Organizers; Committee Academic Conference

Prof. Vered Vaknin Nussbaum, Head of the Education Department, Western Galilee College, Israel

Dr. Einat Nevo, Head of the Department Education and Early Childhood Education, Western Galilee College, Israel

Prof. Charlene Klassen Endrizzi, Westminster College, School of Education, Pennsylvania., US

Session 1: Focus on Relevant Literacy Practices Chair: Rene Pico, Associate Professor, Westminster College

Reading motivation and acquisition in Hebrew

Reading motivation and acquisition in  Hebrew

This study examined changes in reading motivation and reading achievement among Hebrew-speaking first graders following an intervention program designed to increase intrinsic reading motivation. The program was delivered by the class teacher and focused on choosing relevant reading materials, providing choices for reading and encouraging social collaboration. Twenty-nine children in the intervention group (IG) were compared with 29 children in the control group (CG) who followed the official reading instruction program. During the year, the IG improved their reading motivation, while the CG declined in self-concept as a reader. Reading achievement improved more in the IG than in the CG. These findings suggest that a reading motivation program should be embedded in the regular reading acquisition curriculum to enhance children’s reading motivation and improve their reading skills. Special attention should be paid to prevent a decline in young children’s motivation as it may predict their future involvement in reading.

Three Principles to deepen culturally relevant and sustaining literacy practice

Teacher educators will describe three principles to enact culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy in literacy instruction and provide resources for further exploration: 1). expanding teachers’ views on linguistic diversity, 2.) representing diverse perspectives, characters, and authors, and 3.) utilizing assessment practices that are humanistic and empowering

Principle #1: Expanding Teachers’ Views on Linguistic Diversity

Teachers must critique ideas of “standard” or “proper” English and understand why these concepts are limiting (Baker-Bell, 2020). Teachers can explore this stance with resources that demonstrate linguistic diversity across communities and the harmful effects of linguistic biases (Katz & Andrews, 2013; Lyiscott, 2014). Through this lens, teachers can build on children’s authentic language abilities and craft socially meaningful opportunities to develop reading and writing skills (Souto-Manning & amp;Martell, 2016).

Principle #2: Representing Diverse Perspectives, Characters, and Authors

Teachers must consider the impact of the texts to which readers are exposed. Drawing on the metaphor of books as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors (Bishop, 1990), teachers can reflect on read-alouds curated to view diverse perspectives, characters, and authors. Resources include a TED Talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf (Lin, 2016) and information about current movements, such as We Need Diverse Books and #OwnVoices, and upper- elementary novels that represent diverse perspectives in various ways including race, culture, religion, gender identity, and neurodiversity. The texts also highlight themes such as poverty, immigration, civil rights, systemic racism, and activism.

Principle #3: Utilizing Assessment Practices that are Humanistic and Empowering Teachers should embrace key commitments in their teaching that undergird the mindset of CR-S pedagogy (Llerena, Martell, Maguire, & Arce-Boardman, 2018, p. 53), including honoring the history and identity of students, recognizing the wealth of knowledge and resources of families and communities, and celebrating the students’ strengths rather than perceived deficits. Examples will be shared to show teachers how to weave each of these commitments into their literacy assessment practices.

Saving the realm of literacy: Gamifying literacy instruction to inspire wonder & excitement in reading

Dr. Gwen Deger, Assistant Professor, Westminster College, Pennsylvania, US

Literacy and knowledge acquisition in Morocco’s basic education

Morocco has achieved nearly universal primary school enrollment but lags in student learning. In 2015, seven of ten first graders in Morocco could not read at grade level (USAID 2018). This underperformance is most notable in national and international assessments such as PNEA, PIRLS, TIMSS and PISA – covering content subjects like science as well as literacy and numeracy. Among countries tested in grade 4 reading in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Morocco ranked 48 th of 50 (PIRLS 2016). Despite some progress reported in the USAID Reading for Success program (USAID 2018), there remains scope for experimentation to improve reading levels for all Moroccan students. For this purpose, the present lecture will (a) describe the complex nature of literacy, with a focus on its place in the school context and its changing scope and functions, (b) argue for the interactive and interdependent relationship between literacy (reading and writing) and speaking and listening, (c)propose pedagogical approaches for the enhancement of the interaction between literacy, speaking and listening, and content knowledge in our schools.

