Invented spelling activities in small groups and early spelling and reading

Our aim was to assess the impact of an invented spelling programme conducted in small groups on children’s written language acquisition in Portuguese. We expected the experimental group to have better post-test results than the control group in spelling and reading. Participants were 160 preschool-age children who were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Their age, cognitive ability, knowledge of letters and phonological abilities were controlled. Children’s spelling and reading were evaluated in a pre- and a post-test. Inbetween, experimental group participated in an invented spelling programme in small groups and the control group in story readings. The experimental group showed better results in spelling and reading in the post-test than the control one. Different dynamics occurred in the small groups which had different impacts on children’s acquisitions. These results provide empirical support for the proposal that invented spelling should be incorporated into early literacy instruction.

Students’ Self-Report of Motivational Orientation and Teacher Evaluation on Coping and Motivational Orientation Related to Elementary Students’ Mathematical Problem Solving and Reading Comprehension

The present study examined the correlations between motivational orientation and students’ academic performance in mathematical problem solving and reading comprehension. The main purpose is to see if students’ intrinsic motivation is related to their actual performance in different subject areas, math and reading. In addition, two different informants, students and teachers, were adopted to check whether the correlation is different by different informants. Pearson’s correlational analysis was a major method, coupled with regression analysis. The result confirmed the significant positive correlation between students’ academic performance and students’ self-report and teacher evaluation on their motivational orientation respectively. Teacher evaluation turned out with more predictive value for the academic achievement in math and reading. Between the subjects, mathematical problem solving showed higher correlation with most of the motivational subscales than reading comprehension did. The highest correlation was found between teacher evaluation on task orientation and students’ mathematical problem solving. The positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement was proved. The disparity between students ’ self-report and teacher evaluation on motivational orientation was also addressed with the need of further examination.

A Longitudinal Exploration of the Relationship Between Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Achievement Among a Sample of Diverse Young Learners

Exploring the relationship between early oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement among an ethnically and racially diverse sample of young learners from low-income families, attending elementary school within a large public school district in southeast Florida is the purpose of this longitudinal study. Although many studies have been conducted to address the relationship between oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement, most of the existing research failed either to disaggregate the data by demographic subgroups or secure a large enough sample of students to adequately represent the diverse subgroups. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) To what extent does early oral reading fluency ability measured in first, second, or third grade correlate with reading comprehension achievement in third grade? (b) To what extent does the relationship of early oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement vary by demographic subgroup membership (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status) among a diverse sample of students? A predictive research design using archived secondary data was employed in this nonexperimental quantitative methods study of 1,663 third grade students who attended a cohort of 25 Reading First funded schools. The data analyzed derived from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS ORF) measure administered in first, second, and third grades and the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test of the Sunshine State Standards (FCAT-SSS) Reading administered in third grade. Linear regression analyses between each of the oral reading fluency and reading comprehension measures produced significant positive correlations. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the predictive potential of all three oral reading fluency ability measures toward reading comprehension achievement, with the first grade oral reading fluency ability measure explaining the most significant variance in third grade reading comprehension achievement. Male students produced significant overall differences in variance when compared to female students as did the Other student subgroup (i.e., Asian, Multiracial, and Native American) when compared to Black, White, and Hispanic students. No significant differences in variance were produced between students from low and moderate socioeconomic families. These findings are vital toward adding to the literature of diverse young learners.

The Music and Reading Connection: Improving Literacy with Rapid Naming of Words and Music Notes

This poster presentation is an action research study about improving literacy with rapid naming of words and music notes for ESE students at a Title 1 Elementary school.

