8
Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers Author(s): William T. Fagan Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 42, No. 8, Empowerment through Literacy (Apr., 1989), pp. 572-578 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20200236 . Accessed: 28/06/2014 08:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and International Reading Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Reading Teacher. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

Empowered Students; Empowered TeachersAuthor(s): William T. FaganSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 42, No. 8, Empowerment through Literacy (Apr., 1989), pp.572-578Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20200236 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 08:55

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Wiley and International Reading Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Reading Teacher.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

William T. Fagan_

Empowered students;

empowered teachers

Children's natural language abilities must be nurtured, but often teachers do not capitalize on the existing strengths to build permanent literacy skills.

In recent years such terms as power, con

trol, ownership, empowerment, and dis

empowerment have been used to describe

the relationship between readers and writers

and their degree of competence in and the role of literacy in their lives. These terms (and un

derlying concepts) have been mostly directed

toward learners. By focussing on the learner

in this way, the teacher becomes the holder

and thus the potential dispenser of power. Teachers have power over how reading and

writing are taught, over how children experi ence reading and writing within the school

text.

Fitzclarence and Giroux (1984) state "In

actuality, power is at the root of all forms of

behavior in which people say no, struggle, re

sist, use opposition forms of discourse, and

dream new possibilities for human existence."

Thus teachers can use their power to inspire children, to help them develop competency in

reading and writing, and to understand the

role of reading and writing in their lives. Un

fortunately, however, some teachers may ac

tively interfere with the power that children have begun to develop with respect to literacy,

prior to their entering school.

I will examine the nature of the power over literacy which children often bring to school, and the manner in which teachers may interfere with this power.

Empowered students

Empowerment is defined here as a posi tive force and literacy is the medium. What is often overlooked in discussing empowerment is that many children come to school with a

great deal of power over literacy. We often read documentaries and scenarios of children

who prior to entering school have taken con

trol of print as readers and writers. One of the earliest to document this phe

nomenon was Almy (1949), who in her doc toral thesis studied the home learning opportunities of reading of 106 grade 1 chil

dren. She found that approximately 75% of the children engaged in playing with books,

magazines, and pencils and incorporated some form of reading in their play. She relates a particular incident. Two 5 year olds who had

recently experienced a train ride asked an

adult to make tickets for their train play. When the adult suggested that they make their own

tickets, one retorted "But we want it to really say Middletown" (p. 39).

It must be remembered that Almy's re

search was conducted at a time when parents/

caregivers were "not allowed" to be partners in

literacy development. Schools jealously guarded the materials necessary to make chil dren readers. (At that time, writing was

viewed mostly as handwriting and thus didn't

entail the same mystique as the power of read

ing and there was not the same concern about

allowing parents to be involved.)

572 The Reading Teacher April 1989

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

Another pioneer in documenting the liter

acy competency of beginning school children was Durkin (1961, 1983). She conducted a

longitudinal study with 49 children who had learned to read prior to entering school. At the

time of school entrance, their reading levels as

measured by a standardized reading test

ranged from grade 1.5 to 4.6 with a mean of

2.3, thus demonstrating the considerable suc

cess which these children experienced as read

ers. She also pointed out the importance for

reading development of the children's percep tion of what it meant "to read." In more recent

years, the number of studies on young chil

dren as readers and writers has skyrocketed.

Non-school contexts Children are naturally meaning seekers

(Dyson, 1984). Thus, when they encounter

print (through reading or writing) they attempt to relate it to some known meaning, enlisting the attempt of others if necessary. "They learn

about its purpose, the processes by which oth

ers read and write and the specific visual fea tures that characterize print." Brailsford

(1984) and Goodall (1984) pointed out that

young children interpret print in terms of the context or environment in which it occurs.

Goodall reminds us that children's responses

may not be "word perfect." While the sign Su

permarket may be read as Groceries, it is

clear that the presence of print is related to the

nature of the environment; children are em

powered as "knowers" of their surroundings. Not only do young children use environ

mental cues to give meaning to print, they also

begin to note the specific visual features of the

printed code (Dyson, 1984). This ability may occur at a very young age. Lass (1982), who

observed her young son's early experiences with print, states: "When at 17 months he be

gan to point to and call any letter 'B' or T>,' I realized he knew letters were a separate cate

gory of visual stimulus. Then, when he'd say 'B' or T>' for any of the 24 letters, Td say, 'No, that's a GI for example. Soon he asked, 'What's that?' and pointed to a letter. It was

identified for him. And so it went, until at about two years he could identify all the up

percase and most lowercase letters."

