Literacy Beat contributors are presenting several studies at The Federation of European Literacy Associations (FELA) in Dublin, Ireland, July 4 to 6, 2022. On this page, you can download resources and presentation slide decks.
July 4, 2022
Going Beyond the App: Online International Development to Reach Teachers on the Margins
Nance S. Wilson, State University of New York at Cortland
Thomas DeVere Wolsey, Consultant
Linda Smetana, California State University East Bay
Ibrahim M. Karkouti, The American University in Cairo
Ready for the premier literacy event in Africa? The dates are not confirmed, but we are planning for the August 15 to 17 in Cairo, Egypt! Stay tuned for more updates.
Thomas DeVere Wolsey with Freddy Hiebert and Ibrahim M. Karkouti
At AERA 2022 in San Diego, we presented
The authors conducted an analysis at the word level of four Arabic multidisciplinary textbooks in grades one and two in Egypt. The study sought to answer four questions: What are the most common words in standard Arabic? How many of the most common words in standard Arabic are used in the textbooks? How dense is the use of common words? How many rare words are used in the textbooks studied? Analysis found that the texts did not make use of any of the rare words found in the corpus, but many words in the texts did not appear in either the reference corpus inclusive of the common words list. Recommendations for policymakers and textbook publishers were included.
Recently, colleagues and I in Egypt tested a curriculum designed to improve letter-sound correspondence knowledge among first-grade students in four Egyptian community schools in an after-school program. The curriculum, called Iqra, intended that students would engage in whole-class, teacher-directed learning. We recorded the class sessions, but we needed to analyze interactions. We chose the time-honored Stallings (1977) instrument. However, to adjust for difference in the cultural context and modern data analysis tools, I created a modified Stallings Snapshot Observation System in Excel. Since there were two teachers in each classroom, the form was modified to accommodate that fact. Since the lessons varied in length, we also divided the video segments into 10 minute sequential chunks. This differs from the original but fit our needs.
I am sharing the Excel template because it may be helpful to others conducting classroom observations, but please share your thoughts and experiences in comments. In the meantime, as the research team completes analysis, I will provide additional observations here.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach todevelopmental research. Helsinki, Finland: Orienta-Konsultit.
Scales, R. Q., Wolsey, T. D., Lenski, S., Smetana, L., Yoder, K. K., Dobler, E…Young J. R. (2018). Are we preparing or training teachers? Developing professional judgment in and beyond teacher preparation programs. Journal of Teacher Education, first published date: April-10-2017 doi: 10.1177/0022487117702584
Scales, R. Q., Wolsey, T. D., Young, J., Smetana, L., Grisham, D. L., Lenski, S., Dobler, E. Yoder, K. K., & Chambers, S. A. (2017). Mediating factors in literacy instruction: How novice elementary teachers navigate new teaching contexts. Reading Psychology, 38(6), 604-651. doi: 10.1080/02702711.2.17.1323056
Stallings, J. (1977). Learning to Look: A Handbook on Classroom Observation and Teaching Models. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
My work examines the potential interactions and opportunities to bring together traditional and digital literacies. Digital literacies are the skills needed to navigate digital tools (computer, smartphone, Kindle etc.) to evaluate, interact with, and create content. The way we engage with information from traditional literacies, such as books, is different from how we consume and create information found online. My work looks primarily at how we can help students to understand the information they are obtaining in digital spaces, analyze it critically, consider what is credible or not credible, and synthesize everything. Read the rest of the post here.
Nance Wilson and I talked with Mike Kranitz of EventSquid about #beyondtheapp #bta Beyond the App: Cause and Conference, which strives to support teachers’ professional development and coach literacy experts in one of the most creative ways possible in response to COVID, and their model may just change the game.
“We wanted them to know that they weren’t alone in the things that were causing them to struggle and we wanted them to know that people whose books they read… are also people they can talk and work together with.” – Dr. Thomas Wolsey
“It’s about leveraging the technology that’s out there to think about, ‘Well, what could this do for me that would be better and or different and would allow me to have similar quality practices that I had in the face to face?’” – Dr. Nance Wilson
Recently, the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) at The American University in Cairo sponsored a virtual symposium themed, Inspiration and Innovation: Conversations Around Emerging Pedagogy in Our Next Normal. The symposium featured faculty presentations called “Shift and Share.” Faculty presented the same presentation three times to ensure that participants were in small enough groups to interact. My presentation (March 10, 2021) was titled “Navigating the River: Teaching and Metacognition for Challenging Times” which you can view below.
A number of really good workshops, plenary sessions, and shift and share session recordings and resources are linked here. Check out the ideas!
It’s here: Beyond the App launches today for middle-grade educators. You can still join us and stretch your teaching muscles this weekend. We begin at noon Eastern Standard Time / 7 PM Cairo Time. Register here https://lnkd.in/gQjiYVP
Beyond the App is an interactive online conference for middle grades teachers, teacher educators, parents, and educational leaders. For just $10 you get to work with experts in the field to improve your online teaching of literacy.
Visit our website and register (Your registration helps us fund the conference in the future): https://bit.ly/beyondtheapp
If you are registering from Africa, please send a note for special instructions to BeyondTheApp@Cortland.edu
In addition, participants can choose to donate to our EgyptReads! Initiative to put books in school libraries.
Some of our speakers:
Jack C Berckemeyer Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey Maha Bali Vicky Mac Arthur Cardullo Zoi Philippakos Troy Hicks Emily Smothers Howell Ian O’Byrne Danny Brassell Keisha Rembert Jill Castek Timothy Rasinski Julie Coiro Richard Beach AND MORE!
Bridget Dalton
berdwyer
Blaine Smith
danagrisham
jillcastek
TDWolsey
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