Global literature offers the potential of opening children’s and teachers’ minds to multiple ways of living in the world and to intercultural understanding. Asking readers to read outside their comfort zones, however, can instead hold danger and perpetuate stereotypes and misunderstandings. We can address these dangers through acting on our social responsibilities as bookmakers, readers,… Read More »

Italian Americans are only beginning to study their cultural heritage. Part presentation, part poetry reading, Janine Certo’s talk will focus on her ongoing project, “In Years of Wine and Steel,” in which she explores: 1) some experiences of second generation southern Italian immigrants living in western Pennsylvania, 2) her own experiences as a third generation… Read More »

With a national, state, and local shortage of teachers, particularly those that are culturally and linguistically diverse, innovative recruitment practices are needed to provide communities with highly qualified teachers that can impact all children in meaningful ways. In this presentation, Dr. Amber Meyer will share how in collaboration with her colleagues, Drs. Claudia Burgess and… Read More »

Middle and high school teachers want to address the literacy needs of their students but often have limited knowledge about what to do. Additionally, one-shot workshops do not provide the support teachers need to adequately learn new pedagogical approaches and apply them to their instruction. However, online learning has the potential to change how we… Read More »

A theatrical title? Maybe. But, I will use a religious analogy to argue that the longstanding gap between education research and its influence on practice is the original sin of researchers, not of inattentive or recalcitrant practitioners. We (I contritely include myself) have unwittingly sold our souls to methods and theories that serve more to… Read More »

We know that parents, and the home literacy environments they create, are significant factors in the development of children’s literacy and school achievement skills. We also know that the diverse and difficult needs of today’s children far outstrip the ability of any one institution to meet them. Yet one of the richest resources for understanding… Read More »

School subjects represent different cultures of learning and doing, and in this talk I will show how elementary and secondary school teachers can support students’ literacy development by focusing on how knowledge is presented in language in ways that vary across school subjects. I will report on work we are doing with teachers to support… Read More »

In this study, we used verbal protocol methodology to examine how fourth-grade students construct meaning as they read and respond to informational social studies texts. Results indicate that most students were active readers, often engaging in higher-level comprehension strategies. However, these understandings were not often visible in their responses to end-of-reading questions (ERQ). In contrast,… Read More »