Lynn E. Shanahan

Composing “Kid-Friendly” Multimodal Text When Conversations, Instruction, and Signs Come Together

This interpretive case study investigated how a fifth-grade teacher’s social practices with visual and linguistic signs positioned her students (10- and 11-year-olds) to take up particular modes as they constructed digital compositions. The context of the study was a suburban public school in the northeastern United States. Analysis was threefold. The discourse surrounding multimodal composition was analyzed via inductive analysis. Students’ use of semiotic resources in the HyperStudio composition was analyzed with Unsworth’s image-language intermodal framework. Then, teacher-student conversations related to visual and linguistic signs were triangulated with students’ compositions. Findings show that a classroom teacher’s limited content knowledge as related to metafunctions and metalanguage of visual and linguistic sign systems affected the information taught to the students and, ultimately, their use of visual and linguistic signs. Students demonstrated tacit knowledge of image-language relations beyond what was taught but lacked the explicit knowledge to more strategically use visual and linguistic signs. Implications include the importance of creating opportunities for teachers to develop more substantive content knowledge of the metalanguages and metafunctions of various sign systems.

Teachers and teacher educators learning from new literacies and new technologies

While many teachers and teacher educators agree that it is important to integrate new literacies and technologies into their teaching, educators are often perplexed about how to begin thinking about this task. Research reveals that educators use technologies for personal and communicative purposes, but teachers, for the most part, have not yet applied these technologies in their classroom teaching and learning. Given these challenges, the current study was undertaken as an instance of teacher research carried out in the context of a teacher education course in new literacies and technologies wherein teacher educators attempted to take up new literacies practices. Study participants were pre‐ and in‐service teachers. Findings indicate that teacher educators must foster environments to share problem‐solving and distributed learning, to support design and multimodal redesign of texts, and to explore literacy and technology as transactional processes. Whereas both teachers and teacher educators may be tempted to wait until they are technologically adept before attempting to integrate new literacies and new technologies into their teaching, this study suggests that the learning environment, approach to learning, knowledge about multimodal text design, and stance toward literacy and technology may be far more important than the technologies that teachers use to enact their instructional plans.

Supporting Struggling Readers and Literacy Clinicians Through Reflective Video Pedagogy

Purpose – This chapter provides the reader with an overview of a reflective video pedagogy for use within a literacy center or within professional development contexts. The conceptual overview is followed by two-case examples that reveal how literacy centers can serve as rich, productive research sites for the use and study of reflective video pedagogy. Methodology/approach – The authors describe their ongoing work to develop and integrate a reflective video pedagogy within a literacy center during a 15-week practicum for literacy-specialists-in-training. The reflective video pedagogy is not only used by the clinicians who work with struggling readers twice a week, but it is also used by the researchers at the literacy center who study the reflective video pedagogy through the same video the clinicians use. Practical implications – Literacy centers are dynamic sites where children, families, pre/in-service teachers, and teacher educators work together around literacy development. Reflective video pedagogies can be used to closely examine learning and teaching for adult students (i.e., clinicians) and for youth (i.e., children in elementary, middle, and high school) and also for parents who want their children to find success with literacy. Research implications – In recent years “scaling up” and “scientific research” have come to dominate much of the literacy research landscape. While we see the value and necessity of large-scale experimental studies, we also posit that literacy centers have a unique role to play. Given that resources are scarce, literacy scholars must maximize the affordances of literacy centers as rich, productive research sites for the use and study of a reflective video pedagogy.

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.

Insights into Inservice Teachers’ Video-Facilitated Reflection of Literacy Practices

Abstract Purpose This chapter serves to synthesize existing literature centered on inservice teacher video-facilitated reflection on literacy pedagogy. Methodology/approach The inservice teacher literature review is focused on: (1) video analysis frameworks and scaffolds used to facilitate inservice teachers’ video reflection; (2) reflection and video discussions; and (3) the use of video for inservice teacher change and development. Findings From this review we learn that there is a dearth of video reflection research with inservice teachers on literacy pedagogy. Within the field of literacy, we know far less about how, when, and why to use video with inservice teachers than preservice teachers. Research limitations/implications The review of literature does not incorporate inservice teacher video reflection in disciplines such as science and mathematics. Expanding this review to all disciplines would present a more comprehensive picture of video reflection with inservice teachers. Practical implications The chapter highlights the potential value of using video in inservice professional development and points to the specific needs for studies to identify the most effective uses of video specific to inservice professionals. Originality/value This chapter provides significant research-based information for designing and implementing future studies and professional development focused on video reflection with inservice teachers.

