SUNY+Potsdam+Literacy+Research+Methods+Spring+2012

This Wiki is a resource created by Spring 2012 graduate Literacy Specialist students at SUNY Potsdam. They were enrolled in a seminar focused on literacy research practices and methodologies.

The syllabus for the course is.

Following completion of literature reviews on the topics listed below, students were challenged to 'translate' the research for various public audiences: educators, administrators, parents/families, and general readers. To do so, they:


 *  Summarized key concepts from the reviewed literature
 * Highlighted several studies that were significant for their understanding of the topic
 * Discussed the implications of their findings from the literature review, for varied audiences
 * Provided the full list of sources consulted
 * Created "hotlists" of relevant resources for their topic

Topics of focus included:
 * Adolescent boys, motivation, and reading
 * Gender issues in elementary reading achievement
 * Effects of choice on motivation and engagement to read
 * Reading comprehension, high stakes test contexts, and elementary student learning
 * Pen-pal exchanges as authentic contexts for writing and enhancing elementary writers' motivation
 * Strategies for supporting adolescent readers of nonfiction across disciplines
 * Recreational reading/reading for pleasure/engaged reading: Teacher, student, and family influences
 * Interactions between musical development and literacy development in the early years
 * Varieties and impact of summer literacy programs on adolescents' literacy attitudes and practices
 * Relationships between reading and writing development
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Multicultural literature and culturally competent pedagogies
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Writing-based approaches to teaching grammar in secondary English
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Writing instruction in secondary social studies: Fostering historical thinking
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Dramatic play and early literacy development
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Integrating Science and Literacy

This site will evolve as future students add insight about the same topics and develop pages for new topics.

Please contact Dr. Marta Albert if you have questions or suggestions. We want the site to be a useful resource that offers research insight in "plain language" so it can be used to support teaching and learning.

*STUDENT EDITORS: Click here for help with editing your page!