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Biennial Award for anOutstanding Thesis on LiteracyThe Literacy Association of Ireland invites Graduate Students from Education, Special Education,Psychology and related disciplines to apply for LAI’s 6 th biennial award for an outstanding Master’sthesis.Award: LAI Medal & €500This award is open to those who have submitted OR who plan to submit a Master’s thesis in the areaof literacy between:2 nd September 2013 and 1 st September 2015Applicants must submit, by 15 h July, 2015:1) A 3,000 word summary of the thesis in hardcopy and a PDF attachment via email. (Do notinclude any identifying details on this file: e.g. your name/supervisor/institution).2) A separate note from the Supervisor of the thesis supporting the submissionShortlisting will take place (according to criteria below) and finalists will make a short presentation(15-20 mins) of their research at the Literacy Association of Ireland Annual Conference to be heldon 24 th Sept – 26 th Sept 2015 at the Marino College of Education, Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9.Shortlisted applicants are ineligible to present additional papers on their thesis research at the conference.3) A single sheet separate from the summary with the thesis title, author’s name and contact details.Send to: Eithne Kennedy, Literacy Asociation of Ireland, Outstanding Thesis on Literacy, c/o EducationDept., St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. email: eithne.kennedy@.dcu.ieThesis summaries will be evaluated by an independent panel convened by the Literacy Associationof Ireland according to criteria which will include: (a) relevance and significance of the researchquestion (s); (b) Quality of theoretical/conceptual rationale; (c) Appropriateness of research design;(d) Significance of the research findings/contribution to the field; (e) Clarity of writing and organisationof summary (f) Breadth of references. In addition, the communicative clarity of the presentationat the conference will be considered. Shortlisted finalists will be notified by September 14th. If two ormore theses are deemed by the judges to be of equal quality, the award may be shared. The winner(s) will be presented with the award (s) at the end of the LAI conference. Applicants must be currentmembers of LAI.26
The Popcorn Initiative: The Use of Kindles to MotivateBoys to Readby Denise Mitchell, Jill Dunn and Terry Leatham, Stranmillis University College, BelfastResearch (Purvis, 2011; Shirlow, 2012; Nolan, 2014) indicates an educational underperformance ofboys from working class protestant areas in Northern Ireland. The 2011 GCSE figures, indicate thatonly 19.7% of protestant boys, from these areas are achieving 5 GCSE grades A* - C (DENI 2012).The underperformance starts in the early years of schooling and is most evident in literacy with resultsshowing that only 14.78% of boys meet Level Three reading targets compared with 22.58 % ofgirls (CCEA , 2013).In order to enhance literacy learning there has been a recent growth in use of e-readers with Rainie(2012) indicating that there are four times more people reading e-books on a typical day now thanwas the case less than two years ago. Good and Sinek (2013) agree that the percentage of childrenwho have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%). They report that half ofchildren age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access toebooks..Doiron (2011) states that educators need to understand the motivational influence of thesedigital tools and to accept them as positive and useful in promoting positive reading habits. Educators,according to Barack (2011), are now exploring how Kindles and other e-readers can mesh withcurricula and enhance learning and they believe that the educational payoff could be huge.A primary school in a protestant area of inner city Belfast decided to pilot an initiative using Kindlesto motivate Year 7 boys to read a novel. The initiative ran from the end of April to mid-June in thesummer term of 2014. The initial book chosen for the Kindle was ‘Danny Champion of the World’ asit was thought this story would appeal to boys. The boys were asked to read the Kindles each nightand also for 20 mins each day during silent reading time after lunch. The boys were required to reada target percentage per week and every Friday there was a discussion based on the chapters readthat week. When the book was finished the movie based on the book was viewed in school. Thenovel and film were then compared and contrasted through a written exercise. On completion eachboy received 2 cinema tickets.The methodology chosen included questionnaires to 18 boys in Year 7 before the Initiative started.These were followed by interviews with 2 focus groups of boys (12 boys) from each Year 7 class inApril 2014 and at the end of the pilot in June 2014. Interviews were also conducted in June 2014with both Year 7 teachers and with the school Principal.The research project set out to examine the boys’ attitudes to reading and findings indicate that theboys all recognized the importance of reading for their education and future employment and themajority of those surveyed and interviewed claimed that they like reading. The boys were alsoknowledgeable about authors and books they would like to read. However, for many of the boysreading is not perceived as a priority activity.27
Page 1: August MenuBistro Steak with Walnut
Page 4 and 5: Launch of Literacy Association of I
Page 6 and 7: Launch of the Literacy Association
Page 8 and 9: More than a Name Change: the Intern
Page 12 and 13: School of Education, UCC & Reading
Page 14 and 15: Metalinguistic Awareness (continued
Page 16 and 17: Conclusions and RecommendationsMeta
Page 18 and 19: When do we need to teach vocabulary
Page 20 and 21: ReferencesVocabulary Instruction (c
Page 22 and 23: National Assessment of English Read
Page 24 and 25: Language Bus (continued)In Gene Mei
Page 28 and 29: Another aim of the research was to
Page 30 and 31: Language, Literacy and Literature:

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