Grasping the Unimaginable: Recent Holocaust Novels for Children by Morris Gleitzman and John Boyne

This discussion explores the role that storytelling and stories might have in leading children towards an awareness of uncertainty and ambiguity in relation to Holocaust representation. It focuses on Morris Gleitzman’s Once (2006), its sequel Then (2008), and John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006) to consider the narrative techniques used to draw young readers into an understanding of the Holocaust. In particular, the discussion examines the role of silence within these narratives to suggest that a meaningful dialogue with silence is a crucial aspect in communicating the fractured nature of Holocaust history. Literature aimed at a young audience engages explicitly with the oft-cited injunction not to forget the Holocaust by setting out to inform a new generation of readers about the horrors of the Nazi genocide. In my analysis of these texts, however, I want to consider whether we should assume that such works do necessarily perform a progressive educative role. The article argues that the blunt didacticism of Boyne’s text might close down possibilities for the child reader’s imaginative engagement with the ungraspable nature of the Holocaust. In contrast, Gleitzman’s novels confront the child reader with a complex set of ideas about the relationship between narrative and subjectivity.     

Effect of a Problem Based Simulation on the Conceptual Understanding of Undergraduate Science Education Students

A study of the effect of science teaching with a multimedia simulation on water quality, the “River of Life,” on the science conceptual understanding of students (N = 83) in an undergraduate science education (K-9) course is reported. Teaching reality-based meaningful science is strongly recommended by the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996). Water quality provides an information-rich context for relating classroom science to real-world situations impacting the environment, and will help to improve student understanding of science (Kumar, 2005a; Kumar and Chubin, 2000). The topics addressed were classes of organisms that form river ecosystem, dissolved oxygen, macroinvertebrates, composition of air, and graph reading skills. Paired t-test of pre- and post-tests, and pre- and delayed post-tests showed significant (p < 0.05) gains. The simulation had a significant effect on the conceptual understanding of students enrolled in a K-9 science education course for prospective teachers in the following areas: composition of air, macroinvertebrates, dissolved oxygen, classes of organisms that form a river ecosystem, and graph reading skills. The gain was more in the former four areas than the latter one. A paired t-test of pre- and delayed post-tests showed significant (p < 0.05) gains in the water quality and near transfer subsets than the dissolved oxygen subset. Additionally students were able to transfer knowledge acquired from the multimedia simulation on more than one concept into teachable stand-alone lesson plans.     

“All of Her Changes Have Made Me Think About My Changes”: Fan Readings of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice Series

This essay follows the insights of reader response theory to examine how readers of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice McKinley series negotiate textual meaning and construct particular identities in relation to the series’ controversial content. Ranking second on the American Library Association’s top one hundred list of banned and challenged books for 2000–2009, and criticized by conservative groups and feminist scholars alike, the Alice series may be understood as belonging to a widely-denigrated genre of relational reading material largely consumed by girls. The study analyzes over 2 years of reader posts to the Offical Alice Blog, the major fan website to the series, to argue that reading Alice is a means by which fans shape their social and cultural identities in sometimes contradictory ways. While Alice fans display an uncritical adoption of some traditional beliefs around gender and sexuality in their reading of the series, their discussion simultaneously reveals how their recognition of the series as transgressive and liberating in its presentation of matters related to female adolescent identity enables readers to construct particular identities for themselves as readers, teens, and young women that are formed in opposition to some conservative and traditional ideologies. Moreover, in their engagement with the series’ progressive sexual politics fans move closer to claiming agency as sexual subjects.     

Differentiating the neural response to intervention in children with developmental dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is associated with functional abnormalities within reading areas of the brain. For some children diagnosed with dyslexia, phonologically based remediation programs appear to rehabilitate brain function in key reading areas (Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry 55: 101–110, 2004; Simos et al., Neuroscience 58: 1203–1213, 2002). However, a non-trivial number of children diagnosed with dyslexia fail to respond to these interventions (Torgesen, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 15: 55–64, 2000). A cross-sectional fMRI study investigating post-treatment effects was conducted in an effort to better understand differences in brain function between treatment responders and non-responders. Educational testing and brain activation measured after treatment suggested that the reading intervention used in the present study rehabilitated several basic level reading processes in all participants diagnosed with dyslexia. However, activation in the left inferior parietal lobe differentiated treatment responders and non-responders in comparison to non-impaired readers. Children with persistent deficits in single word decoding (treatment non-responders) demonstrated significantly less activation in the left inferior parietal lobe when compared to non-impaired readers.     

