Paola Uccelli
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1508250 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Paola Uccelli |
| PRENOMES | Paola |
| SOBRENOME | Uccelli |
| ASSINATURA | UCCELLI P |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Harvard Graduate School of Education |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5818-2108 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 23 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 69 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 23 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2007 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Connective Knowledge and Reading Comprehension in Upper Elementary Students
Connectives—a relatively small, closed set of expressions used to link ideas logically, for example, “therefore,” “in contrast”—represent a potentially high‐leverage area of focus for literacy interventions due to their prevalence and utility across content‐area texts. To inform instruction, however, we first need more research to understand students' development of connective knowledge and test its potential contribution to reading comprehension…
Promoting humanizing, meaningful, and just language instruction for multilingual learners and their peers
The teaching of academic registers without attention to instructional conditions can contribute to processes of minoritization and marginalization. • Here, we advocate for creating humanizing and just instructional conditions for learning through and about language at school. • We present what we call pedagogies of voices instructional principles that support educators and researchers to bring to fruition this vision for equitable and just langua…
Introduction
Connective Frequency Bands informed by textbook frequencies and midadolescents’ knowledge of connectives
This study focuses on connectives, linguistic devices that signal relations between ideas. Connective knowledge varies widely across grades and is known to support reading comprehension and school writing. Despite the important role that connective knowledge plays in reading and writing, few resources exist to support teachers in understanding which connectives to prioritize in Spanish literacy instruction. In this study we combined a secondary a…
Teacher Talk and Literacy Gains in Chilean Elementary Students
The Language Demands of Analytical Reading and Writing at School
Analytical writing poses particularly challenging, yet often overlooked, language demands that need attention in educational research and practice. In this article, I discuss the Core Analytical Language Skills (CALS) construct and its relevance for school reading and writing. CALS refer to the set of learners’ school-relevant language resources that are of high utility to understanding analytical texts across content areas. After a brief review …
Midadolescents’ Language Learning at School
Midadolescents' Language Learning at School
Which theoretical and empirical insights can inform language-in-education research that advances equitable and high-quality learning at school? In this three-part article, I first draw from various sources to foreground the urgent need to counteract linguicism and epistemic injustices and to commit to more just and rigorous scientific practices in research and education. Based on findings from my own research, I then argue that more just and rigo…
English Learners’ Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary
In this cluster randomized control trial study, the authors explored the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve second‐grade English learners’ knowledge of challenging, high‐utility English vocabulary. The authors also examined whether the intervention had a differential effect on content words that differ on two attributes (cognate status and abstractness designation) and whether the effects lasted across time. Within schools, teachers …
Academic language and listening comprehension—Two sides of the same coin? An empirical examination of their dimensionality, relations to reading comprehension, and assessment modality
Two widely studied language skills in relation to reading comprehension are listening comprehension skill and academic language proficiency. Although their constituent skills and theoretical accounts of how they are related to reading comprehension share a large overlap, they have been studied in separate lines of work. In this study, we investigated the dimensionality of listening comprehension and academic language proficiency tasks, their rela…
Levers for Learning
This study examines the relationships between school processes and literacy in public schools that serve low-income families in a midsize city in Colombia. We focus on four categories of school processes: instructional practice; school-community engagement; well-being of students, teachers, and parents; and community belonging. We present two key results. First, we find considerable variation in literacy performance across schools, despite servin…
Toward Biliteracy
Academic language skills support mid‐adolescents’ comprehension of the language of school texts. To date, scarce research has explored associations between dual academic language skills and reading comprehension among mid‐adolescent dual language immersion (DLI) students. This study examined individual differences in Spanish and English academic language skills and their contribution to English reading comprehension in a cross‐sectional sample of…
Broadening the Lens on the Science of Reading
Merging evidence from psychological models of reading comprehension, ethnographic research on language and literacy, and textual linguistics lines of research, the authors take the position that psychological models of reading comprehension often overlook written language comprehension and production as context‐embedded, sociocultural processes. Using the example of academic language comprehension by middle grade learners, the authors present a s…
Amplifying and affirming students' voices through Cals-informed instruction
