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Copyright By Anissa Wicktor Lynch 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Anissa Wicktor Lynch certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Cultivating literacies among emerging bilinguals: Case study of a third grade bilingual/bicultural community of practice Committee: María E. Fránquiz, Supervisor Melissa Mosley Wetzel Rebecca M. Callahan Angela Valenzuela Susan Sage Heinzelman Cultivating literacies among emerging bilinguals: Case study of a third grade bilingual/bicultural community of practice by Anissa Wicktor Lynch, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication To my parents and my sisters, for believing in me even when I did not. To my students, past and future. You have made me a better person by teaching me about what really mattes in life and demonstrating that the struggle to learn and grow is worth the effort. Especially to my husband, Raymond. I could not have done this without you. And finally to our amado hijo, Cormac, who has transformed our lives in so many beautiful ways. Acknowledgements Two people I hold close to my heart inspired this work. My dear friend Paula Parris, who is no longer with us, and Nini Pólit, who was technically my boss, but most often was my mentor and friend. Both helped to teach me all the beauty that lies within children and the immense power of language, culture and caring teachers. I am honored that María E. Fránquiz has acted as my mentor and friend. She understands that life happens even when one is in graduate school and encouraged me to live mine. Her dedication to the field and her students is a constant source of inspiration to me. This dissertation is a result of copious amounts of her time and her unwavering dedication to me. I am deeply grateful. My committee members have taught and encouraged me in countless ways. All of you are reflected in this work. I thank Melissa Mosley Wetzel, Rebecca M. Callahan, Angela Valenzuela and Susan Sage Heinzelman. It has been a privilege to learn from so many strong women and gifted scholars. Over the past seven years, my friends and colleagues, especially Haydeé Marie Rodríguez, Guadalupe Dominguez Chavez, and Mitsi Pair Willard, have listened, encouraged, critiqued, inspired, and dried rivers of tears when I cried. This work is in so many ways yours too. Thank you. Mrs. Rosales, confidentiality prevents me from revealing her real name, opened her classroom and her heart to me. She is the kind of teacher I wish I had been and the kind of teacher I hope my students will be one day. Every minute I spent learning from and with her was a gift. Finally, I thank the students from Mrs. Rosales’ class who allowed me to be part of their lives. v Cultivating literacies among emerging bilinguals: Case study of a third grade bilingual/bicultural community of practice Anissa Wicktor Lynch, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: María E. Fránquiz This study focused on emerging bilingual students in an urban elementary bilingual classroom. Schools and teachers play a fundamental role in emerging bilingual children’s language acquisition and academic preparation. Emerging bilinguals currently enrolled in U.S. schools must learn a new academic language and academic content in a climate marked by standards-based reform and anti-immigrant sentiment. Utilizing case study methodology, this investigation explored the ways in which emerging bilinguals and their teacher co-constructed literacy practices and the connection between literacy practices and identity. Microanalysis of discourse was performed on data collected during literacy practices to examine positionings, the ways people present themselves in a situation. Data included field notes from classroom observations, audio and video recordings, teacher and student interviews, and artifacts in the form of student work and district and curriculum documents. Participants engaged in a wide variety of literacy practices utilizing material resources of the classroom, their teacher, their emerging bilingual abilities, and prior experiences both in and out of the classroom as resources to construct meaning from vi texts. Literacy practices were characterized by high expectations for student achievement and group membership, the development of students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge, building students’ self-efficacy related to literacy, and affirmation of participants’ bilingual/bicultural identities. Students demonstrated several positionings during literacy practices. Analysis of these positioning suggested that their identities were shaped by their participation in literacy practices and their interactions with other members of this community of practice. The community of practice that participants co-constructed was characterized by a focus on inclusivity, purposeful opening of interactional spaces, expanding repertoires of practice, and caring. Results of this study suggested that teacher and student disposition and affect can be taught, which raised questions about the current focus on only knowledge and skills in teacher education programs rather on teacher disposition and affect. There are also implications for teachers and researchers who have an interest in communities of practice and effectively educating emerging bilingual students. vii Table of Contents List of Tables…………………………………………………………...………………...xi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………xii Chapter 1: Introduction…...................……………………………………………….……1 Research Questions………………………………………………………………..5 Summary…………………………………………………………………………..5 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature..………………………………..…………...………..8 Figured Worlds and Identities………………………………………………..……8 Communities of Practice……………………………………………………...….12 Positional Identities ……………………………………………………………...15 Perspectives on Literacy Informing the Study of Young Emerging Bilinguals……...…………………………………………...…20 Literacy Events and Practices in an Urban Bilingual Class……………………...24 Summary…………………………………………………………………………28 Chapter 3: Research Methodology……………..………………………………………...30 Qualitative Approach…………………………………………………………….30 Case Study Design……………………………………………………………….30 Participants and Setting…………………………………………………….…….31 Data Collection…………………………………………………………...……...40 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………….…46 Considerations for Trustworthiness……………………………………………...56 Researcher Positionality.……..…………………………………………………..58 viii Pilot Study………………………………………………………………………..59 Chapter 4: Literacy Construction in the Classroom………………………...……………67 Introduction………………………………………………………………………67 Literacy Events and Literacy Practices…………………………………………..68 Summary ………………………………………………………………………...93 Chapter 5: The Relationship between Literacy Practices and Student Identity……...…..94 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...94 Descriptions of Focus Students………………………………….……….…… .101 Positionings of Focus Students During Classroom Literacy Practices ………...105 Summary …………………………………………………………………….....133 Chapter 6: Conclusions……………………...………………………………………….137 Overview of Study……………………………………………………………...137 Findings ………………………………………………………………………..139 Implications……………………………………………………………………..152 Limitations and Future Research……………………………………………….159 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………...162 Appendix A: Interview Protocol-student…………………………………………….…164 Appendix B: Interview Protocol-teacher (initial)………………………………………165 Appendix C: Interview Protocol-teacher (follow-up)…………………………………..166 Appendix D: Steps and Guiding Questions for Analysis of the Discourse Using Ethnography of Communication………………………………167 Appendix E: District Planning Guide: Reading Street View…………………………...168 Appendix F: Guía para escribir en tu Diario de Escritura………..…………………...170 ix Appendix G: Positionings………………………………………………………………171 References………………………………………………………………………………172 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………...179 x List of Tables Table 2.1: Literacy Events, Sub-Events, and Literacy Practices…………….…………..26 Table 3.1: Student Population Information………………………...………….…………37 Table 3.2: Timeline……………………………………………………….……….……..39 Table 3.3: Example from Pilot Study……………………………………………………63 Table 4.1 Daily Schedule for Reading Block……………………………………………69 Table 4.2 Literacy Event: Vocabulary Instruction/Review……………………………...72 Table 4.3 Reading………………………………………………………………………..76 Table 5.1 Temblores…………………………………………………………………….111 Table 5.2 Ángel de la Guarda…………………………………………………………..114 Table 5.3 Ángel de la Guarda II……………………………………………………….116 Table 5.4 Otoño……………………………………………………………………..…120 Table 5.5 Pulpos………………………………………………………………………..123 Table 5.6 Free…………………………………………………………………………..132 xi List of Figures Figure 3.1 Horario de Clase …………………………………………………………...41 Figure 4.1 Display of Group Generated Definitions for Vocabulary Words 9/15/10…...74 Figure 5.1 Las tortillas de Magda p. 105………………………………………………127 Figure 5.2 ¡Cuando Mi Mamá Hizo Tamales!.................................................................129 xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Enrollment in U.S. public schools is changing. In 2006, 20.6% of students enrolled in schools in the U.S. spoke a language other than English in their homes, up from 19% in 2000 (U.S. Census, 2008). Texas, the location of this dissertation study, is one of the states with the largest concentration of emerging bilinguals where 17% of its students speak a language other than English (Texas Educational Agency, 2009). It is clear from the most recent census data that the demographics in this country are changing and that Texas is not alone in its need to provide quality education to this group of children. Certain tensions exist in the schooling of this group of children. Historically public schools have drawn unevenly on the social and cultural resources of certain members of a society assigning more importance to some and less to others (Blanton, 2004; Donato, 1987; Montejano, 1987; San Miguel, 2004; Valencia, Menchaca & Donato, 2010; Valenzuela, 1999). For example, children who enter schools not yet proficient in English, are labeled with terms that speak only to what they lack, English. The federal term is Limited English Proficient (LEP) and many school districts call these children English language learners (ELLs)1. Such deficit terms ignore the fact that they 1 Limited English Proficient (LEP) is a federal term used for classification of students learning English as a second language. The term English Language Learners (ELL) is commonly used to avoid inherent deficient connotation in the term LEP, but like LEP makes mention of what is lacking in these students-English. I use the term emerging bilingual to highlight the fact that students with a native language other than English possess rich linguistic and cultural resources to which English and certain elements of mainstream culture will be added. LEP or ELL will be used only when citing official federal, state, or district documents. 