The achievement ideology of Reading Wonders: a critical content analysis of success and failure in a core reading programme

In the early 1960s, researchers began to conduct content analyses of core reading programmes/basal readers. Although these researchers often adopted a critical perspective, and examined the ideological underpinnings of the texts, they failed to make an explicit connection between ideologies and reader access to the text. The study described here is a critical content analysis of texts contained within the core reading programme Reading Wonders. It addresses these research questions: What vision of success and failure is exemplified by selections in the fourth-grade Reading Wonders textbook?—and—To what extent are selections in this programme accessible to readers? Mobilizing MacLeod’s notion of achievement ideology, the study explores the contrast between the programme’s emphasis on individual success and the inaccessibility of the selections included in it. The analysis demonstrates that the achievement ideology is the foundation for most of the selections. It also shows that the complexity and unengaging quality of the basal reader interferes with the reader’s ability to access the included texts. I argue the Reading Wonders textbook serves to convince readers that personal and professional success is the norm in contemporary society, while failing to allow them to construct more than a surface-level meaning of the included selections.     

Developmental aspects of reading motivation and reading achievement among second grade low achievers and typical readers

This investigation examined developmental aspects of 155 second‐graders' intrinsic reading motivation and reading achievement at the beginning and end of a school year. Reading motivation remained at the same level through the school year, while reading achievement was significantly higher at the end of it than at the beginning. According to word reading skills, low reading achievers (n = 63) and typical readers (n = 92) evinced significant differences in reading motivation. The former scored lower in overall reading motivation and self‐concept as a reader, as well as in reading achievement. Throughout the school year, low reading achievers showed a decline in overall motivation, self‐concept as a reader and literacy outloud, and did not improve in reading comprehension achievement. Reading motivation in typical readers remained high and steady during the school year. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to previous studies.     

Lexical processing skill in college-age resilient readers

Despite an extensive literature linking individual differences in phonological processing to reading ability, some adults show normal text comprehension abilities despite poor pseudoword reading (Jackson & Doellinger (2002). Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 64–78). This study was undertaken to investigate differences between these individuals, termed resilient readers, and proficient readers in performance and degree of lateralization on a variety of single word processing tasks. Participants completed seven divided visual field tasks investigating various aspects of reading. Resilient readers performed less accurately on basic word recognition tasks, but not on the tasks involving semantic access. Resilient readers did not differ from proficient readers on reaction time or lateralization on any of the experimental tasks. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that skilled phonological decoding is not necessary for reading for meaning in a college population. It is proposed that higher-level semantic information and general world knowledge may allow some readers to compensate for deficiencies in lower-level word recognition processes.

Teaching Young Children Self-regulation through Children’s Books

Today’s emphasis on using children’s literature as a tool to teach reading and writing sub-skills distracts teachers’ attention from looking to children’s books for their historical role in helping children navigate the intellectual, social, and emotional terrains of childhood. This article argues, first, that early childhood educators must remain fluent in the use of literature that supports young children’s psychosocial development. Second, teachers must establish criteria for choice. By way of example, it examines two popular books for young children, Sendak’s (1963) Where the Wild Things Are [New York: HarperCollins Publishers] and Shannon’s (1998) No, David! [New York: Blue Sky Press] Three theoretical perspectives guide the analysis. The first combines Dewey’s (1938/97) [Experience and education. New York:Touchstone] impetus for learning and Vygotsky’s (1978) [Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] theory that learning precedes development through scaffolded social interaction. The second is Erikson’s (1950, 1985) [Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.] theory of psychosocial development in light of the 4–6-year-old’s drive towards self-regulation, control, and independence. The third is Rosenblatt’s (1978) [The reader, the text, the poem. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English] transactional nature of reading.     

The Simple View of Reading: Is It Valid for Different Types of Alphabetic Orthographies?

We present a meta-analysis to test the validity of the Simple View of Reading Gough & Tunmer (Remedial and Special Education, 7:6–10, 1986) for beginner readers of English and other, more transparent, orthographies. Our meta-analytic approach established that the relative influence of decoding and linguistic comprehension on reading comprehension is different for readers of different types of orthography during the course of early reading development. Furthermore, we identified key differences in the relations among different measures of decoding and reading comprehension between readers of English and other more transparent orthographies. We discuss the implications for reading instruction and the diagnosis of reading difficulties, as well as our theoretical understanding of how component skills influence reading comprehension level.     