Cultivating kindness, courage, and gratitude through dialogic conversations

Dr. Jennifer Toney, 3rd grade teacher & Adjunct Professor, Dr. Charlene Klassen Endrizzi, Professor, Westminster College, Sharpsville Area Schools, Pennsylvania, US This very divided moment in our nation’s history evokes a need for teachers to rekindle their efforts to cultivate kindness, courage, and gratitude with students. One avenue for inspiring more open minded attitudes amongst students in classrooms is through dialogic conversations focused on global children’s books (Mitchell-Pierce & Gilles, 2020). Conversations around global children’s books offer one occasion for younger readers to ponder a more kind, courageous, and grateful classroom and community (Short, 2009). Using a cosmopolitan literacy lens (Hansen, 2017; Choo, 2022), this collaborative inquiry involved literacy educators, a 3rd grade teacher and student teacher. They carefully selected three global picture books which encouraged younger readers to consider their attitudes and actions as global inhabitants within classrooms and home communities. Critical conversations were held over two months with 12 second and third graders before school. Building on the need to offer multimodal learning opportunities, teachers issued students invitations to find connections between book conversations, acts of kindness, courage, and gratitude and their everyday lives through the creation of digital culture boxes (Lyiscott, 2021; Toney, Guy, & Klassen Endrizzi, 2022). These boxes consisted of artifacts designed to draw on families’ funds of knowledge–personal interests, hobbies, family and community activities, and volunteer opportunities (Moll, 1992). Through the scaffolded conversations and the creation of digital culture boxes, students developed their ability to listen and learn from others. Findings from this inquiry led teachers to realize the need for further, powerful dialogic conversations across classroom settings, and the creation of community action projects stemming from multimodal texts and dialogic conversations. Moreover, future iterations of this project have the potential to more deeply explore and promote Antiracist teaching (Spaulding and Love, 2021) to create greater unity, accept differences, and generate empowered citizens.

Session 2: Focus on Literacy Texts
Chair: Rene Pico, Associate Professor, Westminster College

Unpacking and critiquing theories of belonging as depicted in recently published children’s books

Over the past five years, conversations at both a National and local level have centered on issues of belonging and identity. Who belongs in this county? Who should be kept out? What does it mean to identify as American? Who deserves to belong? Not only are these conversations in the ideological sense, but also have manifested in realities for children and families. Since 2016, many popular authors have joined the broader conversation on belonging. This is also true of children’s books. Picture books have the unique position to especially support teachers and young children initiate the discussion of these complex issues. Not surprisingly, the response to this National conversation is not universal, as authors and illustrators of these recently published children’s books have theorized the concept of belonging in multiple ways. In this research, ten picture books that focused on belonging and also published after 2016 were critically analyzed. Text and illustrations were analyzed and coded for themes. Findings indicate that authors and illustrators use imagery and alignment to represent theories of belonging and the potential to live in a pluralistic world.

Effects of a short-term morphological training procedure on literacy skills

The effects of a computerized short-term training procedure, which focused on fast morphological processing of single words, was examined. The training included a visual lexical decision task, in which single words were presented one after the other on a computer screen. A demand to process the word stem quickly was imposed on the participants by limiting its presentation duration within each word. A control training was designed in the same manner, except that the presentation duration of a nonmorphological unit was restricted. The dependent variables were various measures of reading and writing. Participants were reading-disabled pupils (N = 30, mean age = 11.23 years, SD = 0.935) attending schools of the general education system in Germany. Participants were divided between two groups: the one took part in the morphological training, and the other – in the control training. Improvements of the morphological training were observed in a measure of spelling of untrained word stems embedded in trained prefixes and suffixes, which suggested an improved process of retrieval of orthographic–morphological representations. Improvements in other reading and spelling measures could not be explained by the morphological training. The morphological training procedure examined may then be more relevant to the improvement of processes of spelling than to the improvement of processes of reading.

From comics to license plates and menus: Using anytime, anywhere texts from diverse families for literacy engagements

Literacy learning cannot be confined to classroom spaces. In fact, literacy comes alive for children and families far away from school (Janks, 2014). This sociocultural lens on family literacy urges teachers to acknowledge the generative role of families’ literacy funds of knowledge and initiate invitations to their students’ essential literacy advocates – family members (Moll, 2015; Street, 2012). Asking families to share hidden literacy moments outside of school through a Family Literacy Survey and a Family Literacy Photo Project can positively impact parental attitudes towards school and illuminate their crucial role as literacy learning partners for children. Teachers can also begin to understand the value of using anytime, anywhere texts to motivate young readers (Lopez and Caspe, 2014). Student teachers in four Kindergarten classrooms, together with their cooperating teachers, initiated a collaborative research project with Greek, African American, Puerto Rican, Italian and Polish families in order to gather literacy artifacts from families. The intent of both family engagements (survey and photo project) was to capture impactful evidence and images of children and families reading anytime, anywhere. Analysis of 46 surveys and 105 photos sent to teachers showed evidence of diverse families’ wealth of literacy knowledge from their home and community lives. Further scrutiny provided evidence of four types of texts commonly used by families and children to explore their world – environmental, recreational, informational and occupational (Goodman, 1996; Johnson, 2010). This inquiry into purposeful texts families naturally explore outside of school offers implications for literacy engagements at school. When choosing literacy texts for classroom instruction, teachers need to carefully overcome the mis-match between mandated curricular materials and everyday texts. They need to listen and learn from families in order to demonstrate their expanding vision of literacy, intrinsically woven into the fabric of children’s and families’ lives.

