This qualitative study examined the written responses of 58 undergraduate, preservice teachers in three online children's literature courses to the graphic novel, When stars are scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. Findings from a summative content analysis of participants' written responses showed five response themes: Connections…

Teachers' literacy identities inform how they teach reading. Only about half, however, view themselves as enthusiastic readers, and up to 40% have negative attitudes toward reading. The repercussions are great: not only do teachers who are unenthusiastic about reading produce uninspired students, but they also use fewer research-based reading…

This study was conducted to find how teacher candidates at a southwestern regional university understood ableism and empowerment based on their reading and interaction with the campus common reader. This work was important to help future teachers form healthy instructional practices that are inclusive of all students, regardless of ability in…

This qualitative research investigated two preservice teachers' multimodal aesthetic reader responses to a wordless picture book in a literacy methods course. This study took up a sociocultural perspective that was informed by transactional reader response theory (Rosenblatt, 1978, 1986, 2013) and further supported by a pedagogy of…

The emergence of e-literature -- texts created on and for digital devices -- has coincided with innovative, transgressive methods of storytelling. "Pry," an iOS-based text, exemplifies e-literature's potential to rethink traditional narrative conventions. Rather than depict the real-world as we experience it (i.e. mimesis),…

Today, traditional literacy habits are changing with various technological tools in digital environments. Social reading platforms are one of these innovations and changes. These networks are widely used in the world and in Turkey. The application "1000Kitap," the largest book reader network in Turkey, is one of these social networks. In…

The purpose of this study was to consider the issue of "authentic engagement" with texts in the context of KS3 and KS4 classroom English teaching. This article describes an exemplar session on the poem "A Fine Romance" by Roger McGough designed to elicit authentic engagement and provoke personal responses, and reports on the…

Building on sociocultural theories of literacy learning, in this article, we think at the intersection of reader response theory and multimodal literacies to examine how 13 preservice teachers in the course Teaching Social Sciences Through the Arts remediated responses to Francisco Jiménez's "The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant…

This study explores the use of backchannels, real-time online conversations taking place simultaneously with spoken discussions (the front channel), as one approach to meaning-making through discussion. Using transcripts of front and backchannel discussions, we examine how undergraduate preservice teachers utilize backchannels to talk about…

This article draws on research with elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) in a children's literature course focused on understanding and appreciating picturebooks as esthetic objects through multimodal analysis and multimodal response. PSTs received explicit instruction on picturebook and visual design elements then designed digital/multimodal…

As a component of dialogic writing response, question posing is an essential strategy for crafting meaningful writing experiences. The author used qualitative content analysis to explore the question-posing feedback provided by eight secondary English teacher candidates in response to literary essays by ninth graders. Findings indicate that…

In this article, the author introduces the notion of the balloon metaphor, an exercise she created for preservice writing teachers, in which they reflect upon their writing mentors and their writing journey. The author also discusses three very important issues facing the field of literacy today: teachers are not taught to write, teachers of…

This research focuses on the ways in which preservice teachers evolve in their beliefs and understandings of literature while they are enrolled in a semester-long course, TLS 480, Children's Literature in the Classroom. I was the instructor of the course and served as a teacher researcher using qualitative research and Louise Rosenblatt's…

Based on a 1-year interview-based case study of a preservice English teacher, this article considers the limitations of both intersectional literacies and reader-based responses to texts. In an effort to address students' problematic discussions of female sexuality, the participant implemented a queer pedagogy that emphasized alterity, or the…

With the increasing educational and institutional legitimacy afforded to multimodal texts, there is a need to further explore the use of the visual and its place in reader response, not only as a textual means to prompt interpretation but also as a form of interpretation itself. In this paper, I look at the multimodal interpretive practices of one…