Using Wordless Picture Books to Support Emergent Literacy

Wordless books—picture books that rely entirely on illustrations to tell a story—are an excellent resource for educators of young children. This article provides a research-based rationale for using wordless books, offers a developmental sequence for introducing children to stories told through pictures, suggests a general strategy and wide array of early literacy activities based on books without texts, and recommends ways of communicating with parents/families about the value of wordless books. Outstanding wordless books and examples of children's responses to this growing genre of children's literature are also included.     

Climate change education in the humanities classroom: a case study of the Lowell school curriculum pilot

Abstract

Climate change as an instructional topic in K-12 schools is most frequently taught in the science classroom. However, it is a human issue requiring social as well as technological and scientific solutions. This study analyzes and evaluates a climate change curriculum implemented via an integrated social studies and language arts framework in a middle school classroom. The curriculum reflects collaboration between a private school, a climate education non-profit, and a government agency (NOAA). Following the first year of implementation, student surveys, teacher interviews, and classroom observations comprise the primary tools of data collection and evaluation. Based off these data, students demonstrate high levels of climate literacy, improvements in reading comprehension, and overall engagement with the topic. Teachers report successes and challenges of teaching the curriculum, and administrators offer opportunities for scaling and implementing the curriculum in other schools and contexts (including public schools). Findings from this study are relevant to climate change curriculum developers, researchers, and educators seeking to incorporate an interdisciplinary, socio-scientific approach to climate change education in their work.     

Using Formative & Summative Assessment to Evaluate Library Instruction in an Online First Year Writing Course

Ensuring quality library instruction in an online-exclusive First Year Writing (FYW) course is important and challenging. Assessing what the students learned and how is equally important. The authors collaborate and co-teach the information literacy portion of an online-exclusive second semester FYW course at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. To teach information literacy skills, the authors developed tutorial videos, worksheets, and a Librarian AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion forum for the students. The authors completed formative and summative assessments to measure the efficacy of the activities. This article explores their assessment, findings, and recommendations.     

Cohesive harmony in the written stories of elementary children

The use of cohesion in the written stories of normally developing and language-learning disabled elementary children was studied using Cohesive Harmony Analysis. The proportion of words in chains (cohesive density) and chain interaction (cohesive harmony) was consistent across the elementary years. However, children with language-learning disabilities evidenced significantly less cohesive density and cohesive harmony, and they included significantly fewer characters and fewer types of verbal processes in their stories. Educational implications are discussed.     

RESCUR Surfing the Waves: an evaluation of a resilience programme in the early years

ABSTRACT

RESCUR Surfing the Waves is a recently developed resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe. It seeks to develop in marginalized young learners the requisite competences needed to overcome the various challenges in their lives to achieve academic success and social and emotional wellbeing. The competences include developing a growth mindset, making use of one’s strengths, self-determination, effective communication skills and healthy relationships, and overcoming challenges and obstacles. This paper presents the findings of a study on the implementation of the programme in five kindergarten centres in Malta over a 1-year period. A pre- and post-intervention study in 20 classrooms (97 children) showed an improvement in resilience skills, prosocial behavior and learning engagement, but not in internalized and externalized problem behaviors. A small scale study in two nurture classes at two of the schools found similar findings. The findings suggest that there are indications that the programme as a proportionate universal intervention for early years leads to an improvement in social and academic behaviours, but more rigorous research is needed to substantiate these findings.     

Peer-led focus groups as ‘dialogic spaces’ for exploring young people’s evolving values

ABSTRACT

Although peer-led focus groups are widely used in research with children and young people, surprisingly little has been written that evaluates their methodological appropriateness. Drawing on data from 10 peer-led focus group sessions across 5 international schools, this article demonstrates how focus group discussions around moral and social values, which become more meaningful though the self-reflection provoked in encounters with different experiences and perspectives, can be advantageous for research. Peer-moderators, as both participants and facilitators, run focus groups that open dialogic spaces for exploratory talk that avoids the self-censure and deference that can emerge in the presence of an adult moderator. This is particularly important when participants are structurally disadvantaged and lack similar spaces for collaborative inquiry into their shared experiences. Video capture allows researchers in-depth access to these focus groups after the event, revealing evidentially and pedagogically rich dialogues.     

Peer coach during field experiences: cultivating teacher candidates’ peer feedback and reflective practices

ABSTRACT

Designing field embedded experiences for teacher candidates poses a unique challenge for large teacher education programs. Field experiences must include working with students, enhanced pedagogical coaching, and interaction within a professional community. Coursework coupled with field work should engage teacher candidates in a process of planning, implementing, analyzing and reflecting, and then modifying future teaching as evidence of reflective practice. Skilled coaching by the university based teacher educator or classroom mentor is one avenue for teaching novice educators how to analyze their classroom experiences. However, in large teacher education programs the ratio of candidates to UBTEs can make adequate coaching impossible. Thus, peer coaching can provide a feasible option for UBTE coaching. The purpose of this article is to describe the peer coaching experiences of teacher candidates and their university based teacher educators during junior level clinical block courses focused on developmentally appropriate practices for students in grades 1-3. Presented are a discussion of reflective practice, a rationale for peer coaching, and the application of peer coaching within three early childhood and elementary courses. Recommendations and challenges of peer coaching in a clinical pre-service teacher education program and implications for further studies are explored in the closing.     

Re-envisioning land-based pedagogies as a transformative third space: perspectives from university academics,students, and Indigenous knowledge holders from Manitoba,Canada

ABSTRACT

This research project examines experiences at the University of Winnipeg in facilitating land-based pedagogical (LBP) courses to ascertain the potential of land-based learning in strengthening students’ connection with Indigenous ways of knowing in Manitoba. The overarching aim of the research was to create empirical support for building bridges among the pedagogical approaches of land-based learning, two-eyed seeing, and transformative learning as a strategy for promoting transformative third space through land-based education programs. Transformative third space is utilized to conceptualize the process of weaving together Indigenous knowledges and academic knowledge to encourage intercultural dialogue and perceptual shifts in students’ understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing.     

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