Center of Excellence for the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades

Research Design & Methodology

Year 1 of this study includes several components:

First, English/language arts, special education, and social studies teachers of two middle schools participated in two, two-day professional development institutes. During the first institute in August 2006, teachers were introduced to new literacies and learned theories and relevant pedagogies. In the second institute in January 2007, teachers holistically reflected on their work in collective study groups and in their classrooms. They learned and designed new literacies teaching strategies that they planned to further explore in collective study groups and in their classrooms throughout the next semester.

Second, teachers participated in bimonthly collective study groups and met with a trained facilitator to discuss new literacies readings and to explore new literacy teaching strategies. During these meetings, they examined connections between new literacies strategies, students' areas of literacy struggles, and relevant standards. They shared results of their implementation of new literacies strategies using student artifacts and notes, discussed perceptions of the instructional strategies, and collectively decided on a course of action to apply new content.

The third component of the study addresses middle school teachers' and students perceptions and uses of new literacies as well as relations to student performance. Baseline data gathered in Year 1 addressed teachers' and students' perceptions, uses, understandings, and performances using new literacies strategies of texts in in-school contexts.

The data have been analyzed qualitatively using Freebody and Luke's (1990) Four Resources model. Within this model, literacy competencies are grouped by four dimensions or resources. These dimensions include: code breaker, text participant, text user, and text analyst.