"I Love Amy's and My Book!" An Analysis of Young "Struggling" Writers' Classroom Journal Writing

• In Event: 31.092 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Three - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 31.092-6 - Critical Issues in Writing With Young Children

Abstract

This ethnographic case study examines how young “struggling” writers engage in their kindergarten classroom journal writing practices. Drawing upon a social view of literacy (Street, 1995) and multimodality (Kress, 2012), I investigate semiotic resources one focal child uses during their writing events to understand how competence is socially situated. The findings indicate that young children who are institutionally designated as “struggling” writers are tactical writers and allow us to see them with hope and possibilities of experiencing success. By contributing to the understandings around how schooling of literacy is ideologically driven and how literacy can be defined in multiple ways, this study is aimed to create more equal and just experiences for young children with academic struggles in schools.

Author

• Jungmin Lee, The Ohio State University - Columbus