How Do Middle-Grades Teachers Leverage Specialized Knowledge of Reader-Text Interactions to Provide Effective, Equitable Reading Instruction?

• In Event: 25.030 - Pedagogical Practices in English Language Arts

Abstract

To address inequitable literacy attainment and achieve equitable opportunity in literacy education, every teacher must be knowledgeable about reading practices and processes. This study examines the knowledge about reader–text interactions articulated by 21 middle school teachers, and explores the ways teachers convert that knowledge into representations of their text-focused instructional practices. Data were generated during two semi-structured interviews per teacher. Protocols engaged teachers in a complex reading task and think aloud, generation of a process map representing their conceptualizations of reader–text interactions, survey items about their reading instruction, and the description of a typical lesson involving text. Profiles of reading knowledge and instruction were generated for each teacher and were compared across content areas and student populations.

Authors

• Dot McElhone, Portland State University

• F. Blake Tenore, Vanderbilt University

• Dennis S. Davis, North Carolina State University