion, standardised tests of reading and spelling were administered. Results from time‐reversed path analysis show that pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling influenced each other across development and had stronger direct effects on subsequent literacy than did aspects of metalinguistic awareness. Pre‐literate metalinguistic abilities were shown to affect pre‐conventional reading and invented spelling skills and combine with these to influence further growth in literacy. The study’s results have implications for current models of literacy development.

Late industrialisers, late democratisers: Developmental states in the Asia-Pacific

A sound generalisation in the social sciences is that theories pronounced dead will continue to haunt the discipline long thereafter. A case in point is so-called modernisation theory. This is the claim that economic growth first leads to social mobilisation-urbanisation, mass communication, growth in literacy and the degree of formal education, the creation of new social classes (particularly the working, middle and business classes), etc-which in turn results in new forms of political activity.' This political transformation involves the organisation of new groups and strata into political bodies-including labour unions, student groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce, etc. Such changes create conditions highly favourable to the existence of democratic government. Seymour Martin Lipset's classic statement specified socioeconomic 'requisites' of democracy.2 Empirical verification of the correlation between economic advancement and democracy poured in.3 By the late 1960s, however, modernisation theory appeared to have been buried under collapsing democracies in many developing countries, including some of the most economically advanced. The theoretical interment quickly followed. In Political Order in Changing Societies, Samuel Huntington showed modernisation was not producing a political culture congenial to democracy in most developing countries; on the contrary, in weakly institutionalised political systems economic development and the resulting social mobilisation produced what Huntington called praetorianism, which favoured the rise of authoritarianism.4 In an influential book about South America, Guillermo O'Donnell claimed that higher levels of modernisation in that region were correlated with dictatorship not democracy.5 O'Donnell ventured that 'it is a disquieting possibility that authoritarianism might be a more likely outcome than political democracy as other countries achieve or approach high modernization '.6 Several dozen redemocratisations later-many in South America, O'Donnell co-authored a book in which countries in this and other regions were (at least implicitly) shown to be ripe for democratic transition after all.7 Huntington's turnaround was more explicit. Huntington argued that when countries began to develop-reaching a middle level income of GNP per capita, between US$1000 and $3000 (1976 dollars)-they entered the 'zone of transition' in which most of the recent democratic transitions had in fact occurred.8 Not that these political

Reading aloud: A way for parents to support their children's growth in literacy

Parents can form a vital link to literacy and later school success by encouraging literacy and language modeling in their daily communication with children. This article describes a study in Head Start classrooms in Florida and North Carolina where teachers used a book lending system and high quality books which they shared with children and families. Strategies for teachers to assist parents in providing support for emergent literacy are given. Ways to help families see the importance of their practices and encourage the use of these ideas as part of their daily routines are shared.

CRITICAL DIALOGUE: A LITERACY CURRICULUM FOR STUDENTS AT RISK IN THE MIDDLE GRADES

After identifying students at risk in the middle grades and describing these students’ assets for developing literacy, we provide direction for changing the literacy curriculum for these students using Critical Dialogue Instruction (CDI). A detailed example of this innovative instructional method is provided. The need for teachers, as models of literacy and higher order thought, to strengthen their relationships with students at risk is discussed. In the middle grades, reading and writing are educational tools students must use to interact with text and teachers to express or clarify their ideas and feelings. Thus, students’ growth in literacy depends on their learning to apply a wide range of intrapersonal knowledge to varied extrapersonal reading and writing assignments (Gentile & McMillan, 1990). When they fail to derive, interpret, and construct meaning through literacy instruction, their skills lapse, they cannot function as students, and they are at grave risk of dropping or being pushed out of scho...

