Examining how readers choose books when reading
for pleasure is an important step towards understanding
literacy practices that occur outside of the traditional
domain of the education system. This article explores the
possibilities that literary blogs offer as a form of reader
guidance. It analyzes the content of seven literary blogs
and three library-run blogs (all focusing on adult fiction),
and identifies features of these blogs that may be valuable
to avid readers and to thos who serve as advisors to readers,
such as librarians and educators.
This abstract has been reproduced with permission
of NATE
Over a number of years we have been investigating
ways in which e-communication can contribute to children's
writing development and how new technology re-frames our
understandings of writing in the classroom (Merchant, 2003;
Burnett et al., 2004; Burnett et al., 2005; Merchant, 2005).
Here we analyse the digital writing of pupils from two linked
primary school classes (Year 3-5) in the North of England.
Part of the project involved the pupils in communicating
about themselves and their interests to email partners of
the same age. In this article, we track children's identity
performance in informal message exchange and show how this
contributed to a final knowledge product. We explore how
work that had its origins in representing children's lives
and identities reflected their position in wider cultural
worlds. This perspective causes us to question whether there
are sufficient opportunities for pupils to explore and express
'who they are' in the current content-driven curriculum
where public genres are central and personal voice is peripheral.
Abstract reproduced with permission of NATE
This article discusses data arising from a
longitudinal study of the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences
of preservice teachers regarding the use of popular culture
in the primary literacy curriculum in England. Eighteen
students took part in a series of interviews throughout
their three-year initial teacher education course. Data
were inductively coded. The response of three students are
analyzed using a number of the theoretical concepts developed
by Bourdieu in order to explore how students' agency was
limited in relation to their use of popular culture texts.
Findings indicate that consideration needs to be given to
the way in which habitus, capital, and field interrelate
if preservice teachers' decision-making processes with regard
to the curriculum are to be understood, rather than examining
any or all of these concepts in isolation. In addition,
challenges to dominant practices can occur when there is
tension between habitus and field. It is suggested that
preservice teachers need opportunities to explore the relationship
between structure and agency if they are to understand the
limitations on their practice and challenge traditional
models of the literacy curriculum. Implications for teacher
education and future research are addressed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Assocation.
This paper examines young children's working
styles when they are engaged with a peer on a computer-based
reading task. Two types of pairing were investigated: (i)
'equal pairs, where the children were of equal reading attainment
and (ii) 'unequal pairs', where there was a disparity between
the children's reading attainment. The results suggest that
the children's reading attainment and/or their gender may
be more significant factors in determining the nature of
children's collaborative activity than pair type. The implications
of these results for practitioners who wish to use talking
books as a classroom resource are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
The internet offers new possibilities for
engaging with information and is associated with a wide
range of literacy practices. National guidance in the United
Kingdom on 'reading the web', however, has focused largely
on the different skills children may need to learn in school
to navigate web-based texts successfully. Here it is argued
that much can be learned both about the potential of the
web and of the kinds of reading associated with it by examining
children's use of the internet outside school. This article
therefore begins with an overview of particular features
of on-screen reading and the different practices and orientations
towards knowledge associated with this. It then reports
on the use of the internet out of school by a group of Year
6 children. It explores the purposes for which these children
access the internet, the attitudes and orientations they
demonstrate in their approach to web-based texts, and their
own perceptions of what has enabled them to develop as internet
users. This exploration highlights the way that children
may experiment and innovate in their use of the internet
out of school, and in doing so demonstrate considerable
autonomy. These findings are used to make suggestions for
framing and supporting children's internet use in school.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
This study examined the functions of Instant
Messaging (IM) among seven youths who regularly used this
digital technology in their daily lives. Grounded in theories
of literacy as a social and semiotic practice, this research
asked what functions IM served in participants' lives and
how their social identities shaped and were shaped by this
form of digital literacy. To answer these questions, we
conducted interviews and videotaped IM sessions, adapting
a verbal reporting procedure to document the IM strategies
used. Data analysis involved using qualitative coding procedures
informed by grounded theory (Strauss, 1987; Strauss &
Corbin, 1990), which led to three patterns related to the
functions of IM: language use, social networks, and surveillance.
On the level of language use, participants manipulated the
tone, voice, word choice, and subject matter of their messages
to fit their communication needs, negotiating multiple narratives
in the process. On the level of social networks, they designed
their practice to enhance social relationships and statuses
across contexts. And on the level of surveillance, they
circulated texts across buddies, combated unwanted messages,
assumed alternative identities, and overcome restrictions
to their online communication. These functions revealed
that the technological and social affordances of IM, particularly
related to patterns of circulation and the hybrid nature
of textuality, give rise to a performative and multivoiced
social subject. Based on our findings, we discuss new conceptual
directions for envisioning the teaching and learning of
literacy in digitally mediated times.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association
Background Excessive television viewing in
childhood has been associated with adverse effects on health
and behavior. A common concern is that watching too much
television may also have a negative impact on education.
