Reading Rights: Literacy and Equity in the Contested Spaces of Core Reading Programs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Reading Practices

Abstract

Although the limitations of prescriptive reading curricula for raising achievement in under-performing schools have been extensively documented (and mandates to enforce them have abated), exigencies of the current economic recession have left schools no alternative but to continue their use. In this context, teachers must take advantage of any merits of these materials, yet exercise the right to adapt them to “fit” their students’ learning needs. Through extensive classroom observations and teacher interviews, this multi-case study examines how effective first, second, and third grade teachers crafted pedagogical innovations to adapt reading programs to insure their students’ right to become proficient readers. These findings offer guideposts for leveraging the viability of available materials in the wake of prescriptive reading curriculum.

Authors

• Helen Maniates, University of San Francisco

• Jabari Mahiri, University of California - Berkeley