Grades Five and Six Students’ Representation of Meaning in Collaborative Wiki Writing

This paper examined grades 5 and 6 students’ participation in wikis while writing reports on social studies topics. An analysis of eight wikis showed that students represented meanings they had constructed about their topics by engaging in knowledge telling practices (e.g., introducing, stating, or repeating information or an idea and developing previous ideas with examples, statistics or other information) more frequently than they engaged in knowledge transforming processes, such as drawing conclusions, identifying cause-effect relationships, or making inferences or judgements. Our research shows that Bereiter and Scardamalia’s model (1987) is useful to inform the development of tools for assessing students’ demonstration of their understanding of concepts in content area writing

A “Great Balancing Act:” Becoming Dexterous and Deft with New Literacies Pedagogy

In response to recent mandates in literacy curricula, literacy teachers must integrate Web 2.0 and new literacies perspectives into their writing instruction. Such transitions in their pedagogy, however, are often accomplished without adequate support or opportunities for professional development. How do teachers approach the difficult task of changing their perspectives to take new literacies practices into account? This article traces the learning and pedagogical practices of five teachers who worked with the authors in a dual-sited action research study (one in a large urban district, one in a small rural district) for more than two years. We present two themes drawn from the teachers’ experiences: (1) the creation of their own opportunities to collaborate with colleagues is the strongest professional development; and (2) recognition for their innovative practices and perspectives has led to them becoming mentors for other teachers, which in turn feeds their own professional development. From the differing contexts of these teachers, we highlight implications for teachers and administrators in other contexts who want to make or support this shift

Genomic Species Are Ecological Species as Revealed by Comparative Genomics in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

The definition of bacterial species is based on genomic similarities, giving rise to the operational concept of genomic species, but the reasons of the occurrence of differentiated genomic species remain largely unknown. We used the Agrobacterium tumefaciens species complex and particularly the genomic species presently called genomovar G8, which includes the sequenced strain C58, to test the hypothesis of genomic species having specific ecological adaptations possibly involved in the speciation process. We analyzed the gene repertoire specific to G8 to identify potential adaptive genes. By hybridizing 25 strains of A. tumefaciens on DNA microarrays spanning the C58 genome, we highlighted the presence and absence of genes homologous to C58 in the taxon. We found 196 genes specific to genomovar G8 that were mostly clustered into seven genomic islands on the C58 genome—one on the circular chromosome and six on the linear chromosome—suggesting higher plasticity and a major adaptive role of the latter. Clusters encoded putative functional units, four of which had been verified experimentally. The combination of G8-specific functions defines a hypothetical species primary niche for G8 related to commensal interaction with a host plant. This supports that the G8 ancestor was able to exploit a new ecological niche, maybe initiating ecological isolation and thus speciation. Searching genomic data for synapomorphic traits is a powerful way to describe bacterial species. This procedure allowed us to find such phenotypic traits specific to genomovar G8 and thus propose a Latin binomial, Agrobacterium fabrum, for this bona fide genomic species

Welcome to the 2014 Issue of the Journal of Classroom Research in Literacy!

In its seventh year, the Journal of Classroom Research in Literacy continues to publish classroom research by dedicated teachers who reflect on current practices and implement innovative ones, as they strive to improve their students’ learning

Layered Reading Through Literary Narrative Structures

My research investigated how teachers could develop students' literary framework, and build on their experience of fiction by studying what is typical and enduring about reading. I outline an original narrative framework that was brought to bear on the study of literature and was easily and readily taught to primary students. This approach analyzes stories by means of the fictional literary codes (or narrative structures) we use to organize stories and convey meaning. To ensure that this approach was of practical use to educators, I conducted a formative experiment to address the following questions: 1) How do elementary students' interact with and respond to stories by means of these literary structures? 2) How can teachers work with children to analyze how a story is coded to convey meaning? I collaborated with five primary teachers to first analyze stories by means of their literary narrative structures and then to develop questions to be used to guide instruction and classroom reading discussions and interactions. The teachers and I planned instructional strategies and put these into action. Approximately once a week for the entire school year, I visited the grade 1 and 2 teachers and their students during their language instruction periods and then reflected on my observations with the teachers. To analyze how these students engaged with and responded to stories, I gathered qualitative data through observations, interviews and student writing samples. Results show that by using the literary structural framework, grade 1 and 2 students engaged in critical text analyses, demonstrated a deep comprehension of stories, transferred the structural framework to understand new texts, contributed meaningfully in dialogues about literature, related the content of stories to their structures, and engaged in processes associated with scientific and creative thinking. The conceptual narrative framework of this research was shown to be an effective way to deepen students literary comprehension and develop critical relational thinking.Ph.D

Identifying Patterns in and Relationships Between Rural Canadian Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Children’s Graphic Representations and Their Talk

In this paper, we report on the first phase of an initiative to develop a classroom tool to document and describe children’s emergent writing. Here, we describe the process through which we developed an analytic framework to assist us in identifying patterns in young northern rural and Indigenous children’s graphic representations in response to three formal tasks. Participating children lived in 11 northern, rural communities in two Canadian provinces. The resulting patterns, consistent with those described in the literature on children’s emergent writing, suggest the need to explore further how children use the verbal mode while representing meaning graphically

Northern Rural and Indigenous Canadian Children’s Responses to an Open-ended Writing Task: Comparisons of Children in First and Second Year of Kindergarten

In this study, we offer a unique perspective of time spent in kindergarten and young children’s writing by presenting a multi-dimensional analysis of the writing of 72 children (5-years-old) living in northern communities in two Canadian provinces. We administered the Drawing, Writing, Talking Task (DWTT), a research-based classroom tool, in the fall and spring to children attending kindergarten in seven (six rural and one First Nations) schools. We assessed their writing in terms of their use of letters to write words, their spelling stage, and their intended content. Although the fall writing samples of children in their first year of kindergarten were significantly less developed than those of similar-aged children beginning their second year of kindergarten, by spring, the children’s writing was comparable. Our research adds to the literature on children’s learning and time spent in kindergarten by focusing on characteristics of young children’s writing, rather than test scores. Key words: writing assessment; early literacy; junior and senior kindergarten; Indigenous children’s literacy; rural children’s literacy Dans cette étude, nous offrons une perspective unique du temps passé à la maternelle et de l'écriture des jeunes enfants en présentant une analyse multidimensionnelle de l'écriture de 72 enfants âgés de 5 ans vivant dans des communautés nordiques de deux provinces canadiennes. Nous avons administré le Drawing, Writing, Talking Task (DWTT), un outil de classe basé sur la recherche, à l'automne et au printemps à des enfants fréquentant la maternelle dans sept écoles (six écoles rurales et une école des Premières nations). Nous avons évalué leur écriture en fonction de leur utilisation des lettres pour écrire des mots, de leur stade d'orthographe et du contenu visé. Bien que les échantillons d'écriture de l'automne des enfants en première année de maternelle étaient significativement moins développés que ceux d'enfants d'âge similaire commençant leur deuxième année de maternelle, au printemps, l'écriture des enfants était comparable. Notre recherche s'ajoute à la littérature sur l'apprentissage des enfants et le temps passé en maternelle en se concentrant sur les caractéristiques de l'écriture des jeunes enfants plutôt que sur les résultats des tests. Mots clés: évaluation de l'écriture; littératie précoce; maternelle et jardin d'enfants; littératie des enfants autochtones; littératie des enfants en milieu rura