1 are more than learners of English and make it appear that schools view language differences as a problem they must remedy (Escamilla, 2006; Ruiz, 1984). While English is emerging bilinguals’ new language and the one used most often in their schools, these children will become bilingual and continue to function in their home language as well as English. For this reason, many use the term emerging bilinguals (Escamilla, 2006; Garcia, 2009; Gort, 2006) to refer to these children. I will do likewise herein. Researchers have found that schools play a fundamental role in the language acquisition and academic preparation of emerging bilinguals (Callahan, Wilkinson, Muller, & Frisco, 2009). However, research has also shown that emerging bilinguals often attend highly segregated, high-poverty schools (Orfield & Yun, 1999; Valdés, 1996; Olsen,1997; Walqui, 2000; Zentella, 2005). Moreover, emerging bilinguals often enter a school system shaped by reform policies that fail to consider their particular needs or realities (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco & Todorova, 2008). These tensions, along with the educational tasks of learning both content and a new academic language, influence the schooling experiences of emerging bilinguals enrolled in U.S. public schools. Teachers and classmates play a fundamental role in emerging bilinguals’ education. These students rely heavily on school personnel to guide them through the schooling process. They need help to acquire the linguistic, academic and cultural knowledge to succeed in U.S. public schools (Olsen, 1997). In schools, emerging bilingual students experiment with new identities in their interactions with peers, teachers and school staff (Suárez-Orozco, Pimentel & Martin 2008). Previous research has demonstrated that one factor that shapes the identities of emerging bilingual students and 2 their access to opportunities while setting parameters for their futures success is the relationships these students establish with their peers and the adults they interact with at school (Olsen, 1997; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco & Todorova, 2008; Valenzuela, 1999; Walqui, 2000). Previous research related to the relationships emerging bilinguals establish in schools and the effects of these relationships on these students has focused mainly on emerging bilinguals in secondary schools. Consequently, more research is needed to understand how the teachers and classmates of emerging bilinguals, especially elementary school aged emerging bilinguals, help them learn the skills necessary to participate in U.S. public schools. While emerging bilinguals undoubtedly come to school equipped with skills and experiences that differ from mainstream students, their task of learning the same content as their peers whilst they acquire a new academic language presents certain challenges. In this process they must negotiate multiple literacies. People draw on multiple literacies that serve different purposes for them (Barton, 1994) that vary according to context, time and space (Gee, 1990). Literacy events are the observable things people do with literacy (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). In the school context, an example of a literacy event is when a teacher and her students work together to orally generate definitions of new vocabulary words. Within literacy events there exist patterns, or practices (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). So within the literacy event of orally defining new vocabulary words, there exist certain social rules that regulate the values, attitudes, feeling and relationships that are present during the literacy event that exist in the social relations between people (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). These are literacy practices, the abstract theoretical ways of understanding what is happening during observable literacy events. More study is 3 necessary to understand how emerging bilinguals learn the literacies they need for success both in and out of the school context. They draw on two languages and sets of cultural knowledge, developing dexterity in using familiar and new approaches to learning literacies (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003), in a bilingual/bicultural setting. The focus of this study is on how the identities of emerging bilinguals develop as they engage in the social interactions that surround literacies. Such knowledge will build understanding regarding how emerging bilinguals draw on the multiple literacies they are learning and for what purposes. Identity can be thought of as self understandings (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain, 1998) that people continually form and reform. According to this notion of identity, our self understandings are dependent on others. Holland et al. (1998) call this kind of identity positional identity. For example, to identify oneself as a student this identity must be recognized by the self and by others. This is accomplished by exhibiting student like behaviors of attending class, completing homework assignments and perhaps having certain artifacts such as a backpack full of books. The identity of student is taken up by the person engaging in these activities and reinforced by others since these behaviors and artifacts fit with people’s notions of what a student is and does. Just as there are multiple literacies, people take on multiple identities in different situations (Holland et al, 1988). To understand the relationship between literacy practices and students’ identities, I will examine the identities (such as that of learner or guide for other learners) students take up as they engage in the day-to-day literacy activities in their classroom. 4 Research Questions This study endeavored to answer the following research questions: 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom? 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilingual students’ identity development? Summary Emerging bilinguals represent a growing segment of our school-aged population. They are faced with the task of learning both a new academic language and content. Moreover, emerging bilinguals come to school equipped with resources that are often overlooked. Schools play a key role in their success yet the tensions that exist in the landscape in which they will be schooled present challenges for emerging bilinguals, their teachers, administrators, and policy makers. The teachers and classmates of emerging bilinguals play a paramount role in their schooling, as they are often the people on whom these students depend the most. I engaged in a five month long investigation of a third grade bilingual teacher and her emerging bilingual students at Anthony Elementary in Azucena Independent School District (AISD)2. The purpose of this study was to explore the literacy events and practices of this urban third grade bilingual classroom and the ways in which literacy practices influence emerging bilingual students’ identities. Through examination of the discourse during literacy practices I was able to 2 All names are pseudonyms. 5 explore the relationship between literacy practices and emerging bilingual students’ identities as they engaged in them. Chapter two of this dissertation explores three theoretical frameworks that guided the study: new literacy studies and the concept of literacy events and literacy practices, figured worlds and the positional identities that exist within them, and communities of practice. I begin this chapter by presenting a framework of literacy and literacy practices as they were used in this study. Next, I present the frameworks of positional identities in the figured world of an urban elementary bilingual classroom to conceptualize the lived experiences of participants in this space. Finally, I present the framework of community of practice as it is seen during the reading block. This community of practice is one of many that existed in the figured world of this urban third grade classroom. These theoretical underpinnings provided me with unique lenses through which to view the classroom, the practices that occurred there, and the individuals in this space. In chapter three, I present the methods I used to collect and analyze data for this qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). This chapter starts with a description of study participants, the setting, and timeline. Data collected for this study included: audio recordings of children, video recordings of the teacher, interviews with the teacher and students, student artifacts, and field notes. Discourse from audio and video recordings was analyzed using ethnography of communication (Gumperz, 1986; Hymes, 1974, 1994). Findings from analysis of the discourse were triangulated with the other data sources. Results are presented in two chapters. Chapter four consists of the presentation of data collected in one urban third grade bilingual classroom during the reading block. The 6 data were analyzed to answer research question one about the literacy events and practices that the teacher and students co-constructed at this time. In chapter 5, this same data helped answer question two regarding the relationship between the literacy practices and emerging bilingual students’ identities. Segments of recoded and transcribed discourse were analyzed here. The final chapter of this dissertation presents a brief overview of the study and then transitions into a discussion of the study’s findings and how findings answer the research questions. In addition, I present the implications this study has for pre-service and in-service teacher training and practice. Limitations of the study and its findings are also discussed. Finally, I make recommendations for future research related to the study of emerging bilinguals and literacy. 