Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Podcast JAAL

Gender Labels in Young Adult Literature with Drs. Rachelle Savitz and Vanessa Irvin

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Rachelle Savitz and Vanessa Irvin about using Young Adult Literature to critically examine issues around gender. This conversation centers around their article for JAAL titled: Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

Rachelle S. Savitz is an associate professor of reading/literacy at East Carolina University. She was previously a K-12 literacy coach/interventionist and high school reading teacher. She values working with graduate students and teachers and learning with and from them. She has served on the board of directors for numerous national and state literacy organizations – wanting to be a part of the learning and collaboration pushing thinking in the realm of literacy. Dr. Savitz spotlights the necessity of teacher collaborators in her co-edited book, Teaching the "taboo": Diverse and inclusive literature is the way, with Routledge, where teachers highlight their classroom practices. She emphasizes teacher instruction with over 15 snapshots in the book with Teachers College Press, Trauma-sensitive literacy instruction: Building student resilience in English language arts classrooms. This book extends learning shared in Teaching Hope and Resilience for Students Experiencing Trauma: Creating Safe and Nurturing Classrooms for Learning, coauthored with Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. She received the East Carolina University College of Education 2023-2024 Profiles in Diversity Award, the 2019 Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher’s Jerry Johns Promising Researcher Award, and the 2018 Early Career Literacy Scholar Award from the American Reading Forum.

Dr. Vanessa Irvin is an associate professor with the Master of Library Science Program at East Carolina University (USA). Dr. Irvin has authored three books and 35 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. V has led grant-funded research projects that explore ways in which heritage-based knowledge systems impact our information-seeking behaviors and literacy practices in daily life. Irvin's work investigates libraries as collaborative communities of literacy practices and platforms for literacy justice for diverse and local/Indigenous communities. Dr. V is equally interested in the social informatics of informal learning and the evolution of librarian professional practices with reference services under the influence of emerging technologies. Irvin serves as Co-Editor of the open-access peer-reviewed journal, The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, where she manages an editorial team of 20 librarians and an editorial board of 35 LIS scholars. Dr. Irvin is President-Elect of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). 


Resources:
Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

Gender Equality in Education Multi-Journal Special Issue

Text Reformulation with Drs. Michael DiCicco and Eileen Shanahan


In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Michael DiCicco and Eileen Shannaon about a literacy strategy that can help students to become better readers and better writers. The strategy is called text reformulation. This conversation centers around their article for JAAL titled: Dr. Seuss, police reports, and lamb recipes: Examining text reformulation as a literacy strategy. 


Dr. Eileen Shanahan is an associate professor at Northern Kentucky University. She began her career as an eighth-grade language arts teacher and then served as a middle school curriculum and literacy coordinator. Her interests include writing and grammar instruction, discourse and teacher learning, and teaching English from a social justice perspective.

Dr. Michael DiCicco is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Northern Kentucky University. A former middle school teacher. Dr. DiCicco has been an educator for 16 years. His research focuses on literacy teacher preparation and development and middle level literacy. 

Resource:
Dr. Seuss, police reports, and lamb recipes: Examining text reformulation as a literacy strategy

Reading Intervention for Adolescent Readers with Dr. Margaret Opatz and Sara Kocherhans

How can secondary educators support adolescent readers to become strong readers of complex texts? In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Dr. Margaret Opatz and Sara Kocherhans about their work investigating multicomponent reading intervention in order to improve adolescents reading achievement. This conversation stems from their article “Using a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention to increase adolescent readers' achievement”. 

Margaret Opatz, Ph.D., is a Reading Research Scientist at Capti, an edtech company, where she leads literacy initiatives. Margaret is a former K-12 teacher, reading interventionist, and Equity Coach. She specializes in foundational reading skills, covering the developmental stages of both young and adolescent readers, as well as effective teaching methods and strategies for addressing reading difficulties. Margaret is dedicated to advancing reading interventions and assessments to support learners of all backgrounds. 

Sarah Kocherhans is a PhD student in the Literacy, Language, and Learning program at the University of Utah. She works as a reading interventionist at the University of Utah Reading Clinic, where she researches and implements reading interventions for elementary and secondary students. Sarah's background is in the elementary classroom as a 3rd-grade teacher, where she first discovered her passion for remediating reading difficulties in developing readers. Through her work, she is dedicated to improving reading instruction for students of all ages.


Resource:
“Using a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention to increase adolescent readers' achievement”. 

