This article employs the concept of intersubjectivity to analyze developments in and discrepancies between students’ understandings of criteria for effective writing and the criteria of their teacher. It reports on a study that employed qualitative methods of interview and classroom observation in conjunction with analysis of students’ writing and the teacher’s feedback on their writing to explore the struggles of students learning the “genre of power” (Lemke, 1988, p. 89) of the literary analysis essay. The greatest challenges for the students in this study occurred for those whose goals and expectations related to this high-stakes genre of writing were not based on the same taken-for-granted assumptions about context and purpose as were their teacher’s. The article concludes by discussing teachers’ professional responsibility to negotiate shared goals for literacy with their students.

In this brief essay, we take the opportunity to engage our literacy colleagues in a re-examination of approaches that have become normative ways of framing, representing, and describing English Learners and other nondominant students in literacy research.

In the current research climate favoring rigorous experimental studies of instructional scripts using randomly chosen treatment and control groups, education and literacy researchers and policy makers will do well to take stock of their current research base and assess critical issues in this new context. This review of research on classroom discourse as it affects reading comprehension begins by examining 150 years of research on classroom discourse, and then findings and insights shaped by intensive empirical studies of both discourse processes and reading comprehension over the last three decades. Recent sociocultural and dialogic research supports claims that classroom discourse, including small-group work and whole-class discussion, works as an epistemic environment (versus script) for literacy development. New studies examine situated classroom talk in relation to educational outcomes and cultural categories that transcend the classroom.

Members of the Alan C. Purves Award Committee introduce the winner of the award for Volume 39 of Research in the Teaching of English, Mollie Blackburn. Her winning article is entitled “Disrupting Dichotomies for Social Change: A Review of, Critique of, and Complement to Current Educational Literacy Scholarship on Gender”; it was published in May 2005.

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At the 2005 NCTE Annual Convention in Pittsburgh, Mollie Blackburn received the Alan C. Purves Award, given each RTE volume year for an article that holds particular promise to enhance classroom practice. Professor Blackburn’s award-winning article, “Disrupting Dichotomies for Social Change: A Review of, Critique of, and Complement to Current Scholarship on Gender and Literacy,” appeared in the May 2005 issue of RTE. In the essay that follows, she reflects on the further implications of this work for teachers and schools.

The following is the text of Randy Bomer’s presidential address, delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in November 2005.

This conceptual essay employs psychoanalytic theory in exploring the difficulties the author’s son experienced in learning to read. Emphasizing the profoundly affective and subjective dimensions of one child’s movement toward and against literacy, the author considers the potential of psychoanalytic perspectives in helping teachers and researchers better understand and respond to children’s resistance to reading.

This article presents case studies of three adolescent girls’ literacy-related school experiences over a three-year period, focusing on the girls’ own accounts of their instructional and institutional interactions.

One under–researched writing practice of today’s millennial youth is online journaling. Despite the plethora of online journals on the Internet and their ubiquitous use by adolescents, little research has been conducted on online journaling as a literacy practice.

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The authors gave the following talk at the 2004 NCTE Annual Convention in Indianapolis upon receiving the Alan C. Purves Award, presented to the RTE article from the previous volume year judged most likely to have an impact on classroom practice (“The Road to Participation: The Construction of a Literacy Practice in a Learning Community of Linguistically Diverse Learners,” v. 38, pp. 85-124).

In literacy and composition studies, efforts to develop data-driven theories of disciplinary writing expertise and of writers’ developmental processes in joining specific discourse communities have so far been limited. This case study, of one writer’s experiences as an undergraduate history major, parses the multiple knowledge domains comprising disciplinary writing expertise and compares his beginning and later work for signs of developmental progress. A conceptual model of five knowledge domains writers must draw upon—discourse-community knowledge, subjectmatter knowledge, genre knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and writing-process knowledge—is applied to the data both for analysis of the case and for exploring the usefulness of the conceptual model for further empirical and theoretical work. What results is a fuller depiction of the complexities of gaining expertise in any given discourse community, as well as an indication of the importance of educators across all disciplines considering the multi-dimensional and developmental nature of their curricula for building literacy skills.