Victorian letter writing and its representation in literature and painting: the case study of love letters

One of the main features of nineteenth-century fiction is the quasi-total disappearance of the epistolary novel that had had its heydays in the previous century. For this reason, some scholars have declared the “death” of the letter in literature after the transitional romantic period. However, Victorian novels overflow with letters that are embedded, quoted in part or described and commented on by narrators or characters. Even when its content is not revealed to the reader, the letter becomes a signifier loaded with meanings, also and particularly so, when it is burnt, torn, hidden, found or buried. The Postal Reform of 1839-40 caused the number of letters sent every year in Britain to grow from 75 to 410 million in only 14 years, and the mediatic campaign that supported it drew the attention of the population to the material aspects concerning this means of communication. Newspapers became more affordable too and they promoted a taste for sensationalism that often involved the “spectacularization” of private correspondence. Starting from an excursus on the history of the letter aimed at identifying the key aspects of the genre, this work deals with some real love correspondences from people belonging to different classes in the period from 1840 to the 1870s, to then analyse their fictional and pictorial counterparts. The general picture that emerges from this analysis is that of a Victorian society where letters were able to break down the boundaries between high and low forms of cultural expressions and where, more than ever, letters were present in people’s everyday lives as well as in the art and literature they enjoyed.

Representações coloniais no feminino: o oriente de Isabel Tamagnini

O Diário de uma Viagem a Timor (1882-1883) descreve o itinerário de Isabel Pinto da França Tamagnini entre Singapura e Díli. O Diário oferece uma representação peculiar da cultura asiática e das suas mulheres, através do olhar de uma europeia cuja formação e mundividência em pouco ultrapassavam a esfera doméstica e religiosa. A escrita de Tamagnini reflecte a sensibilidade de um estrato privilegiado da sociedade, que considerava a escrita feminina como um passatempo tolerável de senhoras prendadas. Logo nas primeiras linhas do Diário, Tamagnini afirma claramente que a sua produção e recepção devem restringir-se ao círculo da família e amigos, pois ela mesma o considera um texto recreativo e impressionista. Mas é precisamente esta característica que faz do Diário de Tamagnini um documento da sociedade colonial portuguesa de finais do século xix. Tamagnini compõe uma representação subjectiva de uma realidade ‘exótica’ e dos seus actores, recordando a noção de ‘orientalismo’ de Edward Said. O olhar de Tamagnini é dominado pela pertença a uma elite etnocêntrica e produz um texto crítico, simultaneamente confessional e moralizador. Tamagnini parece viajar através de espaços de socialização aristocrática, mais do que através de geografias e culturas. Mas o espaço urbano é progressivamente substituído pelo território ‘selvagem’, à medida que a viagem se aproxima do destino. E aqui o Diário funciona como texto paradigmático, se bem que por vezes irreverente, de uma representação etnocêntrica da colónia, dos agentes coloniais e ‘seus’ colonizados, com especial atenção à descrição dos ‘tipos’ femininos observados ao longo desta Viagem a Timor.

A aquisição da leitura e da escrita na Educação Pré-Escolar: estratégias de intervenção pedagógica

Mestrado, Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico, 3 de Julho de 2013, Universidade dos Açores (Relatório de Estágio).

SGBD de alta escalabilidade com suporte a dados georreferenciados

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática e de Computadores

"The nothing that is" : An Ethics of Absence Within the Poetry of Wallace Stevens

