Language Arts - Volume 82, Issue 6, 2005

Parents often question teachers on what they can do to help their children succeed in school. Because research indicates that reading aloud helps a student’s overall academic success, teachers tell parents to do just that.

This article focuses on a child’s literacy experiences during one day in second grade. Marco attends an urban school of choice with a whole language philosophy. On this day in March, Marco participated in 30 literacy events involving 27 different texts including literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) and instrumental texts (labels, signs, charts, etc.). The social nature of literacy learning is examined by exploring the relationship between Marco’s literacy experiences and his literacy development. Marco, one of the less proficient readers in his class, is profoundly influenced by opportunities to observe and interact with other readers and writers. Marco makes meaning and learns language as he participates in classroom literacy events.

Data from a longitudinal teacher research study is used to explore “sounding out words” as a cultural model of reading. The article includes definitions of “sounding out” used by children and parents and suggests that “sounding out words” is more often verbalized than actualized as a decoding strategy.

This article examines using descriptive analysis of children’s work in professional development with a variety of New York City educators, in both in-school and out-of-school contexts. This work reveals the ways in which reflective structures can help educators value and claim effective literacy education practices.

The authors use four writing samples to demonstrate how English language learners can express complex and sophisticated ideas that reflect their social realities. The samples further illustrate how students’ ability to express those ideas often exceeds their knowledge of conventions and spelling rules in English.

Interviews with fourth grade students about their writing in science revealed their perspectives on purposes for writing, understandings of intended audiences, and use of visuals. A discussion of these themes is situated in a consideration of theory and research on genre. The article includes suggestions for teachers related to the teaching of science writing to elementary students.