This dissertation study aims to theorize an instructional practice which I labeled languaging thinking. Languaging thinking is conceptualized as a social practice in which teachers and students make visible and discuss how to think about a particular task, topic, or activity, through the use of spoken and written language and related semiotic…

A techno-rational perspective of teaching and learning is common as teachers are increasingly inundated with messages of measurement, standardization, and accountability. Within this perspective, teacher development is seen as mastery of skills, teachers' learning is conceptualized as linear with a predetermined and predictable trajectory, and the…

Many students in middle and secondary school face challenges in understanding complex content expressed in disciplinary-specific discourses. Disciplinary literacy (DL) has emerged as a viable approach to these challenges. Yet, to date, the assessment of disciplinary literacy remains relatively underdeveloped. The current paper examines the…

Drawing upon notions of symbolic representation and transcultural repositioning, this study uses visual and critical discourse analyses to examine a multimodal photo essay created by seventh- and eighth-grade immigrant youth in an English as a New Language (ENL) class. Collectively titled "I am from 'aquí' and 'allá'" by the students,…

This case study research reports on elementary (grade 8) and secondary school (grade 9) teachers' participation in job-embedded, professional learning and engagement in collaborative inquiry. Teachers constructed an inquiry-oriented media literacy unit following the collaborative inquiry model. The current study sought to investigate how…

This paper explores how students, as multimodal storytellers, can weave powerful narratives blending modes, genres, artefacts and literary conventions to represent the real and imagined in their lives. Part of a larger ethnographic case study of student writing in a middle years class for immigrant students learning English as an additional…

Multiliteracies-related research is just emerging from the formal discourse of pedagogical theorising and how it may look in practice needs further exploration. This research, initiated under that warrant, presents practitioner research and the enactment of a multiliteracies curriculum with Year 8 students in New York City's Chinatown. The study…

This article presents the results of a three-year study of "Gamestar Mechanic" (www.gamestarmechanic.com), a flash-based multiplayer online role-playing game developed for the MacArthur Foundation's digital media learning initiative by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Gamelab in New York. The game's objective is to help children…