Educators have long known that the Paideia Seminar format, an approach for close reading and class discussion, promotes critical thinking skills in young people and improves writing. Terry Roberts, director of the National Paideia Center, shows--with examples of actual Seminar dialogues--that these types of seminars also inspire creative and…

Proficient writing performance in English requires multiple cognitive skills, which can be particularly challenging for English Learners (ELs). However, compared with reading and mathematics, there have been fewer scientific inquiries that explore the relationship between cognitive components and writing. The purpose of this study was to examine…

This study examined the impact of the lexical distance (spoken, modern standard Arabic-MSA, shared, and pseudo-words) on phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (RAN). The data from this longitudinal study were obtained from 261 native Arabic-speaking kindergarteners, which were then followed to first grade. The data revealed a significant…

Grade retention, the practice of holding a student back in the same grade, has been a controversial topic in the United States for decades. English learners, a growing population in US schools, are consistently identified for grade retention more often than their English-only counterparts. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of grade…

This study investigated the understudied area of virtual reality (VR) creation among elementary-aged youth, exploring their engagement in VR creation and the ways in which educators can facilitate this creative process. Using an embedded case study, the researcher examined how the youth visualize writing using the VR creation tool, CoSpaces. To…

Shared reading, which enables children to acquire new experiences in the field of language, is one of several fundamental instructional practices that facilitate the development of literacy skills in children from an early age. This descriptive and holistic case study aims to investigate the shared reading practices carried out in the Primary 1st…

The study focuses on the effect of the lexical-syntactic structure on the patterns of errors by Arab first graders in tasks involving reading two-digit number and writing two-digit numbers to dictation. Children made few change or omission errors, indicating that they had little problem with the lexical aspects of the counting system. However,…

Although several decades of research has highlighted the contribution of classroom behaviors to students' mathematics and reading performance, this relation with regard to writing performance has been examined to a lesser extent. Therefore, this study sought to examine a wide range of classroom behaviors as predictors of written expression,…

While research demonstrates the important role parents play in facilitating children's literacy development, little is known about the knowledge that underpins these exchanges. Here, we examined the association between parents' reading-related knowledge (phonological awareness, knowledge of syllable patterns, and identification of regular and…

Research suggests that executive function, motivation, transcription, and composition processes are implicated in the writing quality and productivity of children with and without learning difficulties. However, numerous components embedded within these constructs create both conceptual and empirical challenges to the study of written expression.…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the influence of spoken dialect density on writing and on the codevelopment of reading and writing in African American English-speaking (AAE) children from first through fifth grades. The sample included 869 students, ranging in age from 5.8 to 12.5 years. Results indicated that dialect density…

In the wake of all that educators are navigating these days, they've proven to be not only resilient, but also innovative. They continue intentionally finding new and exciting ways to create powerful learning opportunities for all students. Reinvent the Classroom, an initiative by Digital Promise, HP, Microsoft, and Intel, supports, celebrates,…

This qualitative case study explores how integrating multimodal writing opportunities in a second-grade dual language classroom opens up spaces for translanguaging practices in order to promote a more equitable and socially just access to biliteracy development for emergent bilinguals. A multimodal writing project that integrated writing and…

Composing is an essential part of literacy development in early childhood classrooms, and writing experiences are continually changing through advances in technology. Writing in a new language can be particularly challenging for emergent bilinguals as they navigate learning how to spell in English as part of the writing process. New pedagogical…

This study examined the writing skills of first-grade students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) or Native English Speakers (NESs). We examined the roles of transcription and oral language skills on contextualized spelling, writing fluency, and writing quality outcomes for ELL and NES students. Thirty-four ELLs (Mean age (A) = 78.03 months,…