Literacy Experiences of Good and Poor Readers

Abstract

The study is conducted to investigate literacy experiences of good and poor readers within their overall schooling experiences and from multiple perspectives. Data were collected in two public elementary schools and include classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires, profile sheets, and journal samples. While the findings indicates different patterns between the experiences of the good and poor readers, some within group variations were also observed. In addition, the factors, found to be contributing to good and poor readers' success or failure, are discussed.Keywords: Literacy Experience, Good Readers, Poor Readers, Elementary School, Interpretive Methodology. INTRODUCTIONA good deal of research is devoted to investigate literacy performance of good and poor readers by comparing their literacy related sub-skills such as phonological awareness, lexical knowledge, oral language proficiency, and so on (Bentin, Deutsch, and Liberman, 1990;Briggs, Austin, and Underwood, 1984;Chiappe, Chiappe, and Gottardo, 2004;Dolores, 1982;Fox and Baker, 1980;Gillon and Dodd, 1994;Johnston, Rugg, and Scott, 1987;Katz, Healy, and Shankweiler, 1983;McBride-Chang and Manis, 1996;Paris and Myers, 1981;Solan, Shelly-Tremblay, Hansen, and Larson, 2007;Waterman and Lewandowski, 1993).While this literature helps identifying correlates of literacy failure and strengths of good readers so as to provide poor readers with better assistance in increasing their literacy performance, there is a need for interpretive research looking deeply into their experiences. The aim of this study is to explore literacy experiences of a small group of children, who were identified by their classroom teachers as good or poor readers, within their overall schooling experiences and from multiple perspectives. METHODThe findings presented in this paper are drawn from my doctoral dissertation research investigating a small group of good and poor readers' literacy experiences and their teachers' and school principals' conceptions of literacy. The original research was conducted using interpretive methodology and framed by cultural psychology (Cole, 1998) and Erickson's (1987) notion of school success/failure, both of which emphasize the micro and macro contexts of schooling. Cultural psychology informed the research by drawing attention to the everyday lives of the participants in their classroom context; by considering the children's and teachers' actions as mediated in the immediate and larger contexts of schooling; and by viewing learning as coconstructed by the teachers and children. Erickson's notion of school success/failure informed this research by pointing out the role of micro-and macro-factors in schooling.Data Sources Data were collected over two academic semesters in two public elementary schools and analyzed at case level (each child as a case) and cross-case level (good and poor readers groups as separate cases). Data sources included (a) classroom observations, (b) semi-structured interviews with the children, their teachers, and t...