Researchers of literacies in out-of-school settings often argue that their studies hold significant implications for teaching practices. This argument seems to be partially supported by studies that have won the Alan C. Purves Award between 1998 and 2001, acknowledging RTE articles most likely to impact educational practice. Yet this line of inquiry obviously does not lessen the continuing need for rigorous classroom-based research. As I contemplate future directions for such work, a set of interrelated questions come to mind: To what extent should researchers be better prepared to engage in aspects of the specific teaching practices they are researching or designing? In what ways would engagements of this nature influence or potentially improve research findings and pedagogical designs? To what extent should researchers be prepared to “walk the walk” of implementing teaching practices in conjunction with “talking the talk” of researching and reporting on them?

Drawn from a year-long study in a combined first- and second-grade classroom, this article presents an interpretive portrait of two young students engaged in spontaneous talk while writing. We analyze their conversations to explore the subject positions these student writers assumed, those they assigned each other, and the related functions they assigned the texts they composed. Through our close reading of their conversations, we develop an analytic protocol for positional microanalysis of everyday conversations that honors the intertwined social and emotional dimensions of peer interactions. Countering those who would cast literacy development as the sequential attainment of discrete cognitive skills, we consider the ways that these social and emotional dimensions may interlace with intellectual growth as young children struggle to become students, writers, and people.

The authors gave the following talk at the 2003 NCTE Annual Convention in San Francisco upon receiving the Alan C. Purves Award, presented to the RTE article from the previous year’s volume judged most likely to have an impact on classroom practice. Writing as lead author, Pauline Harris traces the history of her interest in children’s intertextuality through her life as a classroom teacher, her doctoral studies in the Bay Area, and her recent work with colleagues Jillian Trezise and W. N. Winser in Australia. As they describe the impetus behind their award-winning article and suggest directions for future research, the authors challenge classroom teachers to understand children’s intertextuality as a source of pleasure and complexity, and as a guide to appropriate and engaging instruction.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, people began filing into a community movie theater in Oakland, California known for its alternative films and sofa seating. They had gathered to watch the digital stories created by young people from the community—three-to-five minute multi-media compositions consisting of a narrative recorded in the author’s voice accompanied by photographs, video, and music. The event began with a story by Randy, “Lyfe-n-Rhyme.” “Mama’s only son is mama’s only gun with a guillotine tongue,” rang one rhythmic powerful line, as images of Randy and his mother morphed into photographs of the county jail, while the music of Miles Davis floated in the background. So proceeded Randy’s social critique and commentary on life and opportunity, or the lack thereof, in his city and country.

This article describes a year-long process in which a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds learned to participate in reading, writing, and talking about books in a literature-based instructional program.

In this article, we analyze literacy events co-constructed by three bilingual, mainland Puerto Rican kindergartners and the network of adults and children in their homes who support their developing literacy.

We live in a time of the celebration of high technology and symbolic analysis, even predictions of the end of common work, yet physical work, work of body and hand, surrounds us, makes everyday life possible. For about six years now, I have been involved in a research project exploring the thought it takes to do physical work, the cognitive processes involved in various blue collar and service occupations like waitressing, hairstyling, plumbing, welding, industrial assembly, and the like. The study has led me to consider the way we categorize occupations, define intelligence, and think about learning and schooling. Of particular interest to readers of RTE will be my findings in the realm of literacy and numeracy. A number of people have already done important research on job-related literacy. What follows is in line with their research, though I would like to use it to help us reconsider some of the traditional ways we define and discuss written language, numbers, and graphics.

This study draws on queer theory, critical feminism, Critical Race Theory, and New Literacy Studies to explore the ways in which queer youth read and wrote words and worlds in ways that both challenged and reinforced power dynamics in and beyond a youth-run center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

This article investigates the use of oral narratives by a 7-year-old Mexican born girl (Isabela) participating in small group literature discussions in a bilingual 2nd-grade classroom in the U.S. over a year. The study is grounded in sociocultural and critical perspectives and uses narrative and transactional theories to understand literacy events.

Presents annotations of 37 selected recent research in the teaching of English and related fields. Addresses bilingual/foreign language education, discourse processes, literacy, professional development, reading, teaching and learning of literature, teaching and learning of writing, and technology and literacy. Notes that most of the studies appeared during the six-month period from July through December 2001.

