School Literacies, Youth Identities: Negotiating Meaning in a Reading Recovery Class

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Reading and Writing Toward Critical Identity Constructions and Meaningful Learning

Abstract

Research on reading recovery programs has, to date, largely focused on the efficacy of such programs as measured on standardized assessments. This study, in contrast, inquires into the qualitative effects of participation in a mandatory reading program reported by high school students, and expands its scope to include the reasoning behind curricular decisions reported by the reading program's administrators and curriculum designers. The results of this ethnographic analysis suggest a disconnect between the good intentions of the program's architects and the negative effects reported by students, some of which have shaped their literate identities in profound ways.

Author

• Jessica Masterson, University of Nebraska - Lincoln