Teaching a diverse population of adolescents to be writers, readers, and active citizens requires fundamental changes in curriculum development, teaching strategies, and student roles in the classroom. In this article, two educators report on their collaboration in an urban high school in Portland, Oregon, USA, to create a classroom where students…

This article describes one urban classroom and the language and literacy practices jointly constructed by a veteran urban teacher, Lynn Gatto, and her 3rd grade students. Drawing from two ethnographic studies of Gattos 2nd-4th grade looped classroom, we argue that Gatto and her students use the interplay between strategies and tactics (De Certeau,…

As part of the Commonwealth's drive to enhance Australia's competitiveness in the global economy, Australia is five years from implementing "National Benchmarks" to leverage measurable literacy outcomes from schools. This "back to basics" agenda is in tension with another drive to foster advanced thinking skills in children. Teachers are being…

Alexis de Tocquevile (1969: 506) predicted that Americans would be prone to isolation and increasing individualism, 'which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends; with this little society formed to his taste; he gladly leaves the greater society to look after…

A principal aim of the National Curriculum in England was to ensure equality of opportunity for all children, regardless of race or social class. This aim was strengthened through the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy 10 years later which set out to standardize not just the literacy curriculum itself but also the materials and methods…

As teachers seek to reflect children's diverse experience in the subject matter they present and in the questions they explore, they must also embrace childrens multifaceted ways of knowing. Their major pedagogical challenge is to help children transform what they know into modes of representation that allow for a full range of human experience.…

This article presents a close analysis of a reading group in a first-grade class of Spanish-dominant Latina/o children established through the English-only mandate of California's Proposition 227. First, I discuss how the practice of the reading group was shaped by the intersection of socio-political and institutional discourses and practices.…

This article presents a qualitative case study of a seven-year-old Mexican American student and his family. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, we examine both the child's emergent ideas about language, as expressed in bilingual literature discussions, and his parents' ideological discourses about the use of a minority language in public schools.…

This study analyses how pre-school children who differ in terms of maternal education respond to and interpret the images and written text in the same two picture books, one informational "The Sleepy Book" (Zolotow and Bobri, 1960) and one narrative "The Baby Who Wouldn't Go to Bed" (Cooper, 1996). Twelve children were recorded in their homes…

"Voices in the Park" (Browne, 1998) was one of nine picture books I used in a study that explored the nature of Grade 1 children's literary understanding by examining their verbal responses during storybook read-aloud sessions, and their subsequent written, visual arts, and dramatic responses. This article discusses the Grade 1 students' responses…

The purpose of this study was to examine the home environment of immigrant Mexican kindergarteners of low socio-economic status in the USA who display high levels of emergent literacy when compared to their peers. To examine the home environments, the study focused on the literacy beliefs and practices of four families. Findings highlight the role…

This article explores some of the implications inherent in the pedagogical strategy of encouraging students to 'try' or 'have a go', particularly within the context of early writing and spelling. Pedagogical approaches built on the assumption that the learner will need to try in order to learn are construed here as emanating from and contributing…

This article is a synthesis of early literacy research organized according to critical lessons that delineate our shared knowledge base that we name a 'transactional perspective on early literacy development.' The critical lessons are grouped into three sets to present the continuum of methodological stances that interpretive researchers take as…

In this article, the author asserts that it is impossible for a person who does not love reading to be a good literacy teacher. She discusses the reasons her undergraduate preservice teaching students give for having given up on reading as a pleasurable activity, presents strategies her graduate students used to begin to enjoy reading, and offers…

This article provides an overview of research about how teachers, parents, and others can help young people develop literacy practices for success in school and life beyond school. The authors, members of the International Reading Association's Commission on Adolescent Literacy, present the results of its review of the literature in the form of…