Great Expectations

This article describes an emergent literacy project with 6- through 11-year-old students with mental, physical, language, and/or behavioral impairments. The authors designed a developmentally appropriate curriculum, engaged students in informal language-learning activities, and modeled enjoyable literacy activities. Students were given ownership of their work, opportunities for practice, and im mediate feedback. Students demonstrated increased engagement in literacy activities, tremendous growth in language and literacy, enhanced self-esteem, and more appropriate classroom behavior.

The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England: The Influence of Private Choice and Public Policy

In early Victorian England, there was an intense debate about whether government involvement in the provision of popular elementary education was appropriate. Government did in the end become actively involved, first in the administration of schools and in the supervision of instruction, then in establishing and administering compulsory schooling laws. After a century of stagnation, literacy rates rose markedly. While increasing government involvement would seem to provide the most obvious explanation for this rise, David F. Mitch seeks to demonstrate that, in fact, popular demand was also an important force behind the growth in literacy. Although previous studies have looked at public policy in detail, and although a few have considered popular demand. The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England is the first book to bring together a detailed examination of the two sets of factors. Mitch compares the relative importance of the rise of popular demand for literacy and the development of educational policy measures by the church and state as contributing factors that led to the rise of working class literacy during the Victorian period. He uses an economic-historical approach based on an examination of changes in the costs and benefits of acquiring literacy. Mitch considers the initial demand of the working classes for literacy and how much that demand grew. He also examines how literacy rates were influenced by the development of a national system of elementary school provision and by the establishment of compulsory schooling laws. Mitch uses quantitative methods and evidence as well as more traditional historical sources such as government reports, employment ads, and contemporary literature. An important reference is a national sample of over 8,000 marriage certificates from the mid-Victorian period that provides information on the ability of brides and grooms to sign their names. The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England is a valuable text for students and scholars of British, economic, and labor history, history of literacy and education, and popular culture.

Play centers that encourage literacy development

Teachers are always searching for fresh ideas that address children's growth needs. Ideas that provide learning opportunities which are developmentally appropriate are particularly welcomed. using play as a medium for facilitating literacy growth is one such opportunity. We know from current theory, research and practice that sociodramatic play contributes to children's learning. Its importance in the development of literacy skills has also been investigated and affirmed.

Story Reading at Home and at School: Its influence upon children's early literacy growth

Story Reading at Home and at School: Its influence upon children's early literacy growth

Provisional Census of India 1991

Results of the provision census of India 1991 are given for population growth literacy and urbanization. Results were made available only 1 month after the count was taken and then at the end of 1991. Data are collected by states (25) and 7 territories for literacy and population. Urban/rural density and literacy data are collected for 429 districts and 4689 towns. Population totaling 843.9 million makes it the 2nd most populous country in the world (16% of world population with 2.42% of land area). Population explosion occurred after the 1940s and the growth rate has declined somewhat to 23.50% during 1981-91. Demographic transition may be occurring. The highest population densities are in the Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra plains in the north the deltas of Mahanadi Godavari and Kavery rivers in the east and Kerala districts in the west. The lowest growth rates were in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the recent decennial period. Delhi has the highest growth rate. Literacy improved from 43.56% in 1981 to 52.11% in 1991. South India has higher literacy than the north areas. Kerala ranks the highest followed by Tamil Nadu. Female literacy increased the fastest. Low literacy is evident in Rajasthan (20.84%) Bihar (23.10%) and Uttar Pradesh (26.02%). The states with high female literacy also have low birth rates. Exceptions are Nagaland and Mizoram with high female literacy and high population growth rates due to the influences of tradition; Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Chandigarh also have high growth rates. Migration and immigration contribute to this growth. Urbanization has slowed. 25.72% (217 million) of the population are urban. The decline has been from 3.83 between 1971 and 1981 to 3.09 between 1981 and 1991. States with high population growth in the preceding decade slowed growth and vice versa. The number of cities with >100000 population increased from 216 in 1981 to 296 in 1991 and growth has increased from 60.42% to 65.20% between 1981 and 1991. The annual exponential growth rate of urban population is greater than in the rural population. Male number dominate in cities (822 females/1000 males). 23 million plus cities had 33% of Indian urban population in 1991; the largest populations were in Bombay (growth rate of >46%) Delhi (46%) Madras (25%) and Calcutta (19%).

