Leveraging Resources to Navigate Tensions in Writing: A Case Study of an Emergent Bilingual Student

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Writing and Literacies SIG Roundtable 2: Translingual, Transnational, and Stateless Narratives

Abstract

This case study of Lizette, a 4th grade Spanish/English emergent bilingual, provides a close examination of how one student, identified by the teacher as a low-skilled writer, engaged in classroom based-writing interactions and how they enabled and/or constrained her writing development. Data collection occurred over an academic year. Findings draw attention to the hidden resources Lizette leveraged as a learner and writer, the tensions she faced and negotiated attempting to meet classroom writing norms and expectations, and the consequences of these unresolved tensions on her writing over the academic year.

Author

• Joanna W. Wong, California State University - Monterey Bay