Recent literacy research calls for pedagogical approaches that multiply students' opportunities to discuss texts and ideas that matter. We argue that understanding mid-adolescents' language needs can further inform discussion-based approaches. Our assessment research reveals that substantial differences in Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) – high-utility school-relevant language skills – help explain why comprehending school texts can be chall…
Children's Early Decontextualized Talk Predicts Academic Language Proficiency in Midadolescence
This study examines whether children's decontextualized talk—talk about nonpresent events, explanations, or pretend—at 30 months predicts seventh-grade academic language proficiency (age 12). Academic language (AL) refers to the language of school texts. AL proficiency has been identified as an important predictor of adolescent text comprehension. Yet research on precursors to AL proficiency is scarce. Child decontextualized talk is known to be a…
Metadiscourse
Specifying the Academic Language Skills That Support Text Understanding in the Middle Grades
This study reports on the conceptualization of a new construct targeting the cross-disciplinary academic language skills most relevant to school reading comprehension, targeting the validation of the Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) Instrument, a novel assessment tool which measures this construct. Participants included Grade 4-8 monolingual English and bilingual students designated as English learners (N= 7,152) from the United States. The s…
Academic Language as a Predictor of Reading Comprehension in Monolingual Spanish‐Speaking Readers
Although literacy achievement has improved in Chile, adolescents’ underperformance in reading comprehension is still a serious concern. In English, core academic‐language skills ( CALS ) have been found to significantly predict reading comprehension, even controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge. CALS are high‐utility language skills that support reading comprehension across school content areas. Guided by an operational definition of Spanis…
Academic Language Across Content Areas
Educators are aware of the need to promote students’ academic language to support text comprehension. Yet, besides teaching academic vocabulary, many educators continue to ask, What would this instruction entail? Guided by a new framework known as core academic language skills ( CALS ), the authors’ research focuses on delineating core language skills that contribute to reading comprehension to make them more visible to educators and researchers.…
Beyond Vocabulary
Despite a long-standing awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic-language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic-language proficiency construct, core academic-language skills (CALS). CALS refers to a constellation of high-utilit…
The Challenge of Academic Language
Increasingly in recent years, educators have related worries about students’ literacy accomplishments to their lack of “academic language skills” (August & Shanahan, 2006; Halliday & Martin, 1993; Pilgreen, 2006; Schleppegrell & Colombi, 2002). Indeed, it seems clear that control over academic language is a requirement for success with challenging literacy tasks, such as reading textbooks or writing research papers and literature reviews. As earl…
Emerging temporality
This study describes how young Spanish-speaking children become gradually more adept at encoding temporality using grammar and discourse skills in intra-conversational narratives. The research involved parallel case studies of two Spanish-speaking children followed longitudinally from ages two to three. Type/token frequencies of verb tense, temporal/aspectual markers and narrative components were analyzed to explore interrelationships among gramm…
Narrative and Vocabulary Development of Bilingual Children From Kindergarten to First Grade
PURPOSE: Research has identified English oral language proficiency as being critical for bilingual students' literacy development. This study examines developmental patterns and associations among oral vocabulary and narrative skills in a longitudinal sample of 24 Spanish/English bilingual children from low socioeconomic backgrounds so as to further our understanding of the development of oral proficiency. METHOD: English and Spanish data were ga…
Beyond Vocabulary
Despite a long-standing awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic-language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic-language proficiency construct, core academic-language skills (CALS). CALS refers to a constellation of high-utilit…
Specifying the Academic Language Skills That Support Text Understanding in the Middle Grades
This study reports on the conceptualization of a new construct targeting the cross-disciplinary academic language skills most relevant to school reading comprehension, targeting the validation of the Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) Instrument, a novel assessment tool which measures this construct. Participants included Grade 4-8 monolingual English and bilingual students designated as English learners (N= 7,152) from the United States. The s…
Broadening the Lens on the Science of Reading
Merging evidence from psychological models of reading comprehension, ethnographic research on language and literacy, and textual linguistics lines of research, the authors take the position that psychological models of reading comprehension often overlook written language comprehension and production as context‐embedded, sociocultural processes. Using the example of academic language comprehension by middle grade learners, the authors present a s…
Amplifying and affirming students' voices through Cals-informed instruction
Recent literacy research calls for pedagogical approaches that multiply students' opportunities to discuss texts and ideas that matter. We argue that understanding mid-adolescents' language needs can further inform discussion-based approaches. Our assessment research reveals that substantial differences in Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) – high-utility school-relevant language skills – help explain why comprehending school texts can be chall…
