The National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Mathematical Literacy (Maths Lit) states that the approach to Maths Lit teaching has to be contextualized – focusing on context-driven problems that relate to everyday lives. In this report I attempt to identify how teachers select and use context–oriented tasks for their grade 10 Mathematical Literacy classrooms. Data was gathered using a case study of four teachers, using interviews and analysis of various documents (work schedule and sample of learners‟ workbooks). Vygotsky‟s theory of mediation was used to analyze the findings in relation to the Maths Lit goals and principle of contextualization. The agendas from Graven and Venkat (2007) were used as the tool to analyze the tasks in the learners‟ books. A continuum based on these agendas was used as a descriptive tool of where teachers fit in relation to the context/content spectrum. The study concluded that teachers mainly used the work schedule and text books to select the context-oriented tasks for their learners. Teachers‟ selections of tasks were guided by the mathematical content to be taught. Most of the tasks‟ contexts lacked authenticity and the tasks consisted of pure mathematical content. The teachers mainly used the context to introduce the content to be learned. The tasks that were used promoted mathematical goals and were not context-driven. The level of authenticity promoted within the Maths Lit curriculum and its disseminated support documents such as work schedules, therefore needs to be investigated further.

This dissertation study examined the predictive validity of alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness assessments on word reading fluency. The participants were approximately 900 kindergarten students from a suburban school district in Oregon. The study used extant curriculum-based measure (CBM) reading assessment data collected during the 2013-2014 school year to examine the predictive validity of measures of letter naming fluency (LN), letter sound fluency (LS), and phoneme segmentation fluency (PS) on word reading fluency (WRF). Linear regression was employed to examine the amount of variance that early reading skills (LN, LS, and PS), measured during the fall and winter, explained in WRF measured in the spring of kindergarten. The relation of non-performance demographic data to student spring WRF was also examined. Results of this research are intended to inform practitioners implementing early reading instruction and interventions through an equity lens.

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / English immersion education policies in the United States deprive immigrant-origin bilingual students from using their home languages to learn. However, a growing body of research emphasizes the importance of promoting heteroglossic classroom language practices to enhance bilingual students’ learning. Drawing on translanguaging pedagogy (García, 2009; Lewis, Baker & Jones, 2010), this study explored the flexible use of English and Spanish in bilingual students’ language and literacy development. To achieve this, translanguaging instructional strategies were infused into an English language and literacy curriculum to investigate how a group of third grade bilingual students, with varied proficiencies in English and Spanish, used their entire linguistic repertoire to engage in the literacy practices proposed in the curriculum. These literacy practices encompassed reading and discussing culturally-relevant texts, and participating in explicit text-based language instruction in the areas of semantics, morphology, and syntax. Conversation and discourse analysis techniques were used to analyze the lesson videos, and to understand the role of translanguaging in participants’ interactions, and in their discourse about semantics, morphology, and syntax. Findings regarding the role of translanguaging in participants’ interactions, indicate that they strategically and pragmatically used their languages to ensure their meaningful engagement in these lessons, and to perform their bilingual identities. In terms of the role of translanguaging in participants’ discourse about the linguistic constructs targeted in the reading curriculum, results indicate that bilingual language instruction engaged students in cross-linguistic analyses that enhanced their linguistic awareness. Based on these findings, a model for translanguaging pedagogy in language and literacy instruction is proposed, and implications for translanguaging theory, pedagogy, social justice, and future research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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Orientadora: Daniela Nogueira de Moraes Garcia / Banca: Kelly Cristiane Henschel Pobbe de Carvalho / Banca: Rosiney Aparecida Lopes do Vale / Resumo: O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é leitura dos paradidáticos como prática de letramento capaz de proporcionar experiências literárias que construam os múltiplos saberes necessários para a interpretação do implícito - informações textuais que não estão em evidência, o subentendido . Este estudo descreve o trabalho realizado com os paradidáticos no ano inicial do Ensino Fundamental II em uma escola municipal da região metropolitana de São Paulo. A fundamentação teórica da dissertação ancora-se nos temas: multiletramento, multimodalidade, livros paradidáticos, o poder humanizador da literatura, as novas tecnologias, as novas leituras e os novos leitores. Sob uma metodologia qualitativa de cunho etnográfico, ao final do estudo, apresento contribuições para a maximização das ações de leitura no cenário escolar, a partir de uma prática de multiletramento focada na leitura do livro de contos "Histórias para brincar", do italiano Gianni Rodari / Abstract: The main objective of this research is to approach the work done with the books in the first year of Elementary School II and the contributions of new technologies to foster and enhance their reading in school. Study about the reading of the literary books as a practice of multileteracy capable of providing literary experiences that contribute or build multiple knowledge. For this, I reflect on literacy, multilearning, multimodality, literary books, the humanizing power of literature, new technologies and new readers. Under a qualitative ethnographic methodology, the data will be collected through a multilearning practice focused on reading the storybook "Stories to play", by the Italian Gianni Rodari. We hope, at the end of the study, to contribute to the maximization of reading actions in the school setting / Mestre

