Evan Ortlieb

Beyond the Common Core: Examining 20 Years of Literacy Priorities and Their Impact on Struggling Readers.

ABSTRACT Researchers utilized a historical context of the What’s Hot, What’s Not expert surveys over the last 20 years to examine literacy priorities and possible impacts. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were recently recognized as the hottest topic in the field of literacy education. Perhaps one of the unintended consequences of this intense focus is that literacy priorities have shifted away from other important topics, particularly those involving children and youth who may fail to meet these new rigorous standards. Topics such as early intervention; literacy coaches/reading specialists; motivation/engagement; response to intervention/differentiated instruction; and struggling readers have not been as highly rated as in the past, yet perhaps should warrant more attention if all students are expected to be college or career ready. This article takes the stance that rigorous standards alone are not enough. A historical context is provided and discussed regarding how these topics related to less proficient readers gained traction in schools, what contributed to their demise, and how a reexamination of literacy priorities and a revival of these topics might contribute to productive pedagogies and subsequent literacy growth in the era of CCSS.

Diverse Literacy Learners: Deficit Versus Productive Pedagogies

Purpose – Our purpose in this chapter is to argue for a rethinking of the way we approach diversity in the classroom. We argue that the diversity of contemporary classrooms is a positive resource that can benefit all learners.Design/methodology/approach – We open our chapter with vignettes from both authors to help the reader understand our own experiences of working with diversity in classrooms. We then define diversity and outline why it is important. Finally we provide overviews of different theoretical perspectives on diversity which are helpful for positioning diversity in positive rather than deficit ways.Findings – We provide evidence from the literature from different theoretical perspectives on diversity in the classroom and show how they are helpful for thinking about literacy teaching and learning in contemporary classrooms.Research limitations/implications – We intentionally highlight approaches to working with diversity, which view diversity as a resource rather than a problem that needs to be fixed. These align with our personal experiences of working with diversity in the opening vignettes.Practical implications – In this chapter we provide classroom teachers with examples from our various research and personal experiences to illustrate how the diversity of classrooms can be empowering for students and teachers alike.Originality/value of chapter – Teachers and other educational stakeholders must acknowledge and embrace the diversity of our classrooms today. Viewing diversity as a resource for learning is potentially empowering and transformational for all students.

Specialized Literacy Professionals as Literacy Leaders: Results of a National Survey

This large-scale national survey of specialized literacy professionals was designed to answer questions about responsibilities, including leadership, and preparation for these roles. Questionnaires, completed by over 2,500 respondents, indicated that respondents had multiple responsibilities that included both instruction of struggling readers and support for teachers. Four distinct role-groups were identified: instructional/literacy coaches, reading/literacy specialists, reading teachers/interventionists, and supervisors. The findings indicated a need for more precise definitions of the roles of these professionals and for preparation programs to include experiences that address the tasks required. Themes discussed included: roles have changed and require more focus on leadership, specialists must be nimble, and they require more in-depth preparation to handle the leadership demands of their positions.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Using a Digital Reading Environment to Improve Reading Comprehension within a Reading Clinic

This study examined the effectiveness of using the online digital reading environment to increase elementary students’ comprehension within a reading clinic. Preservice teachers at a four-year university in the Midwest worked one-on-one with 58 fourth-grade students from three schools who were assigned to one of three conditions: print-based text instruction, hybrid instruction consisting of equal time with print and online digital reading environment, and digital-based text instruction. Students participated in 12 tutoring sessions lasting 75 minutes each, consisting of instructional activities targeting their areas in need of improvement. Multiple pre- and post-intervention measures of reading comprehension were collected. One-way analysis of variance results indicated that after controlling for initial reading achievement, there was a main effect for condition on comprehension.

