scholarly journals Being and Becoming American: Triangulating Habitus, Field, and Literacy Instruction in a Multilingual Classroom

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Handsfield
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Third Grade Students ◽  
Performative Space ◽  
Multilingual Classroom ◽  
Sociopolitical Structures

This case study research documents how one teacher’s personal language and literacy practices and the sociopolitical structures of her profession intersect in her literacy instruction for her multilingual third grade students. Centering my analysis on Graff’s (1987) notion of the “literacy myth,” I discuss how the dialectic between Bourdieu’s habitus and field unfolds in the performative space of the classroom, challenging this discourse in small but significant ways. Complimenting research exploring students’ out-of-school language and literacy practices, this paper addresses how a teacher’s literate life history is performed in the classroom and who stands to benefit from these discursive performances.

Living Dialogues in One Neighborhood: Moving toward Understanding across Discourses and Practices of Literacy and Schooling

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Rogers ◽  
Cynthia Tyson ◽  
Elizabeth Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discourse Communities ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
School Based ◽  
Inclusive School ◽  
Theoretical Frame

Drawing on a critical discourse perspective, we examine the “living dialogues,” or the complex interplay between discourses, in one neighborhood to recontextualize the often polarized debates about literacy instruction within education. Focusing on three children, their families, teachers, and classrooms, we argue that the creation of more inclusive school literacy practices requires a consideration of how discourses function within and across homes, communities, and schools. Thus we focus less on the merits or limits of one instructional method than on how living dialogues reflect particular and situated beliefs about language and literacy practices. Within this theoretical frame, classrooms arise as contextualized spaces where the living dialogues of unique discourse communities intersect, and where the relational discourses that shape and reflect classroom practices have the potential to open up or close down instructional spaces for children. A critical discourse perspective re-situates debates around literacy instruction and allows us to engage in complex ways with the dilemmas and possibilities of school-based literacy practices. Perhaps the most insidious and least understood form of segregation is that of the word. For if the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to bind, imprison, and destroy. - Ralph Ellison

Writing as a Minecrafter: Exploring how Children Blur Worlds of Play in the Elementary English Language Arts Classroom

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Cassie J. Brownell
Keyword(s):  
Virtual World ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Writing Curriculum ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Physical Play ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context Educators have considered how Minecraft supports language and literacy practices in the game and in the spaces and circumstances immediately surrounding gameplay. However, it is still necessary to develop additional conceptualizations of how children and youth's online and offline worlds and experiences are blurred by and through the games. In this study, I take up this call and examine how the boundaries of the digital were blurred by one child as he wrote in response to a standardized writing prompt within his urban fourth-grade classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Through snapshots of Jairo's writing, I illuminate how he muddled the lines between his physical play experiences and those he had in the virtual world of Minecraft. In doing so, I argue that he carried over his personal interest as a fan of Minecraft into the writing curriculum through creative language play. As Jairo “borrowed” his physical play experiences in the virtual world of Minecraft to complete an assigned writing task, he exemplified how children blur playworlds of physical and digital play in the elementary ELA classroom. Research Design Drawing on data generated in an 18-week case study, I examine how one child, Jairo, playfully incorporated his lived experiences in the virtual world of Minecraft into mandated writing tasks. Conclusions/Recommendations My examination of his writing is meant to challenge writing scholars, scholars of play, and those engaged in rethinking media's relation to literacy. I encourage a rethinking of what it means for adults to maintain clear lines of what is digital play and what is not. I suggest adults might have too heavy a hand in bringing play into classrooms. Children already have experiences with play—both physical and digital. We must cultivate a space for children to build on what was previously familiar to them by offering scaffolds to bridge these experiences between what we, as adults, understand as binaries. Children do not necessarily see distinctions between “reality” and play worlds, or between digital and physical play. For children, play worlds and digital worlds are perhaps simply worlds; it is we as adults who harbor a desire for clear boundaries.