This research study exploring multiple first grade literacy practices draws from the notion of multiliteracies. Literacy is dynamic and complex. New technologies are reconfiguring how we conceptualize literacy in work, home and school communities. A variety of factors including access to technology, governmental interventions in literacy instruction, public discourse, and teacher beliefs facilitate what constitutes literacy in schools today. Literacy teachers are caught between policies which advocate for a standardized test score as an appropriate literacy measure and enacting instruction that allows students to successfully acquire literacy that is captured by national and local testing. This study explores these tensions in the broader context of shifting definitions of literacy. Modes and media of communication expressed, valued, and counted as legitimate literacy are explored. The teacher's literacy instruction is examined, noting her knowledge and beliefs that reflected the constraints of mandated literacy instruction or embraced a multiliteracies perspective. How children were positioned in the classroom according to this perspective sheds light on social status and power relationships in association to highly valued literacy practices of reading and writing. Key findings from this study affirm that proficiency with print is critical in today's classrooms because of standardized test measures and subsequent mandates from governmental bodies. Schools that are identified as in need of assistance according to NCLB find themselves positioned as recipients of highly prescribed literacy instruction. Teachers who are required to follow mandated literacy instruction begin to doubt their own knowledge and beliefs when instruction is scrutinized under these mandates. Results from this research suggest that privilege associated with proficiency in print cuts across other modes and media as does struggle with the alphabetic code. Those children who have proficiency also have opportunities others do not.

The eight published articles in this portfolio collectively constitute a reconceptualising of literacy curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood education, with an emphasis on the use of drama pedagogy. The portfolio includes a synthesis of the themes that unify the articles and a review of the qualitative research methods that inform the articles, namely theoretical/conceptual and case study research. In relation to literacy curriculum, the portfolio explicates an inclusive and extended definition of literacy which reflects the wide range of social and cultural practices that engage young students in their everyday lives. From a sociocultural perspective, the articles investigate current literacy practices involving spoken, written and visual modes of representation and highlight the prevalence of multimodal texts within the concept of multiliteracies. Reconceptualising literacy pedagogy is another major theme of the articles in the portfolio. The majority of articles explore the use of drama pedagogy for the teaching and learning of literacies in early childhood education. A second pedagogical strategy researched in the articles is the explicit teaching of knowledge about language to young school students. The portfolio is underpinned by the premise that the proposed reforms of literacy curriculum and pedagogy contribute to social justice in education by facilitating success in literacy for more young students / Doctor of Education

Students’ attitudes to reading and the texts they choose to read impact on literacy achievement and willingness to engage with literacy-related activities in the primary years of schooling. This study was conducted in an urban Catholic school in Queensland in Years 1 to 7. Students’ developing attitudes to reading and the perceptions of these attitudes held by their teachers were examined. An adapted version of the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna & Kear, 1990) and Teacher Checklist (Young, 2003) was utilized. Results from the study indicate older students’ attitudes towards recreational reading (in primary school) are not significantly different to younger students’ attitudes. Female students however, show more positive attitudes to recreational reading than male students. Older students’ attitudes towards academic reading are more negative overall and female students showed significantly more positive attitudes than their male peers. Students’ choice of texts varied across the year levels with the most preferred reading materials being chapter books, children’s magazines and comics. Teachers’ perceptions of students’ enjoyment of reading in class correlated significantly with students’ own perceived level of reading achievement. Teachers perceive that as students’ level of reading enjoyment increases, their level of academic reading achievement also increases. Five recommendations are made from the findings of this study. First, recreational reading engagement needs to be publicly promoted and positively celebrated within the school community. It was found that for students to be motivated and see the value of engaging in reading they must be immersed in a school classroom environment that offers a range of recreational activities and opportunities. Second, a structured approach to literacy sessions (literacy block) needs to be established and implemented with students across all primary year levels. This enables students to be scaffolded in their literacy learning and so develop positive attitudes towards themselves as academic readers. Third, it is recommended that guided reading occur as a key instructional approach to the teaching of reading across all primary year levels. This may serve to increase students’ motivation and interest in reading a range of text types and may provide a source of information for the teacher in relation to students’ engagement with reading. Fourth, a range of text types need to be purchased and made available for students to read independently and for teachers to use in class shared reading activities across all primary year levels. Students should be exposed to various text types throughout their primary years of schooling. Finally, the teaching of reading needs to be ‘data-driven’ rather than based on teachers’ perceptions of students’ reading needs. Periodic assessments of students’ reading achievement should occur to provide these data for teachers. The recommendations from this study align with priorities and recommendations included in current Commonwealth and State documents. Directions for future research also are suggested especially for qualitative data collection. This methodology, if included, would glean more in-depth data concerning students’ attitudes to reading and the perceptions held by their teachers. Investigating students’ attitude towards and use of digital literacies also would provide a greater understanding of primary-age students’ attitudes towards reading in the 21st century.