Who Gets to Read What? Tracking, Instructional Practices, and Text Complexity for Middle School Struggling Readers

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Northrop ◽  
Sean Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Text Complexity

Materials Matter: An Exploration of Text Complexity and Its Effects on Middle School Readers' Comprehension Processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Amanda C. Dahl ◽  
Sarah E. Carlson ◽  
Maggie Renken ◽  
Kathryn S. McCarthy ◽  
Erin Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Science Classroom ◽  
Deep Level ◽  
Informational Text ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Text Complexity ◽  
Science Texts ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Complex Features

Purpose Complex features of science texts present idiosyncratic challenges for middle grade readers, especially in a post–Common Core educational world where students' learning is dependent on understanding informational text. The primary aim of this study was to explore how middle school readers process science texts and whether such comprehension processes differed due to features of complexity in two science texts. Method Thirty 7th grade students read two science texts with different profiles of text complexity in a think-aloud task. Think-aloud protocols were coded for six comprehension processes: connecting inferences, elaborative inferences, evaluative comments, metacognitive comments, and associations. We analyzed the quantity and type of comprehension processes generated across both texts in order to explore how features of text complexity contributed to the comprehension processes students produced while reading. Results Students made significantly more elaborative and connecting inferences when reading a text with deep cohesion, simple syntax, and concrete words, while students made more evaluative comments, paraphrases, and metacognitive comments when reading a text with referential cohesion, complex syntax, and abstract words. Conclusions The current study provides exploratory evidence for features of text complexity affecting the type of comprehension processes middle school readers generate while reading science texts. Accordingly, science classroom texts and materials can be evaluated for word, sentence, and passage features of text complexity in order to encourage deep level comprehension of middle school readers.

Exploring Colleagues’ Professional Influence on Mathematics Teachers’ Learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Sun ◽  
Anne Garrison Wilhelm ◽  
Christine J. Larson ◽  
Kenneth A. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Mathematics Instruction ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
National Council ◽  
School Factors ◽  
Instructional Coaches

Background/Context This article contributes to the literature on how teachers learn on the job and how schools and districts can support teacher learning to improve student learning and incorporate changing standards and curricular materials into instructional practices. The findings in this study are relevant to the implementation of ambitious mathematics instruction reform through changing teachers’ knowledge and instructional practices. Focus of Study This study examines how middle school teachers’ networks influence their mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and instructional practices. We also examined how mathematics coaches’ expertise, in the form of MKT, plays a role in augmenting the extent to which teachers learn through interacting with close colleagues. Research Design The article draws on data from a larger NSF-funded study in four large, urban districts that responded to accountability pressures by attempting to implement ambitious mathematics instruction aligned with the recommendations of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and by supporting implementation with a significant investment in teacher learning. The analysis in this paper involves 89 focal participants who were middle school mathematics teachers in 29 schools, the focal participants’ close colleagues, and their instructional coaches. Measures include mathematics teachers’ professional networks, MKT, classroom practices, individual background characteristics, and school factors. We used hierarchical linear models with cross-level interaction effects and in-depth sensitivity analyses of the effects of close colleagues and coaches. Findings/Results Our results show that changes in teachers’ instructional practice were positively related to their access to instructional expertise through interactions with close colleagues. But, we did not find a similar significant relationship between changes in teachers’ MKT and access to their close colleagues’ MKT expertise. Rather, coaches’ MKT expertise positively moderated the extent to which teachers learned MKT from their close colleagues through seeking advice on teaching mathematics; that is, having an expert coach in the school enhanced the MKT learning opportunities that teachers had from interacting with close colleagues. Conclusions/Recommendations Results from this study shed light on how to support teachers’ on-the-job learning and successfully implement ambitious instructional reforms in schools. It is important for schools and districts to consider ways to encourage the development of teacher networks that can promote instructional changes. For example, schools and districts can purposely provide common planning time and common workspaces that facilitate sharing expertise among teachers. They can also support teachers with instructional coaches who have content expertise and know how to facilitate interactions among teachers.

Visiting the Zone of Proximal Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-40
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Zone Of Proximal Development ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Reading Behaviors ◽  
Children's Reading

Decades ago, Lev S. Vygotsky introduced us to a view of learning and development, and how they are interconnected, which has supported our understanding of how children learn new things. This view has been the foundation for a tool used for teaching to this day. This chapter visits the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and examines the view of the traditional approach to literacy instruction, designed to support emerging as well as struggling readers. It describes the gulf between those tasks children have mastered in their literacy development and new tasks to be introduced with scaffolded support. It references the observation of children's reading behaviors during instruction and identify interactions that suggest behaviors requiring attention to being solidly in the child's ZPD. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the connection between research and instructional practices.

A Survey of Sight-Singing Instructional Practices in Florida Middle-School Choral Programs

2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Kuehne
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Middle Grades ◽  
Additional Research ◽  
Sight Singing ◽  
Paper Version ◽  
Choral Programs

The purpose of this research was to discover materials and methods used and examine influences on how and why sight-singing is taught in Florida middle-school choral programs. Members of the Florida Vocal Association completed an online or paper version of a questionnaire (N = 152). Data yielded several results that support previous research and provide an in-depth look at respondents' instructional practices and techniques. Additional research must be conducted to make more specific conclusions about the teaching of sight-singing in the middle grades.

scholarly journals Reading skill components and impairments in middle school struggling readers

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1059-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Cirino ◽  
Melissa A. Romain ◽  
Amy E. Barth ◽  
Tammy D. Tolar ◽  
Jack M. Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Reading Skill

scholarly journals “I Didn’t Have a Lesson”: Politics and Pedagogy in a Diversifying Middle School

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Freidus
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
White Students ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
School Community

This article examines the tensions between a diversifying middle school’s efforts to create an antiracist school community and instructional practices that frequently marginalized the experiences, knowledge, and questions of students of color. It uses teachers’ responses to the 2016 presidential election as a window into the challenges of developing asset-based pedagogies in classrooms that include White students.

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