Reading Methods Course Research Articles

“I Didn’t Think About That Perspective”: Preservice Teachers’ (Dis)comfort in Applying Critical Literacy and Race-Visible Discourse

ABSTRACT Our case study analyzed preservice teachers’ (PTs’) critical dispositions and alignment or resistance to critical literacies and race-visible discourse. In a virtual reading methods course at a large public university, a diverse cohort of twenty-two PTs recursively discussed self-selected multimodal texts utilizing synchronous and asynchronous critical multimodal collaborations. Using critical literacies and plurality of literacies as theoretical frameworks, findings indicated that via ongoing, purposeful groups PTs shared their experiences and acknowledged their previous shortcomings relative to race-visible discourse and dialogue. PTs exhibited a range of (dis)comfort in addressing critical social issues, including race and racism. This study expands on previous scholarship on how PTs and teacher preparation courses explored critical literacy perspectives and developed their critical stances for applying these habits as readers, as teachers, and in collaboration with their peers. It offers one case study of the application, challenges, flexibility, and resiliency demonstrated by PTs on their journey to be and become critically minded literacy educators.

A Culturally Sustaining Approach to Multimodal Literacies: Building from Students’ Funds of Knowledge in Field-Based Teacher Education

ABSTRACT This article examines a culturally sustaining approach to learning about and enacting multimodal literacy instruction that was developed during a field-based reading methods course for elementary preservice teachers. Despite a large body of work exploring preservice teachers’ learning about multimodal literacies, few studies have explored their experiences incorporating multimodal literacies from an explicitly culturally sustaining lens, nor examined learning about multimodal instruction in field-based settings. In this qualitative case study, we explore the ways in which one preservice teacher’s experiences in a field-based reading methods course impacted her conception of multimodal literacies and her understanding of the cultural and semiotic resources of diverse students. The findings detail the culturally sustaining, multimodal literacy instruction that emerged from a mentoring dyad of the focal preservice teacher and a second-grade multilingual student, the preservice teacher’s developing conceptions of multimodal literacy, and the conditions of learning that facilitated her teaching and learning.

Exploring the Effects of Team-Based Learning in a Preservice Reading Methods Course

Teacher educators are tasked with preparing preservice teachers with both the content and pedagogical knowledge and skills to teach children to read. In this study we investigated the use of team-based learning (TBL) in a reading methods course as a framework for improving student learning outcomes. TBL is an instructional approach that has been used across a variety of fields in higher education but has only recently made its way into teacher preparation programs. Using mixed methods, we compared TBL to the traditional lecture to explore whether participation in TBL affected preservice elementary teachers’ level of preparation for class, achievement of learning outcomes, and perceptions of TBL. Results showed no statistically significant differences in preparation or learning outcomes. Overall, preservice teachers reported that they liked several TBL components. Further research is required to determine whether TBL has an impact on learning outcomes after a longer period of implementation, over time, and/or on teaching behaviors.

Aligning Special Education Teacher Training With Reading Science: Challenges and Recommendations

This article discusses developing special education teacher candidates who have a solid knowledge of scientifically aligned reading practices. Challenges in preservice teacher education are presented, including alignment of course work and clinical experiences to the robust evidence base in reading science. Key questions and resources are presented to guide teacher education in developing evidence-based reading methods courses and clinical experiences.

Addressing the Needs of Nonmainstream Dialect Speakers With Learning Disabilities

Children who speak with nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialects represent a growing population in the U.S. public school system. This article provides recommendations for how teacher educators can support novice teachers in addressing the needs of NMAE speakers with or at risk for learning disabilities. This article focuses on four core recommendations that teacher educators and other practitioners can learn from and apply in teacher preparation coursework to support the learning outcomes and needs of NMAE dialect speakers. These are (a) basic instruction on and descriptions of language variation in reading methods courses, (b) addressing language variation within the core areas of language development, (c) guidance for novice teachers to critically examine reading and literacy theories to plan instruction, and (d) collaboration across disciplines to encourage interdisciplinary partnerships with other school personnel.

Preparing Teachers to Facilitate Engagement in Reading Intervention Through Embedded Behavioral Supports

Reading intervention sessions are most effective when students are engaged. Combined interventions that target both reading and engagement may produce stronger outcomes in both domains than separate interventions for each goal. They also have advantages of being efficient, thus requiring fewer resources. However, planning and executing combined interventions may be challenging to novice teachers. This article presents guidance for teacher educators to address combined reading and engagement support interventions in the context of a university reading methods course and applied fieldwork setting. The article outlines the importance of engagement to reading instruction and offers a framework for training teachers to implement reading interventions with embedded engagement supports, toward the overall goal of maximizing effectiveness of the reading instruction. Resources, tools, and sample activities are presented to further illustrate these concepts and facilitate their application in classrooms.

