The Impact of 1:1 Technology Initiatives on New Literacy in the Secondary ELAR Classroom: A Metasynthesis

Guided by socio-cultural learning theories of Vygotsky’s (1979) social-constructivism and cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 2014), the researcher of this study formed three research questions regarding the emergent research trends on 1:1 technology initiatives in the secondary ELAR classroom and new literacy. In response, a meta-synthesis of relevant studies was conducted. To provide an initial framework for the synthesis, the researcher provided conceptual definitions and backgrounds of 1:1 technology initiatives, socio-cultural learning theories, and new literacy, supported by the history of literacy movements that led to this new model of literacy. Utilizing narrowed inclusion and exclusion criteria, the research yielded six journal articles and dissertations that served as participants for this study. In a second phase of data analysis, the researcher established the emergent themes across all studies included topics on the impact of 1:1 on new literacy acquisition, the changing role of the teacher in 1:1 settings, the deictic nature of literacy, and common challenges that impede technology integration. In a third and final phase of this meta-synthesis, the researcher utilized the original theoretical framework and research question as a lens to provide additional interpretations. The findings from this process related to a lack of unified terminology regarding the emergent form of literacy, as well as conditions for student engagement and acquisition of new literacy skills

The Contribution of Morphological Knowledge to 7th Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension Performance

In this study, we examined the role of morphology, an important yet largely understudied source of difficulty, in reading ability among 7th grade students in one junior high school in the southwestern United States. We sought to find out how much variance in reading ability is accounted for by these students’ morphological knowledge, and whether skilled readers do in fact have higher levels of morphological knowledge than less skilled student peers. We found that students’ sensitivity to the morphological structure of words accounted for 18% of the variance in these students’ reading performance. We further found that skilled readers had a significantly higher level of sensitivity to the structure of words than did less skilled readers. In light of these findings, we offer recommendations for interpreting and using the results obtained to better understand and scaffold students’ morphological knowledge, with the goal of helping promote students’ vocabulary growth and reading comprehension performance