First-grade teachers’ perception and implementation of a semi-scripted reading curriculum

A teachers role was dramatically changed from that of an educator to that of a facilitator with the adoption of semi-scripted curriculums. This case study explores teachers’ perception and implementation of a states English Language Arts curriculum in first-grade classrooms. Four first-grade teachers from a large urban school district were observed during the 90-minute literacy instruction block for four weeks each using Spradleys Developmental Research Sequence. In addition, data were collected from multiple teacher interviews. Qualitative analyses yielded the following themes: (a) teachers were minimally supported in professional development for using the curriculum; (b) they often ventured beyond the scope of the curriculum in resource usage; and (c) their planning was eased with the adoption of a semi-scripted curriculum. Furthermore, this sampling of first-grade teachers implemented English Language Arts curriculum through integrating both phonics and reading instruction. Findings are relevant to classroom teachers, curriculum coaches and administrators alike.

Video Reflection in Literacy Teacher Education and Development: Lessons from Research and Practice

Within education there is a growing body of research focused on the use of video as a mediational tool for reflection. The purpose of this volume is to bring together research and research-based practices from a wide array of literacy scholars and practitioners who are using video in educational research and teaching.

An Exploration of Strategy-Based Reading Instruction Using Expository Science Texts in the Elementary Grades

The Spirit of the Chinese People was written in 1915, from historical view, China was undergoing great social changes in all aspects at that time. The book written by Ku Hung-Ming is considered to be the first work in modern China to introduce Chinese people to the westerners. He shows deep love, passion and pride of Chinese culture in this book, intending to change the prejudice towards Chinese people of the westerners. Cultural confidence of Ku Hung-Ming can also be sensed greatly in his great work, which is of great value nowadays. This paper mainly demonstrates cultural confidence of Chinese people conveyed in this book by Ku Hung-Ming, some personal reflections are also discussed in this paper to show the author’s understanding of Chinese cultural confidence.Anne of Green Gables, one of Canada’s best known children’s books, has gained popularity all over the world. Anne has become a household name in the children world. The paper analyses the image of Anne in Chinese readers’ eyes: a romantic, imaginative, loyal, self-spirited and loveable girl. The author of this paper also reviews a brief history of Canadian literature’s acceptance in China, and offers some constructive suggestions for the effective popularization of Canadian literature in China. Key words: Anne; Canadian literature; popularization; children’s literaturePresently, most students of normal universities know nothing about music knowledge such as music score at all, and have no musical knowledge and culture. This is a common problem existing in many Chinese normal universities. Surveys, however, show the students are fond of and thirst for learning music knowledge. Thus, universities and related institutions have been laying stress on how to cultivate and improve the music knowledge and culture of students of normal universities. In view of this, this paper aims to research the problems in music curriculum design of normal universities, and put forward corresponding countermeasures, with a hope to give assistance to related universities in music teaching. The theory knowledge of music and vocality accomplishments is one of the basic knowledge and accomplishments that modern talents should have. Besides music majors, education majors also should be offered music education, so as to make up the deficiency of musical knowledge and culture of Chinese musical talents, and comprehensively improve students’ musical skills (Kong & Jin, 2014). There are many problems in music education curriculum design of normal universities. About this, this paper aims to analyze the problems, and put forward suggestions on related curriculum design.Frye’s theory of archetypal meaning includes the apocalyptic and the demonic imagery. The apocalyptic and demonic imagery will be applied to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which is stuffed with symbols. Through the demonic imagery, the theme of the novel, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery and barbarism is clearly revealed. The apocalyptic imagery gives us some hope, though.This essay is devoted to a review of Fotos and Ellis’ (1991) article about using task-based approach in teaching grammar. The choice of the article is based on the fact that it provides a good start for a discussion of the implementation of task-based approach to grammar teaching. First, a summary of the main points in the article is presented. The second part provides a discussion focusing on how the issue of teaching grammar communicatively has been tackled by other researchers. The last part is an attempt to draw some implications of task-based approach in teaching grammar for the Moroccan context.Based on the cultivating mode of special talents and cultivating target of professional talents in the higher vocational colleges, through imitating major cluster construction idea, so as to promote the efficient launch of thematic practical teaching, this paper will conduct relatively deep analysis and discussion on how to improve the practical teaching effectiveness of ideological and political course in the higher vocational colleges.As more and more Chinese farmers are moving to bigger cities, the education problems of migrant students become more and more severe in China. Based on the analysis on the current situation of compulsory education of migrant students in X City, and comparing with the successful solutions of migrant education problems in the United States, this paper offers some possible suggestions to schools in X City on solving the compulsory education problems of migrant students.This paper attempts to offer teachers effective and convenient models in explaining several basic concepts in translation theories to students in translation classes. Four models borrowed from the discipline of cognition are prototype, cognition domain, salience and the three-dimensional cognition mode. The concepts explained in this paper included translation variation, extra-linguistic knowledge for translation, translation criteria and un-translatability, all of which are among the primary concerns for students in translation classes. Key Words: translation concepts; translation