Kendra M. Hall

Expository Text Comprehension: Helping Primary-Grade Teachers Use Expository Texts to Full Advantage

This study investigated the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach expository text comprehension during guided reading. Participants included 72 second graders in six classrooms, organized into four guided reading groups in each class (n = 24). The six classes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Text Structure, Content, and No Instruction. The Text Structure group focused on text structure awareness. The Content group focused on background knowledge and vocabulary. The No Instruction group carried out their regular instruction. Findings suggest that text structure is an effective strategy for promoting expository text comprehension and that young children benefit from well-structured texts.

More than a place to teach: exploring the perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of mentor teachers

The purpose of this study was to shed light on mentor teachers’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities and to contrast their understandings with a normative view of mentoring (Goldsberry, 1998; Hawkey, 1997). We hypothesized that the mentor teachers’ perceptions would likely differ from established conceptions of this construct, a difference that has significant implications for mentor preparation and university collaboration. Participants, 264 teachers who were serving as mentors to pre‐service teachers, were asked open‐ended questions designed to allow the mentors to describe the ways in which they envisioned their role. Follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with 34 randomly selected mentor teachers to further determine the relative value they placed on different aspects of mentoring. The results of this research confirm that mentoring is a complex construct and that the perceptions held by mentors may be influenced by the kinds and quality of mentoring experiences they have had. Implications for the appropriate selection, preparation, and support of mentor teachers are discussed.

Teaching Expository Text Structure to Young At-Risk Learners: Building the Basics of Comprehension Instruction

Expository text is often neglected in the elementary school curriculum even though most of the reading that children do in school is of that type. Most of the research that demonstrates the importance of text structure in reading comprehension and the benefits that accrue from instruction in text structure deals with children at or above the 4th grade. This research literature, reviewed briefly, provides the basis for the work that is described in this article, which involves younger children. First, a study is presented that demonstrates that children are sensitive to text structure, and therefore would benefit from instruction, as early as 2nd grade. Second, a new instructional program is described that focuses intensively on one specific expository structure, compare and contrast. Finally, the results of a study that evaluates the effects of the program are described.

Teaching Elementary School Students To Identify Story Themes.

An instructional program focused on story theme was administered to 2nd and 3rd graders (high-, average-, and low-achieving students, including some with disabilities) in a high-poverty school. Compared with more traditional instruction, the program improved theme comprehension and the identification of instructed themes when they appeared in new stories. However, the program did not help students apply a theme to real-life situations or identify and apply noninstructed themes. Findings indicated that at-risk children (at all achievement levels, including those with disabilities) were able to achieve some degree of abstract, higher order comprehension when given instruction that combined structured lessons, a strategy, and discussion.

What's More Important—Literacy or Content? Confronting the Literacy-Content Dualism

Abstract The literacy-content dualism, which suggests that teachers must decide whether to provide literacy or content instruction, is a false dualism and adherence to it is detrimental to student participation in content-area reasoning, learning, and communicating. This article describes the experiences that prompted the teacher educators who authored this article to reconsider content and literacy instruction and their first steps to help preservice and in-service teachers confront and eliminate the literacy-content dualism. Suggestions for future research are made.

The Development of the Early Expository Comprehension Assessment (EECA) A Look at Reliability

In the present study, the authors investigated the initial development of the Early Expository Comprehension Assessment (EECA) by examining its reliability. The EECA consists of a compare/ contrast passage, manipulatives to represent the information in the paragraph, and three response tasks (Retelling, Mapping, and Comparing ). The authors administered two comparable versions of the measure to 37 children between the ages of 4 and 5 years. They then analyzed the data using a mixed-models analysis of variance for repeated measures, a maximum likelihood estimate of variance components, and a post hoc equivalent-forms (Version A and Version B) reliability test. Results indicated that version and order had no significant effect and that both forms were equivalent, suggesting that the EECA is reliable.

Contextualized Approach to Language and Literacy (Project CALL): Capitalizing on Varied Activities and Contexts to Teach Early Literacy Skills.

In a federally funded early literacy project, various instructional activities were embedded into an array of classroom contexts to provide supplemental literacy instruction and to contrast childrens engagement and participation in different contexts and participant structures. The study was conducted with English- and Spanish-speaking children from four Head Start classrooms. In a crossover project design, children were trained on similar sets of rhyme and letter targets at different times. Three-way ANOVAs with rhyme and letter difference scores as the dependent variables revealed a significant time-of-test effect for rhyming and significant Time × Order × Set interactions for rhyme and letter generation. Children performed better on trained than untrained targets. Observations of children revealed growth in performance and spontaneity of rhyme skills in classroom contexts. Qualitative analyses documented high levels of engagement, illustrating the value of varying activities and contexts for instruction. Both groups demonstrated their ability to gain from concrete instruction and interactive participation.

The Possibility of Democratic Educational Research to Nurture Democratic Educators

Abstract Teacher educators have a responsibility to prepare teachers who can promote democratic participation for children and youth. Democratic educational research allows for the democratic participation of everyone with a vested interest in promoting effective and democratic schools. This article argues for the possibility of democratic educational research as a venue for preparing democratic educators. The necessary conditions for creating and sustaining spaces in which people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives can participate in democratic educational research are also described.

Participatory action research and the quest for teacher educator community solidarity

Abstract Desiring to overcome sharp feelings of disconnection, a year-long participatory action research seminar involving both clinical and tenure-track teacher education faculty was formed. Working in teams with tenure-track faculty support, clinical faculty set research questions but they were reluctant to assume project leadership. In part, because of intensifying pressures associated with impending program accreditation, the projects languished. Nevertheless, the boundaries separating the two faculties and communities of practice softened, and friendships were formed and strengthened. Drawing on insights from positioning theory and Wengers research on communities of practice, the authors conclude that friendship may be a precondition for re-imagining the established relationships and understandings that currently fragment teacher education