Building Their Stories: Electronic Case Studies of Struggling Readers

Ten university graduate students created electronic case studies describing the learning of struggling readers as a part of this study designed to yield insights about literacy education and the efficacy of electronic case study development. A variety of data, analyzed through a qualitative content analysis, revealed understandings regarding participants’ perceptions about themselves as learners, ideas about their influences on students, and revelations about literacy instruction. A final theme revealed that, as participants reflected upon their own learning; they also voiced a commitment to literacy teaching that went beyond their personal classroom settings. Further, researchers gained insights about how to better prepare literacy educators, as well as how to more effectively integrate technology into the case study process. Building Their Stories: Electronic Case Studies of Struggling Readers Terry S. Atkinson Sarah C. Williams East Carolina University Ten university graduate students created electronic case studies describing the learning of struggling readers as a part of this study designed to yield insights about literacy education and the efficacy of electronic case study development. A variety of data, analyzed through a qualitative content analysis, revealed understandings regarding participants'perceptions about themselves as learners, ideas about their influences on students, and revelations about literacy instruction. A final theme revealed that, as participants reflected upon their own learning; they also voiced a commitment to literacy teaching that went beyond their personal classroom settings. Further, researchers gained insights about how to better prepare literacy educators, as well as how to more effectively integrate technology into the case study process. 28 Reading Horizons, 2006, 47, (1) This study examined the process university graduate students used to create electronic case studies describing the learning of struggling readers. Data were collected during a semester-long capstone experience for two linked graduate literacy courses. In addition to analyzing the effectiveness of compiling such case studies electronically as compared with doing so in hard copy format, we examined participants' learning as both literacy educators and "emergent" technology students. "How should teachers be taught to teach reading? " (Anders, Hoffman, & Duffy, 2000). This question is a critical consideration for both preservice teacher preparation and ongoing professional development. Recent studies offer insight into this question by examining the learning of literacy teachers as they assess and tutor struggling readers (Duffy & Atkinson, 2001; Laster, 2001). Case study methodology, most typically employed in these recent literacy studies, offers promise as a means for teachers to systematically consider the "problems, dilemmas, and complexity of teaching something to someone in some context" (Levin, 1995, p. 63). The power of case studies within teacher education is well documented (Fasko, 2001; Merseth, 1991; Shulman, 1986). Its focus on individual student needs prepares educators to foster academic achievement for increasingly diverse learning populations (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000), an asset of particular relevance in today's schools. Furthermore, because there are benefits attributed to using technology as a tool in literacy instruction (Labbo, 1999; Leu, 2000; Leu & Kinzer, 2000; Morrow, Barnhardt, & Rooyakkers, 2002; Piper, 2000), linking case study methodology with emerging technological tools (Bowers, Keneham, Sale, & Doerr, 2000; Merseth & Lacey, 1993; Richards, 1998) offers promising possibilities for better preparing literacy educators to foster student success. Within most educational settings instructional technology integration is a routine expectation, and can be used to efficiently contribute to effective instruction. While teachers' personal use of technology often leads to increased classroom implementation, teachers also stand to benefit from the availability of a variety of web-accessible literacy resources. Using electronic formats also provides special advantages over more traditional documentation and assessment methods, including greater convenience, portability, and Building Their Stories: Electronic Case Studies interactivity (Powers, Thomson, & Buckner, 2001). While these advantages enable multiple student academic profiles to be shared with a potentially broad audience of teacher learners, there are benefits for the literacy teachers who create them. In addition to providing an inviting format, the creation of electronic case studies offers a unique opportunity for the literacy teachers in this study to "cast themselves as learners" (Piper, 2000, p. 11). Specifically, while developing or refining technology skills, literacy educators may struggle to learn (Watts, 1997), much like students in their own classrooms who struggle with reading