Language and Literacy (Journal)
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Portfolios: From a Pile of Papers to a Meaningful Collection for Student Assessment
No full textThis article describes the types of portfolios teachers can use in their classroom along with
teacher-tested advice for ways to implement portfolio assessment. Portfolio assessment provides
teachers and students with a documented chronology of the learning that is taking place. By
periodically reviewing their portfolios, students become enlightened about their progress and
empowered when they can see for themselves the progression of their learning. This knowledge
enables students, with the guidance of their teacher, to set and work toward future learning goals.
We have included relevant research that supports portfolio assessment along with comments
from our students. These comments dramatically document the power portfolios have to
enlighten and motivate students to learn
Interpreting Lived Experience through Writing Online in a Graduate Seminar
No full textParticipants in an online doctoral seminar participated in the use of a writing strategy to explore the sociocultural contexts of their lived experience. Creating literary texts in three forms was an effective strategy in mediating participants\u27 understanding. Each form provided a new lens through which to interpret experience. Participants functioned as an interpretive community. The final papers, autobiographical narratives, illuminated the complex relations among prediscursive experience, reflection on experience, distancing, and the iterative transformational quality of time. The online format embodied a virtual interpretive location which allowed participants to revisit texts and postings over time
Moving Forward: The Inclusion of Characters with Down Syndrome in Children’s Picture Books
No full textThis article analyzes fifteen children’s picture books published over the past twenty-five years that include a character with Down syndrome (DS). From the perspective of both an educator and a parent of a child with DS, this article focuses on the changes in these picture books over time, the common threads connecting these books, an evaluation of these titles, and suggestions for use in the educational setting. In addition, an annotated bibliography is provided
Four Second Graders’ Descriptions of How They Spell
No full textThis study describes and categorizes the ways in which four children (two above-average and two below-average spellers) from one second grade classroom, use and talk about their spelling knowledge during a qualitative spelling inventory and an informal writing activity. Qualitative data include audiotapes of “talk-alouds” and interviews with the students, written spellings that students produced, field notes documenting informal conversations with the students’ first grade teachers, and classroom observations. The data revealed two categories of spelling knowledge: (1) developmental stage spelling knowledge and (2) verbalized spelling knowledge. The data defined ten subcategories of spelling knowledge. Patterns that emerged from the data suggest that students’ spelling knowledge in a specific subcategory relates to spelling ability and spelling task. Data also suggest participants’ instruction and application of invented spelling in first grade may influence certain features of spelling knowledge
Two Found Poems
No full textThese two found poems explore mythologies of motherhood, revealing the “shadow side” of mothering that is often experienced as social isolation, fear, anger, despair and depression
Book Review: Video games: A waste of time?
No full textAn exploration of learning principles underlying successful video games reveals insights into the primacy of traditional texts over newly emerging visual texts and the implications such constructions have in precluding students from meaningful participation in school
Burning Gender: Artistic Responses to Ellis’ (2000) THE BREADWINNER in a Grade 8 Classroom
No full textStudent Views of Learning: Perspectives from Three Countries
No full textThis study examines how learners understand themselves as literacy learners and critical thinkers in their classrooms. Students in grades four, five and eight in the United States, Canada, and Kazakhstan were interviewed about their own literacy and thinking practices, their classroom experiences, and their understandings of the role of literacy in a democracy. Implications for classroom practice are described
A Question of Access: Finding Information Books for Emergent Readers
No full textEmergent readers enjoy and benefit from reading age appropriate information books, and there are many books published for this cohort. However, the few studies conducted on access suggest that opportunities to find these books are limited. Early reading instruction usually favours fiction, while school library collections may be limited due to budget constraints. Retail selection is poor, and few awards recognize this genre. Public library access may be compromised due to budget issues, library design, fiction in displays, and parental behaviour. More research to clarify issues regarding access is needed to improve young children’s opportunities to find information books
