Books,Children, Dogs,Artists: Library Programs for the Entire Family

The promotion of library resources and services is a continuous process for all libraries, especially hospital family resource center libraries. Like public libraries, a family resource center can utilize programs as a pathway for connecting with and developing awareness of library resources and services available to patient families. This column describes the programs currently offered for All Children's Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine patient families, marketing initiatives to promote these programs, and utilization of grant funding to supplement a program.     

Focused Library Instruction for Occupational Therapy,Physical Therapy,and Respiratory Care Students and Faculty: Library Instruction in Allied Health

The integration of librarians into allied health programs presents many exciting opportunities for collaboration. This column will describe how a library instruction program is integrated into the occupational therapy, respiratory care, and physical therapy curricula at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The allied health faculty have welcomed and recognized the librarians’ expertise in teaching evidence-based practice and library research skills.     

New “Starting Points” for Resources by Subject

The objective of the Starting Points Web page series at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT HSC) Libraries is to provide specialized information resources in an organized online format. Highlighted resources include databases, journals, UT HSC campus information, funding sources, PubMed® RSS article feeds, and information about professional associations. This paper discusses the development process, planning, challenges, and outcomes of the Starting Points series.     

Reading expressively and understanding thoroughly: An examination of prosody in adults with low literacy skills

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between prosody, which is the expressive quality of reading out loud, and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy skills compared to skilled readers. All participants read a passage orally, and we extracted prosodic measures from the recordings. We examined pitch changes and how long readers paused at various points while reading. Finally, for the adults with low literacy skills, we collected information on decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension. We found several interesting results. First, adults with low literacy skills paused longer than skilled readers and paused at a substantially greater number of punctuation marks. Second, while adults with low literacy skills do mark the end of declarative sentences with a pitch declination similar to skilled readers, their readings of questions lack a change in pitch. Third, decoding and word recognition skills were related to pauses while reading; readers with lower skills made longer and more frequent and inappropriate pauses. Finally, pausing measures explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension among the adults with low literacy skills.     

‘Does it answer the question or is it French fries?’: an exploration of language supports for scientific argumentation

ABSTRACT

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive language supports, and (3) some language supports offered a rationale for argumentation. Findings suggest a need to identify and develop supports for the dialogic aspects of argumentation. Furthermore, engaging students in argumentation through productive language functions could be leveraged to support dialogic interactions. Lastly, our work points to the need for language supports that make the rationale for argumentation explicit since such transparency could further increase access for all students.     

“Slaves to a Debt”: Race,Shame, and the Anti-Obama Jeremiad

This essay examines the language of shame and honor in the jeremiads of Barack Obama and the anti-Obama right. The jeremiad imagines America at a crossroads between the path of shame—where we become “a story and a by-word through the world”—and the path of honor. A brief history of the American jeremiad shows that the anti-slavery jeremiad transformed its dynamic of shame from an instrument of socialization into an indictment of hypocrisy against the defenders of slavery. Paradoxically, in the Age of Obama it is the anti-Obama right that has appropriated this rhetorical innovation of the anti-slavery jeremiad.     

Riding to the Rescue While Holding On By a Thread: Physical Activity in the Schools

The public health burden of obesity, overweight, and physical inactivity suggests schools be actively involved in prevention and treatment. Schools were challenged to take action by the Surgeon General in 2001. Few resources have been allocated to support the schools and in the presence of budget and high stakes testing pressure, resources are decreasing. Sources of support (research, professional organizations, government, coalitions/foundations) often criticize schools and teachers while providing erroneous information and no support. Teachers have responded to recommendations by including lifetime activities, health related fitness, and increasing MVPA. Approximately half the recommended minutes per week are provided in schools where there is any PE, many (5-33%) schools have no PE for their students. Three recommendations for scholars and leaders in the field include the following: Provide clear and consistent messages and interpretation of the scientific and theoretical information about physical activity; secure funded mandates for daily PE; be supportive not critical.     

‘Flexible learning'—unsettling practices

This paper explores the significance and effects of contemporary moves towards ‘flexible learning’ within Australian institutions of education and training. Arguing that there is a tendency within discourses of pedagogy and policy to assume that flexible learning signifies merely a ‘better'form for the delivery of learning, the possibilities that it may be a practice that changes the content or outcomes of learning itself are discussed. A ‘story’ is developed which suggests that flexible learning may have the potential to change both the identities of learners and teachers and knowledge itself in quite unsettling ways.     

Teaching in good faith: Towards a framework for defining the deep supports that grow and retain first-year teachers

‘Good faith’ refers to the existentialist concept of living and acting in harmony with one’s innermost values. An educator who teaches in good faith will fully actualize her philosophy of teaching in the classroom, which leads to greater job fulfilment and a higher likelihood of retention in the profession. Currently, much of the extant literature refers to teachers needing greater emotional support, but this original phenomenological study uncovered the need for deep supports, defined as adaptive methods for helping educators define, develop, and enact their values and beliefs in the classroom. The study hypothesizes that the need for deep supports has never been fully explored because the language of the educational industry does not fully attend to this aspect of teaching. To that end, this study explored the relationship between school environment and the development of good-faith teaching in first-year educators with the goal of providing language and a conceptual framework to understand the ways in which first-year teachers enact their emerging identities in the classroom. Ultimately, the study links good faith teaching to teacher retention and provides indicators of school environments that provide deep supports for teaching in good faith.