Abstract
It is no surprise that literacy researchers, especially those who study reading, often focus on the material a reader reads or is asked to read. Although not necessarily intentional, the articles in this issue, in one way or another, investigate characteristics of text materials used in the curriculum and engaged by teachers and students. Readers will find each of these articles informative and an extension of previous understandings of text. Each article focuses on a different setting: One article looks at secondary mathematics teachers and their perceptions of their students as readers, another looks at third graders in an urban school responding to texts of varying complexity, and a third investigated the vocabulary used in picture books. Finally, with this issue, we present an integrated book review—an essay reviewing two or more books that, in the authors’ view, are linked in a way that advances understanding.
Kelly Chandler-Olcott and colleagues contributes to literacy instructional research focusing on secondary mathematics teachers addressing literacy demands of curriculum materials used by secondary teachers. This is a 3-year study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers and teachers who navigate the pedagogical uses of a mandated mathematics curriculum. We found this study notable because of the length of time involved and the careful collection and analysis of data. Disciplinary and/or content area literacy is a current topic of high interest, and this article makes a significant contribution.
Heidi Anne Mesmer and Elfrieda Hiebert reports a study investigating third graders’ responses and proficiency with texts varying in complexity and length. Elementary teachers in the United States are currently challenged by the Common Core standards calling for students to read increasingly complex texts. Mesmer’s study provides insights and a nuanced understanding of the difficulty of manipulating text factors such as length and complexity for those readers who are already struggling; her article includes several ideas for future research and is an important contribution to those working in areas of text complexity and children’s reading progress.
Replicating a classic study by Donald Hayes (1988) on the sophistication of vocabulary in children’s literature compared with the everyday speech of adults, Dominic Massaro found that a sample of 112 children’s picture books contained nearly twice the number of sophisticated or rare words than was found in the speech of adults—either directed toward children or between adults themselves when compared with databases of language corpora such as CHILDES. This article provides a new angle on the debate about the value of read-aloud for children and provides up-to-date evidence that the vocabulary in picture books is more complex than what a child would hear in everyday conversation, thus, suggesting that the value of rich read-aloud experiences for written language acquisition cannot be underestimated.
Concluding this issue is an integrated book review. We were excited to receive the book review from Swiss and Lewis, both because of their expertise in digital literacies and because Journal of Literacy Research (JLR) receives many submissions dealing with the “digital turn” for both theories of literacy acquisition and pedagogical applications. Swiss and Lewis evaluate the ways communication technologies have historically and continually act as sites of competing social imaginaries, values, and desires.
These articles and the book review expand and problematize our considerations of readers, texts, teachers, curriculum, and pedagogy. Taken as a whole, it is fruitful to look at these findings across the developmental spectrum—from emergent and beginning readers, to third-grade developing readers, and to high school readers—and then to think about that arc from the perspective of digital literacies. Enjoy!