Judith A. Langer

Discussion-Based Approaches to Developing Understanding: Classroom Instruction and Student Performance in Middle and High School English

This study examines the relationships between student literacy performance and discussion-based approaches to the development of understanding in 64 middle and high school English classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models indicated that discussion-based approaches were significantly related to spring performance, controlling for fall performance and other background variables. These approaches were effective across a range of situations and for low-achieving as well as high-achieving students, although interpretations are complicated because instruction is unequally distributed across tracks. Overall, the results suggest that students whose classroom literacy experiences emphasize discussion-based approaches in the context of high academic demands internalize the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in challenging literacy tasks on their own.

Beating the Odds: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well

This study investigated the characteristics of instruction that accompany student achievement in reading, writing, and English. It focused on English language arts programs in schools that have been trying to increase student performance, comparing those whose students perform higher than demographically comparable schools with schools whose scores are more typical. The study took place in four states and included 25 schools, 44 teachers, and 88 classes studied over a 2-year period each. Although the sample was diverse, including urban and suburban sites, schools with poor and diverse student bodies predominated. Analyses specified six features that permeated the environments and provided marked distinctions between higher and more typically performing schools. Although some of these features were present to varying degrees in the English programs in the more typical schools, they were all present all of the time in the higher performing schools, forming a consistently supportive environment for student learning.

Examining Background Knowledge and Text Comprehension.

THIS STUDY examines the (a) relationships between background knowledge and passage comprehension, (b) relative usefulness of certain variations in measuring available knowledge (fluency vs. organization), (c) value of a background knowledge measure as applied to a teacher-directed small group pre-reading language and concept organizer activity, and (d) effect of a pre-reading activity on text-specific background knowledge and on comprehension. Passage specific background knowledge, based on free association stimulated by key content .words, was measured by categorization levels developed by Langer (1980). Findings suggest that the background knowledge measure is a significant and reliable predictor of passage-specific comprehension. The pre-reading activity significantly raises available background knowledge, and this in turn seems to improve performance on moderately difficult comprehension questions. The measure of text specific background knowledge may be useful for teachers in assessing the difficulty of a reading assignment, and for researchers in controlling for differences in prior knowledge or in examining the relationships between background knowledge and various aspects of learning.

Reading and Writing Instruction: Toward a Theory of Teaching and Learning

Reading and writing development are individual processes which reflect the evolving skills of the individual language learner. Instruction, on the other hand, is a social process, rooted in the interaction between teacher and student. Through the intersection of development and instruction, individual learners gain the power to use language to understand their world and to act within it. Reflecting the split between individual and social, most research in the field of reading and writing has concerned itself either with charting the course of individual development, or with delineating the characteristics of effective instruction. Although both traditions have been valuable, we will argue here that they should be integrated through a more general theory that systematically relates individual development to the social processes that surround it. From such a theory, we will emerge with more effective principles for instruction, as well as with a better explanation for the patterns of development that have been described in previous studies. In doing so, we will also clarify our understanding of the deeply related but functionally different activities of reading, writing, and speaking. The need for a more encompassing theory is evident whether we start independently with either development or instruction. If we start with development, it is quite clear that the skills that individuals learn are constrained (or fostered) by the particular cultural and educational contexts within which the individuals grow up (Au, 1980; Heath, 1983; McDermott, 1977; Scribner

Meaning Construction in School Literacy Tasks: A Study of Bilingual Students

This study examined the ways in which Mexican-American students construct meaning when reading school materials. It focused on the strategies they use when reading English and Spanish, the knowledge sources they call upon, and the ways in which these relate to understanding. Twelve fifth-grade students, all who come from bilingual homes, were asked to read both Spanish and English stories and informational pieces. Interspersed questions, post reading probes, and oral and written recalls were designed to tap their text understanding over time, as well as what they recalled after reading each piece. Interviews and school records provided background information about the students’ personal and school histories both in the United States and in Mexico. Transcripts, fieldnotes, and student writing samples were analyzed for patterns in the students’ approaches to the construction of meaning and in their differential uses of language and genre. Findings indicate that: (a) beyond a necessary basic, but limited knowledge of English, the students’ abilities to use good meaning-making strategies made the major difference in how well they comprehended in both Spanish and English; (b) the students’ language competence in Spanish helped them understand and respond to questions in both languages; (c) the students’ familiarity with genre affected their ability to build meanings in both languages; and (d) the kinds of questions the students were asked affected their ability to communicate what they understood.

Children's Sense of Genre A Study of Performance on Parallel Reading and Writing Tasks

This article explores childrens notions of what stories and reports are, how they can be organized, and when to use them as revealed in the stories and reports they wrote or recalled, and in their responses to questions about each. There were 67 high achieving children in grades 3,6 and 9 who read and wrote similar kinds of stories and reports. This permitted comparison of ways in which they organized their knowledge across genre (story and report) and domain (reading and writing). Findings indicate the following: (1) Children have strongly differentiated notions of stories and reports and structure stories and reports in different ways from early on; (2) They use these structures in the pieces they read and retell as well as in the pieces they write; (3) Both stories and reports grow in complexity along a variety of measures; and (4) Both stories and reports show increased student control of genre-related organizational structures.

Reading, Writing, and Understanding: An Analysis of the Construction of Meaning

This article focuses on ways in which school-age children “make meaning” when they are involved in reading and writing activities. An Analysis of Meaning Construction procedure was developed to describe the knowledge sources, specific strategies, and monitoring behaviors of 67 third-, sixth-, and ninth-grade children when they read and wrote stories and reports. Each student participated in either a think-aloud or retrospective self-report activity during (or after) reading and writing four story and report passages. The resulting transcripts were segmented into communication units and analyzed using the meaning analysis system. Comparisons were made between genres (story and report), domains (reading and writing), and ages (grades 3, 6, and 9). Findings indicate that meaning-making behaviors (1) are complex and varied, (2) change with age and difficulty, and (3) vary consistently between reading and writing. Although reading and writing are related language activities in that they tap similar underlying processes, it is inaccurate to conceptualize them as predominantly similar; reading and writing are also quite different in that the processes they invoke follow markedly different patterns.

Thinking and Doing Literature: An Eight-Year Study

Ten researchers worked with 50 teachers and students in a twostrand literature study. he Nationai Research Center on Litertu Te ching and Learning has come to a close replaced by the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement. For me, it marks the end of an important era. During the eight years of the Centers existence, I was able to do more constant and more extensive research than ever before-all about

Chapter 5: Reading and Writing Instruction: Toward a Theory of Teaching and Learning

Reading and writing development are individual processes which reflect the evolving skills of the individual language learner. Instruction, on the other hand, is a social process, rooted in the interaction between teacher and student. Through the intersection of development and instruction, individual learners gain the power to use language to understand their world and to act within it. Reflecting the split between individual and social, most research in the field of reading and writing has concerned itself either with charting the course of individual development, or with delineating the characteristics of effective instruction. Although both traditions have been valuable, we will argue here that they should be integrated through a more general theory that systematically relates individual development to the social processes that surround it. From such a theory, we will emerge with more effective principles for instruction, as well as with a better explanation for the patterns of development that have been described in previous studies. In doing so, we will also clarify our understanding of the deeply related but functionally different activities of reading, writing, and speaking. The need for a more encompassing theory is evident whether we start independently with either development or instruction. If we start with development, it is quite clear that the skills that individuals learn are constrained (or fostered) by the particular cultural and educational contexts within which the individuals grow up (Au, 1980; Heath, 1983; McDermott, 1977; Scribner