Further evidence of children's control over print comes from the work of Taylor (1982) who studied children's use of print in the home. These children used print for a va

riety of purposes. Taylor relates one such in

stance. "When Debbie was almost five, she drew a smiling person and wrote 'dearmom

DEBBIE I AM SENDING A CARD.' Debbie Was

visiting her grandmother; her mother had

stayed at home because she was ill. Debbie

was sad that her mother was not with her and

so she wrote, 'dearmomdebbie,' and then

asked an adult to help her write, 'i am send

ing a card.' "

Debbie knew that print could

transcend space at one's bidding, and could be

used to keep in touch with loved ones sepa rated in that space.

Empowerment is a positive force and

literacy is the medium.

Another instance of print use which Tay lor documents related to four girls ages 4 to 8

who were setting up a clubhouse, and were

making plans for its operation. Taylor summa

rizes their use of print for this purpose as fol

lows: "As the children learned ways of dealing with one another through print, they also learned something of the ways of organizing a

business, marketing products, conducting fi

nancial transactions, and using computers.

They made elaborate preparations for beauty salons and restaurants."

Schooling (dis)empowerment Once children begin school, teachers

have a grave responsibility in the process of

empowerment through literacy. There are ba

sically two groups of students they must attend to: those already empowered (within their level of mastery), who need continued support and development, and those who have not yet

acquired mastery over print and its uses.

Brailsford (1984) observed a kindergar ten class with particular attention to six chil

dren, three of whom entered school with considerable knowledge of print and three

who were low in such knowledge. "All the

High Print children...demonstrated their ca

pability to interact with books for lengthy per iods of time, without adult suppport or social

dialogue. From the beginning of September, Mark, Janice, and Trevor could be totally ab

sorbed in books. They often interacted silently

Empowered students; empowered teachers 573

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 4: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

with storybooks..." (p. 417). While the Low

Print children, on the other hand, entered

school being able to distinguish their degree of control over print in their environment and

print "in the text," over the course of the year

they became confused as to what they knew, what power they had. While Belinda (a Low Print child) had been proud that she could read the "Small is _" patterned chart in the

classroon in October, in February she saw

herself as lacking any such power. When she

was asked by the teacher's aide to help in read

ing a story, the conversation was as follows:

Teacher's aide: Do you think you can? Belinda: No Teacher's aide: You don't think you can do it? Belinda: I don't think so (p. 441).

There is little wonder that while the High Print children selected the book corner, Belinda commented "Books is boring

? I can't

read and that's all there is" (p. 417). Brailsford believes that the "mixed messages" which the

Low Print children received regarding the

meaning of print was a contributory factor to

their lack of progress in developing compe tency in reading. A similar conclusion was

drawn in studies by Dyson (1984) and Harms and Letton (1986). The significance of the teacher's role in early literacy development is

Too many teachers are themselves not

empowered but dependent on others

for what they do?slavishly following curriculum materials.

indicated by Dyson: "The process of making sense of symbols by puzzling out their con

nection with known meaning is young chil

dren's way of learning. We, as teachers, may not be able to stop it, but we may interfere

with it. Schools inevitably expose children to written language-and children inevitably work to make sense of their environment. But

the emphasis in schools.. .may not be on using written language but on isolated and easily measurable skills."

If this should happen, then as Harms and

Letton point out, "These children who have

confidently owned their reading experiences

may find to their disappointment that reading

in school measures learning the alphabet and

isolated letter/sound relationships, drilling on these elements and swiftly completing work

sheets that require underlining and matching "

These young learners are often confused about

the relationship between reading and writing at home and at school. The power they felt over reading and writing tends to be lost in the classroom.

Empowered teachers Shor and Freir? (1987) state that "educa

tion has to do with a permanent process of for

mation" (p. 118); teachers, of course, have a

crucial role to play in that process. One of the formation tasks which all teachers of elemen

tary students encounter is that of helping learners in the process of becoming literate.