7 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE This study examined the literacy events and practices of an urban third grade bilingual classroom and how literacy practices in this class influenced the identities of emerging bilingual students. In chapter two, I elaborate on the theoretical frameworks of figured worlds, positional identities, the New Literacy Studies perspectives of literacy, and communities of practice. The figured world of this classroom was unique since it was constructed and governed by the individuals in this space. Mrs. Rosales and her students formed their identities in relation to one another in the figured world of their classroom. New Literacy Studies’ definition of literacy as a set of social practices created from the common beliefs and patterns about how people use reading, writing and the written word was used to examine how Mrs. Rosales and her students were using literacy during the reading block. The students and Mrs. Rosales worked to co-construct a community of practice focused on literacy learning in this figured world. These frameworks provided the foundation for examining literacy, identity and ways to define the space where literacy learning and identity development occurred. Figured Worlds and Identities When people talk or act, they assume that their words and behaviors will be interpreted according to a context of meaning. Holland et al. (1998) argue that this collective agreement regarding the interpretation of words and actions constitute a figured world. Figured worlds are sites where identities are produced. Put another way, figured worlds are socially produced and culturally constructed. Identities are shaped and reshaped by the personal world and in a collective space or figured world of cultural 8 forms and social relations. Boaler and Greeno (2000) in a study of a science classroom argued that a figured world is a place where “agents come together to construct joint meanings and activities” (p.171) opening up the possibility that classrooms can form a figured world with the power to shape students’ sense of themselves as learners (Rubin, 2007). In sum, figured worlds are culturally constructed spaces where people are forming in practice by engaging in activities that impart meaning within these spaces. In figured worlds, our own agency and the powers that are exerted upon us shape our thoughts about ourselves, others, and the actions that occur inside and around us. In social groups, such as figured worlds, all practices must be explained through the lens of knowledge and power (Foucault, 1980) since power exerted by and on us influence what happens in the space and how people respond to it. Identities are important outcomes of participation in social settings. According to Holland et al (1998) identities are formed in the process of participating in activities organized by figured worlds. In a case study of a multilingual (Chinese/English/French) child, Dagenais, Day & Toohey (2006) used the construct of figured worlds of literacy to illustrate how this child was constructed as literate in the figured world of the elementary French immersion school. They focused on how her literacy practices were shaped and her identities were mediated in various social, material and linguistic ways. This child’s identity was not unitary or fixed in this context. Her teachers at times positioned Sarah as literate, and at other times not, depending on how active and verbal she was in a specific context. According to Bartlett and Holland (2002) institutional practice, such as the ones in Sarah’s classroom that required she demonstrate active participation by demonstrating her verbal skills, are full of meanings that collectively figure actors (in 9 Sarah’s case students in her classroom) in particular positions in the social structure. Institutional practices provide a public forum in which some actors are recognized and others sanctioned. Bartlett & Holland’s (2002) study of students in an adult literacy program in Brazil demonstrated how the students in this program (actors) were recognized as educated or not by other members of society (actors) by means of the way they spoke, how many years of formal schooling they had completed, their manners, and social comportment based on socially constructed notions of class and racial etiquette. If the students in this study demonstrated enough aspects of an educated person, as defined by institutional practices, they felt recognized as an educated person by others. Using correct grammar and vocabulary or behaving in ways associated with those who possessed a formal education were ways to gain recognition as educated. However, if they did or could not act or speak in this manner, they felt the scorn of being considered uneducated, thus possessing a lower social standing. In the case of Sarah in Dagenais, Day & Toohey’s (2006) study, she was positioned as literate only when she adhered to the model her teachers had of how a literate student ought to act during classroom practices. Sarah was successful at displaying an identity as a literate multilingual when she skillfully used her linguistic and cultural knowledge. The social, material, and linguistic mediation of Sarah’s identities in literacy practices could either fix her social position or, as suggested by Bartlett and Holland (2002) in another study of literacy practices in Brazil, provide an opportunity for change. The figured world in the urban third grade bilingual classroom under study, like all figured worlds, was characterized by norms and expectations. There existed certain expectations for how the teacher and students would behave and for how students would 10 be expected to perform in the figured world of the classroom in which they learned. These may have been based on standards set outside of the classroom by entities such as society as a whole or the school district. Another possibility is that the norms and standards were based on shared characteristics and experiences of the members. For example, the members of the figured world of this bilingual class shared many similarities. All individuals in this classroom were emerging bilinguals (Spanish/English), they lived in the same community, and many of them emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico or maintained some kind of connection to family there. In reality, a complex interplay of several factors shaped the figured world of this urban third grade bilingual classroom. To answer research questions regarding the literacy events and practices and the relationship between literacy practices and identity, I first had to uncover the nature of the expectations and norms in the figured world of this bilingual classroom since they influenced all aspects of life in the classroom. Examination of emerging bilinguals’ changing positions in the figured world of the classroom provided a window into their developing identities as they took on various positions and were positioned by others. All the while these emerging bilinguals were learning much needed literacies such as the education expectations for academic success, a new language, English, and the idiosyncrasies of the schooling process. The concept of figured worlds offered a way to conceptualize the structure, activities, and relationships in this urban third grade bilingual classroom. It provided the frame for the space in which the literacy activities and identities of Mrs. Rosales and her students developed. This framework alone could not account for the specific environment 11 in which this group of people generated the literacy practices and identities that defined this space. What was needed to compliment the framework of figured worlds was one that accounted for the kind of specialization that individuals developed related to literacy learning. The communities of practice framework (Lave & Wenger, 1998), which is described in the section that follows, provided a to explain the ways that this teacher and her students developed a community dedicated to literacy learning. Communities of Practice A community of practice acts as a specialized unit within a figured world. Coined by Lave & Wenger (1998) a community of practice is a group of people all of whom share a concern of passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. For example, writers learn to how to be better writers through their participation in a writing group. In this study, I examine the figured world of an urban bilingual third grade classroom, but I look specifically at the community of practice related to literacy learning during the reading block. According to Lave & Wenger (1998), while communities of practice vary widely, they all by definition share three characteristics: domain, community, practice. A community of practice has an identity that is defined by a common domain of interest. Membership implies a commitment to that domain and a shared competence of group members that distinguishes them from others. Those outside of a domain do not always recognize competencies recognized within it as expertise. Community also characterizes a community of practice. In the community, members engage in joint activities and discussions, they help each other and they share information. They work to build relationships with one another in the 12 community and these relationships enable them to learn from each other. A community of practice is more than a community of interest. Members develop a shared repertoire of resources that include, but are not limited to experiences, stories, tools (such as language as is the case here), and ways of addressing recurring problems. Put differently, they develop a shared practice that arises from time and sustained interactions with one another. The combination of these three elements-domain, community, and practiceconstitutes a community of practice. Lave & Wenger (1991) argue that the concept of legitimate peripheral participation provides an avenue to understand the process by which newcomers become experienced members of or experts in a community of practice. Legitimate peripheral participation explains how newcomers become members of a community of practice by initially participating in simple and/or low-risk tasks that are productive and necessary in the community. These tasks further the goals of the community of practice. Peripheral activities help newcomers become acquainted with the tasks, vocabulary and organization of a community of practice. With time and gained experience, newcomers participate in ways that are more central to the functioning of the community of practice. The more forms of participation available to newcomers and the exposure newcomers have to experts in the community the better newcomers understand the broader context of the community of practice and how their efforts fit within it. According to this framework, learning is viewed as situated activity that often occurs within an apprenticeship, what Lave & Wenger (1991) define as “ a common structured pattern of learning experiences” (p.30). Learning is embedded in activity, context and culture. Lave & Wenger (1991) argue that most often learning is unintentional rather than deliberate. For learning to 13 occur knowledge must be presented in settings and situations that would usually involve that knowledge. Learners become involved in a community of practice that requires certain beliefs and behaviors necessary for participation in that community of practice. For newcomers, mastery of knowledge and skills requires a move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of the community. For Lave & Wenger (1991), the term peripheral “suggests an opening, a way of gaining access to sources for understanding through growing involvement” (p.37). In this sense the term peripheral is a positive and dynamic. The notion of legitimate peripheral participation is a way to understand the changing relationships between individuals and the social practices in a community of practice. The concept of legitimate peripheral participation offers me as an educational researcher a novel way to understand learning. It forces one to focus analysis on learning in the trajectories of participation in worlds where such learning has meaning. The person or student is viewed as a practitioner whose changing knowledge, skills and discourse are part of her developing identity, an identity as a member of a community of