Designerly Ways of Reading: Insights From Reader Response in Drama for Enriching the A in Language Arts

In this interpretive case study of reader response in drama, a drama troupe is the context for illuminating how young actors read in designerly ways; that is, how their reading processes facilitated constructive, solution-focused thinking in their development of characterizations. By examining the nature of reader response in the drama troupe, I hope to help educators understand how design thinking occurred as an aesthetic reading practice and consider ways in which design thinking can be cultivated in the language arts classroom. I argue that design thinking inspires the young to engage the imagination, practice teamwork, and take risks as they work to make their visions real. Perhaps most importantly, I contend that design thinking can help prepare the young for facing complex and highly ambiguous problems characteristic of 21st century participatory cultures

Teaching Reading-Writing Connections Online to Pre-Service Teachers in a Children’s Literature Course

This account of transitioning a children’s literature course to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic describes the use of digital service learning and instructional scenarios to develop pre-service teachers’ knowledge of teaching writing craft across literary genres

Stepping Out with the Fop: Literacies of Embodiment and Becoming in Youth Drama

Drawing upon perspectives of New Literacy Studies, characterization and gender performativity, this interpretive case study used Multimodal Inter(Action) Analysis and ethnographic methods to examine how a queer youth, Michael, embodied the fop character type as he acted in a youth theatre troupe. The study examines Michael’s embodiment of the fop as a composition process in drama that evoked discourses of queer masculinity and the performativity of selves becoming. Embodied composing of characterizations in the troupe, and specifically the fop, were multimodal designs that intertwined with Michael’s self-cultivation and self-efficacy as a queer youth

Teaching for Deep Learning in a Second Grade Literacy Classroom

From a New Literacies Studies (NLS) perspective, deep learning involves the acquisition of social and cultural competencies valued within a disciplinary community, not merely propositional displays of what one knows. Drawn from a year-long qualitative inquiry, this case study examines how one exemplary second-grade literacy teacher taught toward deep learning, using a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). Selected episodes of instruction were analyzed in two phases. Initially, data were examined for evidence of three main competency sets of deep learning--cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal (National Research Council, 2012). In the latter phase, analysis focused on the teacher’s pedagogical stances of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (NLG, 1996). Findings suggest that teaching for deep learning involved overt instruction of cognitive processes. Additionally, the teacher modeled critical framing processes of disciplinary practices situated within student-centered projects. Implications include how responsive literacy instruction may prime students’ readiness to cultivate deep learning competencies. Inside today’s classrooms, teaching for deep learning may necessitate addressing domain-based practices together with socially oriented work dispositions, allowing for both a production-oriented, text-centric view of learning (NLG, 1996) and an orientation toward space, spontaneity, and emergence in literacy engagement (Leander & Boldt, 2013)

Teaching for Deep Learning in a Second Grade Literacy Classroom

From a New Literacies Studies (NLS) perspective, deep learning involves the acquisition of social and cultural competencies valued within a disciplinary community, not merely propositional displays of what one knows. Drawn from a year-long qualitative inquiry, this case study examines how one exemplary second-grade literacy teacher taught toward deep learning, using a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). Selected episodes of instruction were analyzed in two phases. Initially, data were examined for evidence of three main competency sets of deep learning--cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal (National Research Council, 2012). In the latter phase, analysis focused on the teacher’s pedagogical stances of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (NLG, 1996). Findings suggest that teaching for deep learning involved overt instruction of cognitive processes. Additionally, the teacher modeled critical framing processes of disciplinary practices situated within student-centered projects. Implications include how responsive literacy instruction may prime students’ readiness to cultivate deep learning competencies. Inside today’s classrooms, teaching for deep learning may necessitate addressing domain-based practices together with socially oriented work dispositions, allowing for both a production-oriented, text-centric view of learning (NLG, 1996) and an orientation toward space, spontaneity, and emergence in literacy engagement (Leander & Boldt, 2013)

Fostering Academic and Social Growth in a Primary Literacy Workshop Classroom: Restorying Students with Negative Reputations

In most classrooms, there are students who have academic, behavioral, and/or interpersonal challenges that can disrupt the classroom community. In some cases, these challenges can build momentum, leading to a negative reputation or “story” that can follow the student throughout school. This academic, yearlong case study focused on Mae Graham, an exemplary teacher, and the cases of two students who began second grade with negative behavioral, emotional, and academic reputations from previous years in school. We describe how Mae “restoried” the students through personalized instruction and attention, classroom structure and curriculum, and social interactions in the classroom. We base restorying on theory and research in social identification, effective teaching, culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy, and the ethic of care

