Transforming Literacy Curriculum Genres: Working With Teacher Researchers in Urban Classrooms

by Pappas, Christine C.; Zecker, Liliana Barro; Zecker, Liliana; Barry, Anne

• ISBN13: 9780805824018
• ISBN10: 0805824014
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

In this volume, university researchers and urban elementary teacher-researchers coauthor chapters on the teachers' year-long inquiries, on a range of literacy topics that they conducted as part of a collaborative school-university action research project. Central to this project was the teacher-researchers' attempts to transform their teaching practices to meet the needs of students from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, and their finding that their inquiry efforts resulted in developing more collaborative styles of teaching. Because the everyday interactions between teachers and students are realized by the social talk in the classroom, the university- and teacher-researchers analyzed classroom discourse to study and document the teachers' efforts to make changes in the locus of power in literacy teaching and learning. The chapters include many classroom discourse examples to illustrate the critical points or incidents of these teachers' inquiries. They show the successes and the struggles involved in shedding teacher-controlled patterns of talk. This book explores the process of urban teachers' journeys to create dialogically organized literacy instruction in particular literacy routines--called, in this book, curriculum genres. The book is organized in terms of these curriculum genres, such as writing curriculum genres, reading-aloud curriculum genres, drama curriculum genres, and so forth. Teacher inquiries were conducted in various elementary grade levels, from kindergarten through grade eight. Three occurred in bilingual classrooms and one in a special education classroom. The first and last chapters, written by the editors, provide the background, theoretical, and methodological underpinnings of the project.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Urban Teacher Researchers' Struggles in Sharing Power With Their Students: Exploring Changes in Literacy Curriculum Genres	1	(34)
Christine C. Pappas
Liliana Barro Zecker
Part I: Writing Curriculum Genres
Creating A Writing Workshop in First Grade: How to Teach Literacy ``Skills'' and Help Children ``Come to Voice''	35	(26)
Jane Liao
Dian Ruben
Pamela Wolfer
``Pero, Nosotros No Somos Autores!'': Using Explanations to Scaffold Authorship in Latino Second Graders	61	(18)
Liliana Barro Zecker
Caitlyn Nichols
Linda Montes
Sarah Cohen
``Does That Sound Like You?'': Exploring Ways to Foster Eighth-Grade Students' Voice in Their Written Research Reports	79	(24)
Dian Ruben
Jane Liao
Michael Rassel
Part II: Reading-Aloud Curriculum Genres
Fostering First-Graders' Phonemic Awareness and Much More: Using ABC Books in the Reading-Aloud Curriculum Genre	103	(24)
Christine C. Pappas
Shannon Hart
Diane Escobar
Anne Barry
Two Teachers' Efforts to Transform The Reading-Aloud Curriculum Genre for Collaboration: Examining Shifts of Process and Content Dimensions of Sharing Authority	127	(30)
Christine C. Pappas
Shannon Hart
Diane Escobar
Hawa Jones
Dorothy A. O'Malley
Bridging Into English Through Reading-Alouds: More Than a Curricular Routine in a Bilingual Third Grade	157	(28)
Liliana Barro Zecker
Caitlyn Nichols
Linda Montes
Sonia Torres Pasewark
Part III: Drama Curriculum Genres
Trying Out Roles for Learning: Finding the ``Right'' Drama Approach for Sixth Graders	185	(18)
Henry Tabak, Jr.
Paul Fowler
Finding the Right Balance: Using Drama to Promote Special Education Students' Engagement in Literacy Learning	203	(22)
Dian Ruben
Jane Liao
Bernadine Braun
Part IV: Other Language and Literacy Curriculum Genres
Exploring ``Language Richness'' in a Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom: The Possible Forms and Power of Collaborative Talk	225	(26)
Liliana Barro Zecker
Caitlyn Nichols
Linda Montes
Sonia White Soltero
Fostering Young Readers: Creating Contexts for Kindergartners' Reenactments of Books in the Classroom	251	(28)
Dian Ruben
Jane Liao
Demetrya Collier
Creating Ways to Individualize Teacher Response in Various Group Reading Experiences for Second Graders	279	(28)
Jane Liao
Dian Ruben
Renuka L. Mehra
The Rocky Road to Grand Conversations: Learning How to Facilitate Literature-Discussion Groups in Fourth Grade	307	(18)
Shannon Hart
Diane Escobar
Susan C. Jacobson
Transforming Curriculum Genres in Urban Schools: The Political Significance of Collaborative Classroom Discourse	325	(10)
Christine C. Pappas
Liliana Barro Zecker
About the Authors	335	(6)
Author Index	341	(14)
Subject Index	355