D. Bruce Taylor

Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Research on subject matter instruction across the 20th century (e.g., Stevens, 1912; Bellack, 1966; Hoetker & Ahlbrand; 1969; Gall, 1970; Langer, 1999; Mehan, 1979; Nystrand, 1997;) reveals a preponderance of teacher-directed lecture, recitation, and round-robin reading of text in place of instruction that focuses on reading-to-learn, thinking, and transforming information into meaning and understanding (Durkin, 1978–79; Langer, 1999; Blanton & Moorman, 1990; Wood & Muth, 1991). This kind of instruction persists despite the fact that observations of higher performing schools indicated the tendency to organize instruction around meaningful learning communities with extensive interactive discussion of material read (Langer, 1999; Myers, 1996; Wenglinsky, 2000; 2004). The purpose of this essay is twofold: (a) to argue that a great deal of reading instruction fails to meet the multiple and complex literacy needs of most middle school students, and (b) to propose a new orientation for thinking about middle school reading instruction. We begin with a discussion of research findings on classroom reading instruction, followed by an exploration of issues central to the problem. Then we propose what we have titled the basic literacy activity, a conceptual tool for thinking about and arranging middle school reading instruction. We end with an overview of selected instructional strategies that exemplify the characteristics of basic literacy activity.

A Qualitative Study of Teacher Perceptions on Using an Explicit Instruction Curriculum to Teach Early Reading Skills to Students with Significant Developmental Disabilities.

This study examines teachers’ perceptions about a structured literacy curriculum that uses explicit instruction and teacher script combined with instructional practices common in special education such as time delay, error correction, and prompting strategies. The main research question addressed by this study was “What are the perceptions and beliefs of teachers of students with significant developmental disabilities about the effects of using an explicit reading instruction curriculum?” Three themes or key findings emerged from our analysis of the data regarding teachers’ perceptions of such curricula. These themes suggest that these teachers believe that a structured literacy curriculum has a positive impact on student learning, teacher effectiveness, and teacher self-efficacy.

Analyzing narratives through poetic forms and structures in gerontology: Applying new tools in qualitative research

This article presents an autoethnographic narrative of a womans written reflections on her relationship with her grandmother, and research poems based upon this narrative. Research poems serve as a method of data analysis and re-representation of the narrative and highlights key themes induced from thematic analysis. Implication for the use of poetry in gerontological practice and research are explored.

Guidelines for Integrating Comprehension-Based Word Study in Content Classrooms

Comprehending texts is critical to achievement in all content areas. Students must handle the demands of increasingly more difficult texts in a variety of formats as they progress through the upper grades—when concepts become even more complex and sophisticated with each successive year. New vocabulary and more complicated language structures become major obstacles for many students as they try to make sense of texts (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008), especially for those students who are ill equipped to comprehend such texts. Teachers often recognize and express concern about this overwhelming challenge (Taylor, Mraz, Nichols, Rickelman, & Wood, 2009; Wood, Vintinner, Hill-Miller, Harmon, & Hedrick, 2009) and, with good intentions, resort to vocabulary instruction to lessen the comprehension load. Yet, many teachers may be unaware that not all vocabulary instruction impacts comprehension (Nagy, 1988; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986), despite calls in the recent literature for more comprehensive approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning (Fisher, Blachowicz, & Watts-Taffe, in press). In this article we introduce a broader term, vocabulary literacy (Wood, 2009), to expand our thinking about word knowledge and word study beyond the surface, definitional level in order to increase comprehension. Vocabulary teaching and learning is not a task isolated from other dimensions of instruction. Rather, the act of promoting vocabulary literacy is multidimensional and involves making the connection between vocabulary and comprehension using all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing (Standards for the English Language Arts, 1996). When vocabulary is taught using a surface, definitional approach, students leave the experience with an inadequate understanding and no long-term retention of key terms. This linear approach to vocabulary instruction is depicted in Figure 1. Here, instruction begins from the bottom up—beginning at the word level and a corresponding definition, then attending to sentences and paragraphs, and ultimately focusing on comprehension as the final element. A classroom scenario using the linear approach to vocabulary instruction might look like this:

Activating Study Skills in the Middle School Classroom

Marko’s frustration is one that seems to be shared by many middle school students who study for tests in school but do not achieve the level of success they seek. That some students study little or not at all and do well only adds to the frustration of students like Marko who study more diligently. Research on study skills extends back to the early part of the 20th century when researchers began looking at the effects of specific study strategies such as underlining (Salisbury, 1935, for example). Texts addressing studying as an instructional tool emerged in the 1950s with books like Staton’s How to Study (1954) and became infused with content-area reading and writing texts and coursework in the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, much of the research has focused on the needs of students at the college level. Definitions vary, but study skills are generally described as tools or systems used by students as aids for independent learning rather than classroombased instructional strategies. Miller and McKenna (1989) defined study as “the process of learning the content of printed materials without direct assistance” (p. 281). We would expand Miller and McKenna’s definition to text beyond printed materials to include hypertext, multimedia, and other textual forms, but we agree with Vacca and Vacca (1999/2002) who wrote that studying is a reflective process that requires both time and hard work. Devine and Kania (2003), in a review of research, distinguished study skills from teacher-led instructional strategies and separate studying into study skills, strategies, and systems. They define study skills broadly as a “variety of competencies associated with academic learning” including alphabetizing, using textual features like the table of contents, and note taking. Study strategies are those skills that aid memorization and comprehension such as advanced organizers, a paragraph that precedes and previews the content to follow (Ausubel, 1960), outlining, and summarizing (to name just a few), while study systems typically are combinations of specific study skills such as Robinson’s (1946) SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review). Activating Study Skills in the Middle School Classroom