Read An Online Journal for Literacy Educators

Berg, Helen

  READ: An Online Journal for Literacy Educators – Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 2016 Page 4 
READ Journal Highlights 
 
Helen Berg, Ph.D.  
Assistant Chair/Associate Professor 
Department of Language, Literacy and Special Populations 
Sam Houston State University 
 
June 2016 
 
Welcome to the second issue of the READ, an Online Journal for Literacy Educators. The theme of 
this issue is Literacy in a Multilingual Context. Such a theme can’t be more relevant as our world is 
more interconnected than ever before. Language is the main vehicle that help us communicate and 
stay connected. Today, teachers need to be prepared to work with children and families from different 
cultural and linguistic backgrounds including children with special learning needs.  As I read the arti-
cles in this issue, the recurrent theme throughout seems to emphasis the significant role teachers play 
as they plan and teach all children in today’s schools.  
 
With a focus on content curriculum and language, the first article “Viewing Content Curriculum 
through the Lens of Language Acquisition: A Content Analysis”, by Patr icia Durham and Jac-
queline Ingram presents an in-depth study to investigate whether literacy journals are supporting 
teaching content curriculum. Using a mixed method content analysis, the authors highlight the need to 
recognize literacy learning in the content areas as content in the language acquisition process.  
 
Using a different approach in their article, “A Multi-case Analyses of Pre-service and In-service 
Teachers Response to Coaching Techniques”, Jennifer  Stepp and Mar ia Peterson-Ahmad, study 
effective coaching models to improve instructional teaching strategies. Findings from their study sug-
gest that only through a metacognitive process teachers develop the needed teaching strategies to 
teach all students. In addition, they emphasize that only by implementing the metacognitive process 
teachers will reflect on and learn the specific teaching strategies needed to teach multilingual stu-
dents. 
 
In their column, entitled “Jugar y Aprender – Play and Learn: First Language Literacy and Parent 
Involvement”, Mary Petron and Alma Vanegas-Contreras describe various games to promote the 
language and culture of Spanish speaking children. The authors recommend monolingual English 
speaking teachers to have the handout ready and involve Spanish speaking parents in their children’s 
education.   
 
In Laura Graves, Helen Dainty and Jane Baker’s article titled, “Dis-Alternative Stories: Disability 
Awareness, Teacher Preparation, and the Writing Process”, they describe an assignment that pre-
service teachers did and through reflection, they discovered the power of children’s literature to 
change deficit perceptions on children with disabilities and English Language Learners (ELL).  
Page 5 READ: An Online Journal for Literacy Educators – Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 2016 
In her quantitative study titled “Sustained Effects of Participation in Imagination Library (IL)”, Ann 
Harvey measures the outcomes of a program to promote language and reading in the homes of young 
children. The findings reveal that students enrolled in the IL program scored higher on various early 
literacy skills inventories than those not enrolled in the program. In conclusion, the author explains 
that the mission of the program is met by providing more books to young children and encouraging 
more emphasis on family reading time.  
 
In his article, “Diversity in Literature: Preparing Literacy Teachers for a Multicultural World”, 
Antonio Causarano reviewed and discussed studies that support the systematic use of multicultural 
literature in the classroom. He also presented strategies to create a richer curriculum that fosters awa-
reness of diversity and multiculturalism. In addition, he calls on literacy teachers to recognize the im-
portance of providing students with multicultural literature as part of the curriculum. 
 
Finally, Astrid Chio and Gloria Carter offer some excellent reviews of Red Midnight by Ben Mikael-
sen and Heart-Shaped Cookies by David Rice, both of which present many emotional situations that 
will keep middle school and older readers hooked throughout the story.  
 
I appreciate the opportunity to highlight the manuscripts featured in this issue and stay tune for the 
next issue in December 2016: Globalizing Digital Literacies.  


English

Journal Highlights

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2023,50 percent of the student population will be childrenwith diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds(Iwai, 2015). Furthermore, 10 percentof the school population in the U.S. is currentlyidentified as having a disability that affects theirability to perform in the classroom (O’Leary,2011). The reality is that teachers and literacyteachers in particular are faced with the difficulttask of teaching a more diverse student populationthan ever before. The literature reviewanalyzed and discussed in the present articleexamines studies that support the systematic useof multicultural literature in the classroom. Also,the author suggests strategies to create acurriculum that fosters awareness of diversityand multiculturalism through literature as away to enrich literacy instruction in the classroom

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Journal Highlights

Diversity in Literature: Preparing Literacy Teachers for a Multicultural World

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