practice. Legitimate peripheral participation allows for understanding the trajectory from newcomer to expert in a community of practice. Knowledge in communities of practice arises from the growth and transformation of identities as they are located in the relations among practitioners, the practices, artifacts, and the social organization of their community of practice. Learning and identity development take place in a social world, a world in which social practices are reproduced, transformed and changed. The community of practice framework was helpful in understanding the relationships between emerging bilingual students and their teacher as the constructed a 14 learning space for literacy learning in the figured world of this bilingual third grade class. This framework helped me to break down the figured world of this classroom into a smaller specialized unit to study, the community of practice that existed for learning literacy, so that I could examine the practices they used to learn about literacy. All members of this community shared to some degree an interest in becoming bilingual/bicultural. Over time their interest in this and their abilities changed as they engaged with one another. This study endeavored to understand the relationships formed by Mrs. Rosales and her students during the reading block as they engaged in literacy practices. In this study, a framework for understanding the process through which identities were expressed, created and changed was needed. It was also essential to understand the relationships people formed with one another and the role relationships played in identity development. The framework of positional identities was effective for understanding identities in this study. Positional Identities The notion of identity was central to this study of the relationships emerging bilingual students form in and around literacy practices. Identity will be defined herein as dynamic, co-constructed and relational. I begin with Holland et al.’s (1998) broad definition of identity as “self understandings”. These self understandings, or identities, are formed and reformed over a lifetime. They are improvised in the flow of activities that occur within specific social situations. Consequently, as situations are constantly changing a person’s self-understandings are constantly in flux. Improvisations happen in 15 the tensions between past histories that settle on them, present discourses, and images that surround them. Thus, identity is a continuous process of self-fashioning. For example, immigrant students who considered themselves good students in their home country are often faced with the challenge of redefining what constitutes a good student in the U.S. school system. To continue to foster an identity as a good student in a new context, they must reconceptualize what this is and how to take on that identity. However, identity is not simply a matter of self-understanding. Holland et al. (1998) argue that, “identity is a concept that figuratively combines the intimate or personal world with the collective space of cultural forms and social relations” (p. 5). Holland and colleagues (1998) argue further that an individual forms a new identity in which s/he interprets the world in different new ways by positioning him/herself and emotionally investing oneself in that world “with the social encouragement and insistence of others” (p.73). Long-term identity development, or “thickening” of identity as Holland et al. (1998) refer to it, happens through the day-to-day encounters over a period of time. Daily practices serve to position participants situationally relative to one another. This allows participants to engage in conversations and interactions that construct their own social position and their social relations with one another. In short, identities are coconstructed. Students wishing to be good students do not just need to take on that identity, but they have to be recognized as such by others, like the teacher and peers, for the identity to be real in that setting. The good student identity is developed over time in the classroom as students interact with others all the while defining themselves as good students while others are simultaneously defining them as good students. 16 In this dissertation, I considered identity as it became discernable in social interactions, specifically through the ways that the teacher and students positioned themselves and positioned each other (Davies & Harré, 1990). Positioning happens all the time and in all contexts (Esmonde, 2009) and demonstrates a person’s access to power and privilege in relation to others. Positional identities take shape in the midst of “the day-to-day and on-the-ground relations of power, deference, and entitlement, social affiliation and distance” (Holland et al., 1998, p. 127). According to Holland et al. (1998), positional identity is an individual’s sense of her relative social position in a lived world. One’s sense depends on the others present as well as a person’s access to spaces and activities. In this way a person develops a sense of her voice and whether or not she has a voice at all revealing how power in groups is assigned. Finally, positioning is marked both materially and immaterially by language, dress, and whom people interact with and how (Holland et. al, 1998). In this study, I used the concept of positional identities to extend its recent use in educational research by applying it to the study of literacy learning and the identities of emerging bilingual students. Artifacts are an important aspect of positional identities because they act as indices of positioning. In other words, they are articles that individuals learn to identify and then potentially use for identifying themselves. Artifacts “through habitual use become resources available for personal use, mnemonics of the activities they facilitate, and finally constitutive of thought, emotion, and behavior” (Holland, et al., 1998, p. 50). Positional markers are not limited to tangible things; they can be dialects, gestures, knowledge or conduct, to name a few. In figured worlds signs and symbols “take shape within and grant shape to the co-production of activities, discourses, performances and 17 artifacts” (Holland, et al, 1998, p. 51). In literacy events, people engage in activities according to particular frames of reference, or figured worlds, where meaning is attributed to artifacts (Bartlett & Holland, 2002). Since people’s senses of self are shaped by and shape figured worlds both identity and figured worlds are dynamic. Consequently, the meanings of artifacts are not unitary or static. The same artifact in one figured world many mean something entirely different in another. One final point to consider in the discussion of positional identities is that there is no guarantee that positions imposed on individuals will be recognized by all. For example, a study by Davies & Hunt (1994) demonstrated how Lenny, a student who had repeatedly been positioned by the teacher and his peers as invisible as a consequence of behaviors considered undesirable in the classroom setting, was successful in gaining the attention of a few of his peers. He succeed only temporarily in getting his peers to ignore his imposed position as invisible since the teacher quickly reimposed his invisibility by redirecting students to ignore him until he exhibited desired behaviors. Another important point about positioning is that not everyone will understand the relational markers of positions adequately enough to understand their impositions or to take them seriously (Holland et al., 1988; Urrieta, 2007). Think of a wrongly accused defendant in his first court appearance. He may feel so compelled to defend himself to the judge that he speaks out of turn and is threatened with contempt of court if he continues. He must learn that his position in the courtroom is that of defendant represented by someone (his lawyer) who will speak for him until the time he is granted the right to speak by the judge. Finally, there is no guarantee that imposed positions will go unchallenged. People have agency to refuse implicit positioning and take steps to challenge positioning. 18 In this section, I have shown that identities are dynamic, co-constructed and relational. Like Holland et al. (1998), I argue that identities form and are formed in figured worlds. Positional identities are a sense of self relative to social positions within a figured world. Positioning happens all the time and in all contexts. Issues of power and voice are essential components of understanding positionings. Positions are marked in a variety of ways, some easy to see like dress and others not so evident, such as social distance between participants. Artifacts tell us much about positional identities. They have multiple meanings that vary by time and context. Finally, positions are not always recognized or taken up; this means that studies of positioning must also examine agency. The phenomenon studied in this case was the bilingual third grade classroom. Certain activities that occurred here met the definition of a figured world as Holland et al. (1998) defined it. I examined the figured world in the urban third grade bilingual classroom under study and the positional identities of the emerging bilinguals in this figured world. Positionings in a figured world are marked by the level of awareness of norms and expectations and by the similarities and differences of its members. The expectations set for members and the perceived expertise of members of a figured world shape the positions that members take up (Holland et al., 1998). The individuals within a figured world differ in their degree of awareness of expectations and perceived status relative to one another based on abilities (i.e. good reader, talented artist) or access to desired knowledge (i.e. how to play a popular video game or organize materials). These differences do not go unnoticed. In a classroom for example, certain students may position themselves as knowers of classroom expectations, routines, or academic content. The teacher in most classrooms is regularly positioned as knower and authority, but she 19 periodically and very strategically may choose to position herself differently (i.e. as learner or coach). She may disrupt the positioning of students in this space by changing the way that they are positioned relative to one another. This could be done by positioning a student not accustomed to having an identity as knower of grade level content as an expert for the rest of the class. In doing so the teacher disrupted the usual positional identity of this student in the figured world. Findings from research on figured worlds and positional identities suggest that individuals with the same background can occupy multiple, shifting identities that are negotiated on a moment-to-moment basis (Fairbanks & Ariail, 2006; Moore, 2008; Rubin; 2007). This study of elementary school emerging bilinguals, who shared a common language and background experiences, provided an opportunity to explore how