Disciplinary Literacies in an Engineering Club: Exploring Productive Communication and the Engineering Design Process.

This conceptual article addresses the question: What are the disciplinary literacy practices surrounding the Engineering Design Process (EDP) at the elementary level? Recent attention has focused on developing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills for U.S. students. In the United States, the Next Generation Science Standards and reforms such as Common Core State Standards have drawn increased attention to relationships between language, literacy, and subject matter content often referred to as disciplinary literacy. In this conceptual article, we argue that literacy educators can make a substantial contribution to the study of engineering education, particularly for underrepresented minorities and girls. We first provide a brief overview of disciplinary literacies. Then, using examples from a research-based after-school club, we explore how disciplinary literacies might contribute to the study of engineering and EDP in elementary settings particularly in relation to: (a) productive communication, (b) vocabulary development, and (c) identity.

Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model to Support Video Reflection with Preservice and Inservice Teachers

Abstract Purpose Our purpose in this chapter is to provide researchers and educators with a model of how the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) can be used with inservice and preservice teachers for professional development when teachers engage in reflective processes through the use of video reflection. Methodology/approach In this chapter we provide a brief review of the literature related to video as a learning tool for reflection and a discussion of the Gradual Release of Responsibility and emphasize the role of a teacher educator or more knowledgeable other who scaffolds inservice and preservice teacher reflection across various contexts. Several versions of the GRR model are included. We introduce and explain examples from two class sessions where a combination of inservice and preservice teachers engaged in reflection through video with support from a teacher educator. Findings We demonstrate that the teacher educator followed the GRR model as she guided preservice and inservice teachers to reflect on video. Through a contrastive analysis of two different class sessions, we show how the instructor released responsibility to the students and how students began to take up this responsibility to reflect more deeply on their own teaching practices. Research limitations/implications The examples within this chapter are from a graduate level teacher education course affiliated with a university literacy center. The course was comprised of both preservice and inservice teachers. The model is applicable in a variety of settings and for teachers who are novices as well as those who are experienced teachers. Practical implications This is a valuable model for teacher educators and others in professional development to use with teachers. Many teachers are familiar with the use of the GRR model in considering how to guide children’s literacy practices, and the GRR can easily be introduced to teachers to assist them in video reflection on their own teaching. Originality/value This chapter provides significant research-based examples of the GRR model and foregrounds the role of a teacher educator in video reflection. The chapter provides a unique framing for research and teaching related to video reflection. The chapter explicitly links the GRR to teacher reflection and video in contexts of professional development or teacher education.

Technology Lite: Advice and Reflections for the Technologically Unsavvy

Teachers often wonder how to integrate technology in their classroom. The journey toward a new literacies framework can be frustrating. Teachers must be flexible, collaborate with others, and recognize frustration as a sign of growth. Often, they must address issues of design, redesign, and multimodality in relation to technology and literacy teaching. Teachers that make the journey, however, will come to realize that technology integration, like teaching, is challenging but rewarding.

Productive Communication in an Afterschool Engineering Club with Girls Who are English Language Learners

ABSTRACT This article the learning of girls who were in a co-ed after school engineering club related to the project: Designing Vital Engineering and Literacy Practices for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC). While few girls grow up to become engineers in the US, recently more attention has focused on practices that engage girls in order to grow interest in engineering and engineering careers. In this article, we follow three eight and nine-year-old girls (3rd graders). We illustrate how key features of the Engineering Design Process intersect with a multimodal model of Productive Communication to help the girls enact identities as girls and as engineers as they design and build a bridge. We argue that to enact the Next Generation Science Standards, particularly those related to engineering, engineering and STEM educators must attend to the disciplinary literacies and communicative modes of girls and other under-represented minorities. This is also particularly important for learners who are still new to learning English and who may benefit from multimodal interactions and diverse opportunities to learn.

Orchestrating semiotic resources in explicit strategy instruction

Research and pedagogical information provided to teachers on implementing explicit strategy instruction has primarily focused on teachers’ speech, with limited attention to other modes of communication, such as gesture and artefacts. This interpretive case study investigates two teachers’ use of different semiotic resources when introducing second-grade readers to specific reading strategies. We analysed two teachers’ use of speech, gesture and artefacts in their introductory explanation of the declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge necessary to be strategic readers. The importance of this article lies in reconciling the narrow focus on what teachers say during explicit strategy instruction with the repertoire of semiotic resources that the teachers actually use to enact multimodal communication during their explanation of the strategy.