The purpose of this paper is to explore a subset of findings taken from yearlong qualitative study of writing conferences in two diversely populated, urban high school classrooms. Drawing on multiple data sources, we used case study and discourse analytic methods to follow two focal students across the year in order to examine instructional and…

This qualitative study explored the nature of student initiations during interactive read alouds of fiction and non-fiction texts in a second grade, urban classroom. Data sources--including expanded field notes, video/audiotape records and transcripts, and teacher interviews--were analyzed inductively, utilizing the constant comparative method and…

This five month qualitative study explored, over time and across literacy events, the ways in which a second grade teacher, Ms. Wilson, and her students built a shared frame of reference, or shared mental context, for viewing reading. Data sources included: field notes, video and audiotaped records, artifacts, and teacher and student interviews.…