Lunetta Williams

The purpose of the present study was to develop an instrument to measure reading during inschool independent reading (ISIR). Procedures to establish validity and reliability of the instrument included videotaping and observing students during ISIR, gathering feedback from literacy experts, establishing interrater reliability, crosschecking instruments, and minimizing observer bias. A factor analysis revealed items loaded onto four factors: attention to text, outward indicators, physical interactions with text, and spontaneous sharing of content. Further analysis indicated that involvement during ISIR was highly correlated with items associated with attention to text and the readers’ responses. This article provides an overview of the development and initial field-testing of the instrument with recommendations for future use and development.

This study focuses on preservice teachers’ reflective practices during a field-based tutoring experience in a summer literacy methods course. As part of the class, preservice teachers and their elementary-aged students served as “Summer Secret Agents,” sleuthing nonfiction selections together to find fun in learning facts. Throughout the tutoring experience preservice teachers reflected on what they were learning in the course as well as how they implemented new, corresponding strategies while concurrently working in the field. Preservice teachers’ reflections were analyzed qualitatively; results indicate that more explicit instruction on how to problematize in reflections is needed. For example, reflections containing discordant evidence over time were consistently evident, rendering this more of a compliance based exercise and less of a true exploration of evidence used to foster improvement in K-12 student learning gains. In addition, preservice teachers did not appear to integra...