However, no long-term studies have measured childhood viewing
and educational achievement. Objective To explore these
associations in a birth cohort followed up to adulthood.
Design Prospective birth cohort study. Setting Dunedin,
New Zealand. Participants Approximately 1000 unselected
individuals born between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973.
Ninety-six percent of the living cohort participated at
26 years of age. Main Outcome Measures Educational achievement
by 26 years of age. Results The mean time spent watching
television during childhood and adolescence was significantly
associated with leaving school without qualifications and
negatively associated with attaining a university degree.
Risk ratios for each hour of television viewing per weeknight,
adjusted for IQ and sex, were 1.43 (95% confidence interval
[CI], 1.24-1.65) and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.67-0.85), respectively
(both, P<.001). The findings were similar in men and women
and persisted after further adjustment for socioeconomic
status and early childhood behavioral problems. Television
viewing during childhood (ages 5-11 years) and adolescence
(ages 13 and 15 years) had adverse associations with later
educational achievement. However, adolescent viewing was
a stronger predictor of leaving school without qualifications,
whereas childhood viewing was a stronger predictor of nonattainment
of a university degree. Conclusions Television viewing in
childhood and adolescence is associated with poor educational
achievement by 26 years of age. Excessive television viewing
in childhood may have long-lasting adverse consequences
for educational achievement and subsequent socioeconomic
status and well-being.
Download the full article from:http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/159/7/614
See publication's website for further information: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/
Objective: To test the independent effects
of television viewing in children before age 3 years and
at ages 3 to 5 years on several measures of cognitive outcomes
at ages 6 and 7 years.
Design: Using data from a nationally representative data
set, we regressed 4 measures of cognitive development at
ages 6 and 7 years on television viewing before age 3 years
and at ages 3 to 5 years, controlling for parental cognitive
stimulation throughout early childhood, maternal education,
and IQ.
Results: Before age 3 years, the children in this study
watched an average of 2.2 hours per day; at ages 3 to 5
years, the daily average was 3.3 hours. Adjusted for the
covariates mentioned earlier, each hour of average daily
television viewing before age 3 years was associated with
deleterious effects on the Peabody Individual Achievement
Test Reading Recognition Scale of 0.31 points (95% confidence
interval [CI], -0.61 to -0.01 points), on the Peabody Individual
Achievement Test Reading Comprehension Scale of 0.58 points
(95% CI, -0.94 to -0.21 points), and on the Memory for Digit
Span assessment from the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for
Children of -0.10 points (95% CI, -0.20 to 0 points). For
the Reading Recognition Scale score only, a beneficial effect
of television at ages 3 to 5 years was identified, with
each hour associated with a 0.51-point improvement in the
score (95% CI, 0.17 to 0.85 points).
Conclusions: There are modest adverse effects of television
viewing before age 3 years on the subsequent cognitive development
of children. These results suggest that greater adherence
to the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines that children
younger than 2 years not watch television is warranted.
See publication's website for further information:
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/
Research into the uses of digital literacy
in the classroom is still in its infancy. Despite the proliferation
of theoretical literature on 'new literacies', 'multiliteracies',
and 'technoliteracies' and their impact on education there
are fewer studies based on a systematic analysis of the
new literacy practices that are beginning to emerge. The
work of Werry, Shortis and Merchant has begun to investigate
the new, hybridized language of digital texts seen in synchronous
online communication, emails and text messages. These digital
texts have been described by Ferrara as Interactive Written
Discourse (IWD). This article builds on this work, drawing
on an analysis of the on-screen writing of 9 and 10 year-old
children involved in an interactive writing project. It
shows how these young writers use and share their existing
knowledge of popular electronic communication, developing
sophisticated insights into the characteristics and possibilities
of digital writing.
Abstract reproduced with permission Symposium
Journals: www.symposium-journals.co.uk
This paper reports on a small-scale study
that considered whether a phonic-based 'talking book' could
outperform one-to-one reading tuition with an adult with
respect to improving beginning readers' phonological awareness
over a short period. It also examined whether the children's
reading strategies were affected by their use of the software.
