Literacy Learning Opportunities Research Articles

Reported and Enacted Emergent Literacy Instruction: Understanding Young Students With Extensive Support and Complex Communication Needs, Opportunity to Learn

Literacy instruction has an important role in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) because spelling and writing support precise communication. Unfortunately, few students with extensive support needs and complex communication needs (ESN/CCN) develop literacy skills at or above the first grade reading-level. Given that learning to read and write begins with extensive emergent literacy learning opportunities, limited skills may result from insufficient opportunity to learn (OTL) emergent literacy skills. This study examined the instruction provided in early U.S. childhood classrooms to students with ESN/CCN to understand OTL during this critical period. This study used a concurrent embedded mixed methods design integrating a survey of teachers of students with ESN/CCN ( n = 26) with a qualitative multiple case study ( n = 2). Results suggest the time teachers are devoting to instruction is not translating into increased OTL for individual students. Solutions that may increase learning opportunities and implications for future research are discussed.

Faith practices as literacy learning and identity construction opportunities for Afghan Muslim children

Faith practices as literacy learning and identity construction opportunities for Afghan Muslim children

Effects of an AAC feature on decoding and encoding skills of adults with Down syndrome

Literacy skills can assist in the navigation and enjoyment of adult life. For individuals who have reached adulthood without strong literacy skills, opportunities for continued literacy learning are few. Redesigning AAC technologies to support literacy skill development could extend literacy learning opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities who have limited speech. The current preliminary study evaluated an AAC technology feature designed to support literacy development. The study used a multiple probe across participants design. Three adults with Down syndrome who had limited speech and only basic decoding skills participated. Results suggest the participants made modest gains in decoding accuracy after interacting using the AAC app with the literacy supportive feature, though performance was highly variable. Results also offer emerging evidence that, for two participants, some generalization to encoding performance may have also been achieved. Results showed that, for all the participants, interacting using the literacy supportive feature increased their reading confidence. Altogether, the study’s results show preliminary evidence that the feature can support adults with Down syndrome in their ongoing literacy learning, though access to formal instruction is still critical. Future research is needed to continue to explore this and other AAC technology redesigns to increase learning opportunities for the people who use the technology every day to communicate.

Literacy Intervention in Secondary Schools Exploring Educators’ Beliefs and Practices about Supporting Adolescents’ Literacy Learning

There is a need to better understand the complex landscape of adolescent literacy intervention as a shared responsibility across all educational stakeholders. To address this need, we examined the self-reported literacy beliefs and practices about secondary readers and literacy intervention among a group of educators (including administrators, teachers, and specialists) who participated in a year-long professional learning series focused on providing adolescents with rich and responsive literacy learning opportunities. We found that educators’ beliefs and practices shifted as they developed shared understandings of asset-based mindsets and ways of supporting students’ situated literacy learning and comprehension within disciplinary contexts. We offer suggestions for how to create shared learning opportunities for educators across roles and discuss implications for future research.

Making Mistakes: Children's Errors as Opportunities for Emergent Literacy Learning in Early Childhood

AbstractErrors are essential for emergent literacy learning because they reveal the gaps in young children's knowledge. The ways in which teachers respond to these errors can have important implications for children's knowledge building; yet, there is limited information for teachers about how to effectively respond to children's errors in emergent literacy contexts. In this article, we describe a framework grounded in research and theory for responding to children's errors. We describe a two‐step process for acknowledging and responding to children's errors along with specific error‐handling practices, and illustrate the application of this framework using real‐world, data‐driven examples. We also provide recommendations for creating a classroom environment that challenges children, builds their confidence as learners, and welcomes their errors. This article will equip teachers with practical guidance for leveraging preschool‐age (i.e., 3–5 years) children's errors as opportunities for enhancing emergent literacy learning.

