Modos de ler e ações de leitura waysto read and actions of reading

This paper is the result of discussions held during the initial research on ways of reading and reading activities, to obtain the title of the Ph.D. graduate program in Education at UNESP - Marilia. The paper seeks to rethink the practice followed the reality historically constructed as reference, creating a dialectic movement, and a constant construction, and the overcoming of it. In this perspective, we approach possible practices that can enhance the student's prior knowledge, and from it, to propose ways of action that lead to the development of the subject through the processes of teaching and learning of reading in school. From the study of actions that are agreed as reading practices, the study proposes to work with the Reading Strategies to promote the development of the individual. Among the different results that have been announced in the research, we highlight the need for conscious mediation of the teacher in the act of teaching reading and conscious participation of the student in the process. Partial results give evidence to confirm the hypothesis that: intentional actions are driving the learning of children in activity in the classroom, considering their experiences and choices of the teacher as mediator in the process. Students in third grade of elementary school are the subjects of research, theory and practice. The researcher is the mediator and proposer of the actions based on microgenetic research.

What drives the prediction of early reading? An analysis of stimulus and response-type

Purpose: Phonological accounts of reading implicate three aspects of phonological awareness tasks that underlie the relationship with reading; a) the language-based nature of the stimuli (words or nonwords), b) the verbal nature of the response, and c) the complexity of the stimuli (words can be segmented into units of speech). Yet, it is uncertain which task characteristics are most important as they are typically confounded. By systematically varying response-type and stimulus complexity across speech and non-speech stimuli, the current study seeks to isolate the characteristics of phonological awareness tasks that drive the prediction of early reading. Method: Four sets of tasks were created; tone stimuli (simple non-speech) requiring a non-verbal response, phonemes (simple speech) requiring a non-verbal response, phonemes requiring a verbal response, and nonwords (complex speech) requiring a verbal response. Tasks were administered to 570 2nd grade children along with standardized tests of reading and non-verbal IQ. Results: Three structural equation models comparing matched sets of tasks were built. Each model consisted of two 'task' factors with a direct link to a reading factor. The following factors predicted unique variance in reading: a) simple speech and non-speech stimuli, b) simple speech requiring a verbal response but not simple speech requiring a non-verbal-response, and c) complex and simple speech stimuli. Conclusions: Results suggest that the prediction of reading by phonological tasks is driven by the verbal nature of the response and not the complexity or 'speechness' of the stimuli. Findings highlight the importance of phonological output processes to early reading.

The relationship between scaffolding metacognitive strategies identified through dialogue journals and second graders' reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognition using expository text

Poor informational reading and writing skills in early grades and the need to provide students more experience with informational text have been identified by research as areas of concern. Wilkinson and Son (2011) support future research in dialogic approaches to investigate the impact dialogic teaching has on comprehension. This study (N = 39) examined the gains in reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive functioning of individual second grade students interacting with instructors using dialogue journals alongside their textbook. The 38 week study consisted of two instructional phases, and three assessment points. After a period of oral metacognitive strategies, one class formed the treatment group (n=17), consisting of two teachers following the co-teaching method, and two classes formed the comparison group ( n=22). The dialogue journal intervention for the treatment group embraced the transactional theory of instruction through the use of dialogic interaction between teachers and students. Students took notes on the assigned lesson after an oral discussion. Teachers responded to students' entries with scaffolding using reading strategies (prior knowledge, skim, slow down, mental integration, and diagrams) modeled after Schraw's (1998) strategy evaluation matrix, to enhance students' comprehension. The comparison group utilized text-based, teacher-led whole group discussion. Data were collected using different measures: (a) Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) Broad Diagnostic Inventory; (b) Scott Foresman end of chapter tests; (c) Metacomprehension Strategy Index (Schmitt, 1990); and (d) researcher-made metacognitive scaffolding rubric. Statistical analyses were performed using paired sample t-tests, regression analysis of covariance, and two way analysis of covariance. Findings from the study revealed that experimental participants performed significantly better on the linear combination of reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive function, than their comparison group counterparts while controlling for pretest scores. Overall, results from the study established that teacher scaffolding using metacognitive strategies can potentially develop students' reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive awareness. This suggests that early childhood students gain from the integration of reading and writing when using authentic materials (science textbooks) in science classrooms. A replication of this study with more students across more schools, and different grade levels would improve the generalizability of these results.