The reading rate and comprehension of adults with impaired reading skills or visual discomfort

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of impaired reading skills and visual discomfort on the reading rate and comprehension of university students when reading texts presented at a high school (Grade 9) or university (Grade 12) level of difficulty. Groups included impaired readers (n=18) and normal readers with (n=13) or without visual discomfort (n=19). Regardless of text difficulty the impaired reader group had a significantly slower reading rate and poorer comprehension than the normal reader control group. However, when reading rate and comprehension were compared at the assessed reading level of each group, no group differences were found. The normal reading visual discomfort group had poorer reading comprehension than other normal readers with presentation of university‐level text only. It was concluded that poor word decoding skills may exacerbate comprehension difficulties in impaired readers. In contrast, the comprehension difficulties found for normal readers with visual discomfort occurred because of the somatic and perceptual difficulties induced with exposure to the repetitive striped patterns found on text pages. The types of strategy needed to increase the reading efficiency and produce greater academic success in university students with impaired reader skills or visual discomfort are discussed.     

Power Relationships in Rumpelstiltskin: A Textual Comparison of a Traditional and a Reconstructed Fairy Tale

Reconstructed fairy tales provide a different point of view and challenge the assumptions of a common set of values; for that reason, these stories provide a medium in which to examine power relationships in texts by applying a critical multicultural analysis (Botelho & Rudman, forthcoming, 2008, A critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature: Mirrors, windows and doors. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum) to identify and analyze power relations of Rumpelstiltskin (Grimm & Grimm, 1812/1987, New York: Bantam) and Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter (Stanley, 1997, New York: Morrow Junior Books). Specifically, this study examines how power is exercised on a continuum: domination, collusion, resistance, and agency. Findings indicate that by identifying and questioning text ideologies, critical readers can consider how texts maintain, counteract, or promote alternative systemic power structures.

The role of question type and reading ability in reading comprehension

Performance on a standardized reading comprehension test reflects the number of correct answers readers select from a list of alternate choices, but fails to provide information about how readers cope with the various cognitive demands of the task. The aim of this study was to determine whether three groups of readers: normally achieving (NA), poor comprehenders (CD), with no decoding disability, and reading disabled (RD), poor comprehenders with poor decoding skills, differed in their ability to cope with reading comprehension task demands. Three task variables reflected in the question-answer relations that appear on standardized reading comprehension tests were identified.Passage Independent (PI) question can be answered with reasonable accuracy based on the reader's prior knowledge of the passage content.Inference (INFER) questions required the reader to generate an inference at the local or global test level.Locating (LOCAT) questions require the reader to match the correct answer choice to a detail explicitly stated in the text either verbatim or in paraphrase form. The relations among reader characteristics, cognitive task factors and reading comprehension test scores were analyzed using a structural relations equation with LISREL. It was found that the three reading groups differed with respect to the underlying relationship between their performance on specific question-answer types and their standardized reading comprehension score. For the NA group, a high score on PI was likely to be accompanied by a low score on INFER, whereas in the CD and RD groups, PI and INFER are positively related. The finding of a negative relationship between background knowledge and inference task factors for normally achieving readers suggests that even normal readers may have comprehension difficulties that go undetected on the basis of a standardized scores. This study indicates that current comprehension assessments may not be adequate for assessing specific reading difficulties and that more precise diagnostic tools are needed.     

Does Self-image Matter? Client’s Self-image, Behaviour and Evaluation of a Career Counselling Session: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study addresses differences in self-image as a client characteristic in career counselling by using the Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour (Benjamin, L., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1203–1212, 1996; Benjamin, L., Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(2), 248–266, 1996) and an adaptation (Andersson, W.P, and Niles, S.P., The Career Development Quarterly, 48(3), 251–263, 2000) of the Therapist Intention List (Hill C. E and O’Grady K. E., Journal of Counseling Psychology, 32(1), 3–22, 1985; Hill et al., Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35(3), 222–233, 1988). Expected and experienced behaviour of self and other, recalled helpful and non-helpful events during sessions, and evaluation of sessions were compared between two clients with identified positive self-image and two clients with identified negative self-image. The results indicated that the clients with a positive self-image compared to clients with a negative self-image expected more positive behaviours and experienced more positive in-session behaviours from both themselves and from the counsellor; they recalled more positive and fewer negative events in-session and they evaluated their session more positively. Implications for career counselling are discussed.     