Playing the story: Learning with young Children’s in/visible composing collaborations in outdoor narrative play

In this article, we examine young children’s narrative play as posthuman, collaborative composing assemblages. Thinking with Tsing (2015), we re/consider collaboration as that which benefits from contamination and unruly edges as lively and generative places can help educators to notice and nurture that which easily goes unnoticed. We are guided by the question of what could be learned about generating literacy learning opportunities for young children in an outdoor program focused on setting up conditions for collaborative, narrative play. Posthuman perspectives deriving from the philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari, often utilize the concept of the rhizome. However, following the scholarship of posthuman philosopher Anna Tsing and mycologist, Merlin Sheldrake, we turn to another more-than-human lifeform and introduce the construct of mycelial networks for posthuman literacy studies. For this study of children’s collaborative composing, we work with Tsing’s concepts of unruly edges and contamination as collaboration and introduce the concept of the in/visible. Taking up Tsing’s invitation to think differently about the construction of knowledge practices, we map and examine children’s collaborative storying by providing two vignettes, which together, comprise a rush of troubled stories. The troubled stories were part of an awakening for program facilitators, a space of four weeks in which they came to see that by attuning to the liveliness of the children’s movements, their understanding of collaborative narrative play was transformed. As relations between the human children and facilitators and the more-than-human vividly animate in this study, the in/visible moments that erupt along the interface between the domesticated and the wild can guide educators in planning and enacting young children’s literacy learning. To foster children’s collaborative composing, we assert, it is necessary to trust that storying occurs, for many children, in the underground, in/visible spaces that underpin the stories they play.

The Role of Mother’s Education and Early Skills in Language and Literacy Learning Opportunities

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language and literacy learning opportunities, early skills, socioeconomic status, and mother’s education in children’s early education. In addition, we attempted to determine the language domains needed for training as well as the ideal duration for language and literacy learning for children. We used a mixed methods design to assess early childhood language and literacy skills. The study involved 2550 early childhood learners, 235 teachers, and parents of learner participants from 112 kindergartens. The standard measure of language proficiency was used to measure the learners’ early language and literacy skills. Mother’s education and learners’ early abilities were positively correlated with learners’ language and literacy learning opportunities. Learners who have mothers with a high level of education receive significant opportunities to learn language and literacy compared to those with mothers with a low level of education. Therefore, their language skills are superior. There are 12 language domains needed for training in early childhood and the ideal duration of language learning for children is 26 minutes per day or 182 minutes a week. The language domains are determining factors for obtaining reading skills in the future. Mother’s education and child’s early skills really help children in language and literacy learning. The implication of this research is that literacy programs are needed for early childhood learners who have low initial abilities and children with mothers with a low level of education.

Tensions and synergies in arts‐integrated data literacy instruction: Reflections on four classroom implementations

AbstractData‐art inquiry is an arts‐integrated approach to data literacy learning that reflects the multidisciplinary nature of data literacy not often taught in school contexts. By layering critical reflection over conventional data inquiry processes, and by supporting creative expression about data, data‐art inquiry can support students' informal inference‐making by revealing the role of context in shaping the meaning of data, and encouraging consideration of the personal and social relevance of data. Data‐art inquiry additionally creates alternative entry points into data literacy by building on learners' non‐STEM interests. Supported by technology, it can provide accessible tools for students to reflect on and communicate about data in ways that can impact broader audiences. However, data‐art inquiry instruction faces many barriers to classroom implementation, particularly given the tendency for schools to structure learning with disciplinary silos, and to unequally prioritize mathematics and the arts. To explore the potential of data‐art inquiry in classroom contexts, we partnered with arts and mathematics teachers to co‐design and implement data‐art inquiry units. We implemented the units in four school contexts that differed in terms of the student population served, their curriculum priorities, and their technology infrastructure. We reflect on participant interviews, written reflections, and classroom data, to identify synergies and tensions between data literacy, technology, and the arts. Our findings highlight how contexts of implementation shape the possibilities and limitations for data‐art inquiry learning. To take full advantage of the potential for data‐art inquiry, curriculum design should account for and build on the opportunities and constraints of classroom contexts. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Arts‐integrated instruction has underexplored potential for promoting students' data literacy, including their appreciation for the role of context and real‐world implications of data and for the personal and social relevance of data. Arts‐integrated instruction is difficult to implement in school contexts that are constrained by disciplinary silos. What this paper adds Descriptions of four data‐art inquiry units, which take an arts‐integrated approach to data literacy. Examples of the synergies and tensions observed between data literacy, technology, and the arts during classroom implementation in four different schools. Reflections on the role of school contexts in shaping disciplinary synergies and tensions. Implications for practice and/or policy Arts‐integration offers opportunities for data literacy learning. Consideration of the unique resources and constraints of classroom contexts is critical for fulfilling the promises of data‐art inquiry learning. There is a need to develop school support specific to arts‐integrated data literacy instruction.

