Literary Practices as Social Acts : Power, Status, and Cultural Norms in the Classroom

by Lewis, Cynthia

• ISBN13: 9780805836783
• ISBN10: 0805836780
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This book examines the social codes and practices that shape the literary culture of a combined fifth/sixth-grade classroom. It considers how the social and cultural contexts of classroom and community affect four classroom practices involving literature--read aloud, peer-led literature discussions, teacher-led literature discussions, and independent reading--with a focus on how these practices are shaped by discourse and rituals within the classroom and by social codes and cultural norms beyond the classroom. This book's emphasis on intermediate students is particularly important, given the dearth of studies in the field of reading education that focus on readers at the edge of adolescence.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Foreword	xv
I Contexts	1	(56)
The Social Politics and Performance of Literature	3	(16)
The Study	4	(6)
Literacy as Social Practice	10	(9)
A Social Geography of the Classroom and Surrounding Community	19	(38)
The Focal Students	21	(23)
Social Class and Race at Emerson School and its Surrounding Community	44	(7)
Literacy Learning in the District and School	51	(6)
II Literary Practices	57	(114)
Enacting Classroom Culture Through the Ritual of Read-Aloud: What Do We Have in Common?	59	(26)
The Classroom Culture: Social and Interpretive Expectations	61	(9)
Claiming Community: The Collective Dimension	70	(10)
Contradicting Community: Boys on the Margins	80	(4)
Performing Read Aloud: What Do We Have in Common?	84	(1)
Negotiating Classroom Culture in Peer-Led Literature Discussions: What Are Our Social Roles?	85	(34)
Differential Status and Power Within the Classroom Culture	86	(9)
Peer-Led Discussions	95	(2)
Achieving Social and Interpretive Power	97	(8)
Interrupting Social and Interpretive Power	105	(11)
Performing Peer-Led Literature Discussions: What are our Social Roles?	116	(3)
Probing Cultural Norms in Teacher-Led Discussions: Why Do We Believe What We Believe?	119	(32)
Cultural Critique	122	(15)
Resistant Readings	137	(8)
Refining the Meaning of Interpretive Competence	145	(4)
Performing the Teacher-Led Discussions: Why Do We Believe What We Believe?	149	(2)
Appropriating Cultural Norms Through Independent Reading: What Will We Accept, Reject, or Reinvent?	151	(20)
Social Discourses of Protection and Desire	153	(1)
Gendered Readings in the Local and Larger Culture	154	(3)
Subcultural Capital in the Classroom: Status and Popular Culture	157	(3)
Social Discourses Beyond the Classroom: Appropriation and Subversion	160	(3)
Performing Independent Reading: What Will We Accept, Reject, or Reinvent?	163	(8)
III Reflections and Implications for Pedagogy	171	(11)
Literary Practices as Social Acts	173	(9)
Shifting Practices and Literary Meanings	174	(2)
The Social Politics of Literary Culture	176	(3)
The Teacher's Role: Implications for Pedagogy	179	(3)
Appendix Methodology	182	(13)
References	195	(10)
Author Index	205	(4)
Subject Index	209