Demonstrates ways in which three students in a multi-age, literature-based grade 3/4 classroom constructed and reconstructed their subjectivities based on demands of the social setting. Notes that each student’s participation was influenced by gender, social class, ethnicity, and the task. Suggests that interpretations of students’ interactions provide opportunities for developing a more sophisticated approach to multicultural education.

Presents a 48-item selected annotated bibliography of recent research in the teaching of English (most published in scholarly journals between July and December, 1997). Organizes the annotations into sections on assessment; bilingual education and foreign language education; discourse processes; family/workplace literacy; professional development; reading; research methodology; teaching and learning of literature; technology and literacy; and writing.

Narrates effects of a 10-week literacy project, a collaboration between Latino English-as-a-Second-Language students and at-risk Anglo counterparts in a rural high school in the upper midwest. Highlights "treasures" of their experience as they gather to read Spanish- and English-language literature, to write stories and poems, and to revise each other’s work.

Presents a selected bibliography of recent research in the teaching of English. Subdivides the 51 items into sections on assessment, bilingual and foreign language education, discourse processes, family/workplace literacy, professional development, reading, research methodology, teaching and learning of literature, technology and literacy, and writing.

Explores possible benefits of placing considerations of genre as more central to dialogs and debates about language arts education. Aims for a theoretical framework emphasizing the responsive and agentive engagement of students working through disciplinary literacies. Considers ways in which one first-grade teacher helped a non-middle-class learner to engage more deeply with science discourse genres.

Presents a selective list of recent research studies in the teaching of English. States that most appeared during the six-month period preceding the compilation of the bibliography (July through December 1996). Contains 57 items divided into sections on bilingual education, cultural studies, literacy studies, literature, professional development, research methodology, and writing.

There has been considerable interest in using a genre-based approach to the teaching of language. Genre has been described as a property of texts which allows them to be described as a sequence of segments, or “moves,” with each move accomplishing some part of the overall communicative purpose of the text, while register can be thought of as the language and linguistic patterns of one particular genre. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the registers of different moves of one genre can be very different from each other. A corpus of 44 typical examples of the genre, “Brief Tourist Information,” was created. A computerized concordancing program was used to analyze the three moves, “Location,” “Facilities/ Activities,” and “Description” in terms of discourse functions, length, reader address, modality, idioms, lexical phrases, and common lexical items. A comparison of the structures and lexical items of the three moves showed clearly that while they shared a few functions, for the most part they differed substantially. The results suggest that language educators should consider 1) basing instructional materials on corpora of texts in use, 2) teaching the move structure of genres and the concomitant move registers rather than the general register of the genre as a whole, 3) integrating the teaching of reading and writing, and 4) adopting a “purpose approach” to the teaching of writing.

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This study describes a group of seventh graders’ experiences in learning to make and share meaning about literature through the creation of visual representations. This interpretatives trategy, known as “sketch-to-stretch,” involves learners in creating symbols, pictures, and other non-linguistic signs to signify ideas generated through reading. Over the course of a school year these students used sign systems from art, mathematics, and language to express their knowledge individually and collectively. The focus of the study was to investigate the evolution of sketching in two classes and to explore how these tools helped students enrich their understanding of literature and of literacy itself. The data were analyzed by both the teacher-researchearn d the students. The study supports teachingp ractices that provide opportunities for students of all ages to make and share meaning through multiple sign systems.

This article reports results from a year-long study of the specific ways that children’s literacy practices enhanced their understanding of themselves and their social worlds in a classroom where they were encouraged to read, write, and talk about personally and socially relevant subjects. Throughout the school year the researchers documented the nature of classroom activities and the ways that they were taken up by children in their reading and writing practices. In response to various classroom activities and in relation to many out-of-school experiences, children’s reading and writing were found to function for them in a variety of personal and social ways, enabling them to understand the complex urban landscape they inhabited, to explore new roles and social identities, to wrestle with vexing social problems, and to envision ways of reconstructing their lives and their worlds. The strengths and limitations of this particular integration of action research and critical literacy are also discussed.

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This paper examines the written genres of a group of six children in a first grade classroom. Using the dual lenses of sociocognitive constructivism and emergent literacy, it explores relationships among the children’s genres and between these genres and the social context of the classroom in which the children’s written discourse is situated. Analysis of naturalistic data (using an integrated functionalformal analysis which considered substance, intention, form and context as interrelated dimensions of genre) resulted in a classification scheme which encompassed all genres in the children’s writing. Analyses of the classroom discourse revealed the children to be active participants in the social dialogue within their classroom. They constructed their written genres in response to the texts with which they engaged during collaborative reading and writing tasks and in response to the ways in which the teacher structured the writing tasks. They acted upon their world by writing about their personal experiences, creating imaginary worlds through drawing and writing and playing with words and ideas. The genres the children employed came from the morning news, from stories and poems, and from genres that were embedded in their literacy environment or constructed by them in collaboration with their teacher and each other. Both constructiona nd appropriationw ere seen as active processeso n the part of the child rather than as passive imitation or copying from models.