Literacy Learning Among Students With Complex Support Needs in Postsecondary Education Programs: A Scoping Literature Review

Abstract Although valuable for an individual's quality of life and participation in society, many individuals with complex support needs (CSN) do not receive appropriate literacy instruction. Recent expansion of postsecondary education opportunities for individuals with CSN offers new opportunities for continued literacy skill development (e.g., participation in coursework, employment, social activities). This scoping review explored existing research to understand how students with CSN experience literacy learning opportunities in postsecondary education. Results reveal a need for future research to include as participants individuals who are reading at pre-first grade levels and to investigate opportunities to acquire or develop literacy skills for these students within inclusive university classes with students who do not have disabilities. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Apprenticing for Equity Literacy Teaching: A Needed Change in Teacher Education

Grounded by critical race and landscapes of practice perspectives, this study examined teacher candidates who were asked to use equity as a lens to describe students’ literacy learning opportunities in their practicum sites. Analysis of this writing revealed wide variation in candidates’ participation, including a group who regularly noticed equitable/inequitable literacy teaching practices and structures and discussed how they would resist/change those they considered inequitable and a group that primarily overlooked these reflective opportunities. Follow-up interviews with two candidates revealed their different equity stances. Study findings can be used to reconceptualize literacy practice to help candidates identify and challenge policies and ideas that sustain inequity.

SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL: IMPROVING LITERACY IN ONLINE CLASSROOM LEARNING

This research is a systematic literature review research that can provide a clear picture of what has been investigated and what gaps require further research, then aims to overcome this problem by identifying, critically evaluating, and integrating the findings of all studies, and aiming not to just to gather all the evidence on the research question; it is also intended to support the development of evidence-based guidelines for practitioners. This study uses ten main articles to find out how to improve literacy in online classrooms. This main article was taken because it is related to the main objective of this research, namely improving literacy in online classroom learning, which we all know that we are living in the era of the Covid 19 pandemic, which forces us to change all the order of life including in the world of education. The result of this research is that there are seven things that can improve literacy in online classroom. There are scientific literacy and literacy learning opportunities, digital tools and using technology, students' creativity and creating new applications, online environments and content knowledge, teachers and students hold positive attitudes, teaching philosophy and pedagogical knowledge, and texts and resource's positive identity work.

Prompting visual attention to print versus pictures during shared book reading with digital storybooks for preschoolers with ASD compared to TD peers.

Prompting children to look at print and picture content during shared book reading (SBR) facilitates joint attention and early language and literacy learning opportunities for typically developing (TD) children. Whether preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) respond similarly to bids for joint attention during SBR and how autism characteristics impact upon their responsiveness is currently unclear. This is important given these children are at risk of persistent language and literacy challenges. To address this, we examined the effects of prompts that were solely verbal versus verbal with pointing on visual attention to print and picture targets during SBR with digital storybooks for 34 children with ASD and 27 TD peers. Children with ASD looked as frequently at print targets, but less frequently at picture targets, when prompted compared to TD peers. Both prompt types showed similar effects in shifting children's visual attention to print and picture targets at group level. When groups were combined, autism characteristics influenced children's responsiveness to verbal versus verbal with pointing prompts to print targets, but not to picture targets; children looked more frequently at print targets as autism characteristics increased when verbal prompts were used, with a large effect shown (d=0.91). Overall, findings suggest that prompting children with ASD to look at print and pictures during SBR with digital storybooks may be helpful in facilitating joint attention to storybook content. Implications for the development of effective early interventions aimed at providing emergent literacy support for children with ASD are discussed. LAY SUMMARY: We looked at how prompting impacted upon where children with autism look during shared book reading with digital storybooks compared to children without autism using eye-tracking. We found the target (pictures or print) was what mattered and number of autism characteristics impacted how responsive children were to different types of prompts. This helps us to understand how prompting may help children with autism to look at print or pictures during shared book reading which could support language or reading interventions.

From the Editors

From the Editors

Mischievous wind

Wind is a magical force that we can feel but not see. It is an inspiration for descriptive words, stories and poems, opening up rich literacy learning opportunities.