Vocabulary and High-Stakes Testing with Beverley Jennings 

In today's episode, Matt Sroka chats with Beverely Jennings about high-stakes testing? How much should our instruction be geared towards preparing students for high-stakes testing? How do we know if what we’re teaching and what we are having students read is preparing them for high-stakes tests? What if preparing students for a high-stakes test is at odds with our goals and objectives for the class? Matt and Beverely explore these questions as they talk the article “A Corpus Study of English Language Exam Texts: Vocabulary Difficulty and the Impact on Students' Wider Reading (or Should Students be Reading More Texts by Dead White Men?)” by Beverley Jennings, Daisy Powell, Sylvia Jaworska, and Holly Joseph.

Beverley Jennings is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Education at the University of Reading in England. Her research is on adolescent reading comprehension, with particular focus on assessment and vocabulary. She has also been an English teacher in secondary (high) schools in England for 20 years. 

Resources:
A Corpus Study of English Language Exam Texts: Vocabulary Difficulty and the Impact on Students' Wider Reading (or Should Students be Reading More Texts by Dead White Men?)

Digital Literacies Framework with Drs. Katrina Tour and Ed Creely

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Katrina Tour and Ed Creely about a framework they developed with colleagues for teaching Digital literacies to adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds. This framework is interesting and important in its own right, but their work also offers valuable tools and guidance for literacy teachers and scholars across various fields.. In our conversation we discuss the four key principles that guide their framework (Authentic Learning Contexts, Problem-Based Learning, Strength-Based Approach, and Multiple Dimensional Practices). And how each of these principles were or were not enacted by teachers in this study. This conversation stems from their article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy  titled:  “Investigating the efficacy of the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide for adult EAL settings” by Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely, Peter Waterhouse, and Michael Henderson. 

Dr Katrina Tour is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research focuses on the digital literacies of children and adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds. It investigates the ways in which these groups use digital technologies in English as an Additional Language (EAL) for life, learning and employment, and explores how these experiences can be used to enhance educational policies and pedagogies for digital literacies in EAL/TESOL settings


Dr Edwin Creely is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. He is a strong contributor to international conferences and is widely published. His research interests include digital literacies and pedagogies, computers in education, creativity, critical thinking, literacies across the years, and artificial intelligence and language learning. He has also developed a strong interest in adult learning and especially involving adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
 
Also, as mentioned in the opening, the latest Literacy Insights is now available: Guiding and Assessing Student Writing

Resources:
“Investigating the efficacy of the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide for adult EAL settings”

AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide 

AMEP Digital Literacies: Teaching Resources 

Designing Text Use for Science Teachers with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown about using and selecting texts in Science classrooms. They discuss why teachers should go beyond just teaching the textbook, and how teachers can find authentic, engaging, and appropriately challenging multimodal texts for their classrooms. They also discuss how teachers can go about teaching these multimodal texts to their students, so they can be accessible for all students. This conversation centers on their article: Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

Cynthia Greenleaf, Senior Research Scientist (emerita) in Literacy at WestEd, is a passionate advocate for high-quality literacy education for all. Dr. Greenleaf leads collaborative, design-based research supporting the ongoing development of Reading Apprenticeship and its inquiry-based professional learning model and contributes to national and international efforts to advance academic and disciplinary literacies. Her work to design, develop, and bring Reading Apprenticeship to scale has improved teaching and learning for hundreds of thousands of secondary and college students and their teachers, nationally and internationally. A member of the Reading Hall of Fame and recipient of several awards and honors, Dr. Greenleaf received her doctorate in language and literacy education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kathleen A. Hinchman, PhD., is a literacy education Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. She has taught, coached, and conducted research in elementary, secondary, adult literacy, and literacy teacher education settings. She has published numerous articles, chapters, and texts and served on local, state, and national literacy-related boards of directors. Her participation in this science and literacy collaborative design study stemmed from her lifelong interest in studying approaches that optimize disciplinary teachers’ support of students’ literacies. She can be reached at kahinchm@syr.edu.

Willard Brown is STEM instructional coach for Envision Schools. Dr. Brown leverages his passion for literacy to support learning outcomes in STEM education and support the Envision Schools vision for pro-Black education. Previously, Willard worked at WestEd providing Reading Apprenticeship professional development and researching disciplinary literacy and science instruction. Earlier, he taught high school science in the Oakland Public Schools. His classes appear in multiple publications and instructional videos. Willard holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Resources:
Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

https://readingapprenticeship.org/resources/
Scroll down to select from a list of resource types linking to classroom resources, classroom videos, and curriculum. Open source curriculum units developed during this project are housed on this website, along with instructional support for teachers, videos of classroom instruction, and resources for school teams.