Two groups of children, one aged five years and one aged
six years, used three phonic-based talking books over six
15-minute sessions and were assessed on their phonological
awareness and reading strategies both before and after this
intervention. Their performance was compared to that of
matched comparison groups who were given on-to-one adult
tutoring with the paper versions of the some books. There
were no significant differences between the two groups in
their phonological awareness attainment, with both groups
showing equivalent gains from pre-to-post-test. Use of specific
features of the software was associated with gains in rhyme
detection ability and with changes in the children's reading
strategies.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
The use of interactive storybooks in the primary classroom
has the potential to facilitate pupils' reading, in small
groups or individually. However, critics have expressed
concern at the exposure of pupils to interactive storybooks.
In particular, concern has been expressed that the interactive
animations and sound effects in such storybooks may adversely
affect pupils' responses to the written text. These small
scale studies examined whether story recall of small groups
of pupils, respectively in Year 5 and Year 4, was affected
by the provision of cued animations and sound effects. Consideration
of the outcomes of both studies indicates that access to
cued animations and sound effects did have adverse effects
on pupils' story recall.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing:
www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
In the world of work and in the social lives
of many, new technology plays an important role in establishing
and maintaining relationships and exchanging information.
The school system varies in its response to this new technology
and particularly to the popular communication of email and
mobile phone users. In schools and classrooms, policies,
practices and pupil cultures influence how on-screen writing
is seen and used (Holloway & Valentine, 2003). Drawing on
data from a series of school-based projects which have involved
the use of interactive email, this article explores the
relationship between narrative and identity in children's
on-screen writing. Using archived emails, and story fragments,
the article shows how children borrow and transform the
writing practices and voices of others. The study illustrates
how children draw on popular culture texts and blend them
with classroom material to produce hybrid narratives. Children's
agency is an important aspect of this work, which shows
that, despite the institutional constraints of time and
space, access to new technology can promote innovation and
creativity.
Abstract reproduced with permission Symposium
Journals: www.symposium-journals.co.uk
This article explores the nexus between digital
literacies and identity in the online graphical chat environment
of the 'palace'. With a focus on the adolescent cybergirl,
it examines how girls use words and images to create a digital
presence, and in so doing, 'write' their bodies and their
selves. I discuss how the cybergirl is discursively constructed
as well as self-produced within discourses of sexuality
and idealised beauty. A grammatical analysis of both words
and images is presented to describe the resources girls
are using to construct their identities. In doing so, I
highlight the particular ways that girls are creating cyberbodies
that are encoded surfaces of the girls' fantasies and desires.
I argue that the palace is a site that produces new forms
of femininities through allowing girls the space to explore,
experience a sense of empowerment and find new ways of reinventing
themselves.
Abstract reproduced with permission Symposium
Journals: www.symposium-journals.co.uk
The research project, UK Children Go Online (UKCGO),
is conducting a rigorous investigation of 9-19 year-olds'
use of the Internet, comparing girls and boys of different
ages, backgrounds, etc., in order to ask how the Internet
may be transforming, or may itself be shaped by, family
life, peer networks and school. It combines qualitative
interviews and observations with a major national survey
of 9-19 year-olds (n = 1511) and their parents (n = 906).
This article focuses on two of the key opportunities the
Internet affords to children and young people: first,
education, informal learning and literacy and, second,
communication and participation. While education and learning
represent the 'approved' uses of the Internet, which is
often the reason for which parents and governments invest
in domestic Internet access, children and young people
themselves are far more excited by the Internet as a communication
medium. However, not all the opportunities available to
children and young people are being taken up equally.
Hence the article concludes by charting the emergence
of a new divide, signalling emerging inequalities in the
quality of Internet use, with children and young people
being divided into those for whom the Internet is an increasingly
rich, diverse, engaging and stimulating resource of growing
importance in their lives, and those for whom it remains
a narrow, unengaging if occasionally useful resource of
rather less significance.
Abstract reproduced with permission Symposium Journals:
www.symposium-journals.co.uk
A counterbalanced, within-subjects design was carried
out to study the efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten
children's emergent story understanding. The study compared effects
of children's independent reading of stories electronically with effects
of printed books read aloud by adults. Participants were 18 four- to
five-year-old Dutch kindergarten children in the initial stages of developing
story comprehension but beyond just responding to pictures. Electronic
reading produced experiences and effects similar to adult-read printed
books. Children frequently interacted with the animations often embedded
in electronic stories, but there was no evidence that the animations
distracted children from listening to the text presented by electronic
books, nor that the animations interfered with story understanding.
