Cheri Williams

Strategy Instruction During Word Study and Interactive Writing Activities

In this project, a teacher researcher and a university researcher used qualitative data collection and analysis procedures to collaboratively investigate the efficacy of interactive writing as a context for guided practice in the use of specific spelling strategies that had been taught during daily word study lessons. The researchers also examined first-grade, Title I childrens use of those strategies during independent writing events. Findings of the project indicated that the teacher researcher taught a number of fundamental spelling strategies during word study instruction, which were categorized as Tools of the Trade and Tools of the Mind. Results also demonstrated the ways in which interactive writing provided meaningful opportunities for the teacher to scaffold the childrens use of the strategies that were taught. Finally, the project suggested that students appropriated a number of those strategies and used them independently during writing activities in the regular classroom. The project supports the use of both word study and interactive writing instruction in the early literacy program.

Preschool Deaf Children's Use of Signed Language during Writing Events

This research examined young deaf childrens social interaction during free-choice writing time in their preschool classroom. The study examined the ways in which five deaf children used signed language as they wrote. Results of the study indicated that the children used both signed language and nonverbal expression to engage in representational, directive, interactional, personal, and heuristic use of language to support their writing endeavors. The study raises the question of whether nonverbal expression might also be salient among emergent writers who are not deaf.

PROMOTING VOCABULARY LEARNING IN YOUNG CHILDREN WHO ARE D/DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING: TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE

Vocabulary knowledge is strongly associated with reading achievement and becomes increasingly predictive of overall reading proficiency as children progress through the elementary grades. Children who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing often begin schooling with small meaning vocabularies, a disadvantage that puts them at risk of struggling to learn to read. Recent research on vocabulary intervention with young children who have typical hearing demonstrates the effectiveness of targeted, contextualized instruction on children’s word learning and provides insights for early childhood educators of young d/Deaf and hard of hearing children. In the present essay, which is grounded in the qualitative similarity hypothesis (Paul, 2010, in press; Paul & Lee, 2010) and sociocultural theories of learning, the author argues for evidence-based vocabulary interventions for young d/Deaf and hard of hearing children that are rooted in the contemporary research literature.

ARE WE HAMMERING SQUARE PEGS INTO ROUND HOLES? AN INVESTIGATION OF THE META-ANALYSES OF READING RESEARCH WITH STUDENTS WHO ARE D/DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING AND STUDENTS WHO ARE HEARING

In a qualitative meta-analysis , the researchers systematically reviewed qualitative and quantitative meta-analyses on reading research with PK–12 students published after the 2000 National Reading Panel (NRP) report. Eleven qualitative and 39 quantitative meta-analyses were reviewed examining reading research with typically developing hearing students, special education hearing students (including English Language Learners), and d/Deaf or hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students. Generally, the meta-analysis yielded findings similar to and corroborative of the NRP’s. Contradictory results (e.g., regarding the role of rhyme awareness in reading outcomes) most often resulted from differing definitions of interventions and their measurements. The analysis provided evidence of several instructional approaches that support reading development. On the basis of the qualitative similarity hypothesis (Paul, 2010, 2012; Paul & Lee, 2010; Paul & Wang, 2012; Paul, Wang, & Williams, 2013), the researchers argue that these instructional strategies also should effectively support d/Dhh children’s reading development.

The Practice Page as a Mediational Tool for Interactive Writing Instruction.

This paper examines, from the perspective of mediated action (Wertsch, 1991, 1998), the ways in which an experienced, primary-grade teacher used and continually modified an instructional too—“the practice page”—to mediate specific aspects of interactive writing, an approach to beginning writing instruction. The authors provide a detailed, theoretical account of the teachers use of this instructional tool and argue that it provided a context for the kinds of explicit instruction and authentic activity that research demonstrates is essential to young childrens literacy learning.

Writing in Young Deaf Children

The authors conducted an integrative review of the research literature on the writing development, writing instruction, and writing assessment of young deaf children ages 3 to 8 years (or preschool through third grade) published between 1990 and 2012. A total of 17 studies were identified that met inclusion criteria. The analysis examined research problems, theoretical frames, research methodologies, and major findings across the body of work. Findings of the review indicated that much of the research has focused on spelling, and when studies examined writing development, the analyses were limited to the word level. Assessment of writing has been largely ignored. Results also indicated that two primary conceptual frameworks have dominated the field across the 22-year span, with divergent implications for pedagogy and practice. The researchers call for longitudinal studies that examine deaf children’s use of English grammar and syntax within connected discourse.

Evidence-Based Practices Are Not Reformulated Best Practices A Response to Martindale's “Children With Significant Hearing Loss: Learning to Listen, Talk, and Read—Evidence-Based Best Practices”

Communication Disorders Quarterlys special series on evidence-based practices and, specifically, Martindales article on evidence-based practices in learning to listen, talk, and read among children with significant hearing loss appear to confuse best practices with evidence-based practices and, perhaps more serious, offer little evidence for either. Although the case may be made that evidence-based practices are best practices, best practices are not evidence-based practices unless identified through evaluation of research with criteria agreed on by the research community.

Interactive Writing as Informed Assessment with Highly Capable Young Children

Assessment of young childrens literate knowledge and understandings is one of the most controversial issues in early childhood education. Parents, teachers, administrators, researchers, and policy makers often engage in impassioned debates about the purposes, forms, and interpretations involved in assessment practices (Salinger, 2001). I do not wish to add to those debates. Recommended guidelines for the assessment of highly capable young children call for the use of multiple measures (National Association of Gifted Children, 2006), and so my intention here is to explicate an approach to early literacy assessment that allows teachers to document the literate knowledge, behaviors, and performances of highly capable young children within the context of an authentic reading and writing event. I describe the approach as a type of informed assessment (Johnston & Rogers, 2001), because through their participation, children reveal a great deal about their literate understandings, thus informing their teacher as to what they know and can do—as well as to what they still need to know. Informed assessment is especially useful in early childhood education, because it allows teachers to organize subsequent instructional activities so as to optimize childrens literacy learning (see Chamberlain, Buchanan, & Vercimak, 2007). In this article, I argue that interactive writing (McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 2000)—an innovative approach to beginning writing instruction—can also become a powerful tool for informed assessment of childrens early literacy development. I begin the paper by defining and explaining the potential of informed assessment in early literacy. Then, I describe interactive writing as an instructional approach. For each component of the lesson, I suggest various ways in which teachers can use interactive writing to document the literacy development of highly capable young children. My goal is to make a case for interactive writing as a preferred approach to both early literacy instruction and assessment.