The question posed in this analysis is: What is the relationship between text-centered dialogue and reading comprehension? This article examines one student's behaviors while reading challenging texts. This qualitative case study explored the verbal behaviors of Robert (pseudonym), a seventh-grade student receiving reading intervention. As his…

Conducted in an urban alternative education program for adolescents ages 17-21, this study provides an overview of a professional development program that sought to support teachers in developing unit plans that incorporated backwards design principles and culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. The authors offer a qualitative thematic…

This article uses case study methods and theories of literacy as social practice to explore how an adolescent developed her religious identity and religious literacies in relationship with more secular identities and literacy practices across multiple social contexts. It further examines how the youth engaged her religious identity and religious…

Using Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS 2003/04), this paper attempts to explore find the differences in education between men and women in urban and rural Nepal. Result shows that the urban populations have higher education compared to rural. Average years of schooling in urban Nepal were more than two times for both men and women; the gap in…

This article highlights two key problems of practice the author faced as the instructor of an elementary literacy methods class for Teach for America corps members in a large, northeastern city during an era characterized by strict state and district control: the deficit perspectives the corps members held of their students and the lack of…

Many of the literacies students possess go unnoticed or untapped in schools. In some cases, these hidden literacies are not seen or valued because they are not viewed as appropriate or relevant in relation to officially sanctioned, school-based literacies. The literature has shown that these hidden literacies are indeed valuable and relevant and…

Consistent with a sociocritical frame and the analytic tools of hybridity theory, this article explicates how urban fifth-grade children made language hybrids using rap and poetry to participate in classroom literacy. Ethnographic data from a yearlong study illustrate two key findings. First, standards-based and canon-driven writing models…

In an attempt to address perceived shortcomings in traditional content-area literacy preparation, an interdisciplinary group of teacher education faculty developed an approach called "content-driven literacy" (CDL), which was applied to the design of courses to prepare preservice secondary science and social studies teachers. This article…

In order to systemically improve student achievement in elementary literacy, a large urban school district partnered with a local university to develop a model for high-quality professional development that hopefully would result in long-term changes in teachers' literacy instructional/practices. Schools were selected based on their Adequate…

Describes four innercity families and the ways in which they use print in their daily lives. Finds wide variation in the degrees to which print permeates the lives of innercity children, in both the extent to which family members use print and the types of print being written and read. (SR)

Explores the implications of literacy instruction aimed at "nourishing conversations" about life experiences in literacy classrooms. Emphasizes the sense that students made of their lives when they were allowed to raise their voices through literacy. Argues that curriculum in which adolescents are encouraged to investigate their life…

Using naturalistic inquiry and case study contrasts, finds variation in literacy support available to children. In income-eligible preschools, curricula and pedagogy reflected a limited view of children as learners. Argues that poor children and children of color are socialized to practice a different literacy, one that offers limited experiences…

This paper begins from the premise that, while there is much to be learned from research, it should also be recognized that there is a need for research methodologies and theoretical frames that provide the possibility of more local explanations for the dilemmas and problems facing urban education. The paper contends that situated understandings…

Reports on a year-long study of how children's literacy practices enhanced their understanding of themselves and their social worlds. Finds that children's reading and writing benefited them personally and socially, enabling them to understand a complex urban landscape, to explore new social identities, and to wrestle with social problems and ways…

A study, part of a 5-year investigation (1991-1995) of patterns of implementation of literature-based instruction in schools serving large numbers of children from low-income families, recounts children's literacy experiences as observed in a third-grade classroom in an urban school in upstate New York. The primary goal was to understand the…