The author examines guided play among students in a South African classroom using a play-and-write workshop constructed by her and her students. She determines that the workshop displays the characteristics of playful learning, lies on the playful learning spectrum, and fits the criteria for guided play. She concludes that, given the benefits of…

Writing involves a complex web of deliberations as writers make specific choices from their repertoire of grammatical resources. However, curriculum and assessment criteria that favour top-down prescriptions of writing marginalise the agency of the writer (Gardner, 2012). Conversely, we posit a bottom-up process that integrates grammar teaching…

Little was known about the experiences of K-5 online tutors. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of online tutors regarding their pedagogical practices and digital tools used when tutoring students in Grades K-5. The community of inquiry model served as the conceptual framework. Data included online…

Game Based Language Learning (GBLL) is an approach to language learning in which learning happens in the process of playing a game. GBLL has several potential benefits including enhanced reading, writing, and cultural awareness. This paper provides a brief overview of Cipher -- Faoi Gheasa, a GBLL app for Irish and learners' feedback on the game.…

Proficiency rates on Pennsylvania's statewide assessments in 2022 remain below pre-pandemic levels, especially in math, but there is evidence that student learning has begun to recover. Proficiency rates for grades 5-8 in 2022 improved in both English language arts (ELA) and math relative to rates predicted for 2021 from a Mathematica research…

Substantial research has clearly established the relationship between school attendance and indicators of student achievement over time in large, urban cities using longitudinal studies. However, there is an insufficient amount of literature that focuses on an immediate relationship in smaller, suburban areas with differing demographics. This…

In this contribution, we present a follow-up work-in-progress on an innovative system for facilitating small-group online discussions using an avatar during a video conference. A previous study has shown that the system had an effective, understandable, and more participatory interaction. Here, we examine long-term usage and its effects on…

Writing is the highest developmental skill in the acquisition of literacy skills and a skill that is not easy to teach in the classroom. If students are unable to verbally express an idea, they are even less likely to be able to express it in writing. The pattern of students lacking ability in writing is one that has been tracked through the…

The current state of education elicits a quest to prepare students for future jobs and remains an immediate priority and challenge for educators across the nation (Weddle, 2020). Unfortunately, students are leaving high school lacking the competencies needed for future careers. As a result, schools are making students less prepared to succeed than…

This study describes how participation in a university literacy clinic impacts self-efficacy in pre-service teacher candidates. This study was conducted one and a half years into the global COVID-19 pandemic, creating the need for the clinic's program, Literacy Camp, to be completed through fully virtual means. Thus, ways in which the pre-service…

This study examined the perspectives of Haitian parents on parental involvement and barriers faced for involvement in the schooling of their elementary aged children. Epstein's (2019) Six Types of Parental Involvement was the framework for the research. A phenomenological approach to present the experiences of seven first generation Haitian…

Family involvement has been shown to have positive effects on the academic and socio-emotional and behavioral outcomes of school-aged children across all age ranges, but most especially among elementary-aged students. The Family Involvement Questionnaire-Elementary (FIQ-E) has been validated for use with students in grades 1-6 across public and…

Visualizations are commonly used in educational materials, however not all visualizations are equally effective at promoting learning. Prior research has supported the idea that both perceptually rich and bland visualizations are beneficial for learning and generalization. We investigated whether the perceptual richness of a life cycle diagram…

Purpose: We examined whether affix type and base word transparency explained variation in third- through sixth-grade students' performance on a number of morphological awareness tasks. Method: Third- through sixth-grade students (n > 500 at each grade) completed morphological awareness tasks from the Morphological Awareness Test for Reading and…

Rambo-Hernandez and McCoach's analysis into the longitudinal growth of high-achieving students offered two conclusions about the reading growth of high achieving students: high-achieving students lose less ground in reading during the summer, but they exhibit less growth over the school year. This study will seek to replicate the reading results…