LITERACY STUDIES NEWS! Hofstra University | Literacy Studies Program | Newsletter Volume 1

Hofstra Literacy Studies Program

August 14, 2021

LITERACY STUDIES NEWS! Hofstra University | Literacy Studies Program | Newsletter Volume 1 |

Congratulations to Our 2020/2021 Graduates MSED Literacy Studies Amanda Green, Logan Kravitz, Gregory Lofaro, Colleen McKewon, Diana Perez, Yasmin Santana, Kimberly Shapiro, Allison Simmons & Samantha Stilwagen MA Literacy Studies Jessica Weintraub Advanced Certificate Jennifer Ragona & Marci Shlagbaum

Congratulation to the Doctoral Students Dr. Cory Doyle, Countertexts: Why We Write on Wals.

Dr. Shelita Watkis, Multimodal and Multi Literacy Practices of Beginner English Language Learners.

Dr. Melissa McMullan, Unpacking Reily: The Revaluing of a Reader, Writer and Human.

Dr. Gina Sipley, Literacy Practices of Lurkers in Facebook.

Dr. Tashima Spence-Davis, Writing to learn fom a Place of Relevance: Sharing Life Experience while Exploring Biographic Writing.

Presentation Celebration Pre-COVID

The 2020/2021 School Year: Literacy Studies Faculty and Students Creating Virtual Communities of Literacy Learning During COVID-19 In March, 2020 COVID-19 upended the Hofstra University school year. Both the Literacy Studies faculty and our Literacy Studies students who are public school educators quickly transitioned to virtual classrooms. The Literacy Studies faculty’s commitment to developing scholar-practitioners who understand contemporary demands and quality literacy instruction was realized. Both the faculty and the students responded professionally to their new realities and created virtual communities using current pedagogical and technological designs to ensure their students received academic learning and the enhanced emotional support that was needed during this time of COVID. These realities of teaching and living during a pandemic became central topics of discussion in the Literacy Studies courses both at the Master’s and Doctoral degree levels.

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Cory Doyle Virtual Dissertation Defense

Alumni News Michelle Iadevaia-Pavelka (MSED 2015): Teaching 5th Grade in the Hicksville School District Carolyn McCarthy (MSED 2015): Teaching 3K in Howard Beach, Queens PS336.

Ariel Adrian (MSED 2015): Reading Specialist at Wantagh Middle School, Wantagh School District & Doctoral Student.

August 14, 2021

LYST 304, Professional Development: The Role of the Literacy Specialist, is a course designed to prepare students in the role literacy specialists play as professional developers.

The capstone project of the course involves each student in preparing a professional development presentation. During the 2020/2021 school year the graduate students in the course were also teaching virtually/hybrid across the grade levels of Early Childhood to High School. Their expertise of online platforms became the focus of their professional development presentations, and allowed all students to build a repertoire of authentic literacy learning examples for classroom contexts, both virtual and in-person. These professional development projects included Seesaw, a learning journal for early childhood classrooms, PadLet, an online tool that allows students and teachers to collaborate, FlipGrid, a video sharing platform for students to share reading and writing experiences, Kandinsky, a platform that allows for multimodal responses to books, and digital storyteling, a way to integrate the art of writing with digital composition and video making. These presentations were completed via zoom to the Literacy Studies faculty who were proud to celebrate the accomplishments and expertise of the Literacy Studies students.

Matthew Smithers teaching 10th & 12th grade Social Studies, Humanities and the Arts High School, Queens & Literacy Specialist Saltzman Reading, Writing & Learning Clinic, Hofstra University Dr. Serena Troiani- 5th grade teacher at Guggenheim Elementary School, Port Washington, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Queens College.

Dr. Louise Shaw- Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Learning/Graduate Reading Program at Southern Connecticut State University.

PadLet Example Used With First Graders

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Literacy Studies Practicum involves graduate interns in their final coursework of the program offering literacy support to students in surrounding districts (Hempstead, Uniondale, Roosevelt) through the Reading/Writing Learning Clinic. In March, 2020 the Literacy Practicum also went virtual with graduate interns providing on-line tutorials and small group instruction via zoom. The virtual classroom allowed the faculty and graduate intern teachers to be creative in exploring how to use a range of on-line resources for reading and writing support. Parent interviews were added to the internship, an advantage to the zoom platform. The on-line practicum - which continued through Summer, 2020 and the 2020/2021 academic school year, was possible due to the tireless dedication of Michele Marx, who contacted parents individually, met with IT to establish zoom guidelines, and coordinated a complex schedule with each intern meeting with students several times a week. Practicum instructors Christine Hamischfeger, Lori Rosendale, and Debra Goodman were all engaged in moving the practicum from weekly group meetings to on-line individual and small group support.

Literacy Practicum Spring 2020 With Dr. Debra Goodman and Michele Marx

Overall, the flexibility, generosity, and professionalism that was shown by the supportive community of the Literacy Studies Program faculty and staff made the 2020/2021 school year a rich learning experience for all the Literacy Studies Students and provided important experiences and preparation for teaching in the 21st century.

