Teaching Practice Into Learning Practice: How First Graders Creatively Co-Opt Reading Instruction

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Supporting Young Children's Learning and Development

Abstract

First grade is a pivotal year for literacy development, and primary teachers focus much instruction on supporting maturing reading skills. Teachers use a variety of instructional practices to facilitate the development of foundational reading skills. What happens, though, when those practices fall into the hands of the first-graders themselves? This paper uses video and observation data collected in a first-grade classroom over the course of an academic year to explore how students in reading partnerships take up three practices: reading levels, tackling “tricky” words, and coaching. By focusing on students’ enactments within reading partnerships - away from the direct intervention of the teacher - this paper engages young readers as collaborators in examining instructional practice.

Author

• Suki Jones Mozenter, University of Minnesota Duluth