This is only possible if the teachers are em

powered as literates themselves, and as help ers in assisting children towards a similar

goal. Unfortunately, a number of teachers,

rather than being so empowered, are depen dent on others for what they do to help chil dren develop reading and writing behaviors. Such teachers are inclined to follow a set of curriculum materials (language arts/reading basais) slavishly, materials, which according to Buswell (1982) often deny the intelligence of teachers and their roles as conceptualizers,

planners, and implementors. Paris (1985) also

expressed concern about the narrowness of lit

eracy programs, the focus on the what (the

comprehension of content) rather than on the

wh^whei^where of reading and writing in the context of one's life.

An even stronger point of view is given by Shor and Freir? (1987, p. 135): "The school is

increasing its separatism of the words we read

and the world we live in. In such a dichotomy, the world of reading is only the world of the

scholarly process, a closed world, cut off

from the world where we have experiences but

do not read about these experiences. This

scholarly world where we read words that re

late less and less to our concrete experiences outside has become more and more special ized in the bad sense of that word. In reading

words, school becomes a special place that

teachers use to read only school-words, not

reality words." From my recent research I have identified

three areas where the meaning of reading/

574 The Reading Tfeacher April 1989

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 5: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

writing is divorced from real life, areas where

teachers play a key role in disempowering rather than in empowering children as readers

and writers.

Concepts of reading/writing Twenty-six each of low and regular

achievers in grades 3, 6, and 9 were observed

completing various literacy tasks, and were

questioned about their concepts of reading and

writing. They were shown a set of 12 photo

graphs of children and adults reading or writ

ing or engaging in other activities (watching television, playing cards) and were asked such

questions as: Who is reading (writing)? Who do you think is the best reader (writer)? Why do you think that? Tell me how you were

taught to read (write). What can you do to be

come a better reader (writer)? About three-quarters of all of the low

achievers and the achieving 6s and 9s believed that they had learned to read by focussing on sounds or on words. The achieving grade 3s

were the exception. While a large number of

these held similar beliefs to the others, over

one-quarter of them remembered having learned to read in what might be described as a "shared book situation" where a parent and

the child interacted throughout the reading of the text. A similar pattern was evident for re

membering how writing was learned, with all

of the groups (except achieving grade 3 s) mostly believing that their initial experiences with writing focussed on neatness and exact

ness.

However, the responses of the achieving grade 6s and 9s indicated that during their

years in school a majority had changed their notion of reading to a focus on meaning. "To

become a good reader you have to make sense

out of the text." "You must understand the au thor's message in a way that makes sense to

you." "You have to think about what you are

reading." There was a similar change to a

lesser extent among the low achieving grade 9

students. When the groups were asked how

they would suggest improving their reading, their suggestions were consistent with their

beliefs.

While the concepts of reading for some of

the groups indicated a change from how they perceived their initial experiences with read

ing, for some of the groups, their views of

writing had not changed much. The majority

of the subjects still thought of improving writ

ing in terms of "correctness." Just less than

one-half of the achieving grade 9 students, and less than one-quarter of all other groups could conceive of a writer as a reader. Fur

thermore, about three-quarters of the low

achieving grade 3s, just less than one-half of

the low achieving grade 6s and 9s and about one-third of the achieving groups believed that a teacher was necessary in order for them to

become readers and writers; that is, they be

lieved they could not become readers and

writers outside of a teacher context. They did

not have a sense of ownership. Riby-Williams

(1975) suggests that when students become

dependent on teachers, they do not see any reason for engaging in reading and writing be

yond the classroom since the teacher is no

longer a powerful figure outside of the class

room context.

Materials for reading/writing. The students were given a set of 17 read

ing tasks that may be described as including "ordinary, everyday" reading tasks-TV

guide, sales flyer, advertisement for pizza, contest announcement, etc. They were asked to do two things: (1) tell what the item was,

where it would be found, how it would be used, and (2) answer a specific question about

information from the item, for example, "What is on channel 11 at 4 pm?"

The achieving students were much better

than the low achieving children in dealing with these tasks and all groups (except achiev

ing grade 3s were better in recognizing the task than in answering specific questions.