Findings suggested that children at this stage of development profited
from electronic books at least when electronic books are read in a context
where adults also read books to children.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association
This commentary discusses the methodological challenges
of researching the intersection of online and offline activities of
an adolescent girl engaged in instant messaging. If the New Literacy
Studies stance that literacy practices are locally situated is accepted,
a methodology for interrogating the multiple online and offline contexts
that overlap in an activity, such as instant messaging, needs to be
developed. Specifically, this commentary discusses the challenges of
collecting data from overlapping physical and virtual worlds and transcribing
those data in ways that show how multiple contexts inform each other.
Although the methodological issues remain open, the author suggests
that addressing these issues can provide insight into how young people
negotiate multiple, simultaneous contexts and activities.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association
Despite the popularity of self-published teen zines, few
studies have been conducted of the adolescent girls who write and read
them. Past research on teens' reading and writing shows that adolescents
read and write along stereotypical or gendered lines. This study explores
the out-of-school literacy practices of three adolescent girls who write
and publish their own zine by writing against gender, race, and class
stereotypes. The study identifies what motivates and enables these girls
in writing differently on their own and describes how young women use
and develop their literacy skills to enable them to form and express
their identities. Methods of participant observation were used to address
these questions. Findings have implications for student-centered instruction
by identifying relevant ways to engage adolescents in literacy activity.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association
In many analyses of children's 'emergent literacy' (Clay,
1966) practices, there is little acknowledgment of children's engagement
in techno-literacy practices. This article discusses findings from a
survey undertaken in a working-class community in the north of England
which aimed to identify the 'emergent techno-literacy' practices of
a group of 44 children aged between two and a half and four years of
age. It is argued that the multi-modal textual competencies and semiotic
choices of the 'toddler netizens' (Luke, 1999) should be more widely
acknowledged within current curriculum frameworks for the early years.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The use of ICT for communicating with those
not physically present in the classroom can add a new dimension
to literacy work. This study illustrates how the interactive
nature of e-mail opens new possibilities for young writers,
enriching the curricular emphasis on genres and forms, and
expanding children's horizons by encouraging them to write
in new ways for new audiences. The paper reports on a study
into the use of e-mail as a means of providing support for
classroom writing projects at Key Stage 2. These projects,
with pupils in the 710 age range, focused on two popular
narrative genres: sword and sorcery adventures, and sci-fi
stories. The research shows how digital communication can
be used to enrich print-based literacy whilst at the same
time providing a creative exploration of new forms of interactive
written discourse on screen.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
This article examines the significance of
Diva Starz, a new line of interactive dolls aimed at young
girls between 6 and 11 years for current models of literacy.
It argues that these dolls have much to tell us about the
construction of children as consumers, our views about 'childhood'
and the models of literacy instruction most appropriate
for giving children the skills and knowledge needed to deal
with the complex pedagogic texts characteristic of childhood
in contemporary consumer culture.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a
summary of the literature from the last 25 years regarding the impact
of television viewing on student achievement and necessary behaviours
for school success. Although the overall picture is muddled, the following
initial conclusions are offered: (a) moderate levels of viewing are
better than high levels or no viewing at all, (b) the type of programming
is more critical than the intrinsic qualities of the medium itself,
(c) high informational viewing generally correlates positively with
achievement, while low informational viewing correlates negatively,
(d) once IQ, SES and other mediating factors are accounted for, the
relationship weakens, (e) it is not clear at this time whether negative
television viewing causes or is caused by low levels of achievement,
and (f) because cultural and socio-economic differences and responses
to TV viewing exist, educators must view each case on a situational
basis. Intervention strategies for educators and parents are included.
Although we know that very young children watch television
and indicate preferences for favourite programmes, very little research
has been undertaken exploring the responses of such young viewers to
media texts. Reasons for this are probably largely methodological -
one cannot use the usual methods associated with social research with
children who are in the early stages of language acquisition. In this
article, the authors describe how they devised a unique technique for
observing and recording the responses of 20 under two year-olds to a
television text - Teletubbies. Faced with a large amount of rich textual
data, they then developed a set of analytical criteria. The subsequent
analysis revealed that very young children's responses to the chosen
text were very diverse and included pleasure, parasocial and cognitive
responses. In addition, new insights into very young children's attentional
abilities were revealed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Triangle Journals:
www.triangle.co.uk
This article reports on a smallscale investigation
into the use of Internet chatrooms by teenage girls. Based
on interview and observational data, it illustrates how
the use of popular electronic communication is resulting
in linguistic innovation within new, virtual social networks
in a way that reflects more widereaching changes in the
communication landscape. The paper suggests that teenagers
and young people are in the vanguard of these processes
of change as they fluently exploit the possibilities of
digital technology, radically changing the face of literacy.
