"EFF HOT (Highlights on Teaching Topics) Topics" is a publication of the EFF (Equipped for the Future) Center for Training and Technical Assistance. Each issue concentrates on a specific topic, highlighting examples of actual practice and offering strategies and tools for using EFF in the classroom. In this issue, "HOT Topics" focuses on the EFF…

This issue of "EFF Voice" was assembled by the staff to share with their readers some of the ways their partners are using Equipped for the Future (EFF) to help adults build the skills they need to be successful in the workforce today. Readers will learn about how states like New Jersey are using EFF to craft a common vision and a common set of…

This June 2003 issue of "Federal Literacy Facts" contains the following sections: (1) Parliamentary Committee Releases Groundbreaking Report on Literacy; (2) Key Recommendations from the Report; (3) Literacy Community's Strength Influences Committee Members; (4) What's Next: Where Do the Recommendations Go from Here?

This report describes a project originally intended to identify demographic patterns among adults with low literacy skills in each Canadian province. The project was carried out between March 2000 and June 2001 under the auspices of Movement for Canadian Literacy (MCL). The project was based on the assumption that demographic information about…

Discusses the quality of teacher-pupil dialogue in the guided reading session of the Literacy Hour and its relationship to pupils' powers of comprehension. Suggests that talk in this context is teacher-dominated. Argues that there is a case for making time available during the guided reading session for a period of discussion in which pupils are…

Focuses specifically on issues related to teacher scaffolding of pupils' learning in literacy and science. Pivots around three notions: scaffolding the processes of learning in classroom; the importance of this type of scaffolding for independent learning; and the idea of appropriateness as it relates to the level of scaffolding employed by the…

Examines the ways in which the interpretation of a literary text is constructed through social interaction in a multi-ethnic urban secondary school English classroom. Suggests that despite the exhaustive regulation of literacy and school English, some English teachers, while still curriculum and examination focused, have connections between texts…

Describes how Dutch primary school children used a computer-mediated discussion forum to discuss the concept of horror stories. Presents an ongoing empirical study in which the contributions to an electronic discussion forum from children working individually were compared to contributions from children working in dyads. Indicates that children…

Describes the outcomes of recent research on children's talk while engaged in joint literacy activities in primary school. Uses the results to discuss the value of classroom talk and computer-based activities for promoting children's literacy development. Shows how group discussion can help children's literacy development. (SG)

Describes how the Books Alive! Project is intended to build on the findings of existing research, to create innovative and exciting multimedia texts, known as talking books, which will support emergent reading, and also encourage the development of higher-order reading skills. Explains the background to the research, analyzes its initial findings…

Explores of the influences of social class on one adolescent's language and literacy practices as she moved from high school in an isolated rural community to college in an urban framework. Notes the student became alienated by college courses that did not acknowledge language competencies related to her status as a working-class person. Concludes…

Explains that as young readers respond to narrative texts in a variety of media, they repeatedly step in and out of the fictional universe of their different stories. Outlines contemporary texts that foster various forms of such border crossing, in and out of diegesis, the framework of events as narrated in the text. Explores how an awareness of…

Contends that a focus on social interaction in classrooms provides important perspectives on how teachers' and students' actions and the characteristics of the learning environment shape classroom interactions and outcomes. Identifies features of the classroom context that shape students' participation in the classroom literacy community. Explains…

Examines literacy practices in their sociohistorical contexts, drawing examples of religious reading practices and stances from Orthodox Jewish reading practices. Notes that religious reading practices highlight the repertoire of reading genres, strategies, and stances that members of modern multicultural societies learn to control. Concludes that…

Seeks to widen discussion about which forms of literacy are most appropriate for the education of children in the twenty-first century. Outlines the current debate about the changes to children's literacy practices. Argues that what is required from teachers is a transformative pedagogy. Notes how this would allow children's cultural interest to…