Adult Immigrant Students and Coconstructed Learning: Talking Within and About Their Literacy Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Words and Worlds: Considering the Power of Literacy in Classrooms and Communities

Abstract

In this paper, we describe an instructional framework for adult immigrant students participating in a literacy tutoring program who seek to advance their English literacy abilities in English. The instructional model provides insights into the range and scope of literacy/learning for immigrant adults, an area where there is little research, surprising given the numbers of immigrant adults in need of and seeking literacy assistance. We constructed the instructional framework following analyses of artifacts, and observational and anecdotal data gathered over 2 ½ years of literacy learning/instruction with the same group of immigrant adults. These data revealed productive patterns of co-constructed learning evident among adult students; these patterns shed light on adult students’ engagement with literacy.

Author

• Carolyn A. Colvin, University of Iowa