Academic Language as a Predictor of Reading Comprehension in Monolingual Spanish‐Speaking Readers
Although literacy achievement has improved in Chile, adolescents’ underperformance in reading comprehension is still a serious concern. In English, core academic‐language skills ( CALS ) have been found to significantly predict reading comprehension, even controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge. CALS are high‐utility language skills that support reading comprehension across school content areas. Guided by an operational definition of Spanis…
Metadiscourse
Toward Biliteracy
Academic language skills support mid‐adolescents’ comprehension of the language of school texts. To date, scarce research has explored associations between dual academic language skills and reading comprehension among mid‐adolescent dual language immersion (DLI) students. This study examined individual differences in Spanish and English academic language skills and their contribution to English reading comprehension in a cross‐sectional sample of…
English Learners’ Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary
In this cluster randomized control trial study, the authors explored the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve second‐grade English learners’ knowledge of challenging, high‐utility English vocabulary. The authors also examined whether the intervention had a differential effect on content words that differ on two attributes (cognate status and abstractness designation) and whether the effects lasted across time. Within schools, teachers …
Midadolescents' Language Learning at School
Which theoretical and empirical insights can inform language-in-education research that advances equitable and high-quality learning at school? In this three-part article, I first draw from various sources to foreground the urgent need to counteract linguicism and epistemic injustices and to commit to more just and rigorous scientific practices in research and education. Based on findings from my own research, I then argue that more just and rigo…
Narrative and Vocabulary Development of Bilingual Children From Kindergarten to First Grade
PURPOSE: Research has identified English oral language proficiency as being critical for bilingual students' literacy development. This study examines developmental patterns and associations among oral vocabulary and narrative skills in a longitudinal sample of 24 Spanish/English bilingual children from low socioeconomic backgrounds so as to further our understanding of the development of oral proficiency. METHOD: English and Spanish data were ga…
Emerging temporality
This study describes how young Spanish-speaking children become gradually more adept at encoding temporality using grammar and discourse skills in intra-conversational narratives. The research involved parallel case studies of two Spanish-speaking children followed longitudinally from ages two to three. Type/token frequencies of verb tense, temporal/aspectual markers and narrative components were analyzed to explore interrelationships among gramm…
The Challenge of Academic Language
Increasingly in recent years, educators have related worries about students’ literacy accomplishments to their lack of “academic language skills” (August & Shanahan, 2006; Halliday & Martin, 1993; Pilgreen, 2006; Schleppegrell & Colombi, 2002). Indeed, it seems clear that control over academic language is a requirement for success with challenging literacy tasks, such as reading textbooks or writing research papers and literature reviews. As earl…
Beyond Vocabulary
Despite a long-standing awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic-language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic-language proficiency construct, core academic-language skills (CALS). CALS refers to a constellation of high-utilit…
Academic Language Across Content Areas
Educators are aware of the need to promote students’ academic language to support text comprehension. Yet, besides teaching academic vocabulary, many educators continue to ask, What would this instruction entail? Guided by a new framework known as core academic language skills ( CALS ), the authors’ research focuses on delineating core language skills that contribute to reading comprehension to make them more visible to educators and researchers.…
Academic Language as a Predictor of Reading Comprehension in Monolingual Spanish‐Speaking Readers
Although literacy achievement has improved in Chile, adolescents’ underperformance in reading comprehension is still a serious concern. In English, core academic‐language skills ( CALS ) have been found to significantly predict reading comprehension, even controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge. CALS are high‐utility language skills that support reading comprehension across school content areas. Guided by an operational definition of Spanis…
Children's Early Decontextualized Talk Predicts Academic Language Proficiency in Midadolescence
This study examines whether children's decontextualized talk—talk about nonpresent events, explanations, or pretend—at 30 months predicts seventh-grade academic language proficiency (age 12). Academic language (AL) refers to the language of school texts. AL proficiency has been identified as an important predictor of adolescent text comprehension. Yet research on precursors to AL proficiency is scarce. Child decontextualized talk is known to be a…
Metadiscourse
Specifying the Academic Language Skills That Support Text Understanding in the Middle Grades
This study reports on the conceptualization of a new construct targeting the cross-disciplinary academic language skills most relevant to school reading comprehension, targeting the validation of the Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) Instrument, a novel assessment tool which measures this construct. Participants included Grade 4-8 monolingual English and bilingual students designated as English learners (N= 7,152) from the United States. The s…