Investigates the possible link between a classroom teacher’s implementation of alternative literacy assessment and her classroom instruction. Illuminates the role that alternative literacy assessments can play in the classroom in terms of reflecting literacy task performance, presenting information on students’ strengths and weaknesses, and improving the quality of instruction provided to all students.

Examines first-generation students’ perceptions of their academic literacy skills and their performance and persistence in college. Indicates that first generation students’ self-perceptions represent critical factors in the college experience, underscoring the importance of helping students forge identities as members of academic communities.

Katherine Schultz reports on her longitudinal study of three students’ writing practices outside of school and argues for a focus on students’ writing practices both in and out of school to develop a more comprehensive understanding of students’ capabilities.

Considers how gender, identity and literacy are entangled and mutually constitutive. Concludes that social experience, desire, proximate others, and the ways in which children can draw upon these in the classroom are aspects of the situated condition that deserve more prominence in literacy and identity research.

Considers how gender, identity and literacy are entangled and mutually constitutive. Concludes that social experience, desire, proximate others, and the ways in which children can draw upon these in the classroom are aspects of the situated condition that deserve more prominence in literacy and identity research.

Twice a year RTE publishes a selected bibliography of recent research in literacy education. Most of the studies appeared during the six-month period preceding the compilation of the bibliography (January through June, 2001 for the present bibliography), but studies that appeared earlier are occasionally included.

Four case studies of proficient undergraduate writers from working-class backgrounds were conducted in the context of a course preparing sophomore and junior students to be tutors for first-year basic writers. It was found that, in contrast to much of the theorizing by and about working-class academics that emphasizes loss, a stronger theme in these students’ narratives of growing academic literacy was gaming. Students explained their experiences in ways that suggested a greater degree of agency, an awareness of themselves as writers in a contact zone, and a stance of tricking teachers on the way to producing acceptable texts. These findings suggest that writing in the contact zone of the classroom may require a double-voicedness that need not always be heard by instructors but is nevertheless important to students.

In this paper I examine the role of imagination in literacy learning using data collected over a 5-year period in my primary classrooms. My conception of imagination as a missing component in literacy instruction was raised by a child’s question about the importance of the read-aloud experience as a daily literacy practice. That question, and my failure to answer it effectively for my student, prompted me to undertake a close study of imagination and its role in discourse acquisition. The study progressed from a general look at how imagination makes itself visible in the work of children to a conceptual structure that proposes an inside-out theory of literacy learning. This structure presents identity, discourse appropriation, and what I am calling the authoring process as essential elements that are unified through the imaginative actions of students as they come into contact with the texts, tools, and props of each discipline. I argue that to be successful and meaningful to all, literacy teaching must begin and end with a focus on imagination.

This semester-long qualitative study explores the effects of a high-stakes, direct writing test on 3 teachers and their students in 1 rural Maryland high school. Out of the 23 students in both classes, 14 students had been identified for special education services for physical or learning problems; all had either failed the test once or had not yet taken it. The researchers conducted interviews with teachers and students, observed their classrooms, and collected samples of student writing and other artifacts to address 3 questions: (a) How did the test influence teacher beliefs about writing instruction? (b) How did these teachers adapt their instruction to respond to the demands of the test? (c) How did students who had not passed the test respond to their writing instruction and how did preparation for the test affect their attitudes/beliefs about writing? Our findings suggest that an emphasis on test preparation diminished the likelihood of the teachers’ engaging in reflective practice that is sensitive to the needs of individual students, that the high-stakes assessment process discounted the validity of locally developed standards for assessing writing, and that the criteria for passing the test failed to take into consideration the rich variety of American culture and the complexity of literacy learning.

The editors note how the variant meanings of context shape research, and return to the etymology of the word to define context as a relationship among people and their settings, which typically include multiple sets of overlapping goals, values, discourses, tools, and other artifacts of social life. The articles appearing in this issue suggest the multiple ways in which attention to context can inform literacy research.

Presents a semi-annual annotated selected bibliography of recent research in the teaching of English. Offers 45 annotated bibliographies addressing: bilingual/foreign language/second language education; classroom discourse; curriculum; exceptional learners; literacy; professional development; reading; and writing. Notes most entries were published between January and June 2000.