emerging bilinguals and their teacher co-constructed positive and productive learner identities (or not). It is expected that even when emerging bilinguals share many commonalities their identities will vary (Moore, 2008) within and across classroom literacy activities and this was true in this context. This case study offered a glimpse into the multilayered understandings of an elementary bilingual classroom. Additionally, an examination of emerging bilinguals’ positional identities within a figured world, revealed the nuances in their paths to biliteracy, the identities they took up in this space and the relationships that they developed along the way. Perspectives on Literacy Informing the Study of Young Emerging Bilinguals Literacy is defined as an event in everyday life where the written word has a role (Barton, 2000; Gee, 1990; Street, 1995) in a specific figured world. There are common 20 beliefs and patterns in the ways in which people use reading, writing and the spoken word in particular situations that are based on the cultural knowledge a person brings to the literacy event (Heath, 1983) and how that person and knowledge are positioned. Thus literacy is best understood as a set of social practices that can be inferred from events mediated by written texts (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). The notion of literacy as social meant that to study literacy in the official space of the bilingual classroom I examined not only what an individual did with literacy, but also what this act meant in the context of that individual’s life and the lives of those around them. The forms of literacy that are present and emerge from events are nuanced and varied. For this reason, Barton (1994) and others (New London Group, 1996; Street, 1995, 2003) argue that there are different literacies, as opposed to only literacy in the singular. Based on the body of work in New Literacy Studies (NLS), in this dissertation study I analyzed the various literacies in the bilingual classroom that are socially constructed. I documented what literacy practices students co-constructed in class. An example from Rubinstein-Ávila (2007) demonstrates literacy practices from the home that influence performance in school. In the study, Yanira an adolescent newcomer from the Dominican Republic, believed that in order to be a good reader in the Dominican Republic one had to read aloud fluently with a lot of expression and poise. Yanira practiced reading aloud by herself and with her relatives. She wanted to learn how to read well so that she could be selected to read at Sunday mass. In her family, reading was a socially constructed literacy event that required the doing of reading as performance. Like Yanira, literacy practitioners are expected to use literacy in ways that have meaning in the local context. However, literacy practitioners are also expected to 21 put literacy in a broader or global context. Brandt & Clinton (2002) argue that to fully understand literacies one must focus on more than the local. One must acknowledge that some of the literacies people engage in come from outside the local context and are not self-invented so they are in a sense global. To Street (2003), to debate over the relationship that exists between local and global literacies must be addressed in literacy studies. He argued that the New Literacy Studies framework allows for exploration of both local and global literacies and the relationship that exists between them. Although I did not visit children’s homes, nor interviewed their parents, I interviewed students regarding the literacy practices of the classroom to help me interpret how young emerging bilingual students positioned themselves in classroom literacy events. During observations and interviews students made reference to literacy practices, such as telling riddles or reciting prayers, from their homes and communities. I was concerned not with separating students’ local (home and community) from global (school) literacies, rather with the relationship between the local literacies students were learning at home and in their communities and the global literacies they were learning at school and how they drew from and navigated between them. Because there are multiple literacies that people utilize in the varied spaces where they live and learn, Yanira in Rubinstein-Ávila (2007), read popular magazines such as Seventeen and People with her aunt and cousins in English at home. Reading these magazines provided her with two kinds of literacy: English reading and cultural literacy. Popular magazines in English served as a way to practice her English reading skills and provided her with a guide for cultural norms of conduct (such as how to behave if your boyfriend dumps you or how to dress stylishly for specific occasions) in a new context. 22 These two kinds of literacy had the potential to serve her in the academic realm (in the classroom) and the social (both in an out of school). Like Yanira, the students in this study of an urban third grade bilingual classroom experienced multiple new literacies as they lived and learned in two languages. Their developing bilingual abilities offered them the possibility of developing dexterity (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003) in using familiar and new approaches to learning these new literacies that will serve them in multiple contexts. The value granted to literacies one engages in varies by context. Yanira often accompanied her mother to doctor appointments and the like where transactions were likely to be in English so that she could act as translator. While at these appointments, Yanira’s biliteracy skills, while not flawless as she was an emerging bilingual, were valued and she was seen as having some competency in English. On the other hand, Yanira’s teachers at school were surprised that her English competencies allowed her to perform such demanding tasks. To her teacher in the context of their classrooms these same skills demonstrated her reticence about learning English. Emerging bilinguals like Yanira are often initially unaware or at least less aware than their peers of the value placed on literacies in specific contexts. However, all students need to develop a sense of what kinds of literacies are valued in the school context if they are to succeed. At the same time, those who teach them must develop an awareness of how the value of literacies varies by context and learn to recognize the literacy skills and resources of emerging bilinguals. Understanding what literacy is doing with people in a setting is as important as understanding what people are doing with literacy in that setting (Brandt & Clinton, 23 2002). In other words, literacy is a socially situated practice (Barton, Hamilton & Ivanic, 2000) that needs to be seen from both a local and global perspective. The challenge faced by researches of literacy is to make links between literacies in their context and the broader social structure. Literacy must be broken down in to components to fully understand what it is and the role it plays in people’s lives. The concepts of literacy events and literacy practices were particularly useful for understanding literacy. In the following section I discuss these concepts and how they were used in this study. Literacy Events and Practices in an Urban Bilingual Class According to Barton & Hamilton (2000), “literacy events are activities where literacy has a role” (p. 8). These events are observable episodes that arise from social practices and are shaped by them (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). In the case of the emerging bilinguals involved in this study, literacy events encompassed both the Spanish and English language and cultural practices associated with the space each language occupied in their lives. As a result, students were developing two sets of linguistic and cultural orientations to literacy events. Literacy events are often repeated activities. Hence, literacy events were a useful starting point for understanding how members of a classroom shaped and were shaped by literacy. There are always expectations that shape how literacy events are enacted and interpreted. For example, literacy events can be linked to routine sequences, which may be part of formal procedures or expectations in institutions such as schools. Likewise, some literacy events are structured by informal expectations stemming from home or peers. It is 24 important to note that in literacy events literacy is not produced or interpreted the same in all contexts. The social nature of literacy results in a great deal of variation in what kinds of literacy artifacts are produced during the literacy event and how these are interpreted. No matter the context or event, texts are a crucial part of literacy events. This fact makes the study of literacy at least in part a study of texts and how texts are produced and interpreted. Heath defined literacy events as “ any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (1983, p. 93). Guided reading groups led by the teacher where students learn to read a story using the illustrations and the words is an example of a literacy event (see Table 2.1 for example of relationship between literacy events, sub-events, and literacy practices). Literacy events are not limited to only written texts. Rather, there can be a mixture of written and spoken language present in literacy events (Hamilton, 2000). During guided reading group meetings, students and the teacher may talk, read, and/or write yet all of these literacy related activities revolve around text. The example of Yanira (Rubinstein-Ávila, 2007) practicing reading aloud for participation in Sunday mass is an example of how a literacy event (mass) involves both spoken and written language. The extent to which the written word has a role is not rigidly defined, however it is important to understand that the written word plays a role in all literacy events in one way or another. Literacy events and literacy practices are not the same, but they are interconnected (Table 2.1). Barton & Hamilton (2000) conceptualized literacy events as tangible observable episodes. On the other hand, literacy practices are a way of 25 conceptualizing the link between activities of reading and writing (literacy events) and the social structures in which they are embedded. Barton & Hamilton (2000) argue that literacy practices “are the general cultural ways of utilizing written language that people draw on in their lives” (p. 7). The notion of literacy practices offers a way in which we can conceptualize the events and patterns that exist in regards to literacy. Table 2.1 Literacy Events, Sub-Events, and Literacy Practices Literacy practices can be characterized in several ways. There are patterns in how literacy practices are created and used. Literacy practices are numerous. They are purposeful and historically situated. Literacy practices also have the possibility of gradual change (Tusting, 2000). All literacy practices are located in particular times and places (Barton, Hamlin & Ivanic, 2000). They can and do change depending on the social rules that govern them since these rules also undergo gradually change. Literacy practices are the basic unit of a social theory of literacy (Barton and Hamilton, 2000; Street, 1995) so they are best thought of as existing in the social relations between people rather than as a set of properties ascribed to one individual (Barton & Hamilton, 2000). 