theories; cognitive modelsOn the eve of the thirtieth Teachers’ Day, President Xi Jinping visited the Beijing Normal University, and gave an important speech on the forum of the teachers and students from Beijing Normal University: Be a Good Teacher Who Satisfies the Party and the People. The speech highlights the importance of education and teachers, which are of great significance to strengthen the construction of teachers’ contingent. With College counselors being an important part of teachers’ contingent, this paper analyzes the significance of college counselors practicing the Good Teacher With Four Haves Standard from this angle, and further puts forward some countermeasures on this basis, namely, a good college counselor should have clear ideal and conviction, have noble moral sentiment, have profound and relevant knowledge, and have a loving and benevolent heart, in order to provide a certain reference for the troop construction of college counselors.This paper clarified the concepts of cognitive load and combined EFL listening decoding as well as the relationship between them, and examined the change of learners’ cognitive load and its impact on their EFL listening decoding which were caused by input of pure audio information and that of combined audio information with mixtures such as pictures and images. Based on this, the author proposed some effective strategies to improve learners’ EFL listening decoding, including strengthening the training of learners’ English thinking, increasing their cognitive level, enriching the design of EFL listening teaching, creating multiple schemas and maintaining the reasonable cognitive load according to individual learners’ cognitive styles.Making a general survey of Jane·Eyre status changing process from its publication to the end of the last century, it is certain that the novel is a dynamic classic after its publication because of its own and outside factors. However, between the late 19 th and the beginning of the 20 th , the society and commentors transferred their focus from Charlotte and his works, causing Jane·Eyre to be stative classic. Since the middle period of the last century the dynamic classic position of Jane·Eyre was again raised.Most of the governments in the world provide the private colleges with necessary financial support. This is evident especially in U.S., Japan and South Korea where the private higher education is very advanced. The private colleges in these countries have undergone different development paths. As their school funds come from different sources, the public financial support they gain exhibits different characteristics. The governments of these three countries attach great important to the development of private colleges, and issued a complete set of regulations to stipulate that the private colleges qualify for the same financial support as the public colleges. Various measures that were taken by the governments to raise funds contribute to sustainable development of the private colleges.В данной работе предлагается методическая организация иероглифического минимума для обучения студентов языкового вуза письму на китайском языке, построенная с учетом принципов гнездовой и концентрической организации материала; выделяются три методически значимых типа иероглифов.There are three aspects to strengthen honest governance education to Chinese policemen which include fully utilizing policemen to construct socialist harmonious society, strengthening ideology and politics education to policemen to develop their autonomy, establishing complete the system to punish and prevent corruption in policemen to further construct system.This study investigated the strategies monolingual Saudi Arabian adults (MSAAs), Saudi EFL adult learners (SEFLALs), and native speakers of English (ENSs) used when complaining. Another related aim was investigating whether SEFLALs displayed pragmatic transfer when using complaint strategies. A total of 183 written responses were collected from MSAAs, SEFLALs, and ENSs via a three-item discourse completion task (DCT) were analyzed. Findings revealed the strategies used by the study participants when performing the speech act of complaints. First, hints, request and annoyance were the most frequently used strategies by MSAAs, SEFLALs, and ENSs. Second, there were no statistically significant differences among MSAAs, SEFLALs, and ENSs in using the strategy of direct accusation which consistent with the concept of positive pragmatic transfer. Third, hints, behavioral blame, request and indirect accusation were cases of weak negative pragmatic transfer as employed the SEFLALs in the current study. Fourth, modified blame was consistent with concept of strong negative pragmatic transfer. Finally, the last two strategies; annoyance and threat were consistent with no transfer, that is, SEFLAL employed these two strategies as ENSs.Lord Jim is an attempt by Joseph Conrad to contemplate on the failure of the dreams of a man whose romantic beliefs in classical heroism and manner of conduct finally brings about his bafflement. In fact, this writer is trying to mirror that one’s lack of knowledge in case of the “how to be of life”, or his inability to vision the modern world practically from an authentic viewpoint holds him from being conscious enough about his real existence, resulting in a tragedy: a death associated with ambiguity, absent-mindedness and fury. To be more specific, the present study intends to investigate Jim’s Romance, his character – as well as that of the other important characters – and the strategies or techniques applied by Conrad, to reflect the failures of such a romantic viewpoint. Key words: Lord Jim; Joseph Conrad; Romance; Heroism; TragedyBased on the development history of Chinese revolution, the recording in the form of painting can help to restore the scene by combining the related historic theme, thus enhance the authenticity of creation of paintings with the theme of contemporary Chinese revolutionary history and objectively help to raise collectors’ collection hobby and interest. This paper discusses the creation and collection of paintings with the theme of contemporary Chinese revolutionary history so as to realize comprehensive understanding of the creation and collection of paintings with the theme of contemporary Chinese revolutionary history and thus promote the development of paintings with the theme of contemporary Chinese revolutionary history.The work of building Party schools for vocational college students is faced with new challenges in the new situation. This paper analyzes the main problems in of the process of building Party schools for vocational college students, and suggests building a mechanism for building Party schools for vocational college students based on the process of cultivating activists.

