English teaching – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Teaching literature in the multicultural classroom

1. Introduction This Teaching and Learning Initiative (TLRI) research project explored ways of teaching literature effectively in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. It involved primary and secondary school teacher-researchers working in partnership with university-based researchers over two years on a series of case studies, within an action research framework. The case studies involved classroom-based interventions carried out by individual teachers and developed collaboratively with the larger project group. 1.1 The project context The project took as its starting point two contextual factors: The New Zealand classroom, at primary and secondary levels, is becoming more multicultural and multilingual. In a number of ways schools and teachers are under increased pressure to find constructive

Developing teacher–researcher partnerships to investigate best practices: Literacy learning and teaching in content areas of the secondary school

1. Literature review This literature review is intended to provide a background to the project undertaken and described in this report. In essence the project seeks to apply a research-based model of literacy instruction developed in New Zealand to investigate the efficacy of the model in raising student achievement. It is our intention to do so using collaborative teacher and researcher partnerships in order to investigate and interrogate the ways in which the model can respond to the needs of specific students, teachers, and schools. This being the case, the literature on adolescent literacy is reviewed, effective instructional approaches are evaluated, and the outcomes of “successful” interventions are described. Secondly, we

A collaborative self-study into the development and integration of critical literacy practices

1. Introduction This report discusses findings from a two-year Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI)funded project entitled A collaborative self-study into the development and integration of critical literacy practices. During this time, 2006–7, four Dunedin primary schools and one secondary school, involving a total of 16 teachers, took part in the project. The participating teachers became familiar with the literature on the theory and practice of critical literacy and developed, implemented, and evaluated critical literacy strategies in their regular classroom programmes. Critical literacy has a long history and a number of different theoretical influences (Larson & Marsh, 2005). We use the term “critical literacy” to describe ways in which teachers and