Connecting the Dots in a Research Program to Develop,Implement, and Evaluate Strategic Literacy Interventions for Struggling Readers and Writers

This article follows the development of three literacy programs that were designed by researchers at Michigan State University to support struggling readers and writers. The literacy interventions focus on strategy instruction in both writing and reading, and they culminate in the development of an integrated reading‐writing program to support the acquisition of read‐to‐learn and write‐to‐learn strategies in the content areas. The common thread that unifies the programs is an emphasis on text structure instruction with the provision of instructional scaffolds to support students' participation in a literacy discourse and strategies in advance of independent performance.     

Untangling the jungle of e-journal access issues using CRM software

Librarians have been struggling for years with the variety of issues arising while troubleshooting access to electronic journals. This article outlines the advantages and disadvantages of using a Customer Relations Management (CRM) software, originally designed for a call center, to communicate with patrons and track access issues. Utilizing the e-mail software used by the Reference Department at the University of South Florida, we assign incidents, correspond with patrons and staff, write internal notes, maintain transactions, and pull statistics. Hopefully, library vendors will develop software oriented to the needs of libraries to assist in managing access problems for e-journals.     

6岁儿童的类别学习能力: 类别表征、注意和分类策略

在实验室条件下对人类的学习进行心理学研究,通常的做法是在一定时间内让被试习得一项新的世界知识,因此类别学习成了主要的任务范式,一直是认知心理学最热点的研究领域之一。首先,梳理了类别学习的认知和神经研究;然后,分析了皮质—纹状体回路与类别学习的关系,进而提出类别学习的神经机制是以基底核为纽带,皮质—纹状体的四条回路为实现途径的理论设想;最后,讨论了如何从学习条件、学习过程和学习结果三方面去探讨类别学习的认知神经机制。     

Untangling the effects of shared book reading: Multiple factors and their associations with preschool literacy outcomes

Evidence strongly suggests that shared book reading at home and in preschool is important for young children's development of the foundational skills required for the eventual mastery of decoding and comprehension. Yet the nuances of how learning from book reading might vary across these contexts and with children's skills are not well understood. One hundred and thirty children participating in a longitudinal investigation of literacy development were videotaped reading a storybook with a parent. Children were also videotaped in their 33 preschool classrooms during the instructional book-reading portion of the day. Readings were coded for adult and child contextualized and decontextualized language relating to both decoding and meaning-making skills, and relations between this talk and emergent literacy outcomes were analyzed. Results demonstrate that parents and teachers overwhelmingly focus their book-related talk on meaning-related rather than code-related information, and that the relations between outcomes and talk depend in part on children's initial levels of vocabulary skills. Implications for practice and research are discussed.