Re-reading the reading lesson: episodes in the history of reading pedagogy

Reading pedagogy is constantly an object of discussion and debate in contemporary policy and practice but is rarely a matter for historical inquiry. This paper reports from a recent study of the history of reading pedagogy in Australia and beyond. It focuses on a recurring figure in the historical record—the ‘reading lesson’. Presented as a distinctive trope, the reading lesson is traced in its regularity in and through the discourse of reading pedagogy, starting in 1930s Australia and moving back into 19th-century Europe, and with specific reference to the UK and the USA. Teaching reading is expressly identified as a moral project—something that, it can be argued, clearly continues into the present.     

The evolution of reading in the age of digitisation: an integrative framework for reading research

In the course of digitisation, the range of substrates for textual reading is being expanded to include a number of screen‐based technologies and reading devices, such as e‐readers (e.g. Kindle) and tablets (e.g. iPad). These technologies have distinctly different affordances than paper has. Given that textual reading is at the same time likely to remain important as a cultural practice, and is undergoing massive change as digital screens are supplementing paper – with the potential to replace it as the dominant substrate – there is an urgent need to investigate what effects such change might have on the reading of different kinds of texts, for different purposes. This article proposes the need for an integrative, transdisciplinary model of embodied, textual reading accounting for its psychological, ergonomic, technological, social, cultural and evolutionary aspects. The envisaged model aims to be partly explanatory, in the sense that it aligns and integrates existing knowledge, and partly exploratory, in the sense that it points to blank spots in our knowledge where further research is needed. The model will thus serve to guide the planning of such further research, and to make research more compatible and research outcomes more widely useable.     

Reading biographical texts: a gateway to historical disciplinary reading

We examined the response of high school students in Israel to biographical texts. Students were exposed to three sub-genres of biographical texts (a literary-biographical text, an autobiographical text and a scientific-biographical text). These texts all differ from the conceptual schema of ordinary school texts. The data were collected from 64 participants from three classes in two different public schools in Israel. The ability of students to apply historical disciplinary reading skills was evaluated for each text, with an emphasis on ‘sourcing’ and ‘corroboration’. The basic premise was that the texts the students are exposed to influence not only their level of knowledge but also their disciplinary concepts and skills.

We contend that it might be that biographical texts, and especially autobiographical and literary-biographical texts, evoked historical reading in students, and strengthened their disciplinary reading abilities.     

Digital literacy,fake news and education / Alfabetización digital,fake news y educación

Abstract

The role of digital literacy in strengthening citizens’ resilience to misinformation and ‘fake news’ has been the subject of research projects and networking and academic and policy discourses in recent years, given prominence by an escalation of the perceived crisis following election and referendum results in the US and UK respectively. This special issue sets out to take forward critical dialogue in the field of media and digital literacy education by publishing rigorous research on the subject. The research disseminated in this collection speaks to the political and economic contexts for ‘fake news’, the complex issue of trust and the risks of educational solutionism; questions of definition and policy implementation; teaching about specific subgenres such as YouTube and clickbait; international comparisons of pedagogic approaches and challenges for teachers in this changing ecosystem.     

Developing reading comprehension with moving image narratives

This paper reports the findings from a small-scale exploratory study that investigated how moving-image narratives might enable children to develop transferable reading comprehension strategies. Using short, animated, narrative films, 28 primary-aged children engaged in a 10-week programme that included the explicit instruction of comprehension strategies in small-group settings. Baseline and final data relating to children’s reading accuracy, rate and comprehension of written texts were gathered using a standardised reading assessment. Findings show that children’s reading comprehension scores showed significant improvement after the programme. Furthermore, reading accuracy scores also improved beyond expected levels even though no decoding of written words had occurred in the programme. While further research is needed, these findings offer a challenge to models of reading that potentially over-simplify the complex relationship between the word recognition and comprehension. More importantly, the findings point at the importance of using alternatives to written texts within the reading curriculum.     

