Dr. David Bloome, Young Children’s Spoken and Written Narrative Repertoires (David
Bloome, Laurie Katz, Tempii Champion)
This project entails studying the spoken and written narratives that young children (ages 4 to 6) produce in classroom settings. To date, our findings have suggested the following: children acquire a repertoire of narrative structures and narrative models, the narratives are used to express multiple social identities and social relationships, and the narratives are often oriented toward social interaction and performance rather than a representation of reported or imagined events. The children often used the narratives as a way to assert “agency.” Our findings have implications for reconceptualizing some aspects of spoken and written language development as well as early literacy pedagogies.
Dr. Laura Justice, Preschool Language and Literacy Lab
This inter-disciplinary research lab (http://preschoollab.osu.edu/) provides an infrastructure for OSU researchers to conduct federally funded research concerning language and literacy development and intervention for young children experiencing risk. Directed by Laura Justice, Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning, ongoing studies are exploring approaches to professional development of teachers to enhance language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms in rural settings, as well as identifying effective methods for promoting the literacy growth of children with language disorders.
Dr. Lea M. McGee, Making the Transition into Early Beginning Reading
Multiple research projects in both preschool and Reading Recovery are investigating the transition from emergent reading into early beginning reading. In preschool, the nature of teacher change and its effect on children’s literacy skills at kindergarten entry is being examined. In Reading Recovery, the research focuses on examining patterns of change in reading as children move from the earliest text reading levels when they are still considered emergent readers through texts considered to be at the first grade level.
Dr. Patricia Scharer, Literacy Collaborative
Literacy Collaborative is a comprehensive school reform project designed to improve the reading, writing, and language skills of elementary children and significantly raise the level of literacy achievement for all students. The cornerstone of this project is dynamic, long-term professional development. School-based literacy coordinators are trained in research-based methods; provided with ongoing professional development as they continually implement research-based approaches in their own classrooms; and supported as they provide on-site training for the teachers in their schools.
Dr. Emily Rodgers, Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is a professional development project with a two-tier level of curriculum: faculty in universities prepare and provide professional development to literacy coaches called teacher leaders who work at the district level to provide ongoing professional development to Reading Recovery teachers. This professional development project for teachers was initiated in the United States by faculty at The Ohio State University but it was first implemented in New Zealand as a result of research conducted at the University of Auckland by Dr. Marie Clay. Evaluation data collected in Ohio over the last 24 years demonstrate that most students taught by Reading Recovery teachers make accelerated progress and catch up to their peers within the 12-20 week framework of lessons; those who do not can be reliably referred for further assessment and more intensive instruction.
Dr. Ian Wilkinson, Dr. Anna Soter, and Dr. Karen Murphy, Quality Talk about Text to Promote High-Level Reading Comprehension
In this work, Dr. Wilkinson, Dr. Soter, and Dr. Murphy are developing a model of discussion called Quality Talk for promoting students’ high-level comprehension of literary and informational text. It is built on an extensive analysis of various approaches to conducting classroom discussions, and it combines the best features of extant approaches while giving prominence to those features that emphasize critical-analytic orientation toward text. Research methods employed include research synthesis, analysis of classroom discourse, meta-analysis, and experimental methods.