Academic language and listening comprehension—Two sides of the same coin? An empirical examination of their dimensionality, relations to reading comprehension, and assessment modality
Two widely studied language skills in relation to reading comprehension are listening comprehension skill and academic language proficiency. Although their constituent skills and theoretical accounts of how they are related to reading comprehension share a large overlap, they have been studied in separate lines of work. In this study, we investigated the dimensionality of listening comprehension and academic language proficiency tasks, their rela…
Levers for Learning
This study examines the relationships between school processes and literacy in public schools that serve low-income families in a midsize city in Colombia. We focus on four categories of school processes: instructional practice; school-community engagement; well-being of students, teachers, and parents; and community belonging. We present two key results. First, we find considerable variation in literacy performance across schools, despite servin…
Toward Biliteracy
Academic language skills support mid‐adolescents’ comprehension of the language of school texts. To date, scarce research has explored associations between dual academic language skills and reading comprehension among mid‐adolescent dual language immersion (DLI) students. This study examined individual differences in Spanish and English academic language skills and their contribution to English reading comprehension in a cross‐sectional sample of…
Broadening the Lens on the Science of Reading
Merging evidence from psychological models of reading comprehension, ethnographic research on language and literacy, and textual linguistics lines of research, the authors take the position that psychological models of reading comprehension often overlook written language comprehension and production as context‐embedded, sociocultural processes. Using the example of academic language comprehension by middle grade learners, the authors present a s…
Amplifying and affirming students' voices through Cals-informed instruction
Recent literacy research calls for pedagogical approaches that multiply students' opportunities to discuss texts and ideas that matter. We argue that understanding mid-adolescents' language needs can further inform discussion-based approaches. Our assessment research reveals that substantial differences in Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) – high-utility school-relevant language skills – help explain why comprehending school texts can be chall…
English Learners’ Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary
In this cluster randomized control trial study, the authors explored the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve second‐grade English learners’ knowledge of challenging, high‐utility English vocabulary. The authors also examined whether the intervention had a differential effect on content words that differ on two attributes (cognate status and abstractness designation) and whether the effects lasted across time. Within schools, teachers …
Teacher Talk and Literacy Gains in Chilean Elementary Students
The Language Demands of Analytical Reading and Writing at School
Analytical writing poses particularly challenging, yet often overlooked, language demands that need attention in educational research and practice. In this article, I discuss the Core Analytical Language Skills (CALS) construct and its relevance for school reading and writing. CALS refer to the set of learners’ school-relevant language resources that are of high utility to understanding analytical texts across content areas. After a brief review …
Midadolescents’ Language Learning at School
Midadolescents' Language Learning at School
Which theoretical and empirical insights can inform language-in-education research that advances equitable and high-quality learning at school? In this three-part article, I first draw from various sources to foreground the urgent need to counteract linguicism and epistemic injustices and to commit to more just and rigorous scientific practices in research and education. Based on findings from my own research, I then argue that more just and rigo…
Promoting humanizing, meaningful, and just language instruction for multilingual learners and their peers
The teaching of academic registers without attention to instructional conditions can contribute to processes of minoritization and marginalization. • Here, we advocate for creating humanizing and just instructional conditions for learning through and about language at school. • We present what we call pedagogies of voices instructional principles that support educators and researchers to bring to fruition this vision for equitable and just langua…
Introduction
Connective Frequency Bands informed by textbook frequencies and midadolescents’ knowledge of connectives
This study focuses on connectives, linguistic devices that signal relations between ideas. Connective knowledge varies widely across grades and is known to support reading comprehension and school writing. Despite the important role that connective knowledge plays in reading and writing, few resources exist to support teachers in understanding which connectives to prioritize in Spanish literacy instruction. In this study we combined a secondary a…
Connective Knowledge and Reading Comprehension in Upper Elementary Students
Connectives—a relatively small, closed set of expressions used to link ideas logically, for example, “therefore,” “in contrast”—represent a potentially high‐leverage area of focus for literacy interventions due to their prevalence and utility across content‐area texts. To inform instruction, however, we first need more research to understand students' development of connective knowledge and test its potential contribution to reading comprehension…
Psychology (21 obras) · Linguistics (19 obras) · Mathematics education (17 obras) · Reading and Literacy Development (16 obras) · Pedagogy (13 obras) · Computer Science (11 obras) · Reading (process) (10 obras) · Reading comprehension (9 obras) · Sociology (9 obras) · Literacy (8 obras)