Frederick Douglass and Ireland, 1845: The "Vertiginous Twist[s]" of an Irish Encounter

Frederick Douglas was a reader of and writer on the nineteenth-century political and social texts and contexts of oppression, which he experienced at home and witnesed while in Ireland and Britain, 1845-47. This thesis is unique in its identification of several surprising lacunae in the research and critical evaluation of Frederick Douglass’ activities of reading and writing and the texts and contexts that supported these activities. This thesis takes Douglass’ relationship with Ireland and the Irish as its starting point, and offers several moments in the transnational space engendered by Douglass’ readerly and writerly experience of the transatlantic axes of Ireland, Britain and America. This thesis draws upon archival research to recover information regarding Douglass’ trip and subjects his reading and writing on Ireland and the Irish to the critical rigours of narratolgical, cultural and discourse analysis. One lacuna is Douglass’ favourite and neglected school primer, the Columbian Orator, which Douglass signified upon across his autobiographical project. The speech by the Irish patriot and exile, Arthur O’Connor, included in the Orator, is crucial to Douglass’ understanding and expression of justice and equality. Genette’s narratological analysis gives theoretical traction to the ways in which, in his autobiographical representations of his British trip, Douglass recalibrates his autobiographies to reflect his changing perspectives on his life and work. Contrary to popular assumptions, Douglass did, in two letters to Garrison address and comment on Irish poverty. This thesis interrogates the strategic anglophilia of these letters. While the World’s Temperance Convention (WTC) refused to discuss African- American slavery, analysis of Douglass’ speech in Covent Garden and of the paratextual apparatus of the published proceedings of the WTC demonstrates the impossibility of separating these closely interrelated reform causes. When a newly discovered poem from Waterford that admonished the city for its disregard for Douglass’ message is juxtaposed with an uncomfortable moment in Cork, we understand that Douglass became a pawn to bolster sectarian rivalries between nationalist and establishment factions. Though Douglass believed imperial politics was the best vehicle for modernity, he recognised that it had failed Ireland: consequently, in Thoughts and Recollections of a Trip to Ireland (1886), he advocates for Home Rule for Ireland.