A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Research on Reading Intervention Classes in Secondary Schools

Background/Context: In the past two decades there have been at least 10 quantitative reviews, syntheses, or meta-analyses focused on literacy interventions in secondary schools. To date, much of this research has focused on quantifiable outcomes such as reading test scores, and few efforts have been made to synthesize studies of adolescent literacy interventions that attend to how students themselves experience those interventions and what mediates their experiences, which previous adolescent literacy research suggests should be considered alongside other outcomes. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This meta-synthesis of qualitative research highlights additional factors that are overlooked when evidence of effectiveness is defined predominantly through assessment outcomes. It contributes insights from two decades of research on reading intervention classes (RICs), which are a long-standing approach to adolescent literacy intervention. We define RICs as compulsory, yearlong courses that supplement content-area classes with the goal of improving adolescents’ reading. Grounded in sociocultural theories of literacy and learning, our research question was: How do students experience and perceive RICs? Research Design: We conducted a qualitative meta-synthesis of 21 studies published between 2000 and 2020 that (1) focused on secondary (grades 6–12) RICs in the United States and (2) included data related to students’ experiences and perspectives. Data Collection and Analysis: We followed best practices in qualitative meta-synthesis, including assembling an author team composed of researchers with expertise in RICs, identifying a research meta-question, conducting a comprehensive search, selecting and appraising relevant studies, and coding and presenting findings using qualitative techniques. Findings/Results: We found that youth’s own diverse understandings of themselves as readers and writers, combined with the extent to which they viewed their RICs as relevant, agentive, and facilitative of relationships, mediated students’ experiences and perceptions of their RICs. In addition, students across studies described placement policies and practices as confusing, frustrating, and embarrassing. Conclusions/Recommendations: By providing a perspective that extends beyond test scores, the findings highlight some of the consequences of intervention placement policies and practices for adolescents. They also address the need for educational stakeholders to expand definitions of what counts as evidence of effectiveness to inform the future development of re-mediated literacy learning opportunities for adolescents that (1) rethink curriculum and instruction to affirm students’ literacy identities, histories, and capacities, and (2) reposition youth as literacy knowers and doers.

Designing for Mathematical Literacy: Introducing Exponential Growth Using Critical and Meaningful Problem Contexts

AbstractThis department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Columns highlight high‐quality disciplinary literacy learning opportunities across subject areas that engage students in critically examining the world around them, interrogating accepted knowledge, contributing their own perspectives to shape that knowledge, and sustaining and developing the literacies needed to do this work.

Reflections on Designing Curriculum to Interrogate Social Studies

AbstractThis department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Columns highlight high‐quality disciplinary literacy learning opportunities across subject areas that engage students in critically examining the world around them, interrogating accepted knowledge, contributing their own perspectives to shape that knowledge, and sustaining and developing the literacies needed to do this work.

Culturally Sustaining Disciplinary Literacy for Bi/Multilingual Learners: Creating a Translanguaging Social Studies Classroom

AbstractThis department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Columns highlight high‐quality disciplinary literacy learning opportunities across subject areas that engage students in critically examining the world around them, interrogating accepted knowledge, contributing their own perspectives to shape that knowledge, and sustaining and developing the literacies needed to do this work.

Sustaining Disciplinary Literacy in Science: A Transformative, Just Model for Teaching the Language of Science

AbstractThis department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Columns highlight high‐quality disciplinary literacy learning opportunities across subject areas that engage students in critically examining the world around them, interrogating accepted knowledge, contributing their own perspectives to shape that knowledge, and sustaining and developing the literacies needed to do this work.

Learn from your environment: A visual literacy learning model

Based on the presupposition that visual literacy skills are not usually learned unaided by osmosis, but require targeted learning support, this article explores how everyday encounters with visuals can be leveraged as contingent learning opportunities. The author proposes that a learner’s environment can become a visual learning space if appropriate learning support is provided. This learning support may be delivered via the anytime and anywhere capabilities of mobile learning (m-learning), which facilitates peer learning in informal settings. The study propositioned a rhizomatic m-learning model of visual skills that describes how the visuals one encounters in their physical everyday environment can be leveraged as visual literacy learning opportunities. The model was arrived at by following an approach based on heuristic inquiry and user-centred design, including testing prototypes with representative learners. The model describes one means visual literacy could be achieved by novice learners from contingent learning encounters in informal learning environments, through collaboration and by providing context-aware learning support. Such a model shifts the onus of visual literacy learning away from academic programmes and, in this way, opens an alternative pathway for the learning of visual skills.
 
 Implications for practice or policy:
 
 This research proposes a means for learners to leverage visuals they encounter in their physical everyday environment as visual literacy learning opportunities.
 M-learning software developers may find the pedagogical model useful in informing their own software.
 Educators teaching visual skills may find application of the learning model’s pedagogical assumptions in isolation in their own formal learning settings.