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The Road to Participation: The Construction of a Literacy Practice in a Learning Community of Linguistically Diverse Learners
Ailing Kong, P. David Pearson
This article describes a year-long process in which a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds learned to participate in reading, writing, and talking about books in a literature-based instructional program. Our analyses revealed a gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to students as they developed the knowledge and skills needed to respond to books and explore personal meanings collaboratively through guided participation. Accompanying these changes in participation structures and practices were exceptional gains in student performance on both related (metacognitive control) and unrelated (reading and unfamiliar sight words) measures of reading ability. A pattern of three distinguishable but overlapping stages emerged from our analyses of student-teacher interaction patterns: (1) teaching by telling, (2) teaching by modeling and scaffolding, and (3) teaching from behind. Five features of the focal teacher’s instruction were pivotal in promoting this transformation of responsibility. First, the teacher created a classroom learning community in which students felt respected and their experiences and knowledge were valued. Second, the teacher allowed time to build opportunities to engage students in reading, writing, and talking about age-appropriate and quality literature. Third, the teacher challenged students to think critically and reflectively about what they read by asking open-ended but pointed questions. Fourth, the teacher employed multiple modes of teaching–telling, modeling, scaffolding, facilitating, and participating. Finally, the teacher persisted in maintaining high expectations for all of her students.
Research in the Teaching of English, Volume 38, Number 1, August 2003
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