26 Barton and Hamilton (2000) also argue that different literacies are associated with different spheres of life. These spheres, or domains as Barton and Hamilton (2000) call them, are structured, patterned contexts where literacy is learned and used. For example, modern life can be organized into the domain of home, school, and workplace. Home is often the primary domain in people’s literary lives while at work relationships are resources structured differently than in the home. The activities that exist within these domains are purposeful configurations of literacy practices that may differ depending on the domain. In addition, there exist regular ways that people act in the literacy events in particular contexts. However, they argue that there is permeability of boundaries. Leakages and movement between boundaries characterize this permeability. Moreover there is overlap between domains. So while different literacies are indeed associated with different domains in life, there is constant movement in both the literacies and the domains in which they are produced and used. For example the division of labor, clothing people wear, and scale of operations in an industrial kitchen will be quite different than it is at home for a chef. However, the techniques used or the language associated with food and cooking might be the same in both domains or exchanged between them. In sum, the NLS framework of literacy argues that literacy can only be examined in the social and cultural context, that there are multiple literacies and that literacies vary by domain. Literacy events have a social history and current practices are created out of the past (Barton, 2000). Literacy practices are the patterned actions people perform within literacy events and the cultural significance assigned to these actions (Bartlett, 2007). This dissertation study examined the ways in which emerging bilinguals students 27 made sense of and navigated across time, space, and audience developing practices that were relevant for their developing identities as emergent bilinguals. Summary Literacy is a social practice that encompasses the local and the global (Street, 2003). People bring cultural knowledge to activities (Heath, 1983) and individual and groups must define themselves in the tensions between their past histories and the present realities (Barton, 2000). When people talk or act, their words and behaviors will be interpreted according to a context of meaning. Holland et al. (1998) argue that this collective agreement regarding the interpretation of words and actions constitutes a figured world. Identities are continually constructed and revised in such as space. Emerging bilingual students’ identities, which consisted of thoughts about themselves, others, and the actions going on inside and around them, were constantly in flux in the figured world of this urban bilingual third grade classroom. The biliteracy practices that occurred in the community of practice of the reading block in this figured world were shaped by both local and larger global discourses that in turn shaped the literacy practices they engaged in. The relationships during the reading block between individuals in this classroom were viewed using the framework of community of practice since individuals here shared a concern for what they did in the classroom and learned how to do it better as they interacted. My aim was to explore how emerging bilinguals’ identities took shape amid literacy practices in an urban bilingual classroom. To do this, I employed the lens of communities of practice and analysis of positional identities within and across literacy practices. 28 In the next chapter, I present details about the approach to research and methods I used to conduct research in an urban third grade bilingual classroom. In this qualitative case study, I collected data to determine the literacy events and practices and examined the discourse collected during the literacy block to determine the influence literacy practices had on students’ identities. 29 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Qualitative Approach According to Bryman (1984), qualitative research allows researchers to “embark on a voyage of discovery rather than one of verification” (p. 84). The focus of qualitative research then is on process, meaning and understanding (Merriam, 1998). Qualitative research attempts to produce a richly descriptive product (Merriam, 1998) and aspires to present the voices and perspectives of participants (Bryman, 1984). The purpose of my study was twofold. First, I endeavored to understand how a bilingual third grade teacher enacted or did not an ethics of caring in her classroom while she and her students engaged in literacy events and co-constructed literacy practices. The other focus was to understand the process through which elementary school age emerging bilinguals developed bilingual literacy practices and trace the trajectory of their identities within this literacy learning space. The teacher’s and students’ own words and experiences were the foundation for analysis in order to understand a situated process of literacy and learning in a specific location, a bilingual class. Case Study Design The study I conducted was a qualitative case study of a small group of emerging bilingual students within the culture of a school (Merriam, 1998). Case studies illustrate an idea, explain the process development over time, show the limits of generalizations, explore uncharted issues by starting with a limited case, and pose provocative questions (Reinharz, 1992). They investigate contemporary phenomena within a real-life context 30 (Yin, 2003). Case studies are grounded, provide thick description, and provide a picture that is holistic and lifelike (Guba & Lincoln, 1981). The case is an integrated system that allows the researcher to separate the system into components studied (here emerging bilinguals and their third grade class) from that which will not be studied (the bounds of the school and district and home environment) (Stake, 1995). In the sections that follow, I present information about the participants and setting, the timeframe for data collection, data analysis approaches and techniques, considerations for trustworthiness, and finally researcher positionality. Participants and Setting Teacher Mrs. Rosales3 was the teacher in the third grade bilingual classroom where this dissertation study took place. She is a Mexican national who had spent the past nine years working as a bilingual teacher both in Canada and the U.S. She had been at Anthony Elementary4 for three years teaching bilingual third grade at the time of the study. Mrs. Rosales worked prior to this time as a teacher in Monterrey, Mexico, where she was born, raised and educated. The majority of her family still lives there so she and her family frequently travel to Monterrey at various times during the year. Her two children attend Anthony Elementary School, the same school where she teaches. Mrs. Rosales came to my attention because her colleagues regarded her as a teacher with high expectations, who worked well with emerging bilinguals and who created strong bonds with parents. Her skill in building relationships with parents became 3 4 All names are pseudonyms. School and district names are pseudonyms as well. 31 evident to me during the pilot study when I became acquainted with a few parents of her students. They told me how comfortable Mrs. Rosales made them feel. They felt they could come to her with any questions or concerns they had about their children. They also said that Mrs. Rosales was a resource to them when they needed help navigating other issues they had at the school. According to her colleagues, Mrs. Rosales is able to connect with students considered to be difficult or unreachable and help bring them up to a higher academic level. During my visits to Anthony Elementary School, I observed that at the third grade level they had choreographed an exchange of students between three classrooms during the reading and ESL blocks. Mrs. Rosales volunteered to teach the struggling readers/writers and to work with newcomer students during the reading block (another teacher had a group of student who were instructed and would be tested in English, and the other a group of student who had a higher reading level in Spanish and would take the TAKS in Spanish for the last time that year before being transitioned to English reading instruction the following year). I was told she was known to establish strong relationships with parents and was a favorite among them. This had come as a surprise to other staff members because initially Mrs. Rosales’s Spanish language skills, her high level of education, and the status she possessed as a White, upper middle class Mexican woman were somewhat intimidating to staff members and they speculated that the same might be true for parents. One staff member, a Mexican national who moved to the U.S. in elementary school, expressed her initial fear of speaking Spanish in front of Mrs. Rosales because she could “really speak Spanish”. This person’s fear was soon put to rest and she described how she felt an instant kinship with Mrs. Rosales rather than feeling threatened by her differences and perceived superior Spanish language skills. 