Beyond hope: Rhetorics of mobility, possibility, and literacy

When writing teachers enter the classroom, they often bring with them a deep faith in the power of literacy to rectify social inequalities and improve their students’ social and economic standing. It is this faith—this hope for change—that draws some writing teachers to locations of social and economic hardship. I am interested in how teachers and theorists construct their own narratives of social mobility, possibility, and literacy. My dissertation analyzes the production and expression of beliefs about literacy in the narratives of a diverse group of writing teachers and theorists, from those beginning their careers to those who are published and widely read. The central questions guiding this study are: How do teachers’ and theorists’ narratives of becoming literate intersect with literacy theories? and How do such literacy narratives intersect with beliefs in the power of literacy to improve individuals’ lives socially, economically, and personally? I contend that the professional literature needs to address more fully how teachers’ and theorists’ personal histories with literacy shape what they see as possible (and desirable) for students, especially those from marginalized communities. A central focus of the dissertation is on how teachers and theorists attempt to resolve a paradox they are likely to encounter in narratives about literacy. On one hand, they are immersed in a popular culture that cherishes narrative links between literacy and economic advancement (and, further, between such advancement and a “good life”). On the other hand, in professional discourse and in teacher preparation courses, they are likely to encounter narratives that complicate an assumed causal relationship between literacy and economic progress. Understanding, through literacy narratives, how teachers and theorists chart a practical path through or around this paradox can be beneficial to literacy education in three ways. First, it can offer direction in professional development and teacher education, addressing how teachers negotiate the boundaries between personal experience, theory, and pedagogy. Second, it can help teachers create spaces wherein students can explore the impact of paradoxical views about the role of literacy on their own lives. Finally, it can offer direction in public policy discourse, extending awareness of what we want—and need—from English language arts education in the twenty-first century. To explore these issues, I draw on case studies and ethnographic observation as well as narrative inquiry into teachers’ and theorists’ published literacy narratives. I situate my findings within three interrelated frames: 1) the narratives of new teachers, 2) the published works of literacy educators and theorists, and 3) my own literacy narrative. My first chapter, “Beyond Hope,” explores the tenuous connections between hope and critique in literacy studies and provides a methodological overview of the study. I argue that scholarship must move beyond a singular focus on either hope or critique in order to identify the transformative potential of literacy in particular circumstances. Analyzing literacy narratives provides a way of locating a critically informed sense of possibility. My second chapter, “Making Teachers, Making Literacy,” explores the intersection between teachers’ lives and the theories they study, based on qualitative analysis of a preservice course for secondary education English teachers. I examine how these preservice English teachers understood literacy, how their narratives of becoming literate and teaching English connected—and did not connect—with theoretical and pedagogical positions, and how these stories might inform their future work as practitioners. Centering primarily on preservice teachers who resisted Nancie Atwell’s pedagogy of possibility because they found it too good to be true, this research concentrates on moments of disjuncture, as expressed in class discussion and in one-on-one interviews, when literacy theories failed to align with aspiring teachers’ understandings of their own experiences and also with what they imagined as possible in disadvantaged educational settings. In my third and fourth chapters, I analyze the narratives of celebrated teachers and theorists who put forth an agenda that emphasizes possibilities through literacy, examining how they negotiate the relationship between their own literacy stories and literacy theories. Specifically, I investigate the narratives of three proponents of critical literacy: Mike Rose, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton, all highly respected literacy teachers whose working-class backgrounds influenced their commitment to teaching in disenfranchised communities. In chapter 3, “Reading Lives on the Boundary,” I demonstrate how Mike Rose’s 1989 autobiographical text, Lives on the Boundary, juxtaposes rhetorics of mobility with critiques of such possibility. Through an analysis of work published in professional journals, I offer a reception history of Rose’s narrative, focusing specifically on how teachers have negotiated the tension between hope and critique. I follow this analysis with three case studies, drawn from a larger sampling, that inquire into the personal connections that writing teachers make with Lives on the Boundary. The teachers in this study, who provided written responses and participated in audio-recorded follow-up interviews, were asked to compare Rose’s story to their own stories, considering how their personal literacy histories influenced their teaching. My findings illustrate how a group of teachers and theorists have projected their own assessments of what literacy and higher education can and cannot accomplish onto this influential text. In my fourth chapter, “Horton and Freire’s Road as Literacy Narrative,” I concentrate on Myles Horton and Paulo Freire’s 1990 collaborative spoken book, We Make the Road by Walking. Central to my analysis are the educators’ stories about their formative years, including their own primary and secondary education experiences. I argue that We Make the Road by Walking demonstrates how theories of literacy cannot be divorced from personal histories. I begin by examining the spoken book as a literacy narrative that fuses personal and theoretical knowledge, focusing specifically on its authors’ ideas on theory. Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—the intersection of time and space within narrative—I then explore the literacy narratives emerging from the production process of the book, in a video production about Horton and Freire’s meeting, and ultimately in the two men’s reflections on their childhood years (Dialogic). Interspersed with these accounts is archival material on the book’s editorial production that illustrates the value of increased dialogue between personal history and theories of literacy. My fifth chapter is both a reflective analysis and a qualitative study of my work at a men’s medium-high security prison in Illinois, where I conducted research and served as the instructor of an upper-level writing course, “Writing for a Change,” in the spring of 2009. Entitled “Doing Time with Literacy Narratives,” this chapter explores the complex ways in which literacy and incarceration are configured in students’ narratives as well as my own. With and against students’ stories, I juxtapose my own experiences with literacy, particularly in relation to being the son of an imprisoned father. In exploring the intersections between such stories, I demonstrate how literacy narratives can function as a heuristic for exploring beliefs about literacy between teachers and students both inside and outside of the prison-industrial complex. My conclusion pulls together the various themes that emerged in the three frames, from the making of new teachers to the published literacy narratives of teachers and theorists to my own literacy narrative. Writing teachers encounter considerable pressure to align their curricula with one or another theory of literacy, which has the effect of negating the authority of knowledge about literacy gleaned from experience as readers and writers. My dissertation contends that there is much to be gained by finding ways of articulating theories of literacy that encompass teachers’ knowledge of reading and writing as expressed in personal narratives of literacy. While powerful cultural rhetorics of upward social mobility often neutralize the critical potential of teachers’ own narratives of literacy—potential that has been documented by scholars in writing studies and allied disciplines—this is not always the case. The chapters in this dissertation offer evidence that hopeful and critical positions on the transformational possibilities of literacy are not mutually exclusive.

