In this paper, the author shares three teaching stories that demonstrate the social, cultural, political, and historical factors of all texts in specific interpretive communities. The author shows how the texts that comprised his curriculum constructed particular subject positions that inevitably included some students but marginalized and…

NCLB and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity--access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum--are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately…

This article reports on a study that investigated how teachers from the same urban elementary school serving a low- to medium-income student population interpreted, negotiated, and resisted a district-wide mandate requiring them to implement the Open Court Reading program. Interviews and informal observations revealed that there were profound…

This article describes an original way to integrate the visual arts with classroom literacy practices. Artists have a well developed repertoire of ways to observe the world around them through fresh eyes, and classroom teachers can use many of these same techniques to help young readers focus on subtle clues to meaning in stories. We describe…

Looks at the features of teacher-guided discussions of literature that led elementary students toward constructing a theme for a story. Shows how students can profitably explore theme in the literature they are reading and provides an alternative to the directed reading activity format that has become typical of small group reading instruction.…

Presents an overview of third-grade bilingual students and their literacy curriculum. Discusses a series of instructional lessons ("strategy wall charts") developed to provide the students with various tools to work their way through literacy blocks as they read and wrote in English. Looks at patterns of internalization that occurred when the…

Reflects on how the author's third-grade students, experienced in literary conversation from their reading workshop, transferred the practice of literary conversation to their writing workshop. (SR)

Illustrates how a struggling third-grade reader named Maddie used her own writing as a logical place for beginning to become a reader. Describes how her teacher built on Maddie's strengths and immersed her in meaningful activities in order to promote a positive attitude toward reading which became the foundation for her acquisition of reading…