Learning to Teach Middle-Grades Reading: "It's Just the Constantly Developing Idea"

• In Event: 72.048 - Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 72.048-5 - Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Although reading is a key skill for adolescents (e.g,, Biancarosa & Snow, 2006; Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, 2010), few studies have examined how teacher candidates learn to teach middle grades reading (Author, 2016; AMLE, 2006). Using a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective (e.g., Smagorinsky, 2011; Vygotsky, 1978), this qualitative case study (Stake, 2005) explored learning to teach middle grades reading through the experiences of one teacher candidate as he completed his final year in a university-based middle grades teacher education program. Data analysis (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Saldaña, 2013) showed that the participant learned to teach over time by developing three main conceptual tools to anchor his teaching and he felt unsure about transferring his learning to future situations.

Author

• Katie Wester-Neal, Gordon State College