32 The principal, Mrs. Stevens, also held Mrs. Rosales in high regard. However, her reasons for this differed from those of her staff. She told me on several occasions about the impressive record Mrs. Rosales had in reaching testing milestones. Often I was told of the percentage of her students who not only passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), but how many passed with distinction. Mrs. Stevens also shared that the students and school were lucky to have Mrs. Rosales as a teacher at Anthony Elementary School. Mrs. Rosales was an experienced elementary and bilingual teacher, trained in elementary education and credentialed in the state of Texas. Mrs. Rosales shared common languages with her students as a native speaker of Spanish and a learner of English. Having grown up in Mexico, Mrs. Rosales shared a certain cultural understanding with her Mexican and Latin American students as well. She emigrated as an adult so she understood intimately the joys and challenges border crossings and living in a new context and language presented. Her experiences of learning a new language and new culture granted her a certain insider status unique among teachers of emerging bilinguals. I chose to study Mrs. Rosales and her emerging bilingual students in part because she was unlike many other teachers of emerging bilinguals presented in the literature. Her perspectives on teaching and ways of enacting care in her classroom may present different information than has been gathered from studies of emerging bilinguals where their teachers shared few if any characteristics or experiences with them. 33 Students There were a total of fourteen emerging bilingual students in Mrs. Rosales’s class during the reading block, eight boys and six girls. Their reading levels differed considerably. At the beginning of the school year there were several students reading on a level four DRA level5 and a few who read at a level eighteen and many others distributed in between. In addition there were two newcomers, one girl from Michoacán, Mexico who attended an elite private school in her home country and one from Cuba. The student from Michoacán transferred to another school in mid-September so withdrew from the study. The remaining students were emerging bilinguals who had participated in the bilingual program at Anthony Elementary last year and perhaps longer. The three focus students, Yesenia, Joaquin, and Grace, were selected based on several criteria. Eight students returned signed parental concept forms and were then asked to sign student assent forms so were eligible to participate in the study. I collected data from all of these eight students during the study. Yesenia, Joaquin, and Grace (and their parents) were among the eleven students who had agreed to participate in the study. To be able to make claims about literacy practice and identity, I needed multiple, clear examples of students’ positionings. I also needed sufficient sources of data to demonstrate positionings through participation in classroom literacy events and practices over time. They received no intervention services during the reading block so they were present during data collection. All three of the focus students regularly interacted with 5 DRA stands for Developmental Reading Level, a series of leveled reading books published for students in elementary school by Pearson Education, Inc. Expected levels for 3rd grade students reading in Spanish are: level 30 by September, 34 by January, 38 by May. 34 their teacher and peers during literacy practices so I had a large amount of discourse to analyze. They were also proficient writers in Spanish and produced writing samples that were lengthy enough to be used for analysis. Finally, Yesenia, Joaquin and Grace were open to talking to me and receptive to my help when I acted as a classroom aide helping students with their work so we were able to develop a relationship over the course of the semester. To begin the process of case selection and data analysis, each Friday I conducted a look back on all data collected up to that point and began initial coding. I began to see the demonstration of certain positionings by various students. I started flagging possible moments where positionings were being demonstrated during the reading block in my field notes and transcribed these episodes. I grouped transcripts, writing samples, and field notes labeled for each positioning for future analysis. In time, I saw that some of the students demonstrated each positioning several times. From each grouping of positionings (outsider, translator, guide, expert, etc.), I selected pieces of data for microanalysis by selecting examples that seemed to most clearly illustrate each positioning. Yesenia, Joaquin, and Grace were chosen as focus students because they had proper consent, data collected from them illustrated certain positionings clearly, I had more than one example of the positionings they demonstrated for each of them, and I had enough data from them to show positionings and changes in positionings over the entire course of the semester. 35 Setting Anthony Elementary School, one of eighty elementary schools in Azucena Independent School District was located in the extreme southern part of a large city in central Texas. The neighborhood surrounding the school was a mix of old and new housing, with older homes and aging apartment buildings as well as some small shops in the immediate proximity. Just a few yards beyond these to the South were large new commercial and shopping centers, new modern apartment buildings, and expensive subdivisions where new homes sprang up seemingly overnight. This neighborhood’s proximity to an emerging bohemian shopping and entertainment district to North and the aforementioned area of new development to the South was threatening to shift the landscape and demographics of the neighborhood. The student population at Anthony Elementary was less diverse than the student population in Azucena Independent School District and the state of Texas overall (Table 3.1). For example, at Anthony Elementary 41% of the student body in 2008-2009 was classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP), more than double the state figure (17%), while only 29% of students in the district overall were identified as LEP. 40% of the students at this school were enrolled in either Bilingual or ESL, while only 28% were enrolled in these programs in the district and 16% in the state. Nearly all of the students at Anthony Elementary were considered economically disadvantaged (90% v. 63% for district and 57% for state of Texas). More than half of Anthony’s students were considered at-risk for dropping out of school (60% v. 57% for district and 48% for state of Texas). Lastly, the ethnic distribution at Anthony Elementary was also different from 36 Table 3.1 Student Population Information 2008-2009 Student Population (Texas Educational Agency, 2009) State of Texas Azucena School District Anthony Elementary Designated Limited English Proficient Enrolled in Bilingual or ESL program Economically Disadvantaged Designated At-Risk Ethnic Identification 17% 29% 41% 16% 28% 40% 57% 48% 63% 57% 90% 60% Hispanic 48% African American 14% White 34% Native American >1% Asian 4% Hispanic 59% African American 12% White 25% Native American >1% Asian 3% Hispanic 85% African American 7% White 8% Native American >1% Asian 0% that of the district and state. 85% of students were identified as Hispanic, 7% African American, 8% White, under 1% Native American and 0% Asian. However, in the district, 59% of students were classified as Hispanic, 12% African American, 25% White, less than 1% Native American, and 3% Asian. In the state of Texas these figures were as follows: 48% Hispanic, 14% African American, 34% White, less than 1% Native American and 4% Asian. The racially segregated (Orfield & Easton, 1996) student population at Anthony did not mirror that of the district or state. The kind of triple segregation along linguistic, poverty, and racial lines seen at Anthony has been inexorably linked to negative educational outcomes (Orfield & Lee, 2006). Schools like Anthony should be of concern to all since the strong relationship between the factors that make them separate render them without question unequal. 37 In spite of the potential barriers to academic success of the student body of Anthony Elementary, Anthony was “recognized” 6 in 2009 and for its test scores by the Texas Educational Agency’s Division of Performance Reporting7. Staff members and parents alike shared pride in this accomplishment as demonstrated in conversations and visible reminders posted in an around the school building. However, in 2010 Anthony’s scores dropped one tier to “academically acceptable”8. There were several consequence to this drop in test scores: teachers were required to lesson plan differently (a more structured and detailed plan to ensure alignment with standards) and were monitored to make sure they were adhering to district mandates about scheduling of the math and reading blocks, intervention teachers were required to take students out rather than work with them in the classroom, children were pulled during their lunch break after being given 15 minutes to eat for additional tutoring to prepare for the TAKS. Timeframe Data was collected over a five-month period spanning the fall semester of the 2010-11 school year (Table 3.2). The preliminary interview with Mrs. Rosales was conducted during the first week of fieldwork. I spent four to five days per week observing whole group instruction, small group work and guided reading during the reading block at the beginning of the study to determine how to focus my observations. In time, I 6 All students and each student group of sufficient minimum size meet: 80% standard for each subject or 75% floor and required improvement or standers with Texas Projection Measure. 7 School/district ratings in ascending order: academically unacceptable, academically acceptable, recognized, and exemplary. 8 All students and each student group of sufficient minimum size meet: each standard of Reading/English language arts 70%, Writing 70%, Social Studies 70%, Mathematics 60%, Science 55% or required improvement or standard with Texas Projection Measure. 38 Table 3.2 Timeline Date August, 2010 September-Dec. 21 Sept. 3, 10, 17, 24; Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Nov. 5, 12, 19; Dec. 3, 10, 17 Event Began solicitation of parent consent, student assent, introduction in the field, began observations and field notes Continuous data collection: classroom observation and field notes, collection of audio recordings of whole group reading and small group guided readings lessons, video recordings of only the teacher during these events 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom? 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? Interviews with teacher 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom? 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? Artifact analysis of student work and student interviews 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? Each day after leaving field fleshed out of field notes and transcription; periodic member checking Review audio and video data to select segments to transcribe, transcribed and printed out for analysis of the discourse (Appendix D). The discourse analyzed using ethnography of communication approach and close examination of intertextual connections. December 6 Research Questions Addressed Data collection ended, transition out of field (last day in field December was 16th) 39 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom? 