In this Critical Issues, we argue that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should chan... more In this Critical Issues, we argue that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should change in response to the growing diversification of epistemologies and methods employed in literacy research. We assert that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should be aimed at developing students who understand and appreciate a broad range of research epistemologies and methods. We suggest ways in which coursework related to research methods and epistemologies, research apprenticeships and mentoring, and the reading and writing of literacy research might intensify and adjust to meet this aim. We contend that whether our field will be characterized by methodological fragmentation or ecological balance will depend in large part on how we prepare future literacy researchers.
This cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with p... more This cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with professional development supports on social studies and literacy achievement and motivation of second-grade students from low–socioeconomic status school districts. At random in within-school pairs, 48 teachers were assigned to the experimental or comparison group. Experimental group teachers were asked to teach four project-based learning units designed to address nearly all social studies and some literacy standards. Comparison group teachers were asked to teach social studies as they normally would except to teach a target number of lessons. The experimental group showed higher growth in social studies and informational reading but not writing or motivation. Greater consistency with project-based learning session plans was associated with higher growth in writing, motivation, and reading.
The collection of papers represented in the Integrative Research Review responds to the question:... more The collection of papers represented in the Integrative Research Review responds to the question: How can we study children’s/youth’s out of school experiences to inform classroom practices? Using a variety of lenses to address the question, the authors consider how to understand, respond to, and serve children and youth in a variety of contexts. Duke explores a quasi-experimental design showing the potential impact on student achievement and motivation in schools that incorporate literacy practices from children’s lives outside of school compared to the traditional curriculum. Bloome and Faust take a philosophical approach to explore the languaging of the relationship between students’ out-of-school lives and classroom practices and its implications for the construction of personhood by examining one classroom event from a microethnographic discourse analysis perspective. GarcĂa-Sánchez highlights the methodological features that allow linguistic anthropologists to make visible the...
This study examined the role of science domain knowledge, reading motivation, and decoding skills... more This study examined the role of science domain knowledge, reading motivation, and decoding skills in reading comprehension achievement in third-grade students who are English learners (ELs) and students who are monolingual, using a nationally representative data set. Multigroup probit regression analyses showed that third-grade science domain knowledge and motivation for reading, decoding skills, and early attainment of decoding skills were significantly associated with third-grade reading comprehension in both language groups. Also, using Wald chi-square tests, the study showed that the association between third-grade science domain knowledge and reading comprehension was stronger in students who were ELs than in students who were monolingual. These findings suggest that cultivating science domain knowledge is very important to supporting reading comprehension development in third grade, particularly for students who are ELs.
The popularity of project-based learning has been driven in part by a growing number of STEM scho... more The popularity of project-based learning has been driven in part by a growing number of STEM schools and programs. But STEM subjects are not the only fertile ground for project-based learning (PBL). Social studies and literacy content, too, can be adapted into PBL units to benefit teaching and learning, the authors argue. They review key studies on PBL in social studies and literacy education, two examples of successful social studies/literacy PBL units, and conclude with tips for developing social studies and literacy projects in classrooms.
... Photo by Nell Duke choices because "the lunch people are getting really picky." Bon... more ... Photo by Nell Duke choices because "the lunch people are getting really picky." Bonnie also established opportunities for students to use written language as a tool for recording. ... IIIIII "Y" Photo by Nell Duke Purpose: Literary response and interpretation Responding to literature. ...
Data from several different sources converge on the point that informational text is scarce in pr... more Data from several different sources converge on the point that informational text is scarce in primary-grade classrooms. One such source of data is the analyses of the text genres represented in basal reading series. The proportions we found reported in studies within the last two decades ranged from a high of 33.8 percent factual articles in eight basal reading series for grade 2 (Schmidt, Caul, Byers, & Buchman, 1984) to a low of 12 percent nonfiction in five basal reading series for grade 1 (Hoffman et al., 1994). In the most recent analysis of which we are aware, Moss and Newton (1998) examined six grade-2 basal reading series, copyright 1995 to 1997. They found a mean of 16 percent of selections that could be classified as informational literature.
How can an automated tutor assess children's spoken responses despite imperfect speech recognitio... more How can an automated tutor assess children's spoken responses despite imperfect speech recognition? We address this challenge in the context of tutoring children in explicit strategies for reading comprehension. We report initial progress on collecting, annotating, and mining their spoken responses. Collection and annotation yield authentic but sparse data, which we use to synthesize additional realistic data. We train and evaluate a classifier to estimate the probability that a response mentions a given target.
... [email protected] Nell K. Duke, EdD, is associate professor of teacher educa-tion and educationa... more ... [email protected] Nell K. Duke, EdD, is associate professor of teacher educa-tion and educational psychology and codirector of the Literacy Achievement Research ... (Beck & McKeown 2001), comprehension (Dickinson & Smith 1994), vocabulary (Wasik & Bond 2001), and ...
In this article, Michael Pressley, Nell Duke, and Erica Boling discuss the impact various scienti... more In this article, Michael Pressley, Nell Duke, and Erica Boling discuss the impact various scientific approaches have on early reading instruction research. The authors call for a second generation of scientifically based reading instruction that goes beyond the experimental, quasi-experimental, correlations, and qualitative designs currently informing public policy. The authors argue that the federal government's position on what constitutes "scientific research" embraces only a narrow range of potentially effective instruction. If this definition is expanded, educational policy, including for early reading instruction, can be much more successful.