There were some instances where a child

could recognize a task but could not access the

pertinent information for a specific question and vice versa. Only the low achieving grade 9s and the achieving grade 6s and 9s were able

to fully complete more than one-half of the

tasks, that is, recognize the task and access the

specific information. In brief, students do not

seem to be competent in reading ordinary tasks normally found outside of school.

Subsequent to the study, as part of a prac ticum experience in a senior reading course, the students (in the course) each worked with a child in the school setting over a period of 5

weeks. Initially, they searched the school re

cords, and engaged the children in various

reading tasks to develop an understanding of

Empowered students; empowered teachers 575

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 6: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

the child's reading abilities and strategies. One

of the tasks was a modified version of the task

described above. Three of the classroom

teachers questioned why this kind of task

would be administered. "After all," one said, "it has nothing to do with reading in school."

Reading/writing in context Data on the teaching of reading/writing in

context comes fron a study of 16 teachers of

elementary students, each of whom was ob

served teaching two reading and writing les

sons. Only one of the 16 teachers related the

reading or writing event to children's lives out

side of the classroom. They sometimes related

the topic of the reading or writing exercise; for example, if a passage was about polar bears, the teacher might ask if anyone had

seen a polar bear in a zoo and to tell about it.

They did not relate the act of reading or writ

ing when someone would read or write stories or poems, answer questions, describe objects or events, write letters, etc. Typical "class room constrained" lessons are indicated by the

following descriptions provided by the class room observer.

(a) The grade 2 children were seated in their desks and the teacher asked them to open their

books to the story they had read last day. The teacher asked the children to read along with her.

After they had finished a page, the children were asked to close their books and the teacher read the first sentence to the children while leaving out one

word. The students were then instructed to guess which word of the sentence was missing. This

process was repeated several times with the same

sentence. Each sentence on the page was dealt with

in this manner. If a sentence was complicated, the teacher read it several times before the children

were allowed to guess the missing word.

After one page had been completed in this

manner, the teacher placed the page on an opaque

projector. The words that had been omitted in read

ing each sentence were covered up and individual

children were chosen to read a sentence and to

orally spell out the missing words. The teacher

then printed these words in the blanks. Once this process had been repeated with each sentence, the

teacher shut off the projector and the children were asked to write as much as they could remember of

what they had read.

(b) The children and the grade 2 teacher gath ered at the back of the classroom. The teacher sat

on a small chair with the children sitting on the floor in front of her. This was a new story for the

children (about the musk ox) and the teacher read it for the children as they followed along in their books. Once the story had been read, the teacher

reviewed the content of the story and pointed out

new words. The teacher then focussed on the char

acteristics and facts about the musk ox. The chil

dren acted out the part of the story where it talked about the herd of musk ox surrounding their babies

when being attacked by a predator. The teacher had

two children act as the baby musk ox and a number of children as the adults who formed a circle

around the child. One child became the predator and tried to get in.

When the children went to their seats, the

facts and characteristics which had been discussed were printed on a chart at the front of the class room. The teacher printed the information and af

ter the chart was completed, the children together read the information from the chart. The chart was

taken away and they were asked to write at least

three sentences in their notebooks or scribblers.

These sentences could be "in their own words" but were to include the usage of capitals, periods, com

mas, and connecting words. When the children fin

ished their sentences they read them to the teacher and made corrections where needed.

These lessons lack any meaningful con

text outside of a classroom environment. The

children are merely requested to follow the

procedures indicated by the teacher; the

teacher is perceived as the ultimate goal for

engaging in reading and writing activities.

The children were not aware of how such

reading and writing activities would help them

become better readers and writers, indepen dent of the particular classroom context.

Discussion/Implications Teachers have a crucial role to play in the

empowerment of children through literacy. The power of the children is limited by the power of the teachers; schools (teachers) con

trol not just students but the meaning which

they generate in relation to school experi ences, including literacy (Young, 1971). Teachers may exhibit their power either di

rectly, as in the nature or organization of their

teaching, or indirectly, through the hidden

curriculum which Fitzclarence and Giroux

(1984) define as "those messages, values, and

ideologies that are transmitted tacitly to stu

dents through any of the message systems of

the school, whether they be curriculum, the

forms of classroom relations, or the accept able modes of instruction."