Cette thèse se concentre sur ce que j'appelle «l’espace négatif» de la représentation dans la poésie de Stevens comme étant un véritable espace d'engagement politique, une interprétation qui se distingue de la plus grande partie de la critique sur Stevens. En suivant les écrits philosophiques d'Emmanuel Levinas, j'affirme que l'emphase que Stevens place sur la représentation de la représentation elle-même ouvre un espace au-delà des limites rigides de l'identité-ce que Levinas appelle « le je [sujet] semblable », permettant un contact authentique avec « l'Autre» ainsi qu’avec le concept de « l'infini ». Bien que Stevens s’est farouchement opposé à la notion Romantique de la sublime transcendance, c’est-à-dire d'un espace censé exister en dehors des limites de l'imagination humaine, il se concerne néanmoins avec l'exploration d'un espace au-delà de l'identité individuelle. Pour Stevens, cependant, « la transcendance» est toujours, nécessairement, liée par les restrictions reconnues du langage humain et de l'imagination, et donc par la réalité du monde perceptible. Toute « transcendance» qui est recherchée ou atteinte, dans la poésie de Stevens ne devrait donc pas - ma thèse affirme - être entendu dans le sens sublime déterminé auparavant par les Romantiques. Une connexion plus appropriée peut plutôt être faite avec la transcendance concrète et immédiate décrit par Lévinas comme le «face à face ». L’attention que Stevens accordent aux notions concrètes et immédiates est souvent exprimé à travers son attention sur les qualités esthétiques de la langue. Sa poésie a en effet la poésie pour sujet, mais pas dans le sens solipsiste qui lui est souvent attribué. En se concentrant sur le processus actif et créateur inhérent à l'écriture et à la lecture de la poésie, Stevens explore la nature de l'Etre lui-même. Je compare cette exploration dans le travail de Stevens à celle du dessinateur, ou de l'artiste, et dans ma conclusion, je suggère les liens entre l'approche d'enquête de Stevens et celle d’artistes visuels contemporains qui se sont également engagés à la figuration du processus créatif. L’ artiste sud-africain William Kentridge est mon exemple principal , en raison de sa conviction que la méthode est intrinsèquement liée à l'engagement politique et social.

Le chemin qui marche : la pensée et le geste d'écriture chez Benjamin Fondane

Benjamin Fondane est un penseur et un artiste du XXe siècle qui demeure encore relativement méconnu de la communauté universitaire. Pourtant, son œuvre poétique et ses essais révèlent une démarche atypique et une vision concrète de la dualité humaine et de la pratique de la pensée. « Le mal des fantômes », poème central de l’œuvre de Fondane, est une incarnation imagée du mal-être psychique de l’humain qui pressent que ses réflexes intellectuels, tels la raison et l’esprit de non-contradiction, créent une rupture avec son expérience intime du monde, brigue une portion du réel. L’étude de la figure du fantôme (qui est la figure de la hantise dans la tradition littéraire) ainsi que de l’économie discursive de la traversée maritime qui se déploient dans ce poème nous permet d’interroger les astuces rhétoriques que Fondane met en place afin de contrecarrer ce malaise. À travers l’expérience scripturale et la lecture, il est à la recherche d’une nouvelle disposition de l’activité réflexive qui serait davantage solidaire de l’existence humaine. C’est grâce au geste de l’écriture que sa pensée voyage, se meut, retrouve sa vivacité et, par là même, ses pouvoirs de mutation. Se pencher sur la mise en œuvre de la réflexion chez Benjamin Fondane permet de poser un regard sensible sur les propres rapports que nous entretenons avec notre activité intellectuelle, scripturale et notre pensée.

Ojos de Sapo: revista de crónica colombiana

Revista Ojos de Sapo es un proyecto en formato digital que busca promover la lectura y escritura de crónicas en el país, a través de la publicación de las mismas, de contenido relacionado y de la convocatoria de textos inéditos de autores jóvenes.

Collabowrighting the hyper(play)text: a postdramatic digital poetics

The aim of this research is to exhibit how literary playtexts can evoke multisensory trends prevalent in 21st century theatre. In order to do so, it explores a range of practical forms and theoretical contexts for creating participatory, site-specific and immersive theatre. With reference to literary theory, specifically to semiotics, reader-response theory, postmodernism and deconstruction, it attempts to revise dramatic theory established by Aristotle’s Poetics. Considering Gertrude Stein’s essay, Plays (1935), and relevant trends in theatre and performance, shaped by space, technology and the everchanging role of the audience member, a postdramatic poetics emerges from which to analyze the plays of Mac Wellman and Suzan-Lori Parks. Distinguishing the two textual lives of a play as the performance playtext and the literary playtext, it examines the conventions of the printed literary playtext, with reference to models of practice that radicalize the play form, including works by Mabou Mines, The Living Theatre and Fiona Templeton. The arguments of this practice-led Ph.D. developed out of direct engagement with the practice project, which explores the multisensory potential of written language when combined with hypermedia. The written thesis traces the development process of a new play, Rumi High, which is presented digitally as a ‘hyper(play)text,’ accessible through the Internet at www.RumiHigh.org. Here, ‘playwrighting’ practice is expanded spatially, collaboratively and textually. Plays are built, designed and crafted with many layers of meaning that explore both linguistic and graphic modes of poetic expression. The hyper(play)text of Rumi High establishes playwrighting practice as curatorial, where performance and literary playtexts are in a reciprocal relationship. This thesis argues that digital writing and reading spaces enable new approaches to expressing the many languages of performance, while expanding the collaborative network that produces the work. It questions how participatory forms of immersive and site-specific theatre can be presented as interactive literary playtexts, which enable the reader to have a multisensory experience. Through a reflection on process and an evaluation of the practice project, this thesis problematizes notions of authorship and text.