Literacy Studies International Scholar’s Forum: Revolution in Reading: Legacy of Ken Goodman (April 9 & 10, 2021)

The Literacy Studies program took advantage of the distance learning environment to host a special virtual International Scholar’s Forum in April, 2021. The forum included 20 scholars, many returning Page 3

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to Hofstra from previous Literacy Studies conferences. The Keynote speaker, Brian Cambourne, joined us from Australia, while additional speakers attended from Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina, Louisiana, Missouri in addition to New York, and Literacy Studies faculty Debi Goodman and Alan Flurkey. The virtual platform attracted an audience of over 100 participants in the field of literacy studies zooming in from as far as Bahrain. Literacy Studies graduate students and alumni were able to interact with world renown scholars as part of a 1 s.h. course or professional development opportunity.

Ken Goodman

Faculty and Alumni Accomplishments Publications 2020/2021: Flurkey, A., Goodman, D. & Murphy, K. (2021). Miscue Analysis and a Reading Revolution. Talking Points. 32(2), 2-14.

Flurkey, A. (2020). Revaluing readers with RMA: Miscue analysis as handwork. In K.F. Whitmore & R.J. Meyer, Eds. Reclaiming Literacies as Meaning-Making:Manifestations of Values, Identities, Relationships and Knowledge. New York: Routledge. Pp. 148-158.

Goodman, D. & Saliani, E. (2020.) Revaluing writers and writing through advocacy biographic profiles. In K.F. Whitmore & R.J. Meyer, Eds. Reclaiming Literacies as MeaningMaking:Manifestations of Values, Identities, Relationships and Knowledge. New York: Routledge.

Goodman, D. & Saliani, E. (2020.) Biographic Profiles: Implications for Pedagogy. In K.F. Whitmore & R.J. Meyer, Eds. Reclaiming Literacies as Meaning-Making:Manifestations of Values, Identities, Relationships and Knowledge. New York: Routledge.

McGinnis, T. (2021). “Nos Somos Emigrantes Non Defraudadores”: Central American immigrant youth exploring linguistic and political borders in a U.S. high school through multimedia narrativity. In D. Warriner (Ed.) Refugee Education Across the Lifespan: Mapping Experiences of Language Learning and Use, pp. 307-324. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

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McGinnis, T. & Garcia A. (2020). “The Rough Writerz”: Young adolescent boys exploring constructing and recreating racial identities in an after-school writing program. In S. Stacki, M. Caskey & S. Mertens (Eds.). Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Intersecting New Needs and New Approaches, The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

McGinnis, T. (2020). Transmediation as a powerful tool to promote a social and political process for Central American immigrant U.S. high school students. Talking Points, 32(1).

Percle,A. Arrington, L., Flurkey, A. Damico, H., Weill, C. Damico, J. & Nelson, R. (2020). Illuminating the complexity of oral reading fluency: A multiple lens approach. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice. 20, 1-19.

Radice, L. (2020) Pedagogical responses to technology in the middle level classroom: The influence of digital tools on instructional methodologies and learning practices. In S. Stacki, M. Caskey & S. Mertens (Eds.). Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Intersecting New Needs and New Approaches, The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Presentations 2020/2021: “Yes, we learn to read through reading (and writing): A conversation about the “Science of Reading” Debra Goodman, Alan Flurkey, Deborah MacPhee, Pat Paugh, Sherry Sanden.

Live session via Zoom, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), November 2020.

Publication by: Lorraine Radice, PhD Alumna

Wonder, Reading & Play (WRaP): One district rethinks homework and explores meaningful learning experiences after-school. Debra Goodman, Rosebud Elijah, Lorraine Radice, Christina Borelli. Presented via live webinar. Languages, Literacies for All (LLA). July 2021.

Revaluing Writers and Writing through Advocacy Biographic Profiles. Elisabeth Costa Saliani and Debra Goodman. Roundtable session – live via zoom. Languages, Literacies for All (LLA). July 2021.

Looking Forward to the 2021/2022 Academic Year!

Doctoral Student Research The doctoral students taking the Literacy Studies qualitative research courses during the 2020/2021 academic year found the demands COVID-19 put on them as public-school educators and/or as parents of young children could not be separated from their research interests. Their research explored how parents and children were responding to the experiences of virtual learning, and how students’ learning and emotional needs were being met during home-schooling. We look forward to several of the students presenting and publishing their research this coming year. For example, Jennifer Ferrentino and Kerry Jones-Golembeski are collaborating on an article for publication examining the realities of their students’ experiences with virtual learning. Their students who are English Language Learners and Special Education students bring an important awareness to some of the necessary support that was provided to them and their families during this time. Meanwhile,

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Qi Zhang is working on an article based on her home schooling of her son during the pandemic entitled, Constructing Meaning through LEGO City: An Exploration of a Pre-Schooler’s Home Learning.

Qi Zhang’s Doctoral Research Project

Upcoming Events 2021/2022 * TheAnnual Doctoral Celebration Dinner * The Literature and the Imagination Conference * The Celebration of the Professional Development Presentations of our MSED students * Seeing in-person our creative and engaging community of Literacy Studies students * For updates on Literacy Studies news and events visit our FaceBook Page, Literacy Studies Program Hofstra University, @HofstraLiteracyStudies * For questions about the Literacy Studies Masters Degree Programs contact Dr. Theresa McGinnis at theresa.a.mcginnis@hofstra.edu * For questions about the Literacy Studies Doctoral Programs contact Dr. Jeanne Henry at Jeanne.M.Henry@hofstra.edu

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