Teachers sometimes overlook the fact that

children enter school posessing considerable

literacy knowledge. They are able to engage in reading and writing events (even if at a min

imal level of participation) and are aware of

their ability to do so. Unfortunately, those

children are often disempowered through ex

posure to meaningless activities that pass for

the teaching of reading and writing. Rather

than being allowed to write messages, lists, or

share in a story, they are often drilled on

576 The Reading Teacher April 1989

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 7: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

words in isolation, or match up pictures and

words on worksheets. Sims (1982) maintains

that once we take away the contextual mean

ing for reading and writing, "the results have

been inane, programmed drill-the-skill-pack ages- divorced from the language and experi ence the children bring with them to school and force fed to them bit by boring bit."

In order to contribute to the empower ment of children through literacy, teachers

must (1) understand how reading and writing contribute to the lives of the children, and (2) provide reading and writing experiences which are familiar to the children from their out of school experiences. For these children

who have not experienced reading and writing

prior to entering school, the teacher should

begin with environmental print tasks to which the children can relate. Reading and writing

experiences should always provide an oppor

tunity for children to discuss what the particu lar reading or writing event means in their

lives. Reading and writing should not be

taught for the purpose of demonstrating

knowledge of skill for the teacher. One of the key uses of reading in chil

dren's lives is for enjoyment. The school

should promote this use of reading by making the library the "literacy center" and not just a

place where students go to find information to

complete an assignment for the teacher. Chil

dren should not only be allowed to go to the

library for books, they should also be given time to do so. They should be allowed time to

browse, to experience the range of literacy materials and to choose on their own if they wish. As long as teachers arrange a particular

library time and ensure that all children com

plete a project or choose a book in that time, the notion of their dependency on the teacher

for library use will be highlighted. Children must encounter a wide range of

literacy material in the classroom?trade

books, children's literature, newspapers, mag

azines, forms, brochures, flyers, etc. The

presence of "environmental literacy material"

helps the low achievers think of themselves as

readers and writers since they are often aware

of such materials in their lives, and often do not think of these literacy tasks as reading and

writing. One idea for using a range of "envi

ronmental reading materials" is the use of the

"grabbag" technique. A shopping bag is filled with a variety of reading tasks and one student

draws one and explains what it is/where it

would be found/why or how it would be used.

The other students then ask for pertinent in

formation in order to be able to use it, for ex

ample, "What kinds of pizza can we get?" Discussion may highlight how the information is arranged (organized) on various flyers/bro chures. Failure to include a range of materials

sends a message to the children that reading in

school is a special kind of reading and is re

stricted in terms of how they understand read

ing as part of their lives.

Do less telling, describing, and

explaining to children. Instead, ask them to tell, describe, and explain.

Teachers must monitor their use of lan

guage as they interact with children for it is

through such interaction that concepts are of

ten formed. The teacher who says "Boys and

girls, we have a whole lot of different stories

here that we are going to look at today" pro motes a misconception of "story" when the ar

ray of materials includes description, poetry, and even a recipe. The teacher who asks a

question about a particular text and then says "I want you to read to the end of the second

paragraph on page 57 to find the answer"

gives a message that the teacher is the most

significant cue in locating an answer. The

teacher who in response to children brain

storming likenesses and differences between summer and winter sports says "OK, that's

enough similarities, now let's go on to differ

ences" is informing the students that this activ

ity is the teacher's and they must play by the

teacher's rules.

Teachers must try to control what appears to be a "teacher instinct" of giving?telling,

describing, explaining. Certainly, the students

must be given sufficient information to under

stand a particular concept or strategy, but

quite often this same information can be pro vided by the students. If, for example, the

class has been working on finding the main

idea, rather than giving another passage with

this purpose specifically stated, the teacher

may assign a passage and have the students

Empowered students; empowered teachers 577

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 8: Empowerment through Literacy || Empowered Students; Empowered Teachers

decide why they would read this passage, what approach they would use to read it ef

fectively, and whether finding the main idea

would be beneficial in this case. In writing, rather than "giving" students a set of criteria

for editing a piece of writing, have them gen erate a set in terms of the audience and the

purpose for writing. While students may ask

straightforward questions on occasion, teach

ers should model for them and encourage them to think of an answer to a question be

fore asking. Thus, rather than saying "What is

_?" "Why would _?" "How can

_?" the child might say "I think_.