Towards a reconceptualization of written language development

Researchers interested in written language development have tended to explore a single “layer” of written language growth, for example, the structural complexity of children's textual worlds or the orthographic sophistication of their first encoded words. But young children's actions suggest that these multiple layers are actually multiple dimensions of their symbolic acts: Textual words and worlds are dynamically linked with each other. More broadly, researchers and educators often conceive of written language as an extension of oral language development. But young children's participation in “literacy” events illustrates the complex links between written language growth and the development of children's entire symbolic repertoires and changing social relationships. Thus, through a critical consideration of existent research and an interpretive analysis of a child's early school experiences, this article aims to contribute to an authentic, more childlike vision of literacy growth. This vision preserves the links between the multiple dimensions of literate activity and the multiple symbolic tools of young children. Moreover, this article argues that such a vision yields new ways of thinking about, and potentially taking advantage of, the diverse symbolic resources of children in our schools.

Growth of Literacy in Colonial America: Longitudinal Patterns, Economic Models, and the Direction of Future Research

Literacy underwent revolutionary growth in northwestern Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This revolution coincided with other dramatic changes in European society, such as the industrial, demographic, agricultural, political, and religious revolutions (Deane 1969: 20–84). While the relationships between literacy and these other revolutions are not fully understood, their association is apparent and many potential influences exist (Cipolla 1969; Cremin 1970; Graff 1981: 232–60; 1987a, 1987b; Jensen 1986: 114–28; Maynes 1985: 117–31; Mitch 1984, 1988; Sanderson 1983; West 1978). The transplantation of European society across the Atlantic brought the literacy revolution to the American periphery. While numerous studies have shown that colonial America participated in this expansion of literacy, the common longitudinal patterns of literacy growth across the various regions and populations of colonial America have received less attention.

Reading the Whole-Language Movement

Reading the Whole-Language Movement

Evaluation of a curriculum to support literacy growth in young children

This study of growth in literacy was conducted over a 5-month period in a preschool classroom in which half of the enrollees were Head Start children and the other half were tuition students. The literacy events of six children from this classroom were videotaped daily. Videotape data were supplemented by other data sources, including weekly collaborative meetings between the teacher and the researcher. Children were administered three literacy tasks at the beginning and end of the study to supplement observational data. Analysis of the data indicated that all six grew in their interest in and knowledge of written language. Implications for curriculum materials and experiences to support literacy growth were generated.

Literacy in Singapore, 1970 -1980

Comparing literacy statistics in the 1970 and 1980 censuses, the paper analyses the literacy trend in Singapore with the following major findings: (1) There has been a substantial growth in general literacy in the Republic from 1970 to 1980. Concurrently and more significantly, there has also been a distinct trend toward equality in literacy among various ethnic groups and between males and females. (2) The percentage of population with bi-literate or multi-literate ability increased tremendously, testifying to the success of the bilingual educational programme in Singapore. (3) English and Chinese both made parallel growth in literacy during the intercensal years. Literacy in Chinese remained in 1980 the language with the largest number of literates in population. But English is known by large numbers of persons from all ethnic communities. (4) While Malay and Tamil did not make much gain in literacy population-wise, both have made some progress within the Malay and the Indian communities respec tively.

Book Review: Literacy, Bible Reading and Church Growth through the Ages

Book Review: Literacy, Bible Reading and Church Growth through the Ages

Mechanical Lubrication in the Paper Mill

The MANUFACTURE OF PAPER is an art as old as civilisation. Until comparatively lately in the world's history, demand for paper could be satisfied by hand manufacture; however, the invention of printing, allied with a steady growth in literacy have necessitated the development of mechanical means of paper‐making.