An important part of college learning is the ability to comprehend complex texts. Research indicates that epistemic beliefs--views about what knowledge is like and how people come to know--may guide readers' goals and behaviors. Metaphor is a tool for uncovering individual's beliefs. This article reports on a study examining 90 beginning…

College students are expected to comprehend, analyze, and respond to texts that are often challenging, complex, and specialized. While the importance and value of reading in higher education is hardly disputed, postsecondary literacy frequently revolves around the reinforcement of rudimentary skills. Furthermore, the demands of writing instruction…

This study explores how a team of university and youth co-researchers collaboratively inquired into, and participated in, the process of writing for educational change. We refer to the collective literate processes through which researchers worked to center community priorities in academic writing as community-centered composing. We document how…

This design-based study explored the digital and linguistic practices of South Korean adolescents from a rural area within the Write4Change global online community, emphasizing their use of image-driven tools. Framed within the cosmopolitan literacies perspective, these adolescents adeptly merge local and global dimensions, integrating their…

Foundational skills are often viewed as necessary components for automaticity in reading and writing. In this study, we draw on teacher interviews to explore what secondary English/language arts teachers identify as necessary language for successful school writing. Findings suggest that teachers believe White mainstream English is a necessary…

Over a century of research on postsecondary learning has documented that students often struggle with the academic literacy demands of college. Academic literacy tasks are the subset of all academic tasks that involve reading and writing and are rooted within larger cultural practices. These demands are challenging, complex, and varied, so…

In this qualitative study, the authors investigated seventh- and eighth-grade students' participation in an elective civics course focused on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The researcher and classroom teacher collaborated to embed literacy strategies into his curriculum in this design-based research study. The intervention cycle was…

In this article, we focus on a series of lessons, called "Think Like a Linguist," that we designed and implemented with multilingual adolescents. These lessons were developed as an introduction to a semester-long study on academic vocabulary and word analysis using Latin roots. Our intention in "Think Like a Linguist" lessons…

The authors examined the cross-cultural validation of a Chinese version of the Survey of Adolescent Reading Attitudes (CSARA) in a sample of 524 students in grades 7-9 in China. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that Chinese adolescents' attitudes toward reading can be measured in four dimensions--attitudes toward academic print, academic…

In teaching canonical literature, presuming a text's merit and infallibility can inhibit the development of critical thought and may transmit values that are not socially and politically just. The author describes how educators can promote academic literacy and critical consciousness in their students through pedagogy that helps students…

With young people increasingly learning and communicating through visual and social media, schools are looking for ways to tap into students' interest in digital media. In a school district in Southern California, a very promising approach to technology use has emerged that integrates digital storytelling into instruction. Findings from a…

The authors illustrate how applied theater practices were used in media literacy classes to educate students about acts of religious discrimination in their societies. These practices helped students acknowledge their role in reifying or dismantling these prejudices in and through their classroom interactions with their peers from other religions…