 Using literature to build social-emotional learning vocabulary for preschoolers

Student teaching experiences are often the first time that students are practically applying their academic knowledge (Reeves, 2017). Supervised practice of pedagogy, classroom management, relationship building, and reflection have been documented as the most effective way to develop a student teachers’ identity (Smith & Rayfield, 2017). Preservice teachers tell us that with COVID challenges’ they need strategies to connect and build relationships within the school system. One foundational practice that has been reported as an important tool is that of developing a classroom community by embedding strong social and emotional practices. A concrete strategy includes building an emotional vocabulary within a classroom and/or school community (Early Childhood and Learning Center, 2021). This session will focus on the understanding of the importance of supporting new teachers’ implementation of strong social and emotional and relationship building strategies using early literacy. Early literacy development starts at birth and continues throughout the lifespan. However, birth to five sets the foundation for later skill development. Using culturally relevant literature we will explore ways to support young children and their family’s social emotional growth and strengthen home to school relationships. We will discuss specific strategies that use early literacy as a foundational tool. A resource list of children’s literature will be provided. Children are continually engaged in making meaning of their world (NAEYC, 2022), literature is one way of supporting learning and growth. Research tells us that children as young as three months recognize differences (Kelly et al. 2005). Learning through literature can help preservice teachers utilize a trauma lens to connect with young students and their families.

The learning outcomes include: Participants will be able to identify the importance of building a positive classroom community through relationship building; reflect on a variety of culturally relevant literature for preschoolers that include race, culture, gender, and ability; discuss strategies that support families; and ways to support social and emotional learning. This will be an interactive session that will allow for discussion, reflection, and questions throughout.

The association between socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, early academic skills and reading acquisition

Early development depends mainly on exposure to various stimuli in the environment as well as the socioeconomic status (SES) (that associated with a combination of economic resources, social resources, and family features) of the child. Studies have found the SES can affect basic cognitive processes as well as the acquisition of early literacy and numeracy skills in kindergarten as well as academic skills at school. The purpose of the current talk is to present the impact of SES on the development of various cognitive abilities that constitute the basis for acquiring academic abilities at school, as well as early literacy and numeracy skills in kindergarten and reading and math abilities at school. The study examined 775 children (152 from high SES, 441 medium SES and 182 from high SES) in kindergarten and a year later in first grade in a verity of cognitive and academic measures. The research results indicate an association between SES and most of the cognitive measures and academic abilities in kindergarten, in addition, the gap and disadvantage of the children form low SES continued at school as well. Furthermore, the effect of COVID-19 on reading acquisition among the different SES will also be presented, the results exhibited that the gap between children from low SES as compared to high SES was nearly doubled during this period. These results demonstrate the importance of differential resources which should be allocated to different populations, and the extra help which children from low SES need in order to help them reduce the gap.

Differences in detecting statistical visual regularities between typical and poor Arab readers

The current study focused on the differences between typical and poor readers in detecting visual statistical regularities. Twenty typical and twenty poor readers participated in the current study. The participants were passively presented with four shapes. Each shape had stable features which present the regularities of the shape. In the second stage, the participants were presented with shapes decision task, and they were asked to make an acceptance or rejection of presented shapes. The results indicated that typical readers showed significantly higher accuracy levels in the decision task compared to the poor readers group. In addition, among the typical readers group shorter response times were significantly recorded for the compatible items compared to non-compatible items. Such differences in response times were not observed among the poor readers. The results support the assumption that poor readers differ from typical readers in the efficiency of their abilities to detect statistical regularities.

Reading in German elementary schools: Cognitive processing, reading strategies and reading motivation

This lecture will present three spot lights on topics regarding relevant constructs for reading performance of German elementary school children. First, we highlight the topic of cognitive processing necessary for sufficient reading performance, especially focusing on the construct of orthographic knowledge. Orthographic knowledge represents the knowledge of regularities of letter patterns, morphemes, and also higher grammatical and semantic structures of the written language. It has been proven to be a good predictor for future reading performance. The presented empirical data will further outline the significance of orthographic knowledge for reading performance over and above other reading relevant factors, such as phonological awareness and intelligence, for poor and normal reading children. Second, we will present current analyses regarding the reading strategy behavior of children with reading difficulties using a person-centered approach. Reading strategies can be divided into syllable reading, partial word retrieval and whole word retrieval. A latent profile analysis will be presented to show characteristics of the different reading strategy profiles with regard to their relation to precursor skills and future reading performance. Third, we focus on motivational factors of reading performance and demonstrate differences between motivational constructs (i.e., self-concept as a reader, value of reading, and literacy out loud) with regard to their relation to reading performance for German elementary school children.