The study looks at teenagers' perceptions of chatroom encounters
and their learning about new ways of social and linguistic
interaction. Observations of teenagers online show how rapid
written conversations which combine features of facetoface
talk with explorations in interactive writing and the exchange
of additional digital information, such as image files and
web addresses, are enabling these young people to develop
sophisticated and marketable skills. These innovations are
contrasted with recent media and educational criticism of
the language use associated with new technology. This tension
between change and conservatism is explored by applying
Bourdieu's concept of 'linguistic capital'.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
This paper reports on aspects of two qualitative
studies which focused on children's interests in comics.
The earlier study (Millard, 1997) was part of a larger survey
of 254 boys' and girls' reading interests, sampled at the
point of transition between primary and secondary school.
The second study, which forms the main body of this paper,
explores the reactions to a home-school comic lending library
based in the three primary classrooms over a period of seven
weeks. Results from both studies are discussed in this paper
and the implications for the development of the primary
school literacy curriculum explored.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor and Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
Children experience a wide range of literacy practices
in their homes and communities, yet these are not generally reflected
in early childhood settings. This article reports on research findings
which indicate that while children's home and community literacy experiences
and texts are increasingly digital and connected to popular media culture,
experiences and texts in educational settings are predominantly book-based
and generally exclude popular media culture. This practice marginalises
children whose literacy practices at home are predominantly with television,
videos, computers, comics and magazines rather than with 'quality' children's
books. Concerns regarding the role of popular media culture in children's
lives are critically examined and responses explored. Examples from
research that illustrates ways of including popular culture in early
childhood settings to enhance literacy learning opportunities for children
from diverse backgrounds are also included.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Triangle Journals:
www.triangle.co.uk
Six studies containing data obtained from over 1 million
students in elementary, intermediate, and high school were meta-analyzed
to examine the relationship between amount of television viewing and
educational achievement. The findings led to the formulation of the
complex viewing-achievement model. According to the model, the function
relating achievement to viewing can be described as an inverted check
mark. For small amounts of viewing, achievement increased with viewing,
but as viewing increased beyond a certain point, achievement decreased.
That function was found for each of the 3 ages studied, but optimal
viewing time-the apex of the function - was different at each age and
decreased with the age of the students.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Heldref Publications:
www.heldref.org
The aim of the study reported in this article was to explore
the potential that popular culture has for motivating young children
to engage in literacy and oracy practices in the early years. Pre-school
settings and schools regularly fail to take account of children's popular
cultural interests in their development of curriculum content. Literacy
practices in most nurseries and schools are located within dominant
cultural discourses and in the case of many industrialised societies,
this means that the curriculum usually reflects the cultural norms of
white middle-class communities. In an attempt to disrupt these dominant
discourses, literacy activities related to the television programme
Teletubbies were introduced into two nurseries in England. Data were
gathered using field notes, photographs and interviews. The article
discusses how the incorporation of popular cultural texts into the curriculum
provided motivation and excitement for many children, some of whom were
not usually willing members of the 'literacy club'.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Triangle Journals:
www.triangle.co.uk
The relationships among school readiness, children's television
viewing, parental employment, and the educational quality of the home
environment were examined. Thirty preschool children from low-income
families and their primary caregivers were interviewed. Parents responded
to questions about children's television viewing habits, the educational
quality of the home environment, and employment status. Children were
assessed on IQ and school readiness. Correlational analyses indicated
that television viewing time was negatively related to parental instruction
and number of children's books in the home. Viewing time was also negatively
related to children's school readiness skills. Findings are discussed
in terms of their implications for an understanding of home environmental
influences on the academic skill development of disadvantaged preschoolers.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Heldref Publications:
www.heldref.org
Using a sample of 1,050 Dutch elementary school children who were
in Grades 2 and 4 at the outset of the research, this study explored
(a) the longitudinal effects of television viewing on children's reading
comprehension, (b) the causal mechanisms that underlie television's
longitudinal effects on reading comprehension, and (c) the longitudinal
effects of television viewing on children's decoding skills. The children
were surveyed three times, at 1-year intervals. Structural equations
analyses suggested that television viewing inhibited the development
of children's reading comprehension in both 1-year intervals of the
study. Television's inhibitory effect on reading comprehension was
not sensitive to children's IQ and socioeconomic status, but did depend
on types of programs watched. Partial support was found for two causal
mechanisms underlying television's inhibitory effect on reading comprehension:
(a) a television -induced reduction in leisure-time book reading and
(b) a television-induced depreciation of reading. Watching subtitled
foreign television programs was found to stimulate the development
of decoding skills.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International Reading
Association
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