Examines the code-switching patterns of a bilingual preschooler involved in English and German shared reading and independent reading. Finds that melodic text reduced code-switching; her view of the task influenced her code-switching; and her code-switching patterns during discussions were similar to talk outside the literacy event. Suggests qualitatively different benefits of highly predictable and literary texts for literacy/language development.

Presents a school-year-long case study of a fourth-grade boy with a history of language difficulties. Describes development of a set of curriculum-centered, classroom-based strategies for language and literacy support. Focuses on changes in the student's language constructions and communicative competence, in the form of the teacher's supportive strategies, and in the speech/language pathologist's role in the classroom.

Researchers have begun to focus on the role of culture in teaching and learning, drawing on other disciplines to reconsider literacy activities as socially purposeful and culturally grounded. The interest raises two questions: what aspects of culture are more important than others? And what impact does the researcher’s perspective on culture have on the focus and contact of the study? The articles in this issue suggest a range of answers that scholars or offering to these questions.

Considers the importance of materials from popular culture in children’s literate activities. Emphasizes the dynamic ways in which children adapt symbols from popular culture for their own academic and social purposes. Argues for the need to view popular culture more respectfully.

Presents a selected, annotated bibliography of recent research in the teaching of English, with most studies appearing in the period between January and June, 1999. Includes sections on assessment; family and workplace literacy; literature; media, society, and literacy; moral education; professional development; reading; research methodology; technology and literacy; and writing.

Describes outcomes of a six-year study of students’ participatory research on literacy motivations and schooling. Suggests the need for a fundamental shift of the dominant epistemology in society and schools to one based on trusting, listening to, and respecting the integrity of the minds of all participants in schooling.

In search of criteria that characterize the research most likely to have an impact in the field of literacy research, the editors include reduction and reciprocity. Writers and readers build a reciprocal relationship - one in which the writer and author are in tune with one another - when the writer considers the processes in which the reader is likely to engage to comprehend the text. Reduction is one such process. Arguments that include images, metaphors, or phrasings that help readers reduce the text become the most memorable and the most influential in the field.

Investigates how a secondary-school teacher uses her “turning-point literacy experience” as a narrative template to guide changes in her teaching of literature. Scaffolds students’ narrative modes of thinking in two contrasting classroom contexts: a twelfth-grade class for “at-risk” students and an eleventh-grade class for college-bound students. Provides narrative strategies at points of need.

Describes the role of class discussion and a teacher’s particular discourse moves in the development of an inclusive learning culture in a high school English literature course with a rigorous academic curriculum. Focuses on how the teacher transformed previously tracked gifted and talented and general students’ understandings of what counted as being a reader while negotiating collaboration.

Examines the “whats” and “hows” of first-grade urban children’s appropriation of sports and sports-related media material for participation in unofficial peer worlds and official academic ones. Reveals the potential hybrid nature of even the earliest of children’s written texts. Suggests that learning to write involves work of the imagination on the part of children and teachers.

Presents a 43-item selected annotated bibliography of recent research in the teaching of English published, generally, between July through December, 1998. Divides entries into sections on assessment; bilingual/foreign-language education; media, society, and literacy; reading; research methodology; teaching and learning of literature; technology and literacy; and writing.

Uses activist ethnographic field work to explore institutional language skills used by inner-city residents as they negotiated social services institutions. Shows residents’ critical awareness and political acumen as they complied with and resisted the structuring ideology of institutional agents. Raises questions about the methods of key critical pedagogues and the appropriateness of their assumption of false consciousness among disenfranchised people.

Reflects on the notion of community in public life. Considers the importance of developing and sustaining affective relationships in the larger public sphere, engaging in civic literacy (publicly consequential acts of citizenship) complemented and sustained by civil literacy (characterized by a willingness to listen), supported by critical empathy (establishing affective connections with other human beings).

Examines the author’s daughter’s experiences of being socialized into the language of Iceland through the eight-year-old’s immersion in Icelandic culture. Shows how play-based activities with native-speaking peers was critical to her language and literacy development. Argues that authentic activity in social life is the key to learning literacy concepts.