Elizabeth L. Jaeger

Bio: Elizabeth L. Jaeger is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mediation & Curriculum. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 1 citations.

Learning through Responsive and Collaborative Mediation in a Tutoring Context

Abstract: Early in the US Common Core State Standards (CCSS) document, the authors state that the standards should be read 'as allowing for the widest possible range of students to participate fully from the outset' (NGACBP & CCSSO, 2010, p. 6). Standards from other countries also emphasise this sense of inclusiveness (e.g., ACARA, 2016). The students expected to 'participate fully' should include vulnerable readers--those readers who are unusually sensitive to disruptions in their literacy ecology--as they attempt to negotiate these new standards (Jaeger, 2015). Strong, differentiated classroom curriculum is key to progress for all students (Jones, Yssel & Grant, 2012). It appears, however, that a significant number of students will require additional support if they are to succeed, and a subset of these approximately will need intensive tutoring. The purpose of this paper is to describe a tutoring study conducted in an urban primary school with three fourth grade students who exhibited key strengths in reading, but also important challenges. This article focuses, in particular, on one child who was a fluent decoder, but struggled to make meaning from text. I argue that this partnership was effective for two major reasons: the tutor developed a curriculum in response to the specific needs of the child and collaborated with the learner to decide what objectives and practices would best meet his needs, what instructional tools would mediate his learning (Vygotsky, 1978), and how they would measure progress. Evidence suggests that the tutoring the child received as part of this study supported his literacy growth. After describing the theoretical framework employed here, I review recent literature on tutoring protocols. Details regarding implementation of the study and findings resulting from it follow. Theoretical framework In his seminal text, Mind in Society, Vygotsky (1978) argued that, in contrast to elementary forms of behaviour in which the subject/object link is direct, all higher psychological functions (such as literacy) are mediated. That is, the link between the subject and object of the activity is an indirect one with tools facilitating the outcome. These tools may be material, symbolic and/or human/relational. The subject employs these tools to secure an object s/he could not otherwise attain, as is the case when a child uses a chair (material tool) to reach a desired item, or asks (symbolic tool) a taller friend (human/relational tool) to procure it. As subjects become more sophisticated in their tool utilisation, they take advantage of a greater number and variety of tools, employ tools with greater mediational potential, and internalise strategies for the use of those tools (Cole, 1996). Returning to the example above, the child may find that a step stool is an alternative if no chair is available (increase in number and variety of material tools), a note may be more effective if the taller friend is busy at present (a symbolic tool with more mediational potential), and a 'list' of those willing to help in similar situations may be committed to memory for future retrieval (internalisation of a human/ relational tool). Engestrom (1987) provides a visual representation of mediation (see Figure 1). Within the realm of literacy learning, the child is the subject and meaning-making is the object. Texts serve as tools, as do lessons/relationships occurring between the child and the teacher, with enriched meaning-making as the ideal outcome (see Figure 2). Literature review Research literature that addresses the tools, objects, and outcomes of mediation of literacy learning occurring in the tutoring context is a relevant foundation for the study described in this article. After reviewing this literature, I will describe the limitations within it and the ways the current study fills those gaps. Studies published from 1998 through 2017 were selected for this review if they: (a) described an intervention in which the teacher-to-student ratio was 1:1 or 1:2, (b) included participants who were in first through eighth grade at the time of the study, (c) demonstrated positive literacy outcomes as assessed by measures that examined the act of reading in its entirety rather than skills in isolation (e. …

Initiation, Response, Follow-up and Beyond: Analyzing Dialogue Around Difficulty in a Tutorial Setting

Abstract: With the advent of Common Core-based assessments, and resulting concerns about academic achievement, more and more students may require the level of instructional intensity tutoring affords. The extent of knowledge regarding the discourse that occurs within the tutoring context is, however, limited. As a result, it is difficult to envision and implement a protocol that incorporates responsive tutor/tutee interaction. This article describes an analysis of discourse patterns that occur as a tutor responded to student difficulty. The study is framed using Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue—the ways in which interactions are influenced by the joint speaker/listener identity that is characteristic of interlocutors—and the way this played out in a dialogic instructional context. Excerpts from eight previous tutoring studies served as a foundation for the present research. The primary data source for the analysis was start-to-finish audio-recordings of 40 hours of instruction with two fourth grade readers. After preliminary open coding, overarching categories such as questioning, providing information, and demonstrating strategy use—and more detailed codes within these categories—were applied to the transcripts. Major findings demonstrated that: (a) the tutor’s moves were varied and balanced and differed somewhat from child to child, (b) some interactional sequences appeared more effective than others depending on the topic and child, and (c) interactions in this setting differed in important ways from those found in the research literature. I argue here that the dialogic characteristics of tutor/tutee interactions served the children involved and should serve as the basis for additional tutoring protocols.

Examining the paradoxes children experience in language and literacy learning

Abstract: Abstract Paradoxes are particularly problematic in literacy as they often complicate learning. However, identifying and examining them can also tell us something about the inherent problems within social, political, and educational systems. This paper reports on an analysis of a total of 205 AJLL articles and editorials, published between 2011 and 2021. The purpose of the study was to identify the paradoxes associated with student language and literacy learning. The systematic literature review identified 311 instances of paradoxes across these 205 articles. Thirty instances of paradoxical terminology associated with student literacy learning were selected from the 311 instances. The excluded 271 instances of paradox were associated with policy contexts, teacher performance, and accountabilities, which are outside the scope of this article. The research in the 205 articles found that literacy learning was shaped by the skills of literacy learning, the complexity of student learning through standardised approaches, and textual plurality. The contexts of literacy learning spanned the virtual and real, the implications of national testing on local situations, and the changing nature of text and what it means to be literate. This review identified that students negotiate paradoxes associated with the risks of standardised testing, the narrowing of the writing curriculum, and understanding the variety of textual forms and practices. Identifying and examining these paradoxes will help address some of the persistent problems in literacy learning faced by students and teachers.

The Potential for Common Core and Response to Intervention as Intersecting Initiatives: Supporting Readers Who Struggle with High-Level Standards

Abstract: Educators have, to this point, largely viewed the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) as important but unrelated initiatives. This view is problematic because it fails to acknowledge the potential for RtI to support readers who struggle to meet sophisticated standards and because it fails to attend to ways in which a focus on CCSS enriches RtI programs that are typically characterized by isolated skills instruction. The purpose of this article is to explore opportunities for integrating these initiatives by incorporating the CCSS at each level of RtI. Curriculum based on grade-level CCSS serves as the foundation for Tier 1. Screening to determine which students need additional support also occurs at this level. These students attend targeted Tier 2 classes which focus on off-level CCSS within specific areas of reading such as multi-syllable decoding or retelling, and remain in the regular classroom when a class addresses an area of reading that is a strength for them. Finally, results of Tier 1 unit assessments, the screening measure, and Tier 2 progress monitoring assessments are employed to determine which children need the intense level of support offered by Tier 3 tutoring. I argue here that careful integration of CCSS and RtI levels allows for high levels of achievement for all students.