Science of Reading in Special Education Teacher Preparation

Reading development is a complex cognitive process, and instruction must be guided by the science of what works, for whom, and under which conditions. Students with learning disabilities (LD) in reading require high-quality reading instruction and, often, intensive intervention delivered by knowledgeable teachers. Yet, many teachers enter the field unprepared to teach reading. This special series in Intervention in School and Clinic brings together teacher-educators and reading researchers for a collection of articles that address critical issues related to training future special education teachers. These articles describe the design and delivery of reading methods courses in special education teacher preparation programs, including usable, practical strategies for teacher-educators to implement.

Growth Through Crisis: Preservice Teachers Learning To Enact Culturally Relevant Literacy Teaching

ABSTRACT A critical mass of literacy scholars have re-defined what it means to prepare reading teachers toward approaches that foreground culture, critical inquiry, and multilingualism. An upsurge in research on critical approaches to prepare caring and conscious reading teachers has resulted, though fewer studies have examined the ways novice teachers worked through moments of crisis that often accompany anti-racist learning experiences. This study reports findings from a qualitative investigation of seven prospective teachers’ coursework during their participation in an elementary reading methods course framed around culturally relevant literacy teaching for teacher learning. Findings begin to document specific activities PSTs engaged in to productively struggle through crisis and suggest that preservice teachers can and should wrestle with the complexities of effective literacy teaching for African American and Hispanic readers in ways that lay the foundation for culturally relevant teaching. Implications for literacy teacher education and research are included.

Preservice Literacy Teachers “Bringing Hope Back” Through Practice-Based Research

This descriptive case study explored literacy preservice teachers’ (PTs) learning for the use of practice-based research and the impact of research experiences on their literacy teaching. This project spanned two courses and two contexts: a learning and development course focused on PTs’ stance as inquirers, activists, and practice-based researchers, with work in a field placement classroom, and a reading methods course, focused on literacy teaching through inquiry and activism, with a mediated literacy mentoring experience. The researcher employed framings of communities of practice and transformative activism in analyzing PTs’ identity development as researchers, identifying resources and design features that supported PTs’ learning, and understanding connections between PTs’ stances as inquirers and use of inquiry as literacy curriculum. Findings indicate the ongoing identity development PTs experienced as they used practice-based research to envision and enact transformative possibilities in literacy teaching.

The print exposure of teacher candidates in relation to their achievement and self-ratings of early reading experiences

This study examined the print exposure of teacher candidates (N = 195) in relation to their GPAs, achievement in reading and writing on the SAT, and their self-ratings of their own early (K to Grade 5) reading experiences. Participants came from undergraduate and Masters programs in varied certification areas and from two different universities. Print exposure measures included author recognition tests for both fiction and nonfiction; a questionnaire about participants’ current voluntary reading habits for books, magazines, newspapers, and digital print media; and favorite authors/books questions. Exploratory factor analysis suggested four factors underlying the different print exposure measures: (1) fiction book reading volume; (2) current magazine and newspaper reading; (3) nonfiction book reading volume and (4) current book reading habits for enjoyment. Only fiction and nonfiction book reading volume related positively to participants’ achievement, in writing as well as reading, and to their early reading experience ratings. A subgroup of participants who had taken a specific reading methods course involving structured language content, and who had positive early reading experience self-ratings, had higher performance in the course than did participants with mixed or negative self-ratings, although the two groups did not differ in overall GPA. Findings support the view that different measures of print exposure tap somewhat different aspects of print exposure, with differing relationships to varied indicators of achievement. Results also support concerns about the reading volume and print exposure of some teacher candidates.

How preservice teachers use learner knowledge for planning and in-the-moment teaching decisions during guided reading

ABSTRACTDecision-making is essential for the work of teaching. Preservice teachers must learn to leverage knowledge about young readers’ strengths, needs, and interests in order to plan and teach guided reading lessons skillfully. However, limited research examines preservice teachers’ decision-making based on what they know about individual children. In this qualitative case study, we report findings from 12 preservice teachers enrolled in a reading methods course who used teacher knowledge to inform their teaching decisions for guided reading lessons with Kindergarteners. Findings reveal how participants used knowledge of learners to make planning as well as in-the-moment teaching decisions. The data show that most of these decisions were lesson planning decisions about text selection and word solving strategies, indicating that participants were beginning to engage in responsive teaching strategies. This study makes a new contribution to early childhood teacher education literature by underscoring the significance of learner knowledge in the context of authentic teaching practice while learning to teach guided reading to young children.