英语阅读中的默读与朗读

阅读是一种技巧,掌握了这种技巧,学生们就会如虎添翼,阅读能力大大提高。阅读有多种方法,本文主要谈论默读和朗读两种阅读技巧。通过默读和朗读,可提高学生阅读理解力和阅读速度,锻炼学生英语表达能力,并帮助学生在听、说、写等方面得到进一步提高。     

Popular Culture and Sophisticated Reading: Men in Black

Young people learn about processing texts in different media from popular culture. Films are released accompanied by a huge variety of back-up and satellite texts. This article explores a set of associated texts linked with the film Men in Black. Different materials offer varying reading invitations. A schema of such reading invitations, developed from the Men in Black texts, involves seven categories: immersion, recapitulation, second-level engagement, technical analysis, commentary, spin-off, and parody.     

Building disciplinary literacy: an analysis of history,science and math teachers' close reading strategies

This collective case study explores the strategies history, science and math teachers use to conduct close readings in their disciplines. Through qualitative analysis of forum posts and lesson plans submitted to a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) designed as professional development (PD), this study examines the strategies history, science and math teachers reported using to conduct close readings in their discipline, as well as how these teachers conduct close readings after receiving professional development on reading strategies for their disciplines. Ultimately, the research showed that while more teachers reported using disciplinary literacy strategies following the PD, they did not necessarily report using the strategies that, according to experts in their fields, are considered to be the most important for their discipline.     

Critical media literacy is not an option

This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of critical media literacy and analyzes four different approaches to teaching it. Combining cultural studies with critical pedagogy, we argue that critical media literacy aims to expand the notion of literacy to include different forms of media culture, information and communication technologies and new media, as well as deepen the potential of literacy education to critically analyze relationships between media and audiences, information and power. A multiperspectival approach addressing issues of gender, race, class and power is used to explore the interconnections of media literacy, cultural studies and critical pedagogy. In the interest of a vibrant participatory democracy, educators need to move the discourse beyond the stage of debating whether or not critical media literacy should be taught, and instead focus energy and resources on exploring the best ways for implementing it.

Reading for meaning: The foundational knowledge every teacher of science should have

Reading is fundamental to science and not an adjunct to its practice. In other words, understanding the meaning of the various forms of written discourse employed in the creation, discussion, and communication of scientific knowledge is inherent to how science works. The language used in science, however, sets up a barrier, that in order to be overcome requires all students to have a clear understanding of the features of the multimodal informational texts employed in science and the strategies they can use to decode the scientific concepts communicated in informational texts. We argue that all teachers of science must develop a functional understanding of reading comprehension as part of their professional knowledge and skill. After describing our rationale for including knowledge about reading as a professional knowledge base every teacher of science should have, we outline the knowledge about language teachers must develop, the knowledge about the challenges that reading comprehension of science texts poses for students, and the knowledge about instructional strategies science teachers should know to support their students’ reading comprehension of science texts. Implications regarding the essential role that knowledge about reading should play in the preparation of science teachers are also discussed here.     

Reading aloud in Lewisham: an exploration of adult reading‐aloud practices

This paper analyses initial findings of a qualitative pilot study of the reading‐aloud practices of 17 adults in the London Borough of Lewisham. Although the dominant contemporary image of reading is that of a silent activity and within literacy provision it is frequently assumed that reading aloud is not a ‘natural’ ‘real life’ adult practice, anecdote suggests that adults do indeed read aloud, but these practices are overwhelmingly undocumented. This study is the first stage in developing a better understanding of contemporary adult reading‐aloud practices. Semi‐structured interviews were used to ask adults whether, what, where, how and why they read aloud. Initial findings reveal the ubiquitous nature of reading aloud in adult life, across a range of life domains (spiritual life, family life, work and learning) and for different self‐selected purposes (to memorise, to understand, to write and for fellowship). Initial findings reinforce the importance of expanding our definitions and conceptualisations of reading to recognise the diversity and changing nature of real life practices, and suggest implications for our understanding of the role of reading in adult life, for literacy education and for future research.     

