Language and Literacy (Journal)
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Patterns and Trends in Contemporary Canadian Verse-Novels for Young People
No full textThis qualitative content analysis identified patterns and trends in a contemporary set of Canadian verse-novels for young people. Twenty-two books were located in our search for titles published between 1995 and 2016, and many of these emerged as award-winners in various contexts including the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature (text). Dresang’s notion of Radical Change, adapted for this interrogation, illuminated particular elements of these societal artifacts worthy of notice. While studies have occurred regarding textual forms or formats and reader characteristics, specific work with the verse-novel and its use with struggling and reluctant readers is limited, with professional articles appearing in place of research-oriented discussions. Scrutiny of available verse-novels is important as it opens a door for explorations of these resources with participants in classroom settings.
Early Writers in Northern Communities: Ways Teachers Might View and Reflect on Writers’ Representations
No full text“What did I write?” is the title of a seminal book (Clay, 1975), illustrating how we can learn what children know about print, in part, from their representations. Children’s writing is socially and culturally situated; play is one context shown to help develop the use of symbol systems. A framing with several lenses is designed and applied to illustrate to teachers ways to consider the samples of early writing accompanying the play of young children in remote Northern communities in Canada. There is consideration of how information could be used to inform and optimize educative actions in such learning contexts.
“Before Occupy Central, I Wasn’t Concerned”: Examining Participatory Visual Research for Social Change with Hong Kong-based Filipina Youth
No full textThis article describes a participatory visual research project with two Hong Kong-based Filipina young women, and explores their understandings of citizenship and civic engagement through cellphilm-making (cellphone + filmmaking), collaborating on the writing of an academic article, and co-presenting research findings at an academic conference in Calgary, Canada. The study finds that Hong Kong’s Occupy Movement encouraged the participants to see themselves as engaged citizens, participate politically in the territory, and work toward social change for ethnic minorities by engaging different audiences through multiliteracy practices in a research for social change framework
Rural Northern Canadian Teachers’ Discoveries about Young Children’s Oral Language
No full textKindergarten and Grade 1 teachers collaborated with university researchers in an action research project aiming to find ways to support young children’s oral language. Analysing video data of children’s interactions during play, we worked together to create an observation tool that allows teachers to focus on ways in which children use language to carry out social purposes. In this paper, we report on teachers’ discoveries about the wide range of social purposes which children carry out using language, and their use of an observation framework that captures the pragmatic aspects of children’s language while engaged in play. Our research has implications for all teachers who wish to learn more about observing and supporting children’s oral language use
Lexical standards for expository writing at Grade 3:The transition from early literacy to academic literacy
No full textThis article reports on an investigation of vocabulary thresholds across four standards of writing quality for grade 3 children. An expository prompt was used to elicit first draft writing from 222 students. A quota sampling strategy was used to create a learner corpus of 80 papers. Online lexical profiling tools were used to generate indices of lexical richness. Distinct differences in vocabulary use were noted between quality standards, in particular the ability to access low frequency words among the samples judged of excellent quality. Pedagogical implications emerge for classroom practitioners to address the language learning needs of linguistically vulnerable youngsters.Key words: expository prose, writing, transitional literacy, vocabulary profiling
Imagination and Literacy Instruction: A Content Analysis of Literature within Literacy-Related Publications
No full textThrough content analysis of research conducted during the last 25 years, this paper identifies five vital uses of imagination within literacy instruction. First, readers use imagination to comprehend text. Second, readers use imagination to engage in the world depicted through the text. Third, readers use imagination to make sense of both narrative and expository texts. Fourth, readers use imagination to learn about self and others. Finally, readers benefit from instruction regarding the use of imagination to enhance reading. A compilation of instructional methods are presented. This analysis establishes the need for classroom instruction connecting imagination and literacy.
An Anishinaabe Perspective on Children’s Language Learning to Inform “Seeing the Aboriginal Child”
No full textThis paper critically examines attitudes and professional practices based on Western-European epistemologies that perpetuate the socio-cultural mismatch between many Aboriginal children’s home and school. In the spirit of the Calls to Action by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an Anishinaabe[1] collaborator on the NOW Play interdisciplinary collaborative research project advocates for social responsibility and cultural competency in research and educational praxis within the context of the early learning and child care environments of Aboriginal[2] children. Culturally sensitive approaches for “seeing the Aboriginal child” are illustrated for moving forward in supportive relationships to promote research and learning in early learning and child care settings. This paper underscores and illustrates the first priority for researchers and educators: to take the time in research and pedagogical encounters to really “see” the Aboriginal child through appreciation of the sociocultural, philosophical, and linguistic distinctiveness of Aboriginal families.Discovery of new knowledge in novel contexts and refinement of understandings with new insights, once consolidated are foundational to knowledge mobilization strategies that include professional development training. A generative process uncovers more effective strategies that honour Indigeneity[3] and meet Aboriginal children’s learning needs.[1] The term Anishinaabe refers Anishinaabemowin-speaking people and the group includes the Algonquin, Chippewa,Delaware,Mississauga, Odawa, and Ojibway and Potawatomi people of the Great Lakes Region.[2] The term Aboriginal is commonly used inCanada and is used in this paper to refer specifically to the Indigenous people inCanada (Helin, 2006). “Aboriginal” is the term used in the Canadian Constitution to refer to Indian, Inuit and Metis”.[3] According to the International Labour Organization of the United Nations, the concept of indigeneity refers to: tribal peoples whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations, and to peoples who are regarded as Indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabit the country at the time of conquest or colonisation. (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). Article. 1
Body Talk: Moving beyond speech when analysing literature discussions
No full textThe intent of this article is to promote a methodological approach to the analysis of literature discussions by adopting a conversational analytic approach that views embodied actions (including talk) as multimodal. It is argued that this analytic approach moves beyond previous studies that focus on talk only, when analysing literature discussions, and further, that such an approach contributes to an increase in our understanding of the complex meaning-making processes that are set into play when students interact on literary texts in school
Effets d’un enseignement suivant la méthode de la médiation sociocognitive des apprentissages sur la performance d’élèves de 1re secondaire à identifier le sujet
No full textL’article exposera les résultats d’une recherche dont l’objectif est de décrire les effets d’un enseignement inductif suivant la méthode de la médiation sociocognitive des apprentissages sur la performance d’élèves de 1re secondaire à identifier le sujet grammatical. Un devis quasi-expérimental (avec prétest et post tests) permet de constater que les élèves du groupe expérimental améliorent davantage que les élèves du groupe témoin leur performance à identifier le sujet dans la phrase. Les résultats suggèrent notamment l’importance d’un enseignement qui s’ajuste constamment aux connaissances antérieures exprimées par les élèves
Physicality, Landscape, Language … Home: Locating and Connecting to Place in David Bouchard’s ‘Cultural Books’
No full textDavid Bouchard bridges cultures in his dual language oeuvre. Through notions of the physical and the Canadian landscape, and in First Nations, Michif, and European-descended languages, Bouchard is able to create narratives of place through poetry, storytelling, and descriptive chirography. The texts, which are complemented by prominent First Nations artists’ illustrations and music, embody Bouchard’s reclamation of his cultural heritages for himself and his daughter