Written Communication Jan 2008

Staying in the (Curricular) Lines

Anne Haas Dyson University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Young children are growing up in a time when literacy practices and textual productions are in flux. Yet literacy curricula, particularly for those deemed “at risk,” are tightly focused on the written language “basics.” What are the potential consequences? In this article, the author considers this question, drawing on an ethnographic study of child writing in an urban school site. Using a sociocultural and dialogic frame, she examines first graders' interpretations and negotiations of official writing practices, detailing how these (a) shaped their written language use, including use of time and space, multimodal tools, and expected voices and modeled ideologies and (b) pushed to the sidelines or left in the unofficial child world aspects of their knowledge and know-how, including a breadth of communicative practices and a diversity of graphological symbols. The author concludes with reflections on instructional links among official writing practices, children's literacy experiences, and the “basics” in contemporary times.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2008-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088307309552
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality multilingual writers voice and style

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Olsen et al. (2018)
    Examining Intertextual Connections in Written Arguments: A Study of Student Wri…
    Written Communication
  2. Dyson (2013)
    The Case of the Missing Childhoods
    Written Communication
  3. Honig (2010)
    What Do Children Write in Science? A Study of the Genre Set in a Primary Scienc…
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Dyson (2006)
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    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Hull et al. (2006)
    Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies of Digital Storytelling
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. WITTE (1992)
    Context, Text, Intertext
    Written Communication
  4. Dyson (1984)
    Learning to Write/Learning to Do School: Emergent Writers’ Interpretations of S…
    Research in the Teaching of English
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CrossRef global citation count: 67 View in citation network →

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