This article addresses tensions between how researchers have conceptualized and operationalized adolescent reading motivation and how a group of Black girl readers perceive and enact reading motivation. Through a grounded theory approach, this qualitative study offers an initial exploration into mapping a race-reimaged reading motivation construct…

This study explored the literacy engagement of Hispanic rising seventh grade adolescents during a summer literacy program. Using a participatory social justice mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2018), students' voices were used to design and refine an instructional model proposed to increase their level of engagement in literacy…

This action research study examined the impact of a summer literacy program on summer reading setback. Gaining Ground is a summer intervention program designed primarily for economically disadvantaged students in Grades K-5. By granting access to self-selected books and implementing project-based curriculum, Gaining Ground aims to improve reading…

We explored how a group of 105 diverse middle-school students self-assessed their work as readers and writers during a summer enrichment program. Findings from the study revealed hauntings related to youth perceptions of language and literacy, evidence of a ghostly presence of standard language ideology. In the self-assessments, youth discussed…

Freedom School Partners is a six-week summer program that has served the Charlotte, NC area since 2004. The purpose of this report is to present the external evaluation and findings of the six-week program in the summer of 2022. This evaluation is a joint effort between the Centers for Adolescent Literacies (CAL) and the Center for Educational…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative exploration study was to determine if there was a statistically and practically significant effect of an educational program on summer learning loss in reading and mathematics in grades five and six students. Also, the study aimed to determine whether growth was impacted by demographic variables…

This paper examines literacy engagement of plurilingual students from bilingual programmes. The mixed-methods research was a formative home intervention with Grade 4-6 Extended French and French Immersion students during the summer. The students were reading for pleasure in L1, writing summaries and participating in weekly discussions, which…

This article examines the power of composing images as students construct identities and shape their own worlds. It illustrates student empowerment through agency, intellectual engagement, and community investment and suggests that composing with images forms a bridge back to alphabetic-centric composing.

This article presents a pilot interdisciplinary project for middle-school students including visual literacy, studio art, English-language literacy, geology and the study of indigenous groups. The location of the pilot was in the upper Midwest, along the Mississippi river bluffs of St. Paul, Minnesota. English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) students…

In this quasi-experimental design study, I investigated the impact of a current summer literacy approach on writing performance and writer self-perception of urban Housing Authority children. In addition, current campers and former CampUs Scholarship recipients provided feedback about personal experiences as well as shared the potential impact of…

In this paper I examine the literacy work of three African American young women (through data drawn from a larger qualitative study), particularly their ways of knowing, such as double consciousness (Du Bois, 1989), and the multiple subject positions they occupy as they write themselves into a digitally created story. My analysis is guided by the…

In response to requests from out-of-school time (OST) providers, the authors have created this practitioner's guidebook for integrating adolescent literacy development initiatives into a wide variety of OST programs. As readers will discover in subsequent chapters, the authors' definition of adolescent literacy development represents a…