This study examined how 6 low-income children developed alphabetic knowledge in two different instructional settings, skills-based and whole language. Three learners from each setting were matched on their level of literacy experience at the beginning of kindergarten and on their level of achievement at the end of first grade. They were observed twice a week in their regular kindergarten and first grade classroom contexts. All 6 children learned alphabetic concepts and skills necessary for successful reading and writing, and the pattern of acquisition was similar across the two year period in both instructional settings despite differences in the pace of the children’s acquisition of alphabetic knowledge. The learners in the skills-based classroom acquired alphabetic knowledge primarily through reading basals and writing from teacher prompts. The children in the whole language classroom acquired the same knowledge reading self-selected literature and writing texts with self-selected topics. Both instructional settings provided explicit phonics instruction (albeit contextualized differently), and both settings provided time for children to read self-selected books and to write. These common components may be necessary in beginning literacy instructional programs.

This article describes the patterns of literacy development in children froms table home environments who were prenatally exposed to crack or cocaine. The article includes a brief overview of observations from the first year of study followed by a focus on patterns of development observed during Year Two. During the second year, the children continued to develop in what is considered to be an age appropriate manner, with onlys even children receiving special education support. A few children experienced setbacks in their learning, but there seemed to be reasonable causes for these setbacks. During this secondy ear, the importance of classroom context, as established by the teacher, became an important aspect in the literacy developmeont this group of children. The article concludes with one case study highlighting the importance of classroom context in a child’s literacy development.

This study investigated Piagetian measures of concrete operations in relation to specific school-type tasks in an attempt to link cognitive development and school learning. We predicted that the ability to sequence (seriation) would make a unique contributiont o gradef ive childrens’ comprehensiono f a narrativec ompositiont hey read and to the organization of a narrative they wrote. We also predicted that the ability to classify would make a unique contribution to childrens’ comprehension of a comparative exposition and to the organization of their own written comparisons. Two group sessions were conducted to collect narrative and comparative compositions from 65 children. Results indicated that seriation ability was especially relevant to the organization of temporal and causal relationships in their reading and writing of narratives and that classification ability was especially relevant to the organization of similarities and differences in their reading and writing of comparisons. However, analysis also suggested that development of the theoretically relevant cognitive abilities is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for high levels of performance in reading and writing. Moreover, relatively low correlations between reading and writing within the two genres studied suggested support for the view that reading and writing represent somewhat different sets of skills and that there are still other important skills specific to reading or writing.

This investigation sought to determine how the active meaning-making process of 10 sixth-grade students with above average reading and writing ability was reflected in their written responses to four books of realistic fiction. Students kept literature response journals to record their ongoing thoughts and reflections during the reading process. The nine-point categorization scheme that emerged from the content of students’ responses was used to analyze the journals of 4 of these students in order to determine individual response styles. Further analysis revealed the sequence of response for these 4 students during each quarter of their reading and writing. The study suggests how complex and unique response to literature is for even upper elementary and middle school students

The purpose of this study was to examine how different writing tasks influence students’ thinking in reading and writing. The tasks used in this study, writing either a report or a problem-based essay, required students to integrate prior knowledge with information from six sources in order to create their own texts. The 15 undergraduates, enrolled in a seminar on European history, were randomly assigned to one of two task conditions, report or problem. Analyses focused on students’ acquisition of topic knowledge and the ways writers structured meaning as they organized and selected information. For insights into how writers approached these two tasks, all students provided think-aloud protocols and kept reading-writing logs. Classroom observations also provided information about contextual factors that can influence the strategies students use in reading to create their own texts. Comparisons made between the two groups revealed that they differed significantly in their interpretations of the two tasks and in their approaches to restructuring information from sources. However, there was no difference between the amount of prior knowledge that students writing reports and problem-based essays included in their essays, nor were there differences in learning. Both groups of students improved their understanding of a given historical event. Possible directions for future research are discussed.

This paper focuses on the literacy development of 26 children who were prenatally exposed to crack or cocaine. It reports observations of them during the first year of a six year longitudinal study of their literacy development. Among the specific literacy behaviors targeted for the monthly observations of the children were storybook reading behaviors, writing development, book handling skills, and orthographic knowledge. At the end of the first year, the literacy development of these children appeared to be within the parameters of what might be considered normal literacy development.

The study was conducted in a classroom that used a process approach to literacy. Ten case studies examined the ability of 6th grade Hispanic bilingual students to construct meaning in dialogue journals and literature logs in first and second language. Journals and literature logs were coded and analyzed for language code (L1/L2), topic, codeswitching, sensitivity to audience, writer’s voice, spelling, and grammatical structures. Findings indicate that students were more effective in constructing meaning in dialogue journals than in literature logs. Success in the journals revealed positive self-images while failure with literature logs evoked poor self-concepts. Findings also suggest that implementation of process approaches can pose its own set of instructional problems that need to be addressed, especially when effectiveness is judged in terms of the particular students involved. For example, although the students in this study were able to write in English before having complete control of the language, their development of complex ideas and the construction of meaning suffered considerably. The length and quality of the writing also degenerated when the topic was imposed, when students found no relevance in the literacy activity, and when they were not assisted in contextualizing writing tasks in their own terms. Overall, mere exposure to standard writing conventions did not improve the students’ use of them. The practice of implementing popular instructional programs without incorporating appropriate social, cultural, and linguistic adaptations appears to be ineffective with L2 learners.

