Public education is a continually evolving field, with new research, policies, and practices explored by professionals who are driven to provide America’s youth with high-quality education. Research literature since 2000 has highlighted the importance of disciplinary literacy and its unfortunate neglect in a majority of secondary classrooms (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Students who are literate in a particular discipline, such as math, view themselves as fluent in the language of mathematics, comfortable with reading, discussing, and practicing complex mathematical concepts while using appropriate vocabulary (Buehl, 2017). As seasoned professionals and novice educators consider the role of disciplinary literacy in their own classrooms, it is necessary to ponder the practices that are implemented within classrooms. Do they align with current research on the matter? What role do motivation and culture play in the process of becoming mathematically literate? How do these ideas influence classroom literacy practices? These are the central questions that have guided the construction of this research study, which will seek to examine the phenomena that occur within a classroom as teachers implement practices which promote and teach mathematical literacy. The exploratory nature of this study dictates that no judgement on the effectiveness of observed and discussed instructional strategies is considered, rather, a comparison of the latter with those strategies recommended by current educational researchers and literature. Interviews and classroom observations will work in tandem with a review of the current publications that address the areas of motivation, mathematical literacy, and culture.

Proficiency in literacy is paramount during a child's education. Lacking proficiency can have lasting effects. At both the state and local level, continuing gaps in student achievement in literacy have been documented. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to focus on kindergarten teachers and administrators' early literacy strategies, specifically current practices in early literacy skills and possible resources needed in early literacy to lessen the gap between White students and ethnic minority and students who qualify for free/reduced meals. The constructivist framework was the platform used to investigate teacher and administrator understanding of the 6 early literacy skills, their understanding of current literacy building instructional practices/strategies related to those skills, and possible needs for resources related to the six early literacy skills. The guiding question for this study was: Despite targeted instruction, dedicated time for daily literacy instruction, and tiered interventions, why does the literacy gap exist in kindergarten? A qualitative case study design was used for this project study with a convenience sample of five participants. Semistructured interviews were conducted and transcribed. Open coding was used to identify themes. Major themes emerged including instructional support, use of multimodal curriculums, strong teacher/student relationships, and consideration of issues outside the instruction and curriculum such as mental health of students. Recommendations were made in the form of a position paper to identify possible changes, modifications, and items to keep. A major implication when considering positive social change is the collaborative work from all stakeholders. With this position paper, the district can migrate from reactive strategies in third grade to proactive strategies in kindergarten to lessen the literacy gap between student subgroups.

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The purpose of this feasibility study is to provide evidence of how integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills into eighth-grade social studies instruction facilitates student understanding of content material and ability to write about social studies content. In thiswithin-subjects paired-samples research study, 197 eighth-grade participants received instruction in a social studies content area and in argumentative writing. Data from a criterion-referenced social studies pre and posttest and data from pre and post instruction writing samples were analyzed to evaluate the influence of the integration of literacy tasks in middle school social studies classrooms oncontent area knowledge acquisition and argumentative writing quality. Analysis of the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) data usingregression analysis showed that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ performance on the CRT after the students engaged in literacy tasks emphasizing reading, writing, speaking, and listening during the social studies instruction. Analysis of the writing rubric scores using Cohen’s d showed statistically significant differences exist between the students pre and post essay scores. These results suggest that having students engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks and in explicit writing instruction and production during a social studies unit facilitates their content knowledge acquisition, improves the overall quality of students’ argumentative writing, and more specifically, improves the organization and development of that writing. It is recommended that further research be conducted to determine the best way to group students for collaboration when incorporating reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks within content area instruction.

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Globally education authorities are placing increasing emphasis on the development of literacy and numeracy in primary schools. This paper reports on research designed to assist teachers to improve the numeracy of their students by making the use of mathematics games a more focused aspect of the teaching and learning experience in mathematics. Classroom experience and anecdotal evidence suggest that games are often used without really focussing on the mathematics involved in playing the game,and are justified simply on the basis of children having ‘fun’. In this paper we report on the use of one game, Numero and how teachers made use of the game and the impact on the children’s learning when using the game.

Leave with ideas to build confidence and understanding about using hands-on activities and literacy strategies as tools to understand the nature of wave movement.

The aim of this thesis is to acquaint readers with the functional ways of the development of reading literacy of pupils in primary school, and to find out how and with what results these way can be aquired from the position of primary school teacher and pupils. The theoretical part is focused on reading literacy, its components, the stages and the factors that influce its development. It defines concepts of reading, reading comprehension, and related reading skills and strategies. It deals with the development of reading literacy at school. It describes pupils of the primary school and key competences of the primary school teacher. The thesis also describes which components of reading literacy can be developed among pupils and what the appropriate projects in the Czech Republic are. The final chapter focuses on the methods that support the development of reading literacy among pupils, especially the RWCT (Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) program and their inclusion during lessons. The aim of the practical part of this thesis is to find out the answer to these research questions: How to effectively develop reading literacy of pupils at primary school? How and with what results can the teacher of primary school acquire functional ways of the development of reading literacy? The practical...