Does that make sense_?" "I was wonder

ing _. What do you think_?"

Finally, teachers of teachers (professors) have an obligation in helping them acquire the

power over the teaching of literacy which they need to empower children. This will not be

done through providing lists of skills to be

learned, steps to be followed, or texts to be

memorized for quizzes or exams. Instead pre service teachers must have opportunities to

see reading and writing in action. This may be

done through visits to classrooms, or by invit

ing children to come to the university. If first

hand experiences are not feasible, videos of

children reading and writing may be substi

tuted.

Not only should the nature of the reading or writing act be discussed (the knowledge possessed by the children, the strategies in

volved), but the meaningfulness of the reading or writing activity in the lives of the children, the significance of the activity for the children

developing competency and concepts as read

ers and writers.

Conclusion Children often enter school with consid

erable power over literacy?knowledge of con

ventions of print, experiences of participation in reading and writing activities, concepts of

themselves as readers and writers. In order

for children to continue to develop as readers

and writers, teachers must capitalize on what

the children bring to school. Teachers who

impose a narrow view of reading or writing (word sounding, precision in spelling) may confuse children so that they begin to feel

powerless in the school context. In order for

teachers to enhance the literacy power of chil

dren, they themselves must be knowledgeable of recent research in reading and writing, of

the roles of reading and writing in the lives of

children, and of effective ways of promoting

reading and writing development.

Fagan directs the Reading and Language Center

at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is interested in how literacy is taught and how children think about reading and writing.

References

Almy, Millie. Children's Experiences Prior to First Grade and Success in Beginning Reading. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 1949.

Brailsford, Anne. "Early Reading Experiences: The Liter

acy Development of Kindergarten Children Viewed from a Cultural Perspective." Doctoral dissertation,

University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, 1984.

Buswell, Carol. "Pedagogic Change and Social Change." British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 1 (Octo ber 1980), pp. 293-306.

Durkin, Dolores. "Children Who Read before Grade One." The Reading Teacher, vol. 14 (January 1961), pp.

163-66.

Durkin, Dolores. Teaching Them to Read. Boston, MA: AI

lyn and Bacon, 1983.

Dyson, Anne Haas. "

'N Spell my Grandmama': Fostering Early Thinking about Print." The Reading Teacher, vol.

38 (December 1984), pp. 262-71. Fitzclarence, Lindsay, and Henry A. Giroux. "The Para

dox of Power in Educational Theory and Practice."

Language Arts, vol. 61 (September 1984), pp. 462-77.

Goodall, Marilyn. "Can Four Year Olds 'Read' Words in

Their Environment?" The Reading Teacher, vol. 37

(February 1984), pp. 478-83.

Harms, Jeanne McLain, and Lucille J. Letton. "Fostering Ownership of the Reading Experience." The Reading Teacher, vol. 40 (December 1986), pp. 324-30.

Lass, Bonnie. "Portrait of My Son as an Early Reader."

The Reading Teacher, vol. 36 (October 1982), pp. 20

28.

Paris, Scott. "Teaching Children to Guide Their Reading and Learning." In The Contexts of School Based Liter

acy, edited by Taffy E. Raphael, pp. 115-30. New York, NY: Random House, 1984.

Riby-Williams, J. Education for Social Change: Human

Development and National Progress. New York, NY: In

ternational Association of Schools for Social Work, 1975.

Shor, Ira, and Paulo Freir?. A Pedagogy for Liberation.

Amherst, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1987.

Sims, Rudine. "Dialect and Reading: Toward Redefining the Issues." In Reader Meets Author/Bridging the Gap, edited by Judith A. Langer and M. Trika Smith-Burke, pp. 222-36, Newark, DE: International Reading Associ

ation, 1982.

Taylor, Denny. "Children's Social Use of Print." The Read

ing Teacher, vol. 36 (November 1982), pp. 144-48.

Young, Michael, ed. Knowledge and Control. London, En

gland: Collier-Macmillan, 1971.

578 The Reading Teacher April 1989

This content downloaded from 91.238.114.120 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:55:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions