Leigh Hall

A growing body of research suggests that adolescents' reading identities play a significant role in how they make decisions about their involvement with classroom literacy practices. In this yearlong study in an eighth-grade English classroom, I used a formative design to consider how an instructional model intended to support students' reading identities and development influenced their talk about classroom reading practices. I closely followed five students with varying reading identities and abilities, documenting how they talked about texts within the context of the instruction they received. I found that both the quality and quantity of students' talk shifted over the course of the study. All students, but particularly those with reading difficulties and negative reading identities, increased how often they talked about texts. They also changed the ways they spoke about texts, shifting from asking questions primarily about assignments to asking more questions about the content they were reading about. However, as students began to change their talk, others responded by attempting to silence them or limit what they said. This study shows that while teachers can create a context that helps students reconstruct their reading identities, they will need to foster a climate where students support each other's growth as readers and development of reading identities. Therefore, changing the habitus as it relates to reading and being a reader becomes the responsibility of everyone in the class.

The purpose of this year-long project was to examine an instructional framework intended to help middle school teachers create instruction that responds to students’ reading identities while also helping students learn the skills they need to be successful readers. The project used a formative design approach in order to achieve 3 pedagogical goals with middle school students: (a) examine and positively change their involvement with classroom reading practices, (b) improve their reading comprehension abilities, and (c) allow them to progress in who they want to become as readers.

Authentic literacy activities in the classroom replicate and reflect literacy activities that occur in people's lives outside of school and instructional contexts. A growing body of research supports use of such activities in teaching and learning. The authors elaborate on the definition of authentic literacy, describe supporting research and theory, and give examples of authentic literacy activities documented in a research study. They identify strategies teachers can use to implement these activities for reading and writing, focusing particularly on science instruction.

This paper presents the results of a review of the research into content area teachers' attitudes and beliefs about the teaching of reading within their subject area(s). As exemplified in the quote above, the ability to read and learn from text written to provide information can be difficult and frustrating for students who lack the skills. Content area teachers have been encouraged for decades to incorporate reading into their area of instruction, but have often chosen not to do this for a variety of reasons. In addition, teacher educators have attempted to work with content area teachers to help them consider how to incorporate reading instruction into their classroom.

This paper takes a closer look at the reasons that motivate pre- and in-service content area teachers in grades 6-12 to either teach or not teach reading. It also examines the ways in which teacher educators have worked to help content area teachers learn how to teach reading and the degree to which these interventions have been successful. In doing so I argue that (a) our approaches to working with content area teachers on this topic have been limited and (b) simply creating positive attitudes towards teaching reading is not necessarily enough. This paper begins with a brief discussion of what it means to teach reading in the content areas. Next I present a general introduction to teacher beliefs and how they may influence the instructional decisions teachers make. Then I discuss the methodology for my review. This is followed by the results of my review with implications for how teacher educators might consider addressing this issue in the future.

This article examines studies that have attempted to help increase comprehension of expository text for students who are struggling readers and/or have reading disabilities. In doing so, this review reveals that (a) few studies have explicitly claimed to include these students in their work and (b) future research needs to include larger numbers of these students in such studies. This review also shows that the majority of work that has been done in this area has used social studies texts. Few studies exist that were designed to help increase comprehension of mathematics and/or science text. Finally, this review questions the texts that were used in these studies and suggests that different results may have been found if researchers had used texts written at students instructional, rather than frustration, levels.

This year-long case study examines how a struggling reader in a sixth-grade social studies class, a seventh grade mathematics class, and an eighth grade science class “transacted” with the reading task demands of her specific classroom. Through regular classroom observations and interviews, the researcher documents how each student
responded to and worked with text and reading instruction provided by her respective content area teacher.

The results suggest that each student attempted to be engaged with text as much as possible and was interested in learning course content. However, the ways in which the students approached text was heavily influenced by how she saw herself as a reader. Students who believed they could comprehend a piece of text were more willing to engage with it than if they believed it was too difficult. However, even when a student chose not to read a portion of text, she considered other ways in which she might learn the content being presented. Overall, the results suggest that there is more to
working with struggling readers than considering the type of instruction they need. The case presented here suggests that teachers and researchers need to find ways to understand the connections between identity and instruction.