A restricted curriculum for second language learners : a self-fulfilling teacher strategy?

The focus of this article is on relations between classroom interaction, curricular knowledge and student engagement in diverse classrooms. It is based on a study with ethnographic perspective in which two primary school classes in Sweden were followed for three years. The analysis draws on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The results indicate that language use in the classrooms is on a basic everyday level and that high teacher control results in low-demanding tasks and low engagement among students. Interaction in the classrooms mainly consists of short talk-turns with fragmented language, frequent repairs and interruptions, while writing and reading consists of single words and short sentences. Although the classroom atmosphere is friendly and inclusive, second language students are denied necessary opportunities to develop curricular knowledge and Swedish at the advanced level, which they will need higher up in the school system. The restricted curriculum that these students are offered in school thus restricts their opportunities to school success. Thus, I argue for a more reflective and critical approach regarding language use in classrooms.

SOA-DB: uma arquitetura embarcada orientada a serviço para acesso a dispositivos biomédicos

The great diversity in the architecture of biomedical devices, coupled with their different communication protocols, has hindered the implementation of systems that need to make access to these devices. Given these differences, the need arises to provide access to such a transparent manner. In this sense, this paper proposes an embedded architecture, service-oriented, for access to biomedical devices, as a way to abstract the mechanism for writing and reading data on these devices, thereby contributing to the increase in quality and productivity of biomedical systems so as to enable that, the focus of the development team of biomedical software, is almost exclusively directed to its functional requirements

A linguagem do blog escolar em um trabalho com multiletramentos: compartilhando sentidos

This research, part of Applied Linguistics field, aims to analyze the language of a school blog, developed with the participation of students, as a work based on the conception of multiliteracies, focusing on the construction of different meanings. The research is carried on from the building and maintenance of a school blog, the Ieceblog, with students of Ensino Fundamental II, since 2008, in a private school in Natal-RN. The investigation of the language produced on a school blog is justified due to the interactive conceptions of writing and reading on the virtual environment. Given the fact that new technologies are a reality in the schools opened to the practices of multiliteracies, it is assumed that text, image, video, audio, non-graphic signs and hypertext intensifies the produced interaction, in which the students become real authors. In this perspective, some voices belonging to the statements that are formed through the posts and comments chosen to the analyses and reflection on the blog space as locus of productions of senses inserted in the school and the world environment, as well as for the identification of the language resources used to intensify the senses that emerge from it. From the view of dialogism conceptualized by Bakhtin Circle, the qualitative interpretive-research deepens the experience of a school blog focusing on digital language in line with the vision of digital literacy. From the blog posts, a corpus that promote the exposure of different manifestations of language in the design of digital multiliteracies is elected. Thereby, the method used was the dialogical analysis of speech based on Bakhtin s studies and the Circle. The corpus was taken from the blog s posts in order to point up the different language manifestations in the following categories: (i) mood reinforced by the mockery, (ii) search for compliance with school sphere, (iii) conflicting social values and consistent complicity between sense and verbal imagery, and finally (iv) social practices that take place from and through the discursive genre. The study points to the tension between the active voices in several directions, revealing the distorted unit of posts which, under the analytical observation raises multiple meanings in a responsive manner. The analysis of the dialogue interaction in which intersperses the digital one becomes more apparent that the multiliteracies events that are mediated by language in addition to structure of the language and makes us rethink the students