Troy V. Mariage

Features of an Interactive Writing Discourse: Conversational Involvement, Conventional Knowledge, and Internalization in "Morning Message"

This study describes how meaning potentials were constructed in the literacy event known as Morning Message. Morning Message provided teachers and students with opportunities to construct a written text around the experiences of one student. This discourse of writing allowed for the examination of how meaning was orchestrated and scaffolded between the teacher and her students. Three findings are discussed, including the function of a series of conversational involvement moves utilized by the teacher, the specific writing conventions and metamessages afforded in the Morning Message dialogue, and an examination of how the social dialogues of Morning Message may have come to guide independent action as internalized processes on several transfer measures.

Lesson Talk as the Work of Reading Groups The Effectiveness of Two Interventions

This study compares the effectiveness of two interventions that differed in the nature of dialogic interactions among teachers and students in the reading group. One hundred nine children with mild disabilities were instructed by 35 teacher-interns in special education resource rooms. Sixty-three and 46 students, respectively, participated in the two instruction interventions. The analyses indicated that the intervention that produced the greatest effects was the one in which dialogue, social interactions, and scaffolded instruction figured prominently. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

Shared Understandings Structuring the Writing Experience Through Dialogue

When teachers view writing as a social process in which authors write for real audiences and authentic purposes, they change their instruction accordingly to meet the needs of writers with learning disabilities. As more experienced members of a larger community of writers, teachers play a primary role in apprenticing students into the inherently social functions of writing. Through teacher-student dialogues about the complexities of the writing process, students gradually develop and control their own writing “voice” as they use and transform the shared understandings of the group process. Text structure, writing strategies, and metacognitive knowledge of the writing process provide opportunities for teachers and students with learning disabilities to interact and create shared understandings about the composition process. This article reviews some recent attempts to use text structures and the writing process as frameworks to guide the composition dialogue.

A Case of Educational Change: Improving Student Achievement Through a School—University Partnership

This article introduces Project PREPARE, a 5-year project that sought to develop a collaborative site of practice and inquiry among two universities, the primary and elementary schools in a poor rural town, and the district that served these schools. Three types of collaboration were undertaken over the life of the project: (a) providing consultative and material support to changes initiated by the district, (b) creating new collaborative structures that could serve as sites for advancing teacher and student learning, and (c) providing conceptual leadership to help the district develop a long-range systemic change initiative. During the course of the project, there were steady improvements in student achievement in reading and mathematics on multiple measures, including state-mandated criterion-referenced tests and curriculum-based measures. The combined reading and math increases were greater in the project school during the study period than were 9 of the 10 closest comparison schools in the state, though the overall achievement levels remained lower than the state average in both subjects.

The Learning-to-Learn Strategies of Adolescent Students With Disabilities: Highlighting, Note Taking, Planning, and Writing Expository Texts

This study focuses on an examination of the learning-to-learn strategies of seventh-grade students as they highlight, take notes, plan, organize, and write expository texts. Participants consist of 125 students, 41 with disabilities and 84 without disabilities. The results reveal that the students with disabilities have more difficulties in using the learning-to-learn strategies as they read, study, and write expository texts, although neither group is judged to be highly proficient. The implications point to a renewed emphasis on preparing content-area teachers to teach the literacy and learning strategies that support the development of learners who know how to read to learn and how to write to learn.

Accelerating Reading Progress in Early Literacy Project Classrooms Three Exploratory Studies

This article reports the results of three studies conducted to determine the efficacy of the Early Literacy Project (ELP) in improving the reading performance of students with mild disabilities. The combined studies focused on three questions: (1) What is the potential of the ELP for accelerating literacy learning? (2) What is the nature of literacy learning among four levels of beginning readers? (3) What are the effects of the ELP when it is embedded In a general education curriculum? The results of these exploratory studies suggest that the ELP has been effective In accelerating literacy learning, but that the annual gains of students might be different depending on their entry-level skills In reading. Additionally, the results suggest that the ELP curricular approach can be successfully integrated into the general education curriculum, although further research on the efficacy of Its use In general education contexts is necessary.

Interanimation Repositioning Possibilities in Educational Contexts

Changing discursive practices is necessary for educational social justice and is made possible through the interanimation of diverse ways of knowing that create dynamic tensions and challenge reliance on narrow views of what counts as legitimate knowledge. In this article, we accept the challenge that Reid and Valle put forth in creating new discourses of possibility through the animation of sociocultural and critical theory as they might apply to the interrogation of two aspects of the meaning-making process: (a) the interanimation of voices across systems as a condition of reculturing institutions and communities of practice, and (b) instructional activity settings in educational contexts (e.g., disciplinary apprenticeships). We conclude this article by examining possibilities for collaborative research activity.Changing discursive practices is necessary for educational social justice and is made possible through the interanimation of diverse ways of knowing that create dynamic tensions and challenge reliance on narrow views of what counts as legitimate knowledge. In this article, we accept the challenge that Reid and Valle put forth in creating new discourses of possibility through the animation of sociocultural and critical theory as they might apply to the interrogation of two aspects of the meaning-making process: (a) the interanimation of voices across systems as a condition of reculturing institutions and communities of practice, and (b) instructional activity settings in educational contexts (e.g., disciplinary apprenticeships). We conclude this article by examining possibilities for collaborative research activity.

An Exploratory Study of Reading in Urban and Suburban Middle Schools: Implications for At-Risk and Special Education Learners.

Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, school achievement remains segregated by both race and class. Despite an emphasis on reading achievement as required by No Child Left Behind, many students have serious literacy needs, even into the middle and upper grades. The purpose of this study was to ascertain ways in which middle school reading instruction is coordinated to improve academic outcomes for at-risk students. In-depth interviews were conducted with professionals from five urban and five suburban middle schools surrounding five components of reading programming. While both align their curriculum with state expectations, they differ in terms of program continuity and stability. Overall, systemic coherence in schools was a rarity. Implications for literacy programming and systemic reform are presented.

Positioning New Patterns of Privilege in Learning A Response to Ware

This special series represents collective courage because what is willing to be risked may be profound. At center is a willingness to reach out and cultivate new conversations on disability. Indeed, the artists who contribute to Ware’s article are key co-authors; their art ushers us into a new disability literacy that extends and challenges current cultural scripts. We examine four central themes informed by Ware’s text and art-based educational research (ABER) linked to the larger series conversation on interdisciplinary research methodology.