The author examined the techniques of 3 middle
school struggling readers to use silence to protect or promote
their specific identities as readers in and out of school.
J. Gee’s (2002) theory of discursive identity framed this article.
Results challenge the ways that teachers and researchers
typically think of struggling readers. Rather than being unmotivated to read and learn, each participant demonstrated that she was interested and cared about learning information presented in the texts. However, when trying to promote an identity, the students sometimes had to forgo comprehending text and learning content rather than risk being viewed unfavorably by peers.

In this article, we present the results of two studies that offer: (a) insights into how three African-American boys did and did not utilize a critical literacy stance to interpret texts and (b) specific suggestions for how teachers might select and use texts in ways that foster students’ critical literacy abilities. Results from the first study suggest that the boys enjoyed reading texts that fit their definitions of the world around them. They did not view their ideas as open to question or change and seemed to view ideas in texts as either accurate or inaccurate interpretations of the world. Results from the second study suggest that teachers believe there are a number of ways they can use texts to help students question their own ideas, the ideas that dominant society, and the actions that they engage in.

... Sarah replied, “Well, in English I was supposed to read Island of the Blue Dol-phins, but I didn't.” “Why not?” “I don't know,” Sarah shrugged. “Too hard. I couldn't read it.” “Are you reading something now in your English class that you like?” Leigh asked. “Nope. ...

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This study examined how the use of book clubs in a literacy methods class informed pre-service, elementary teachers’ visions of self as literacy teachers. Teachers began the study with the vision of teaching students the reading and writing skills they were weakest in. Teachers though transformed their visions to include culturally responsive teaching, becoming an activist, and creating spaces for struggling readers and writers to grow. However, the majority believed that it was important to utilize the pedagogical practices that were demanded by the schools they would work in so they could fit in and be identified as a good teacher. Teachers indicated that they would forgo their visions, engage in sub-standard literacy practices, and knowingly marginalize students, to obtain a positive professional identity.

In this essay, Leigh Hall and Leslie Burns use theories of identity to understand mentoring relationships between faculty members and doctoral students who are being prepared as educational researchers. They suggest that becoming a professional researcher requires students to negotiate new identities and reconceptualize themselves both as people and professionals in addition to learning specific skills; however, the success or marginalization that students experience may depend on the extent to which they attempt to enact identities that are valued by their mentors. For this reason, Hall and Burns argue that faculty mentors must learn about and consider identity formation in order to successfully socialize more diverse groups of researchers, and they believe that formal curriculum designs can be used more intentionally to help students and faculty understand the roles identity plays in professional development and to make doctoral education more equitable.

The year-long case study described in this article examined the transactions between a sixth grade social studies teacher, Mrs. O’Reilly, and a struggling reader within her classroom, Sarah, in relation to the reading-task demands of their classroom. Findings indicated that Mrs. O’Reilly’s transactions with Sarah were influenced by a cognitive, print-centric view of reading and the identity she created for Sarah based on that view of reading. Sarah’s transactions with the reading task demands were influenced by how she identified herself as a reader and her goal to prevent her peers from seeing her as a poor reader. The findings from this study suggest that teachers and researchers need to find ways to identify and be responsive to the role of identity in the classroom.

Five reading lesson instruction characteristics were examined in relation to first- and second-graders’ end-of-year Instructional Reading Level: a) Teacher’s Preferred Interaction Style (indicated by extent of teacher Telling and Coaching); b) Teacher’s Preferred Grouping (indicated by extent of Whole Class and Small Group instruction); c) Teacher’s Preferred Focus of Reading Activity (indictaed by extent of focus on Words/Letters and Comprehension); d) Degree of Student Active Response; and e) Instruction Material (indicated by extent of use of Narrative Text and Worksheets). Sixteen first- and second-grade teachers and 166 of their students were observed during reading instruction three times across the school year. Analyses of covariance were conducted. Complex relationships heretofore not revealed appeared. Different patterns of relationships between instructional characteristics and Instructional Reading Level emerged for higher achievers as compared to lower achievers and for first as compared to second grade.

This year long case study examined: (a) how a seventh-grade struggling reader transacted with the reading task demands of her mathematics classroom and (b) how her teacher responded to her in regards to these reading task demands. The results suggest that struggling readers may engage in behaviors that are designed to help others construct specific beliefs about them as readers or students. Teachers may not be aware of the beliefs struggling readers are trying to promote about themselves. While content area teachers may draw on a number of strategies to help improve their students' reading abilities, the results of this study suggest that such instruction, no mater how effective it is, may not be enough.