Private blog reflections connecting course content with field experiences: preservice teachers grapple with teacher identity

ABSTRACTA challenge experienced within teacher preparation programs is the ability to help preservice teachers connect educational theory with teaching practice. Guided by Dewey's phases of reflective thinking and Schön’s reflection on action as an ethic for inquiry, we embedded a systematic reflection of written responses, recorded in a private weblog over the course of a 15-week intermediate reading methods course. Inductive thematic analysis of responses revealed the following themes: visceral thought, vulnerability, interpretation of course content, and identity formation toward becoming a classroom teacher. Our findings exemplify how systematic reflection in a private digital space contributed to the development of preservice teachers’ professional identities.

Text analysis: Critical component of planning for text-based discussion focused on comprehension of informational texts

ABSTRACTThis investigation focuses on a tool used in a reading methods course to introduce reading specialist candidates to text analysis as a critical component of planning for text-based discussions. Unlike planning that focuses mainly on important text content or information, a text analysis approach focuses both on content and how that content is presented. Specifically, a text analysis approach engages teachers in identifying those text features that readers can use to understand how the presentation of text ideas is staged and how specific rhetorical and linguistic cues signal connections among those ideas. We report on the initial implementation of the tool with specific attention to insights that can inform teacher educators.

What About Writing? A National Exploratory Study of Writing Instruction in Teacher Preparation Programs

ABSTRACTThis small scale, exploratory study reveals how writing instruction is taught to preservice teachers across the United States in university-based preservice teacher education programs based on online survey results from 63 teacher educators in literacy from 50 institutions. Despite the growing writing demands and high stakes writing sample testing in K–12 classrooms, our survey of literacy teacher educators indicated that teacher preparation programs rarely offer stand-alone writing instruction methods courses. Evidence suggests that writing methods are frequently embedded in reading methods courses. Equally concerning, data indicate a lack of confidence among many teacher educators regarding teaching writing methods. This study highlights the need for greater attention to writing in teacher preparation programs and adds to the conversation of why these issues continue to plague higher education.

Shedding Light on Preservice Teachers' Domain-Specific Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs across domains in a reading-specific methods course. Participants were preservice teachers in a state required reading methods course. During this course, preservice teachers were required to work with an elementary student in reading and write a case study linking theory to practice. At the beginning and end of the course, participants completed a battery of adapted, domain-specific versions of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale. Results showed that preservice teachers reported a significant increase in their sense of efficacy within each domain. However, efficacy beliefs differed with regard to domain.

An exploratory study examining the influence of the number of reading methods courses on pre-service and in-service teacher perceptions of ability to teach reading

Teacher education programmes (TEPs) are left with limited research on how the coursework they provide influences the perceptions teachers have about their ability to teach young children how to read – especially over the long term. The purpose of this study was to compare how teacher candidates rate their ability to teach reading at the conclusion of their TEP, and then again after a year of teaching. The matched participants (N = 126) were elementary education teachers representing five TEPs in one US state. Results revealed that the number of reading methods courses provided does influence the perceptions of pre-service and in-service teachers. Teachers who had two reading methods courses compared with teachers who had only one reading methods course reported statistically significant higher scores at the pre-service stage and were able to maintain higher scores at the in-service stage. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Examining preservice teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge needed to teach reading in elementary school

Recently, increased attention has been placed on the importance of having knowledgeable and skilled teachers in order to influence reading achievement. Yet many international reports suggest that large numbers of children are not learning to read. How can we better prepare teachers with the necessary knowledge to teach reading? The current study examined the reading instructional knowledge of elementary education preservice teachers (N = 87) from two teacher education programmes. Programme A required five reading methods courses and Programme B required two methods courses. Findings indicate that the preservice teachers presented fairly robust levels of knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary. However, we found statistically significant differences in knowledge based on the programme attended and the number of courses completed. Suggestions for improving reading teacher education are provided.

From the Editors

From the Editors

Service Learning in Teacher Preparation: Returns on the Investment

Service learning can contribute to preservice teachers' understandings of reading instruction and also their confidence as teachers of reading. This qualitative study compared two sections of one undergraduate reading methods course: one with a service learning component and one with a typical field placement. The service learning participants demonstrated a more in-depth analysis of reading behaviors, a stronger commitment to the success of their students, and an increased confidence in their abilities to teach reading.

An Examination of Preservice Partnerships During a Reading Methods Course: Do They Increase Perceptions of Ability?

This quantitative study examined the effectiveness of pairing preservice teachers with young readers during a 9-week reading methods course to participate together in reading-related activities and partner journaling. It was hypothesized that these preservice partnerships would strengthen preservice teacher perceptions about their ability to perform reading instructional tasks. Findings revealed that these one-on-one partnerships did not result in statistically significant higher scores on a self-perception scale when compared with scores of preservice teachers who did not engage in these partnering experiences. Suggestions are made to assist preservice teachers make stronger connections between hands-on, authentic experiences and their ability to perform tasks required of reading teachers.