Digital Literacy: an analysis of social practices in cyberspace from the accessibility and frequency of use

This paper discusses the Digital Literacy and the importance of social practices of reading and writing nowadays. The research aims to analyze the accessibility of Digital Literacy of the residents from the satellite cities in Distrito Federal and the frequency of use of cyberspace to conduct reading and writing activities. According to Levy (1999), the transmutation of various means of communication (telephone, printed newspapers and post office, for example, in chat, digital newspapers and email, respectively) enabled the synchronous communication, interactivity and sharing of information between people from different places in the world, whether in oral form - as in video conferencing and telepresencial classroom - either in writing - as in most digital genres. It is this latter method - the writing, and hence the reading on the Internet - which has guided our discussion. According to Soares (2002), we live in a era of changes in the practices of reading and writing due to new forms of interaction between reader, author and text provided by the communication in the global computer network. Nothing better, therefore, than investigating how the user handles literacy in this new environment. The Digital Literacy, according to Xavier (2005), requires new ways of reading and writing. This means that time-honored practices of literacy, for example, should be rethought and reformulated in order to insert new ways of understanding the learning process - from handling the text to your perception, through the reading of written texts, engravings and icons linked to the electronic sphere. In this sense, the Digital Literacy, associated with multimodal genres, is present in the daily lives of several people from different social classes - particularly in large urban centers. So, facing this situation, we investigate if the residents of the satellite cities of DF have easy access to digital literacy and how often they make use of texts in cyberspace.

Intersubjectivity and poetic translation

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Literacy as a complex activity: deconstructing the simple view of reading

The Rose Review into the teaching of early reading recommended that the conceptual framework incorporated into the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching – the Searchlights model of reading and its development – should be replaced by the Simple View of Reading. In this paper, we demonstrate how these two frameworks relate to each other, and show that nothing has been lost in this transformation from Searchlights to Simple View: on the contrary, much has been gained. That nothing has been lost is demonstrated by consideration of the underlying complexity inherent in each of the two dimensions delineated in the Simple View. That much has been gained is demonstrated by the increased understanding of each dimension that follows from careful scientific investigation of each. The better we understand what is involved in each dimension, the better placed we are to unravel and understand the essential, complex and continual interactions between each dimension which underlie skilled reading. This has clear implications for further improving the early teaching of reading.

Effects of enhanced consumption of fruit and vegetables on plasma antioxidant status and oxidative resistance of LDL in smokers supplemented with fish oil

Objective: To determine whether consumption of five portions of fruit and vegetables per day reduces the enhancement of oxidative stress induced by consumption of fish oil. Subjects: A total of 18 free-living healthy smoking volunteers, aged 18-63 y, were recruited by posters and e-mail in The University of Reading, and by leaflets in local shops. Design: A prospective study. Setting: Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, School of Food Biosciences, The University of Reading, Whiteknights PO Box 226, Reading RG6 6AP, UK. Intervention: All subjects consumed a daily supplement of 4 x 1 g fish oil capsules for 9 weeks. After 3 weeks, they consumed an additional five portions of fruits and vegetables per day, and then they returned to their normal diet for the last 3 weeks of the study. Fasting blood samples were taken at the ends of weeks 0, 3, 6 and 9. Results: The plasma concentrations of ascorbic acid, lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene all significantly increased when fruit and vegetable intake was enhanced (P<0.05). Plasma concentrations of α-tocopherol, retinol and uric acid did not change significantly during the period of increased fruit and vegetable consumption. Plasma oxidative stability, assessed by the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, also increased from weeks 3-6 (P<0.001) but not in association with increases in measured antioxidants. Lag phase before oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) significantly decreased in the first 3 weeks of the study, reflecting the incorporation of EPA and DHA into LDL (P<0.0001). Subsequent enhanced fruit and vegetable consumption significantly reduced the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation (P<0.005). Conclusion: Fish oil reduced the oxidative stability of plasma and LDL, but the effects were partially offset by the increased consumption of fruit and vegetables.