Spelling errors and phonemic segmentation ability: the nature of the relationship

Poor spellers/readers and younger normal children of similar spelling and reading ability carried out phonemic segmentation and spelling tasks. The poor spellers were impaired relative to controls in their ability to detect the odd word out where the middle or final phoneme of the word differed from that of the other items in the list. For example, in the series ‘dot',‘cot',‘pot', 'bat', the word ‘bat’ differs from the other items in terms of its middle vowel. Spelling errors were classified as being ‘pre-phonetic',‘phonetic', or ‘transitional’ in character, according to Morris and Perney's (1984) developmental scheme.‘Transitional’ errors indicate a knowledge of English orthography, and are relatively easy for the reader to decode phonetically, for example, green ?>‘grene', whereas ‘phonetic’ errors indicate a level of phonetic awareness which is not matched by an ability to represent the word according to the conventions of English spelling, for example green ?>‘gren'. Poor spellers were found to make significantly fewer ‘transitional’ errors than controls, there being a non-significant tendency for them to make more ‘pre-phonetic’ and ‘phonetic’ errors. It was found that performance on the odd word out task correlated significantly with the occurrence of ‘transitional’ errors, there being no such relationship with ‘phonetic’ errors.     

Social constructivism and the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Believing Game</Emphasis>: a mathematics teacher’s practice and its implications

The study reported here is the third in a series of research articles (Harkness, S. S., D’Ambrosio, B., & Morrone, A. S.,in Educational Studies in Mathematics 65:235–254, 2007; Morrone, A. S., Harkness, S. S., D’Ambrosio, B., & Caulfield, R. in Educational Studies in Mathematics 56:19–38, 2004) about the teaching practices of the same university professor and the mathematics course, Problem Solving, she taught for preservice elementary teachers. The preservice teachers in Problem Solving reported that they were motivated and that Sheila made learning goals salient. For the present study, additional data were collected and analyzed within a qualitative methodology and emergent conceptual framework, not within a motivation goal theory framework as in the two previous studies. This paper explores how Sheila’s “trying to believe,” rather than a focus on “doubting” (Elbow, P., Embracing contraries, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986), played out in her practice and the implications it had for both classroom conversations about mathematics and her own mathematical thinking.     

A Social-Studies Unit that Developed Pupils’ Powers of Problem Solving

This article reports the author's experiences using graphic novels with pre-service teachers in a young adult literature course. Drawing on critical response papers two students composed after reading Pride of Baghdad, a graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon, the author argues that when readers possess the background knowledge needed to approximate the role of the implied reader—that is, the imaginary audience for whom authors envision themselves writing—they are capable of engaging with graphic novels in ways that readers who lack experience with the form, or who question its literary merit, are not.     

Investigation of the Ideological Condition of Some Students in Four Prestigious Higher Educational Institutions in the Nation

"Social University," a special supplement to Wen hui bao, carried on November 9 a letter from the paper's reader Duo Yan together with an editor's note that proposed discussion on the question raised in the letter as to whether college student Zhang Hua's action to save an old peasant at the price of his own life was worthwhile. The proposal drew a warm response from readers.     

A design study of a multimedia instructional grammar program with embedded tracking

This is a design study meant to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating three rather different theoretical perspectives for future efforts in multimedia instructional design. A multimedia instructional grammar program contextualized within the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) was developed and evaluated. The program design was grounded in Mayer’s multimedia learning theory (2001), Sweller’s cognitive load theory (CLT, 2005), and cognitive training theory using an inductive reasoning paradigm (Klauer and Phye, Rev Educ Res 78(1):85–124, 2008). A successful integration of cognitive training theory into program design is expected to facilitate the transition of student’s declarative knowledge of a grammar concept of passive voice to procedural knowledge (Phye, Contemp Educ Psychol 16:87–94, 1991; Phye et al., Empirical methods for evaluating educational interventions, Academic Press/Elsevier, San Diego, 2005). Two studies involving ten and four adult ESL learners were conducted in a Midwest community college. Grammar teaching occurred within the context of history and geography of the USA. Students with low prior knowledge of passive voice grammar concepts, intermediate level of general vocabulary, and adequate basic knowledge of content (basic geography and history) benefited most from the program. Preliminary results are encouraging for the aforementioned integrative efforts.     

“A Nightmare Land, A Place of Death”: An Exploration of the Moon as a Motif in Hergé’s Destination Moon (1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954)

This article analyses the symbolic meaning of the Moon in two bande dessinée books from the Tintin series, Hergé’s Destination Moon (Objectif Lune, 1953) and its sequel Explorers on the Moon (On a Marché sur la Lune, 1954). It argues that these two volumes stand out in the series for their graphic, narrative and philosophical emphasis on both intellectual achievement and physical death. The Moon, as a goal of modern science and a traditional artistic symbol, is made to celebrate the human mind. But Hergé also makes it a dangerous no man’s land, where human beings are made to understand the limitations of their physical abilities. The Moon emphasises the distortion between human dreams of grandeur and the concrete impossibility of their realisation, and the threats they pose to corporeality. As a result, the article suggests that the Moon trip can be seen as a modern re-enactment of the mythological journey to Hell, as the works of the human mind are constantly thwarted by the risk of physical death.