ReFocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky

This is a book review of Sergei Toymentsev, ed., ReFocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky (Edinburgh University Press, 2021)

A Worlde of Wordes: Dictionaries and the Rise of Middle English Lexicography

From the first vision and first articulation of plans for national and period dictionaries of English to the completion of the Middle English Dictionary, decades, even lifetimes, have passed. Begun tentatively at Oxford and Cornell Universities, the project got underway in earnest at the University of Michigan in 1930. Seventy-one years later the last fascicle was sent to the publisher and thirteen volumes comprised of 55,000 entries and over 900,000 quotations were completed. "A Worlde of Wordes" honors the men and women, the process, and the scholarship responsible for this feat.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120289/1/worlde_of_wordes_01.pd

The role of teacher knowledge: Developing phonemic awareness and alphabetic skills in at-risk kindergarten students

This study examined kindergarten interventionists\u27 knowledge of phonemic awareness (PA) and early phonics and the relationship thereof to kindergarten student outcomes on reading assessments. The study was conducted within the context of Project Early Reading Intervention (ERI), a four-year Institute of Educational Sciences funded study designed to test the efficacy of a published reading intervention with kindergarten at risk readers. ^ Participants included 54 kindergarten interventionists and 198 students. The interventionists and their groups of 3-5 kindergarten students were randomly assigned to instructional groups. A total of 31 kindergarten interventionists and their groups were randomly assigned to the ERI instructional condition; 23 interventionists and their groups were assigned to Typical Practice (TP) intervention condition. Interventionists each responded to a teacher knowledge survey, the Assessment of Teacher Knowledge of Early Reading: Four Dimensions (ATKERS 4-D), prior to the start of the study. This survey gathered information on interventionists\u27 content knowledge and skill related to PA and early phonics, their orientation towards reading instruction, and other variables including interventionists\u27 preparation for and experience with teaching reading. ^ Descriptive statistics were used to examine demographic data. Next, ANOVAs were used to determine if interventionists with different experience and preparation differed in content knowledge and skill with PA and early phonics. Finally, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictive power of interventionists\u27 content knowledge and skill on student performance on measures of PA and phonics and to determine if there was an interaction effect between interventionist variables and treatment condition. ^ Results suggested the interventionists scored similarly to teachers from earlier teacher knowledge studies; they had positive perceptions of the role of code-based instruction in teaching reading; and there was no statistically significant association between interventionists\u27 preparation and experience. Next, there was a statistically significant relationship between preparation and content knowledge, but no statistically significant relationships between preparation and skill or experience, or between content knowledge and skill. Finally, results of multiple regression analyses evaluating relationships of interventionist\u27 knowledge and student outcomes, as well as interactions between teacher variables and instructional conditions were not statistically significant. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

The role of teacher knowledge: Developing phonemic awareness and alphabetic skills in at-risk kindergarten students

This study examined kindergarten interventionists\u27 knowledge of phonemic awareness (PA) and early phonics and the relationship thereof to kindergarten student outcomes on reading assessments. The study was conducted within the context of Project Early Reading Intervention (ERI), a four-year Institute of Educational Sciences funded study designed to test the efficacy of a published reading intervention with kindergarten at risk readers. ^ Participants included 54 kindergarten interventionists and 198 students. The interventionists and their groups of 3-5 kindergarten students were randomly assigned to instructional groups. A total of 31 kindergarten interventionists and their groups were randomly assigned to the ERI instructional condition; 23 interventionists and their groups were assigned to Typical Practice (TP) intervention condition. Interventionists each responded to a teacher knowledge survey, the Assessment of Teacher Knowledge of Early Reading: Four Dimensions (ATKERS 4-D), prior to the start of the study. This survey gathered information on interventionists\u27 content knowledge and skill related to PA and early phonics, their orientation towards reading instruction, and other variables including interventionists\u27 preparation for and experience with teaching reading. ^ Descriptive statistics were used to examine demographic data. Next, ANOVAs were used to determine if interventionists with different experience and preparation differed in content knowledge and skill with PA and early phonics. Finally, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictive power of interventionists\u27 content knowledge and skill on student performance on measures of PA and phonics and to determine if there was an interaction effect between interventionist variables and treatment condition. ^ Results suggested the interventionists scored similarly to teachers from earlier teacher knowledge studies; they had positive perceptions of the role of code-based instruction in teaching reading; and there was no statistically significant association between interventionists\u27 preparation and experience. Next, there was a statistically significant relationship between preparation and content knowledge, but no statistically significant relationships between preparation and skill or experience, or between content knowledge and skill. Finally, results of multiple regression analyses evaluating relationships of interventionist\u27 knowledge and student outcomes, as well as interactions between teacher variables and instructional conditions were not statistically significant. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Preparing Classroom-Ready Teacher Candidates: Alignment of University Instructional Materials with District Reading Curricula and Assessments

This study is a step toward closing the perceived gap between the preparation of elementary educators for teaching literacy and the expectations of districts. By identifying curriculum and assessments used in cooperating districts, informed faculty can incorporate specific clinical tools into teacher preparation coursework. By providing a seamless connection between the theory, pedagogy, and practice found in the university classroom and that found in elementary classrooms, candidates become more “classroom ready”. The teacher preparation will be better prepared to provide the evidence of program outcomes required by NCATE ( what candidates know and can do ). Faculty, schools, and students will have a common knowledge base and language regarding literacy instruction and assessment

An IHE/LEA Research Partnership: Closing the Achievement Gap Through Differentiated Professional Development for Preschool Educators

This paper describes results from an Early Reading First project that is closing the gap between English and Spanish speaking preschoolers and supporting teachers through professional development and coaching. A university and school district research partnership is transforming 15 preschool classrooms serving low-income families into sites of educational excellence. After intensive classroom language and literacy interventions and professional development of teachers and support staff, improvements in both outcomes on English assessments of early literacy for both English and Spanish speaking children and on a Teacher Knowledge Test for teachers and paraprofessionals were seen

Initial position in the Middle English verse line

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in English Studies in July 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0013838X.2014.924275This paper establishes that spelling forms collected from initial position in the Middle English verse line have unique characteristics, and it discusses why this is so. The paper first addresses scribal copying practices, before describing the utility of letter-based N-gram models in objectively comparing scribal copies in terms of their spelling. Testing of models trained on a corpus totalling ten manuscripts demonstrates that initial position regularly prompted scribes to suppress their tendency to introduce their own spelling forms in favour of replicating those encountered in their exemplars. The discussion attributes this behaviour to the operation of two mechanisms. One mechanism is psycholinguistic in origin, while the other is rooted in manuscripts’ production and so implies a codicological dimension to spelling variation