Ready for the premier literacy event in Africa? From August 23 to 25, 2023, the conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Call for Abstracts is ready, and you can download it here or head to PALFA.org to see more about the upcoming conference and see photos from past conferences.
Filed under: Reading conference | Tagged: IDC-A, ILA, PALFA | 3 Comments »
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.
*Thomas DeVere Wolsey, corresponding author
California State University, East Bay
Hayward, CA USA
*Ibrahim M. Karkouti
The American University in Cairo
New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
orcid.org/0000-0001-5900-2682
*Elfrieda H. Hiebert
Textproject
Santa Cruz, CA US
*Dalal Abo El Seoud
The American University in Cairo
New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
*Helen Abadzi
The University of Texas, Arlington
Arlington, TX US
*Fatma Abdelkhalek
New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
The American University in Cairo
Filed under: international, vocabulary, Wolsey | Tagged: Hiebert, Karkouti, Wolsey | Leave a comment »
By Thomas DeVere Wolsey
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 to developmental 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.
Filed under: Early Years, Wolsey | Tagged: Egypt, IQRA | Leave a comment »
This week, I am a featured guest on the Global Ed Leadership, Activating school leadership to help eradicate poverty blog hosted by Paula Cordeiro.
by Thomas DeVere Wolsey
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.
Filed under: Reading conference | Tagged: Beyond The App, Digital Literacy, Global Ed Leadership, Wolsey | Leave a comment »
by Thomas DeVere Wolsey
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.
E8: Beyond the App: How to Leverage Technology to Give a Face to Face Experience — Eventsquid
“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
Filed under: Apps, digital tools, Wolsey | Tagged: Beyond The App | Leave a comment »
by Thomas DeVere Wolsey
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!
Filed under: Metacognition, teacher education, Wolsey | Leave a comment »
By Thomas DeVere Wolsey
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
and for Egypt here: https://lnkd.in/dBa6ZF4
#BeyondTheApp #literacyforall #auc_gse
Filed under: Castek, digital reading, literacy events, Professional Development, Reading conference, Wolsey | Tagged: Beyond The App | Leave a comment »
by Thomas DeVere Wolsey
There is just one week left before we engage teachers and teacher educators from Egypt to New York and Mauritius to San Diego. Are you with us?
| Co-planning with the Experts |
| Beyond the App invites teachers to interact with experts in online and traditional literacies. |
Meet the President of AUC, President of SUNY Cortland, and the Minister of Education in Egypt.
You will have a chance to interact and ask questions.
Egyptian & Africa teachers, click bit.ly/BeyondTheAppEgypt
US and Canada, register here bit.ly/beyondtheapp
#BeyondTheApp @TDWolsey Graphic design by Abd-Elrhman Elsadany
I’m Going Beyond the App in my virtual classroom. Find out how.
Tweet
Filed under: Apps, Castek, collaboration, digital reading, literacy events, new literacies, reading comprehension, Reading conference, technology integration, Wolsey | Leave a comment »
by Thomas DeVere Wolsey & Nance Wilson
Registration for Beyond the App is open now!
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.
You can read more about it in this press release: http://www2.cortland.edu/news/detail.dot?id=a01e318d-2666-4ecd-818c-3f7a144744dc
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:
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!
Filed under: assessment, Castek, digital reading, digital tools, Influencers, Literacy Beat, literacy events, new literacies, reading comprehension, Reading conference, Wolsey | Leave a comment »
By Thomas DeVere Wolsey
Beyond the App invites teachers to interact with experts in online and traditional literacies. In contrast to many professional development activities, Beyond the App participants will co-construct approaches to teaching upper elementary and middle school students with colleagues around the globe. The event is a joint project with the Literacy Department at the State University of New York at Cortland and Graduate School of Education at The American University in Cairo.
Participants will have the opportunity to choose strands or themes such as building fluency, motivation for learning online, assessment practices, and more. You are likely familiar with the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model represented by the phrases, “I [the teacher] do, We do, and You do.” Our focus is on the difficult challenge of providing appropriate literacy practices within the we do [it together] phase when teachers are working online, and students are learning. But, how do you do that when you are teaching online?
Join us to go Beyond the App.
Sign up for details via email on our LeadPages site.
Filed under: assessment, digital content creation, digital reading, digital tools, new literacies, reading comprehension, Reading conference, technology integration | Tagged: Beyond The App, Online Teaching & Learning | 1 Comment »
Bridget Dalton
berdwyer
Blaine Smith
danagrisham
jillcastek
TDWolsey
Literacy Beat 