Using Fan Fiction to Bridge Students' Understanding of Science

The purpose of this chapter was to present current literature focused on integrating science and literacy and describe the teaching of a science unit of study that incorporated fanfiction literature in a fourth-grade classroom. Ms. Bardon's instructional techniques were focused on integrating science learning with reading and writing based within a fictional text read together as a classroom community throughout the unit of science study. The unit of study was presented alongside background literature to illustrate how such teaching is indicative of a larger movement in the educational field toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based pedagogy and curriculum. The account of teaching was presented according to the close reading of the fictional text, the hands-on science activities, and the culminating student writing of a fanfiction narrative that constituted the assessment of science learning.

“Wearing Only Our Skin”: the multimodal literacies classroom as a living arrangement

Purpose Literacy research exploring multimodal composition and justice-oriented children’s literature each have rich landscapes and histories. This paper aims to add to both of these bodies of scholarship through the emerging assemblage of Studio F, a fifth-grade classroom. The authors share poststructural analytic encounters with attention to the unexpected multimodal relationships and the justice-oriented talk and texts that emerged, as well as the classroom conditions that produce them. Design/methodology/approach The authors think with assemblage theory to examine the newness that emerged as one small group of students wrestled with the emerging instances of racism present in Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles. Findings Together, the living arrangement of bodies, materials and discourses created openings for students’ explorations of race and racism. Originality/value This paper offers teachers and researchers space to rethink what is possible in the literacy classroom when the authors re-envision classrooms as vibrant assemblages, support emergent multimodal composing processes and follow students’ critical encounters toward justice-oriented literacies.

Preservice Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge about the Potential of Tasks to Promote Students’ Mathematical Reasoning

The use of tasks to promote mathematical reasoning (MR) in teaching practice is essential to meet curricular goals. However, that practice is often a huge challenge for teachers, and particularly for prospective teachers and thus it is essential to highlight it as a goal for initial teacher education. This study focuses on preservice mathematics teachers’ (PTs) knowledge about the potential of mathematical tasks to promote students’ MR, in a teacher education course. Results show that PTs were able to justify their option for a mathematical task with potential to promote students’ MR, and through its implementation in one 8th grade classroom they have deepen their knowledge and gave greater meaning to task design principles and acknowledging their students’ knowledge. Thus, the activity of selecting and adapting a task, although less demanding than the design of a new task, can still provide PT with important reflection and knowledge about its potential to promote students’ MR. The study stresses the relevance for initial teacher education of considering four domains associated with the recognition of the potential of tasks to promote MR.

“I Drew Myself Right There”: third grade girls restorying for visual justice

Purpose This paper aims to present three girls’ visual annotations and digital responses that restory a scene in the picturebook I’m New Here. The authors focus on how children use multimodal tools to reflect their critical knowledge of the world by illuminating how this group of girls responded to and incorporated broader social issues. Design/methodology/approach This study takes place in a third-grade classroom. Using qualitative methods that build on critical multimodal literacy, the authors documented and analyzed children’s visual and digital interpretations. Data were generated from classroom sessions that incorporated interactive readalouds, as well as students’ annotated visual images, sketches, video and digital responses. The collaborative analytic process involved multiple passes to interpret visual, textual and multimodal elements. Findings The analyses revealed how Aliyah, Tiana and Carissa used multimodal tools to engage in the process of restorying. Through their multimodal composition, they designed images that illuminated their solidarity with the young female character wearing the hijab; their desire to disrupt xenophobic bullying; and their hope for a respectful and inclusive climate in their own classroom. Originality/value In this paper, the authors examine how three girls in a third-grade classroom restory using critical multimodal literacy methods. These girls’ multimodal responses reflected how they disrupted dominant storylines of exclusionary practices. Their authentic acts of visual advocacy give us hope for the future.

Mathematics Classroom Assessment: A Framework for Designing Assessment Tasks and Interpreting Students’ Responses

Classroom assessment could contribute substantially to improving students’ mathematics learning. The process of classroom assessment involves decisions about how to elicit evidence, how to interpret it, and how to use it for teaching and learning. However, the field still needs to further explore how assessment tasks could guide forthcoming instructional adjustments in the mathematics classroom. Towards the endeavor of unpacking the classroom assessment, we present a framework that provides a lens to capture the interplay between the design of mathematics assessment tasks and the analysis of students’ responses. To do so, we relied on existing frameworks of mathematics assessment tasks, and on issues that pertain to the design of tasks. The proposed framework consists of three types of mathematics assessment tasks, their respective competencies, and the characterization of students’ responses. The framework is exemplified with students’ responses from a fourth-grade classroom, and is also used to sketch different students’ profiles. Issues regarding the interpretation of students’ responses and the planning of instructional adjustments are discussed.

Elementary students learning science in an MR environment by constructing liminal blends through action on props

Purpose This paper aims to show how collective embodiment with physical objects (i.e. props) support young children’s learning through the construction of liminal blends that merge physical, virtual and conceptual resources in a mixed-reality (MR) environment.. Design/methodology/approach Building on Science through Technology Enhanced Play (STEP), we apply the Learning in Embodied Activity Framework to further explore how liminal blends can help us understand learning within MR environments. Twenty-two students from a mixed first- and second-grade classroom participated in a seven-part activity sequence in the STEP environment. The authors applied interaction analysis to analyze how student’s actions performed with the physical objects helped them to construct liminal blends that allowed key concepts to be made visible and shared for collective sensemaking. Findings The authors found that conceptually productive liminal blends occurred when students constructed connections between the resources in the MR environment and coordinated their embodiment with props to represent new understandings. Originality/value This study concludes with the implications for how the design of MR environment and teachers’ facilitation in MR environment supports students in constructing liminal blends and their understanding of complex science phenomena.

The Floating Learning Media Software Based on "Adobe Flash" Material Nets-Build Nets Build Space in Class V

This study aims to describe the development of multimedia-based learning media using Adobe Flash in mathematics subject matter in V grade classrooms and to determine the feasibility of developing multimedia-based learning media using Adobe Flash in mathematics subject matter in V grade classroom material. This research method is development (R&D) by following the steps of the Puslijatnov Team which adopted from Borg & Gall. The results of this study are the feasibility of multimedia-based learning media using Adobe Flash in mathematics subject matter V grade classrooms seen in media trials with 6 students obtained a percentage score of 90% categorized as "very feasible" and the results of student responses in the trial use media with 24 students obtained a percentage score of 98% categorized as "very feasible".

“From the Lightest Light to the Darkest Dark”

The present study focuses on consuming and producing stories using various forms of expression in the third-grade classroom. The aim of the study is to examine pupils’ and teachers’ experiences of working with a teaching unit that encourages the use of various text and media forms through literary productions, re-presentations, of Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter in order to gain increased insight into the pupils’ narrative competence and identity development. Hence, in what ways can working with various text and media forms and various forms of aesthetic expression promote pupils’ identity development? The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with the two teachers and 19 of the 39 pupils who participated in the teaching unit. A thematic analysis of the interviews illuminated two focal themes: identity development and moving through various forms of expression. While looking at the results of the study in relation to Langer’s (2011) stances of envisionment, it becomes clear that applying a contrastive learning approach does the following: it contributes to the progress of the pupils’ identity development, it encourages a deeper understanding, and, consequently, it facilitates and makes visible their learning processes, and their ability to apply a meta-perspective on their learning processes.