This article is based on research in a United States second-grade classroom during a multimodal literacy workshop. Observing students working with tissue paper, foam board, string, pipe cleaners and other materials, we asked how is intra-activity with materials, time and space influencing literacy learning in Room 203? While the research…

Previous research has shown that observing peers' success in learning is important for the development of children's belief in themselves as learners. However, in research, these observations are seldom made in actual classroom learning activities. This study investigated how children explain factors that lead to their peers' successes in…

As a result of a university partnership, elementary students at two midwest Catholic elementary schools have been provided with exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) from pre-service teachers. To investigate students' attitudes and learning of Spanish, researchers interviewed second and fourth graders. The students' parents and pre-service…

This year-long qualitative study draws from multimodal theory and New Literacies Studies to document the digital literacy experiences of a diverse group of 2nd-graders using e-readers. Twenty-first century classrooms must expand traditional notions of literacy to prepare students for the ever-changing, media-rich world. Students participated in…

Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to…

This case study explores the pedagogy and practices of an elementary school teacher who combines inquiry pedagogy and critical literacy. The authors gathered data for this analysis by conducting two interviews with a classroom teacher and observing classroom practices 12 times over a 6 month period. Through a general inductive approach to…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediational role of gesture and body movement/positioning between a teacher and an English language learner in a second-grade classroom. Responding to Thibault's (2011) call for understanding language through whole-body sense making, aspects of gesture and body positioning were analyzed for…

This study aimed to identify the differentiated instruction practices used by Jordanian teachers and the challenges they faced when teaching students with learning disabilities in Amman. The sample of the study consisted of 194 teachers. It followed a mixed method design and consisted of two parts. First, a quantitative analysis of a questionnaire…

Literate practice in the arts encompasses both aesthetics and creativity. It is also multimodal in nature and often collaborative. This article presents data collected from a small multi-age school, with children from Prep to Year 7, during their preparation for an end-of-year show. The children had studied the topics of conservation and…

This paper investigates the power of the computer guided clinical interview (CI) and new curriculum based measurement (CBM) measures to identify and help children at risk of low mathematics achievement. We use data from large numbers of children in Kindergarten through Grade 3 to investigate the construct validity of CBM risk categories. The basic…

The reported exploratory study consisted primarily of classroom visits, videotaped sessions, and post-treatment interviews whereby second graders (n = 12) worked on problems in planar geometry, individually and in triads, using physical and virtual manipulatives. The goal of the study was to: 1) characterize the nature of geometric thinking found…

Understanding contingency table analysis is a facet of mathematical competence in the domain of data and probability. Previous studies have shown that even young children are able to solve specific contingency table problems, but apply a variety of strategies that are actually invalid. The purpose of this paper is to describe primary school…

Recently, over 40 states in the United States adopted the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) which include standards for content and eight standards for mathematical practices. The purpose of this study was to better understand the nature of young children's mathematical practices through an exploratory examination of the…

Service learning has become increasingly popular across all levels of education. Previous literature emphasizes that reflection is an important aspect of service learning. However, limited focus has been given to appropriate methods of reflection for younger children. This longitudinal study followed 31 second-grade children (15 females; mean age…

In this study, we examined how curricular resources supported three expert teachers in their enactment of progressions. Using a video-stimulated interview process, we documented the multiple types of progressions identified, described, and enacted by the teachers. Results indicate that the teachers used four different types of…