Institute for Educational Initiatives

This article discusses a veteran teacher’s literacy pedagogy in response to policies at the district, state, and national level. The yearlong ethnographic case study analyzed the teacher’s resistance, compliance, and innovative hybridization of both “official” and “unofficial” curriculum. The author collected data through weekly co-planning sessions with the teacher and intern, field observations, analysis of policy documents and curricular frameworks, and formal and informal interviews. Findings showed that the teacher’s hybridized literacy pedagogy engaged students and yielded significant growth in literacy as measured by authentic and standardized assessments. The paper concludes by offering implications for teacher educators and K-12 practitioners.

Professional book review: Stirring Up Justice: Writing & Reading to Change the World (Jessica Singer); Using Literature to Enhance Content Area Instruction: A Guide for K–5 Teachers (Rebecca Olness); Free within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature (Rudine Sims Bishop)

This article discusses the literacy practices of two elementary classroom teachers as they navigated and negotiated their teaching context, at times resisting policy, and at other times creating instructional hybridizations in response to federal, state, and local level policies. Through the ethnographic methodological tools of formal and informal interviews, observations, participation in co-planning sessions, and analysis of literacy curricula the researchers found that effective teachers are finding ways to work successfully within the current political climate influenced by No Child Left Behind and the focus on adequate yearly progress (AYP). Based on their findings, the authors suggest ways that educators and elementary schools can continue to successfully meet the literacy needs and interests of an increasingly diverse student population despite standardization in the form of basal reading programs and one-size-fits-all conditions outlined in curricula guides and programs such as Reading First.

This chapter discusses the types of literacy events that occur in home, community and school as well as the connections and disconnects between these three locations for nine fifth grade students in a low achieving, urban elementary school. Under the guidance of the researcher, who volunteered in an after school program, the students became ethnographic researchers of their own literacy practices and used this new knowledge to create social action projects. Data was collected during weekly meetings, informal discussion during recess and after school, and formal interviews during scheduled times. The participants, who called themselves “university researchers”, contributed data to the study with photographs of text found in their homes, communities and schools, research notes, and artifacts. Through extensive conversation with the students and analysis of data, it was evident that the participants engaged in abundant reading and writing in their personal lives in a variety of domains, including church, “playing school”, shopping for food and clothing, and consuming and producing their own text.  The paper begins with Dewey’s (1902) discussion of the disconnect between the child and curriculum, progresses through an in depth discussion of the various literacy practices of the participants in their homes, school and communities, and concludes with a discussion of current research arguing that students engage in rich literacy lives outside of school (Barton and Hamilton, 1998; Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines, 1988; Purcell-Gates, 1996) to which this research may be added.

This resource guide looks at new classroom-based literacy research that supports all learners, including culturally and linguistically diverse students. The authors demonstrate how teachers and researchers develop instructional practices based on multiple languages and the literacy contexts of their schools. They describe classrooms where literacy and learning is encouraged and respected, highlighting best practices for classrooms that include English language learners. This valuable book will inform all educators interested in classroom literacy research and how it supports achievement for diverse students. It features contributions from authors at the forefront of teacher research that hold the most promise for initiating change.

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A 1901 photomontage of the Committee of the Chinese Empire Reform Association, Marysville, Montana, illustrates the beliefs of the reform movement. Thirteen society members are pictured under the Guangxu Emperor, who is flanked by four images of modern naval vessels. Members believed that China would be taken more seriously in international affairs with a modern military—and society—and, thus, be able to afford citizens abroad protection.