This study was designed to determine (a) whether the writing of persuasive discourse can be improved by instruction and (b) the effect of reading on writing and of writing on reading within the mode of persuasion. Students in two sixth-grade classes in each of two schools (n= 110) were stratified by sex and ability and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: 1. instruction in a model for persuasion plus writing practice; 2. instruction in a model for persuasion plus reading practice; 3. reading novels and writing book reports plus a single lesson in the persuasion model; 4. reading novels and writing book reports (control group). Instruction was given for ten 45-minute lessons over five weeks. Pretests and posttests each consisted of writing a recall protocol of a persuasive text and writing two persuasive compositions. On the posttest, both the writing and the reading groups (groups 1 and 2) scored significantly higher than the control group on writing quality, on the organization of compositions, on the number of conclusions and text markers used, and on the degree of elaboration of reasons. There were no differences between the control group and other groups on reading recall scores.

The intent of this study was to examine the predictive relations among dimensions of symbolic play (i.e., object and ideational transformations), linguistic verbs, and measures of early literacy (i.e., Concepts of Print, Emergent Reading and Writing). A sample of 12 preschool children (3-1/2-years-of-age) was observed for two years during free play and in a variety of literacy events. Results indicated that use of linguistic verbs predicted Concepts of Print scores. Further, symbolic play and linguistic verbs predicted emergent writing and reading, respectively. Results are discussed in the terms of the separate ontogenies of writing and reading

Arguing that current research has fragmented educators’ vision of both written language and development, this article aims to contribute to a more integrative vision, one that preserves the integrity of written language as a symbol system. Based on a critical consideration of literature both on written language growth and on the role of symbols in human experience, the article suggests five principles that would seem to characterize written language development: the establishment of equivalences, exploration and orchestration of the system, reliance on shifting relationships of form and function, differentiation and integration of symbolic functions, and participation in social dialogue. These principles highlight the dialectical relationship between function and form, between child construction and adult guidance. The articulated vision of development differs in fundamental ways from most current viewpoints, as it does not consider written language as simply an extension of the child’s oral language but as the evolution of a distinct symbolic option with links to the child’s entire symbolic repertoire. The implications of this viewpoint for both sociopolitical and pedagogical issues of literacy construction in early schooling are discussed.

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This study investigates the relationship between the oral and written language of one college-level basic-writing student who is a speaker of Vernacular Black English. One possible explanation for basic-writing students’ difficulties in writing is that they may inappropriately use features from their oral language in their written language. We found in this study that neither VBE patterns in the student’s oral language nor other features of orality which previous research has identified primarily account for his writing problems. For other such students, future research will need to explore 1) whether or not the use of oral, or the lack of literate, features account for problems in writing, and 2) the nature of other, as yet unidentified, features of orality and literacy.

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sources over the past several years (Templeton, 1969) . Literacy is no longer a luxury in this country; it is a necessity. Every child deserves a chance to become a skilled, competent reader. Our knowledge of the nature of the reading process and the acquisition of reading has increased noticeably over the past ten to twenty years, largely as a result of government funding of basic research on reading (Levin & Williams, 1970; Kling, 1971; Kavanaugh & Mattingly, 1972). To be sure, no adequate review of this progress is currently available, and the impact of these research findings on classroom practice has been minimal. As recently as this year (1974), a review of the psychology of reading introduces the area of research on reading acquisition: Despite all the current emphasis on literacy, the wealth of 'programs' commercially available, the 'learning specialists' who have set up in shopping centers and the arguments over phonics or whole word methods, it is the beginning phase of learning to read that we seem to know least about. All the talk is of what the teacher does or should do and not of what happens or should happen in the child. This is a very peculiar situation. There is presumably a learning process going on, but it is a rare psychologist who studies it. (Gibson Zc Levin, 1975, p. 264) Large amounts of money continue to be poured into the development and evaluation of competing reading curricula, with outcomes that are disappointing to say the least (Bond & Dykstra, 1967; Corder, 1971) . With few exceptions, these evaluation projects have fallen far short of minimum standards of experimental research in the behavioral sciences (Corder, 1971) . There is little one can learn from bad data. It is not surprising to find, on reanalysis, that the major outcome of the large First Grade Cooperative Reading study was the discovery that children of high IQ were more successful in learning to read than children of low IQ (Lohnes & Gray, 1972) . There have been at least three recent major efforts to synthesize the research

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This paper reports the results of an investigation of the effects of a course in general semantics on the ability of college students to respond appropriately to the demands of a poem. While previous studies by Livingston and Berger have indicated the salutary effect of instruction in general semantics on the critical reading and writing of expository materials, several educators in the language arts field have suggested that instruction in general semantics may have deleterious effects on a student's ability to respond appropriately to fictional literature in general and to poetry in particular. l>2 These educators point out that I. A. Richards, in Practical criticism, demonstrates how particular behavioral tendencies