In this Critical Issues, we argue that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should chan... more In this Critical Issues, we argue that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should change in response to the growing diversification of epistemologies and methods employed in literacy research. We assert that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should be aimed at developing students who understand and appreciate a broad range of research epistemologies and methods. We suggest ways in which coursework related to research methods and epistemologies, research apprenticeships and mentoring, and the reading and writing of literacy research might intensify and adjust to meet this aim. We contend that whether our field will be characterized by methodological fragmentation or ecological balance will depend in large part on how we prepare future literacy researchers.
This cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with p... more This cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with professional development supports on social studies and literacy achievement and motivation of second-grade students from low–socioeconomic status school districts. At random in within-school pairs, 48 teachers were assigned to the experimental or comparison group. Experimental group teachers were asked to teach four project-based learning units designed to address nearly all social studies and some literacy standards. Comparison group teachers were asked to teach social studies as they normally would except to teach a target number of lessons. The experimental group showed higher growth in social studies and informational reading but not writing or motivation. Greater consistency with project-based learning session plans was associated with higher growth in writing, motivation, and reading.
The collection of papers represented in the Integrative Research Review responds to the question:... more The collection of papers represented in the Integrative Research Review responds to the question: How can we study children’s/youth’s out of school experiences to inform classroom practices? Using a variety of lenses to address the question, the authors consider how to understand, respond to, and serve children and youth in a variety of contexts. Duke explores a quasi-experimental design showing the potential impact on student achievement and motivation in schools that incorporate literacy practices from children’s lives outside of school compared to the traditional curriculum. Bloome and Faust take a philosophical approach to explore the languaging of the relationship between students’ out-of-school lives and classroom practices and its implications for the construction of personhood by examining one classroom event from a microethnographic discourse analysis perspective. GarcĂa-Sánchez highlights the methodological features that allow linguistic anthropologists to make visible the...
This study examined the role of science domain knowledge, reading motivation, and decoding skills... more This study examined the role of science domain knowledge, reading motivation, and decoding skills in reading comprehension achievement in third-grade students who are English learners (ELs) and students who are monolingual, using a nationally representative data set. Multigroup probit regression analyses showed that third-grade science domain knowledge and motivation for reading, decoding skills, and early attainment of decoding skills were significantly associated with third-grade reading comprehension in both language groups. Also, using Wald chi-square tests, the study showed that the association between third-grade science domain knowledge and reading comprehension was stronger in students who were ELs than in students who were monolingual. These findings suggest that cultivating science domain knowledge is very important to supporting reading comprehension development in third grade, particularly for students who are ELs.
The popularity of project-based learning has been driven in part by a growing number of STEM scho... more The popularity of project-based learning has been driven in part by a growing number of STEM schools and programs. But STEM subjects are not the only fertile ground for project-based learning (PBL). Social studies and literacy content, too, can be adapted into PBL units to benefit teaching and learning, the authors argue. They review key studies on PBL in social studies and literacy education, two examples of successful social studies/literacy PBL units, and conclude with tips for developing social studies and literacy projects in classrooms.
... Photo by Nell Duke choices because "the lunch people are getting really picky." Bon... more ... Photo by Nell Duke choices because "the lunch people are getting really picky." Bonnie also established opportunities for students to use written language as a tool for recording. ... IIIIII "Y" Photo by Nell Duke Purpose: Literary response and interpretation Responding to literature. ...
Data from several different sources converge on the point that informational text is scarce in pr... more Data from several different sources converge on the point that informational text is scarce in primary-grade classrooms. One such source of data is the analyses of the text genres represented in basal reading series. The proportions we found reported in studies within the last two decades ranged from a high of 33.8 percent factual articles in eight basal reading series for grade 2 (Schmidt, Caul, Byers, & Buchman, 1984) to a low of 12 percent nonfiction in five basal reading series for grade 1 (Hoffman et al., 1994). In the most recent analysis of which we are aware, Moss and Newton (1998) examined six grade-2 basal reading series, copyright 1995 to 1997. They found a mean of 16 percent of selections that could be classified as informational literature.
How can an automated tutor assess children's spoken responses despite imperfect speech recognitio... more How can an automated tutor assess children's spoken responses despite imperfect speech recognition? We address this challenge in the context of tutoring children in explicit strategies for reading comprehension. We report initial progress on collecting, annotating, and mining their spoken responses. Collection and annotation yield authentic but sparse data, which we use to synthesize additional realistic data. We train and evaluate a classifier to estimate the probability that a response mentions a given target.
... [email protected] Nell K. Duke, EdD, is associate professor of teacher educa-tion and educationa... more ... [email protected] Nell K. Duke, EdD, is associate professor of teacher educa-tion and educational psychology and codirector of the Literacy Achievement Research ... (Beck & McKeown 2001), comprehension (Dickinson & Smith 1994), vocabulary (Wasik & Bond 2001), and ...
In this article, Michael Pressley, Nell Duke, and Erica Boling discuss the impact various scienti... more In this article, Michael Pressley, Nell Duke, and Erica Boling discuss the impact various scientific approaches have on early reading instruction research. The authors call for a second generation of scientifically based reading instruction that goes beyond the experimental, quasi-experimental, correlations, and qualitative designs currently informing public policy. The authors argue that the federal government's position on what constitutes "scientific research" embraces only a narrow range of potentially effective instruction. If this definition is expanded, educational policy, including for early reading instruction, can be much more successful.
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Papers by Nell K. Duke