Underpinned by positioning theory as both a theoretical lens and methodological tool, this paper asserts that educators can improvise asset-based discourse to create spaces for student writers to exercise agency. This single-case study, focusing on four education undergraduates situated as both writers and writing mentors in a literacy course and…

This study explores the development of academic language and discourse by third grade English language learners (ELLs) in the context of inquiry-based lessons taught in Spanish with a focus on student development of questioning skills during content-based instruction (Wadham, 2013). The qualitative, narrative study is guided by the following…

Reviews research that confirms the author's beliefs that cross-age tutoring programs are very successful programs. Identifies three major components in successful cross-age tutoring programs: (1) planning the tutoring program; (2) training for the tutors in interpersonal skills, management skills, and content skills; and (3) tutoring techniques…

Summarizes 3 documents and 12 journal articles that discuss programs and classroom efforts in which older students tutor younger children. The programs address literacy and academic subjects including reading, writing, science, and math. (BC)

Describes a collaboration between an innovative high school English course and a college-level course of literacy theory. Describes the collaboration, its goals and outcomes, and benefits. Discusses briefly resisting institutional hierarchies. (SR)

Explores how the Cross-Aged Literacy Program supported the motivation and literacy learning of four low-achieving ninth-grade students. Suggests that participation in the preparation seminar and cross-aged literary discussion groups contributed to three key aspects of intrinsic motivation: perceived self-competence, autonomy, and relatedness. (SG)

A writing task assigned to tenth grade students of a biotechnology unit is elaborated wherein they practiced literacy skills and demonstrated knowledge integration by communicating their understanding to seventh-grade students. The standards put forward by the National Research Council are fulfilled by such teaching strategies.

Describes the preparation, implementation, and results of a classroom cross-age tutoring project, which involved third and fourth graders reading books to younger students. Discusses evolution of project: students' lesson plans became more student-centered and complex over time, tutors assumed responsibility for younger children, and their…

The information contained in this publication, a brief introduction to literacy, is designed to help potential literacy workers gain a basic understanding of literacy issues. The publication notes that current literacy efforts in the United States, especially the new America Reads initiative, are focused on helping young children up to the third…

To pilot a peer literacy program, a pretest-posttest study was conducted involving seventy (70) students from Arellano High School as tutees and 12 De La Salle University-Manila College of Education students as reading tutors. Though the results suggest the lack of impact of the Program on the Reading Grades of the tutees, the tutors' journals…

Describes the Teens for Literacy project, in which teens come up with ideas to improve literacy in their schools. Notes that, in the nearly five years of the program, teens have developed a Big Brother/Big Sister reading program, selected and displayed posters in school corridors, developed videos promoting literacy, read with children, and…

This pamphlet describes a year-long project that began with the idea of inviting eighth graders to study the thoughts of second graders as shared during literature discussions. It then evolved into a more elaborate project bolstered by the students' enthusiasm and interest in each other. The pamphlet describes the students, establishment of the…

In this paper, the development and the first three months of a reading program in which university students tutor junior high school students with reading skill deficiencies are described. In section 1, an introduction, the literacy problem that exists in the United States and the basic rationale for the tutoring approach as a solution to this…

The literacy club described is a model cross-aged, paired reading program that is being successfully used in an elementary school in Redwood City, California to teach literacy skills to non-native speakers of English. The literacy club pairs older students--"rapid readers"--with younger students--"little readers"--in a yearlong reading experience…

Explores benefits derived from the "Gardendale Family" (a vertically aligned team of K-6 classrooms). Describes how older students give guidance, feedback, and validation to those in lower grades as the younger children become active members of the literacy community; and how students use written and oral language in authentic and…