Characterizing Reading Comprehension of Mathematical Texts

This study compares reading comprehension of three different texts: two mathematical texts and one historical text. The two mathematical texts both present basic concepts of group theory, but one does it using mathematical symbols and the other only uses natural language. A total of 95 upper secondary and university students read one of the mathematical texts and the historical text. Before reading the texts, a test of prior knowledge for both mathematics and history was given and after reading each text, a test of reading comprehension was given. The results reveal a similarity in reading comprehension between the mathematical text without symbols and the historical text, and also a difference in reading comprehension between the two mathematical texts. This result suggests that mathematics in itself is not the most dominant aspect affecting the reading comprehension process, but the use of symbols in the text is a more relevant factor. Although the university students had studied more mathematics courses than the upper secondary students, there was only a small and insignificant difference between these groups regarding reading comprehension of the mathematical text with symbols. This finding suggests that there is a need for more explicit teaching of reading comprehension for texts including symbols.     

Building reading resilience: re-thinking reading for the literary studies classroom

This paper introduces the concept of ‘reading resilience’: students’ ability to read and interpret complex and demanding literary texts by drawing on advanced, engaged, critical reading skills. Reading resilience is a means for rethinking the place and pedagogies of close reading in the contemporary literary studies classroom. Our research was across four Australian universities and the first study of its kind in the Australian context. We trialled three working strategies to support students to become consistent and skilled readers, and to equip teachers with methods for coaching reading: ‘setting the scene’ for reading, surveying students on their reading experiences and habits, and rewarding reading within assessment. We argue that the nature and pedagogy of close reading has not been interrogated as much as it should be and that the building of reading resilience is less about modelling or outlining best practice for close reading (as has traditionally been thought) and more about deploying contextual, student-centred teaching and learning strategies around reading. The goal is to encourage students to develop a broad suite of skills and knowledge around reading that will equip them long term (for the university and beyond). We measured the effectiveness of our strategies through seeking formal and informal student feedback, and through students’ demonstration of skills and knowledge within assessment.     

Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria.  [Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools.     

The Teaching Focus of Adult‐Reading Teachers When Developing Word Reading Skills

Despite widescale literacy interventions, reading difficulties persist in the adult population. Results from international surveys report that millions of adults around the world remain unable to read the texts they require for daily life and work. Adult reading difficulties are diverse and under‐researched, and adult‐reading teachers are generally underprepared to build reading skills, particularly at word level reading where many adults report difficulties. This study examined (i) the teaching foci that 60 adult‐reading teachers prioritised in determining how to teach a hypothetical adult reader with difficulties at the word level and (ii) the teacher attributes by which these decisions varied. Around 40% of teachers indicated that they would prioritise non‐word level components in deciding how to teach the hypothetical reader with word level difficulties, and these decisions varied with teachers' training/qualifications. To make sense of the persistence of low reading levels in the adult population, it is necessary to understand more about what teachers teach and why they teach the way they do. The findings of this study may provide an important step towards this goal.     

Early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children

In this study, we aimed to determine the early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading in Turkish-speaking children. A total of 362 children participated in the study. We monitored the children for 3 years and assessed the home environmental variables and cognitive skills in kindergarten, reading fluency at the end of the first grade, and reading comprehension at the end of the second grade. We found that home literacy environment and socioeconomic status predicted early literacy skills in kindergarten as they also predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension through early literacy in later years. In addition, we found that phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming predicted reading fluency, while language and verbal working memory predicted reading comprehension. The results of the study showed us that it is important to consider reading and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children holistically, together with cognitive skills and home environmental variables.     

Learning literacy though play using interactive texts during storybook reading: A parent/child experience

Abstract

Based on first hand field notes, I undertook to research the reasons why children interacted or did not interact appropriately with a common emergent literacy experience, the readaloud. I explored the reasons why par‐ents/caregivers may not effectively participate in storybook reading, including reactions of parents/caregivers during four literacy events. I determined that the key to successful literacy experiences were first hand, personal involvement of the children in an active learning experience associated with interactive texts. Here, children were invited to create appropriate actions to accompany the story readings. Interactive texts appear to hold the key to successful early literacy experiences for preschoolers. © 2005 Published by Elsevier Inc.