Writing studies has been an intellectual playground dominated by the "big kids." If we are to understand how writing becomes "relevant" to children as children, then we must study them, not for who they are becoming, but for who they are in life spaces shared with other children. This essay on the methodology entailed in…

In their new collaboration, Celia Genishi and Anne Haas Dyson celebrate the genius of young children as they learn language and literacy in our diverse times. Despite burgeoning sociocultural diversity, many early childhood classrooms (pre-K to grade 2) offer a one-size-fits-all curriculum in which learning is too often assessed by standardized…

This paper shows that constructing or writing a case study is a dialogic process, one that requires the researcher to define and redefine his or her research boundaries. The paper elaborates, first, on the process of constructing a case and, second, on the particular process of constructing cases of children learning written language. It…

No greater challenge currently faces the schools than articulating what a literacy curriculum for sociocultural diversity might look like. And yet the literature on young school children's composing has dealt only peripherally with this issue. In this theoretical essay, it is argued that, even for young children, the composing of both oral and…

Adult ways of writing--of constructing textual visions of--children are linked to their ways of envisioning themselves and, more broadly, to their perceptions of fully "developed" adults. Thus, developmental visions have traditionally taken for granted the social and psychological worlds of privileged adults. This essay aims to make problematic…

Suggests five principles that characterize written language development: the establishment of equivalences; exploration and orchestration of the system; reliance on shifting relationships of form and function; differentiation and integration of symbolic functions; and participation in social dialogue. Discusses implications of this viewpoint for…

Building on the author's groundbreaking work in "Building Superheroes," this book traces the influence of a wide-ranging set of "textual toys" from children's lives--church and hip-hop songs, rap music, movies, TV, traditional jump-rope rhymes, the words of professional sports announcers and radio deejays--upon school learning…

Considers how stories function in professional lives, and examines stories of literacy development. Argues that, without a vision informed by the stories of diverse children, the literature on sociocultural differences in literacy use will inevitably be transformed into culturally deficient visions of children in schools. (MG)

Exploring the concept of a "permeable" curriculum, this paper provides concrete examples of the social and cultural challenges of a curriculum that allows for the interplay between teachers' and children's language and experiences. The paper uses a recent study in an urban primary school to provide an illustration of the diverse kinds of…

Focuses on the nature of elementary school classrooms as social contexts for literacy, particularly for writing. Explores the nature of the classroom as the context for literacy, how children come to understand such classroom contexts, and what defines a beneficial context for literacy growth. (HTH)

An ethnographic study of African American first graders showed how their use of media material is linked to family and community memberships. Storytelling and play involved recontextualization (borrowing, translating, retelling) of the material. Context shaped their participation in school literacy practices. (Contains 70 references.) (SK)

Examines one type of literacy event in a second-grade classroom--free writing--and, especially, its sharing time phase. (FL)

A summary of two studies of literacy development in classroom settings illustrates: (1) the developmental dialectic between children's use of symbolic forms and the functions those symbolic forms serve in the child's social world; and (2) ways that specific cultural practices define the interaction between the child, the symbolic media, and the…

Samples of kindergarten children's drawings and language, especially as used in dictation, illustrate that children invent symbols for figures, objects, and events; engage in the thinking processes of organizing and abstracting as children work to portray their concepts; and communicate their ideas to themselves and others. (BB)

Discusses the social processes that undergird the media's influence on children's cultural lives. Discusses stories as cultural tools and how people claim stories as their own. Illustrates how one teacher of seven- to nine-year-olds exploited these processes for children's intellectual, social, and literacy growth. (SR)