The Love and Science of Reading: A Promising Instructional Approach for Adolescent Multilingual Learners

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Lama K. Farran ◽  
Robert A. Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Achievement Gaps ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Second Language Literacy ◽  
Targeted Instruction ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Sociocultural Development ◽  
Development Of Language

Purpose: Adolescent multilingual learners are at high risk for reading difficulties as evidenced by persistent achievement gaps. This article calls for a paradigm shift and aims to elucidate what constitutes promising second-language literacy instruction for multilingual adolescents, comprising effective literacy practices grounded in research, combined with an emphasis on individual learners and their sociocultural development. Cast in ecological systems and functionalist perspectives, this article provides a model for language and literacy instruction that is grounded in basic tenets of reading science within a sociocultural context. We outline strategies that focus on language as a basis for reading development followed by examples of authentic learning experiences designed to motivate students and nurture their love of reading. Conclusions: A solution to existing achievement gaps may be a promising approach that emphasizes both the science and love of reading, which entails targeted instruction rooted in the research evidence integrated into engaging and meaningful learning experiences, central to which is the acknowledgement of multilingual learners as individuals. The authors call for an intentional focus on accelerating the development of language through frequent use of and a genuine love for both the science of reading and the science of teaching reading.

Languages and Literacies in Translocation

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 364-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Skerrett
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Girl ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
The World ◽  
Multiple Languages

Transnational youth represent an increasing demographic in societies around the world. This circumstance has amplified the need to understand how youths’ language and literacy repertoires are shaped by transnational life. In response, this article presents a case study of a Mexican adolescent girl who immigrated to the United States and continued to participate in life in Mexico. It examines shifts in her multiple language and literacy practices that she attributed to transnational life and the knowledge she acquired from transnational engagements with languages and literacies. Data include interviews of the young woman, observations of her in a variety of social contexts, and literacy artifacts that she produced. Research on transnational youths’ language and literacy practices and theories of multiliteracies and border crossing facilitate analysis. Findings include that language and multiliteracy practices shift in interconnected ways in response to transnational life and engagements with multiple languages and literacies foster transnational understandings. Accordingly, attending to transnational youths’ multilingual as well as multiliterate practices can deepen understandings of how people recruit multiple languages, literacies, and lifeworlds for meaning making. Implications of this work are offered concerning the features of a transnational curriculum that can both draw from and build up the language and literacy reservoirs of transnational youth.

scholarly journals Intersecting Flows of Language and Literacy: A Case Study of One Transnational Youth in the Cloud and in the Classroom

LETRAS ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dillard-Paltrineri
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Virtual Spaces ◽  
Alfabetización Digital ◽  
Estudio De Caso

What youth do online is often dismissed as solely social and superficial a waste of time and certainly not academic. Many transnational youth use sophisticated, multimodal, and multilingual literacy skills to navigate these physical and virtual spaces. Calling on concepts of flows and scapes, as well as sociocultural notions of mediation, this case study investigates the digital literacy practices of transnational youth. A description is provided of see how these practices flow between (and simultaneously mediate further participation in) official and unofficial spaces of learning. Las actividades en línea de los jóvenes se consideran pasatiempos, y no actividades académicas. Muchos jóvenes transnacionales navegan los espacios físicos y virtuales usando destrezas de alfabetización complejas, multimodales y multilingües. Mediante los conceptos de flujos y scapes, mediación y teorías socioculturales, este estudio de caso investiga las prácticas de alfabetización digital de jóvenes transnacionales. Describe las formas en que éstas destrezas fluyen (y, simultáneamente, median más participación) entre espacios de aprendizaje oficiales y no oficiales.

scholarly journals Preschool English Teachers’ Practices in Early Literacy Instruction: A Multiple Case Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Adelina Asmawi ◽  
Nazila SeyedHendi
Keyword(s):  
Early Literacy ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Preschool Teachers ◽  
Multiple Case Study ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Early Literacy Instruction ◽  
Early English

The practices preschool teachers implement in their classrooms are vital in their students’ literacy development. Preschool teachers are always expected to implement research-based literacy practices to make sure children are ready to learn when they enter school. This multiple-case study intended to address four non-native in-service preschool English teachers’ practices in early literacy instruction. Data collection involved field notes and videotaping of classroom practices along with interviews and documents from ten full English lesson observations in each classroom. Data analysis began with identifying teachers' practices. A cross case analysis was also conducted. The results showed that even when four teachers were in the same school district, using different curriculum, and supported by the different principal, each interpreted and enacted literacy policy differently. The overall conclusion generated from the results of the data analyses is that though teachers and preschool principals perceived that they were effectively applying early English literacy instruction, there was actually a divide between what teachers believed and what they implemented (their actual practice) in their classrooms. Besides, there was not enough interaction between teacher and children. However, the four preschool teachers mentioned in their interviews that they would like to be friends with their students.

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