Life Science Literacy of an Undergraduate Population

Abstract Science content knowledge is a concern for educators in the United States because performance has stagnated for the past decade. Investigators designed this study to determine the current levels of scientific literacy among undergraduate students in a freshman-level biology course (a core requirement for majors and nonmajors), identify factors influencing levels of scientific literacy, and make recommendations for improving scientific literacy. Participants (n = 255) answered a one-time, 18-item life science questionnaire. A significant difference in content knowledge was found between participants who engaged in informal science learning weekly and participants who did not engage in informal science learning (i.e., learning outside the classroom).

What's Hot in Literacy for 2017: Topics Garnering Attention in 2017.

ABSTRACT For the past 20 years, Dr. Jack Cassidy and his collaborators have surveyed leaders in the field about the issues in literacy that are receiving attention and those that are no longer in the limelight and presented the findings in the annual “What’s Hot, What’s Not” column. This tradition has continued into 2017 as 25 literacy leaders and emerging scholars were all interviewed either by phone or in person to determine important topics in the field. The article provides the “hot” and “not hot” topics for 2017 and serves as an important instruction and development tool for literacy educators.

What’s Hot in Literacy 2018: Going Digital and Disciplinary

ABSTRACT The following article explores the “hot topics” in literacy for 2018, keeping the tradition of the “What’s hot in literacy” survey that was first published in 1997. Expert panelists from around the globe provided insight into current trends and issues in the field of literacy, resulting in digital and disciplinary literacies being classified as the hottest topics this year. The What’s Hot in Literacy 2018 survey aims to keep teachers and educators alike up to date on current literacy research and practice.