“…However, the overall sociocultural context for learning is also shaped by the students' identities and background as learners (Hammerberg [Hassett], 2004). Therefore, a sociocultural perspective means that 'literacy' is viewed as more than just reading or writing -more than decoding or encoding -because sociocultural theories acknowledge that children bring experiences with the world to the texts they are reading, as well as a knowledge of the skills to use with the text, as they interpret a meaning from the text in a particular social circumstance (Erickson, 1984;Ferdman, 1991;Gee, 1992;Heath, 1986;McLaughlin, 1989;Moll, 1992;Pérez, 1998). Decoding and encoding, then, are incredibly helpful tools, but to view literacy in a sociocultural sense means that we see the tools of reading and writing as just that -tools for constructing meaning from within a larger sociocultural context (Hammerberg [Hassett], 2004).…”