Thresholds of Knowledge Development in Complex Problem Solving: A Multiple-Case Study of Advanced Learners’ Cognitive Processes

This multiple-case study examined how advanced learners solved a complex problem, focusing on how their frequency and application of cognitive processes contributed to differences in performance outcomes, and developing a mental model of a problem. Fifteen graduate students with backgrounds related to the problem context participated in the study. Data sources included direct observation of solution operations, participants’ think aloud and stimulated recalls as they solved the problem, as well as solution scores indicating how well each participant solved the problem. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze stimulated recall and think aloud data. A set of thirteen cognitive processes emerged in the coding and were tallied for each participant. Individual cases were then grouped into clusters that shared similar frequencies of prior knowledge activation, performance outcomes, and tool use behaviors. Each cluster was profiled from least to most successful with descriptive accounts of each cluster’s approach to solving the problem. A cross cluster analysis indicated how learners’ cognitive processes corresponded with problem solving operations that revealed thresholds of knowledge development and formed an integrated mental model of the problem. The findings suggested that mastering problem solving operations within each threshold enhanced the learners’ conceptual awareness of where to apply cognitive processes and increased the combinations of cognitive processes they activated at higher thresholds of knowledge development. The findings have implications for anticipating where novices need support within each threshold of knowledge development during complex problem solving

Minding the Gap: Mentor and Pre-service Teachers’ Ability Perceptions of Content Area Literacy Instruction

This mixed method study compared how student teachers rated their ability in implementing components of content area literacy compared to their clinical educators’ perceptions of the student teachers’ actual performance. The researchers collaborated with K-12 clinical educators to develop a scaled survey to rate level of skill in four components of content literacy instruction. 112 clinical educators (CEs) and 183 student teachers (STs) representing five teacher licensure programs completed the survey. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance measured the effect of Role (CE and ST) and Teacher Licensure Program on ability perception. Results indicated that Role and Program each significantly affected ratings of the four content literacy component skills measured, but the effect of Role did not significantly differ based on Program. Participants’ written explanations of their ability ratings revealed how their mental models of content literacy accounted for differences in ability perception by Role. Implications are provided for enhancing pre-service teachers’ perceptual and qualitative awareness of the practices that underlie highly effective content-area literacy instruction

Enhancing Global Awareness on Campus

The Global Education Seminar (GES) program is in its ninth year of existence. The program serves as a key faculty development opportunity and supports respective academic units’ strategic priorities for internationalization. Faculty from across disciplines commit to participating in a one-year, seminar-structured program prior to a three-week immersive experience in a particular region. The intent is to provide faculty with a mechanism to expand their understanding of the world and, in doing so, shape new or existing curriculum, faculty or student collaborations, research opportunities, and/or other international opportunities. Regions of focus for the GES program have included China, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Ghana, Togo, and South Africa. “Enhancing Global Awareness on Campus” was a session part of the 2020 Global Voices Symposium in which we invited six past GES faculty participants to discuss their GES experience, stating its impact both personally and professionally, and explaining how they have been able to disseminate to the campus community the knowledge they have acquired. Faculty concluded their reflections with suggestions on what can be done to promote global consciousness and awareness on campus.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/global_voices_3/1010/thumbnail.jp

Minding the Gap: Mentor and Pre-service Teachers’ Ability Perceptions of Content Area Literacy Instruction

This mixed method study compared how student teachers rated their ability in implementing components of content area literacy compared to their clinical educators’ perceptions of the  student teachers’ actual performance. The researchers collaborated with K-12 clinical educators to develop a scaled survey to rate level of skill in four components of content literacy instruction. 112 clinical educators (CEs) and 183 student teachers (STs) representing five teacher licensure programs completed the survey. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance measured the effect of Role (CE and ST) and Teacher Licensure Program on ability perception. Results indicated that Role and Program each significantly affected ratings of the four content literacy component skills measured, but the effect of Role did not significantly differ based on Program. Participants’ written explanations of their ability ratings revealed how their mental models of content literacy accounted for differences in ability perception by Role. Implications are provided for enhancing pre-service teachers’ perceptual and qualitative awareness of the practices that underlie highly effective content-area literacy instruction.