Leigh Hall
Leigh A. Hall’s research addresses issues relevant to adolescent literacy, struggling readers, middle school education and teacher education. Her current work considers how students’ identities as readers influence the decisions they make when reading text, and if – and how – teachers can use information about students’ identities to inform their practice and improve their learners’ comprehension of text.
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Papers by Leigh Hall
This paper takes a closer look at the reasons that motivate pre- and in-service content area teachers in grades 6-12 to either teach or not teach reading. It also examines the ways in which teacher educators have worked to help content area teachers learn how to teach reading and the degree to which these interventions have been successful. In doing so I argue that (a) our approaches to working with content area teachers on this topic have been limited and (b) simply creating positive attitudes towards teaching reading is not necessarily enough. This paper begins with a brief discussion of what it means to teach reading in the content areas. Next I present a general introduction to teacher beliefs and how they may influence the instructional decisions teachers make. Then I discuss the methodology for my review. This is followed by the results of my review with implications for how teacher educators might consider addressing this issue in the future.
responded to and worked with text and reading instruction provided by her respective content area teacher.
The results suggest that each student attempted to be engaged with text as much as possible and was interested in learning course content. However, the ways in which the students approached text was heavily influenced by how she saw herself as a reader. Students who believed they could comprehend a piece of text were more willing to engage with it than if they believed it was too difficult. However, even when a student chose not to read a portion of text, she considered other ways in which she might learn the content being presented. Overall, the results suggest that there is more to
working with struggling readers than considering the type of instruction they need. The case presented here suggests that teachers and researchers need to find ways to understand the connections between identity and instruction.
school struggling readers to use silence to protect or promote
their specific identities as readers in and out of school.
J. Gee’s (2002) theory of discursive identity framed this article.
Results challenge the ways that teachers and researchers
typically think of struggling readers. Rather than being unmotivated to read and learn, each participant demonstrated that she was interested and cared about learning information presented in the texts. However, when trying to promote an identity, the students sometimes had to forgo comprehending text and learning content rather than risk being viewed unfavorably by peers.
This paper takes a closer look at the reasons that motivate pre- and in-service content area teachers in grades 6-12 to either teach or not teach reading. It also examines the ways in which teacher educators have worked to help content area teachers learn how to teach reading and the degree to which these interventions have been successful. In doing so I argue that (a) our approaches to working with content area teachers on this topic have been limited and (b) simply creating positive attitudes towards teaching reading is not necessarily enough. This paper begins with a brief discussion of what it means to teach reading in the content areas. Next I present a general introduction to teacher beliefs and how they may influence the instructional decisions teachers make. Then I discuss the methodology for my review. This is followed by the results of my review with implications for how teacher educators might consider addressing this issue in the future.
responded to and worked with text and reading instruction provided by her respective content area teacher.
The results suggest that each student attempted to be engaged with text as much as possible and was interested in learning course content. However, the ways in which the students approached text was heavily influenced by how she saw herself as a reader. Students who believed they could comprehend a piece of text were more willing to engage with it than if they believed it was too difficult. However, even when a student chose not to read a portion of text, she considered other ways in which she might learn the content being presented. Overall, the results suggest that there is more to
working with struggling readers than considering the type of instruction they need. The case presented here suggests that teachers and researchers need to find ways to understand the connections between identity and instruction.
school struggling readers to use silence to protect or promote
their specific identities as readers in and out of school.
J. Gee’s (2002) theory of discursive identity framed this article.
Results challenge the ways that teachers and researchers
typically think of struggling readers. Rather than being unmotivated to read and learn, each participant demonstrated that she was interested and cared about learning information presented in the texts. However, when trying to promote an identity, the students sometimes had to forgo comprehending text and learning content rather than risk being viewed unfavorably by peers.