Love of reading: the evaluation of KidsREAD programme in Singapore

In Singapore about 20% of families are considered to be socio-economically disadvantaged. Children from these families have been identified as having reading difficulties when they enter primary school. Recognizing that children from these families have limited access to reading materials, the National Library Board, in partnership with local community clubs and family service centres, has established the KidsREAD literacy programme where volunteers, mostly university and college students, help children between 4 and 8 years of age overcome some of their reading problems. The KidsREAD clubs aim to “promote the love of reading and cultivate good reading habits among all young Singaporeans, in particular children from low-income families” (National Library Board, 2005). This paper presents an evaluation of the KidsREAD clubs with regard to children’s attitudes towards reading. It explores the differences in children’s reading attitudes at the beginning of the programme and half way through the programme. The study was carried out in three representative clubs. This paper evaluates the attitudes of 65 children towards the clubs and the activities conducted at the clubs. It outlines the children’s beliefs about reading and the extent to which they value reading. It further explores how much KidsREAD clubs have influenced their attitudes towards reading in general and their enjoyment of reading in particular.

Pedagogies of U.S. Imperialism: Racial Education from Reconstruction to the Progressive Era

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Genome-wide screening for DNA variants associated with reading and language traits

Reading and language abilities are heritable traits that are likely to share some genetic influences with each other. To identify pleiotropic genetic variants affecting these traits, we first performed a genome-wide association scan (GWAS) meta-analysis using three richly characterized datasets comprising individuals with histories of reading or language problems, and their siblings. GWAS was performed in a total of 1862 participants using the first principal component computed from several quantitative measures of reading- and language-related abilities, both before and after adjustment for performance IQ. We identified novel suggestive associations at the SNPs rs59197085 and rs5995177 (uncorrected P≈10 for each SNP), located respectively at the CCDC136/FLNC and RBFOX2 genes. Each of these SNPs then showed evidence for effects across multiple reading and language traits in univariate association testing against the individual traits. FLNC encodes a structural protein involved in cytoskeleton remodelling, while RBFOX2 is an important regulator of alternative splicing in neurons. The CCDC136/FLNC locus showed association with a comparable reading/language measure in an independent sample of 6434 participants from the general population, although involving distinct alleles of the associated SNP. Our datasets will form an important part of on-going international efforts to identify genes contributing to reading and language skills. Genome-wide association scan meta-analysis for reading and language ability. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

'Stepping out' with Gargantua : learning new research practices in the educational theatre of absurdity

Access to new forms, conduct and practices of educational research remain elusive providing researchers stay within the narrow theoretical constructs-the static, single vista ofconventional research models. This dissertation presents the findings of an experimental study that aims to extend the discourse of educational research through a 'performative ethnographic analysis' by using a single-site case study approach. The case study is an analytical parody based on multiple discourse relevant to a 'new' and different approach to educational research so that a more comprehensive and complex process of reading and writing text becomes possible. Throughout this process, a generative methodology and interpretative base are anticipated to provide a metaphoric focus for a critical dialogue. The discourse informing the theoretical and interpretative base of the study include philosophy, science, visual arts, literary theory, critical postructuralist theory and theatre performance. The data are presented as a series of performance narratives in the form of socio-drama, interspersed with critical reflection that enables the researcher, the research participant and reader to become part ofa triadic construct. The findings from this study have major implications for informing contemporary educational research, as they demonstrate that by approaching research in 'new' and different ways, the researcher and the educational community have access to insights that are unavailable within the constraints of conventional models ofresearch.

The Experience of Adult Literacy as a Learning Process in the Formation of Future Educators

Learning is constructed when it is significant, therefore, promoting experiences that can make sense and joy, which constitutes a challenge in the formation of future educators. In this article, we share the considerations emanated from an investigation that gathers the experience of alphabetizing adults, carried out by college students as part of their formation. As a result, this creates a learning process that favors the respect to diversity and the value of reading and writing as the liberation of mankind. The work displays the learnings constructed, the ways of respecting diversity that emerge from the alphabetizing experience, and the value that the students give to reading and writing as a liberating way of expression.