Teacher flexibility and judgment: A multidynamic literacy theory

Abstract

In an age of restrictive standards and accountability measures, teachers often find themselves in a position where they have to struggle to keep play with language and literature as a focus of their early literacy instruction, as 'scientifically based' reading programs, phonics, or scripted instruction take center stage. In order to counter this trend, this article offers a 'multidynamic' theory for early literacy instruction that combines researched foundations of early reading success with sociocultural theories of language and literacy. Combining these two fields of thought creates a theoretical stance where reading skills and methods cannot stand on their own, but instead must be dynamically reinvented to fit specific sociocultural contexts. The study analyzes the texts of 'scientifically based' reading programs as compared to examples of children's literature as a way to explore three basic tenets of a multidynamic literacy theory: (1) that literacy is multifaceted; (2) that literacy is socially constructed; and (3) that literacy skills must be relevant within the lived worlds of children. The analysis overall (re)situates talk, play, and the instructional use of children's literature as essential components of early literacy programming. More importantly, a multidynamic literacy theory offers teachers the pedagogical basis to insist upon a great deal of flexibility and judgment in choosing the best materials and approaches to meet their students' early literacy needs as well as their sociocultural contexts for learning.

Does Structure of Content Delivery or Degree of Professional Development Support Matter for Student Reading Growth in High-Poverty Settings?

“…For instance, scripted content delivery may result in "thoughtless" instruction in which teachers do not reflect on, critique, or sufficiently modulate instruction to meet the situational needs of students (Allington, 2002;Hassett, 2008) resulting in less student reading growth.…”

“…instruction to meet the situational needs of students (Allington, 2002;Hassett, 2008) resulting in less student reading growth.…”

Working within the system: teachers of English learners negotiating a literacy instruction mandate

“…The top-down initiatives often did not take into account individual students' needs or teachers' pedagogical preferences (Harper et al 2008;Hassett 2008), a phenomenon that has been reported on in other countries (e.g., Bloch et al 2010;Hélot and Young 2006;Valdivieso 2010). For example, in a recently-published volume, several researchers in different countries describe how teachers were expected, to varying degrees, to surrender their professional agency to individuals and institutions that oversaw their work (Menken and García 2010b).…”

“…Also, school-wide efforts to enforce such programs have been shown to result in pedagogical environments that jeopardize the literacy learning opportunities available to students, including those serving ELs in high poverty schools (GerstlPepin and Woodside-Jiron 2005;Hassett 2008;Sunderman et al 2005). Now that NCLB is up for reauthorization by the U.S. Congress and Reading First funding has come to an end, there is speculation about policies that the federal government will develop to improve the literacy education of low-income students and ELs.…”

A organização da informação e o ensino técnico do DF: um modelo para promover o feedback para professores nas salas de aula

“…Além disso, quando os professores iniciam atividades abertas em relação aos textos multimodais, eles criam um espaço para valorizar as diferenças linguísticas e culturais entre os alunos em sala de aula (HASSETT, 2008 Novas habilidades para ler, buscar informação, autenticar e manipular informação, vincular e recontextualizar informação são exigidas neste ambiente multimodal (BEAVIS, 2006;KRESS, 2003;LUKE, 1996). Junto com a escolha de qual modo utilizar na leitura, a estrutura de muitos textos digitais abre opções sobre onde começar a ler, e qual caminho tomar para a leitura de um texto.…”