In this article, the authors explore a young child's lived experience of discipline and play with/in a mandated balanced literacy curriculum. Mandating balanced literacy presents an interesting case of disciplining literacy because it is rooted in the progressive tradition of meaning-and-process pedagogies. As such, it avoids the most obvious…

Located in Lancaster, South Carolina, Clinton Elementary School enrolls approximately 400 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 5. Ninety-five percent of students are minority and 5 percent are white. Currently, 99 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch. In addition to the school having a high poverty rate, one-fourth of the…

Describes using reading centers, called Reading Choices, placed around a kindergarten room to provide kindergarten students with more opportunities to read and interact with stories and with print. (SR)