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban 3rd grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? determined that the most salient and consistent literacy events and practices occurred during whole group and small group work and focused observations likewise. I assisted the teacher in setting up her classroom at the beginning of the school year and on occasion assisted the teacher in preparation of materials as an ongoing gesture of gratitude. A few days a week I ate lunch with all the third grade bilingual teachers. Continuous observation and occasional participation in this classroom ended in December when winter break began. I consulted with the teacher over e-mail to perform additional member checking and with lingering questions that arose during data analysis and write up. Data Collection Data Sources & Research Questions Data collection occurred from August to December of 2010. A schedule of a typical day in Mrs. Rosales’ third grade class appears in Figure 3.1. This schedule was posted along one of the sidewalls of the classroom on large chart paper so that students, visitors and administrators could refer to it. I collected audio and video data during the lectura block (Figure 3.1). Selected segments of these recordings were transcribed for microanalysis of the discourse. I also collected written work samples from students, lesson plans, and district planning guides. All students in the classroom were classified as LEP by the district. Data sources for this study included field notes, voice recordings of the teacher and students during large and small group reading block, video recordings of the teacher during reading 40 HORORIO DE CLASE Horario de clase 7:45-9:15 matemáticas 9:15-10:30 lectura 10:30-10:50 recreo 10:50-11:35 ciencias 11:35-12:15 lunch (almuerzo) 12:15-1:00 ESL 1:00-1:45 escritura 1:50-2:35 clase especial 2:35-2:46 preparación para la salida Figure 3.1. Reproduction of classroom poster. block, interviews with the teacher and focus students, and student artifacts. Different data sources were used to answer research questions. Data sources used are listed in parenthesis below each research question: 41 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom? (field notes, audio and video recordings, teacher interviews, student interviews) 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilinguals’ identity development? (field notes, audio recordings, artifacts, student artifact interviews) Data collection and analysis were framed by sociocultural literacy practices from the New Literacy Studies (Street, 1995; Barton & Hamilton, 2000), and positional identities (Davies & Harré, 1990; Heras, 1994) in figured worlds (Holland et al, 1998), and communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1998) which are discussed further in other sections of this dissertation (Chapter 2). Observations I took written field notes while observing large and small group literacy instruction during the reading block. Common activities during this block included: whole group vocabulary instruction, shared reading, modeling and practicing of decoding skills and other reading strategies (inferencing, making predictions, connecting story to other stories), guided reading groups, and center activities related to reading and writing (student read books on reading level and write summaries, made webs related to main characters qualities, completed grammar activities, wrote stories about a topic being studied in class). The reading block lasted approximately 75 minutes. 42 Setting Students switched classes and then began the reading block with a whole group lesson. On days when small group work followed whole group, students were separated into small groups to work in centers or guided reading with the teacher for the remainder of the block. Mrs. Rosales lead a guided reading center and spent approximately 15-20 minutes with each reading group although she did not see them all everyday. The other students worked independently or in small groups in the centers. The special education teacher and reading resource teacher took their assigned students out to work in the hallway during the reading block. (Table 4.1 in chapter 4 provides more detailed information about the structure of the reading block) All field notes from observations were taken using a laptop computer and when necessary diagrams were sketched on notebook paper. A digital voice recorder was used to capture episodes with students. In addition, I focused a video camera on the teacher. I transcribed portions of audio and video data for further analysis of the literacy events and practices and the discourse from them. Classroom observations began August 30, 2010 and continued until December 6, 2010 when I began to transition out of the field. My last day in the field was December 16, 2010. Recordings began as soon as parent permission and student assent was obtained, the dates varied but all were obtained by the end of September. I recorded literacy events during the literacy block using a digital voice recorder (for students) and a video camera (for the teacher) during whole group lessons and small teacher lead group work with emerging bilinguals. Selected portions of these recordings 43 were transcribed, in order to perform an analysis of the discourse using ethnography of communication (further description follows in data analysis section) (Hymes, 1994). Artifacts and Documents I also collected written student artifacts during the study. Samples of emerging bilinguals’ written work were taken regularly over the duration of the study from lessons observed in lectura. Whenever possible either during interviews or informal conversations, I asked students for explanations of their work samples to ensure that I had sufficient contextual and background information to perform analysis. The purpose of analyzing student artifacts was to have a record of students’ progress in literacy and reveal any aspects of students’ identities that may not have presented themselves as clearly if only data from classroom instruction had been used. Interviews Understanding the role of the participants was an essential element in this qualitative study (Bryman, 1984). The teacher’s and students’ explanations and clarifications of events helped construct the meaning of what transpired during classroom literacy events. Consequently, interview data augmented field notes, transcribed classroom events and student artifacts. Student Interviews Three focus students were interviewed at various times during the study at dates and times the teacher identified as convenient. Using the interview protocol like the one 44 found in Appendix A students were asked to explain the written (or drawn) artifact I had collected. It was my intention to have the atmosphere of all interviews with students relaxed and as close to informal conversation as possible so as not to provoke unnecessary anxiety. The interviews were collected using audio recordings and field notes. The interviews were collected as soon as possible after I identified a piece of writing/drawing as an interesting artifact generated during a classroom literacy event. For emerging bilingual students, the purpose of interviews was for them to discuss their experiences related to literacy practices in the classroom and to demonstrate their range of developing literacy practices and identities. Contrast and comparison between their interviews and those of other participants was necessary. Interviews with students were conducted mainly in Spanish, but on certain occasions a child responded to me using English words of phrases. I accepted either language to mirror the attitude about language use in this space. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for any information about literacy practices and the impact of these practices on student’s developing identities. Teacher Interviews I conducted the initial interview with the teacher within the first week of my time in the field. This interview was guided by an interview protocol (see Appendix B). The purpose of initial interview with the teacher in this study was to understand how the teacher viewed literacy, her goals for students and herself during literacy instruction, and gauge her thoughts about her students’ identity development. Subsequent interviews were guided by the interview protocol found in Appendix C. These interviews were used to 45 establish the teacher’s motivations during observed literacy events and practices by providing a thick description of the teacher’s motives in literacy instruction and practices (Fránquiz, 2002). While the protocol guided all interviews, the questions were crafted to allow the interviews to be open-ended and many times the interview swayed in a direction I had not anticipated. Valuable data resulted from interviews nonetheless. The goal of open-ended interviews was to understand participant’s framing of the events under study. Interviews with Mrs. Rosales were conducted in either English or Spanish, depending on her preference. Data Analysis Analysis of the Discourse Using Ethnography of Communication In this study, I examined the discourse from interviews, observations, and artifacts. To understand the approach to discourse analysis I took, I must fist begin by defining discourse as a concept of language in use. Discourse acts as both a source of knowledge and the result of it (Johnstone, 2008). According to Schiffrin (1994) discourse can be defined in two ways, as a particular unit of language and particular focus. Schiffrin’s (1994) bifurcated definition of discourse was based on the differences between the structuralist and functionalist paradigms of looking at discourse. In simplest terms, the structuralist paradigm concerns itself with the structure of language (Schiffrin, 1994) and regards language as primarily a mental phenomenon (Leech, 1983). Structuralists would argue that language may have social and cognitive functions, but they do not impinge upon the internal organization of language. In contrast, the functionalists assume that language has functions that are external to the linguistic system itself and that these 46 external functions influence the internal organization of the linguistic system (Schiffrin, 1994). Thus they regard language as primarily a social phenomenon (Leech, 1983). Schiffrin (1994) argues that there is interdependence between the structuralist and functionalist view of language in many approaches to discourse analysis. What differentiates approaches to discourse analysis is where the emphasis is placed (structure or function). My interest in the discourse in this classroom was more aligned with the functionalist definition of language. I examined the structures of language as the formalist do, but I was primarily concerned with what the language accomplished (the social aspect of language). The focus of ethnography of communication is the particularities and discovery of generalizations in discourse (Schiffrin, 1994). This approach relies on thick interpretations (Geertz, 1973) of cultural meanings that require fieldwork and robust participation in a community. Ethnography of communication brings social theory and discourse analysis together to describe, interpret, and explain ways that discourse constructs, becomes constructed by, represents, and becomes represented by the social world (Gumperz, 1986; Hymes, 1994). Ethnography of communication is mainly a functional approach to discourse analysis since the assumption is that language is always part of social and cultural life and acts to index a prior reality or create a new reality for participants (Schiffrin, 1994). However, little can be assumed about the functions of language. For example, speech acts can serve a number of different functions and this may depend on not just the speech act but also the participants in the speech act. Discovery of a cluster of different speech acts that fulfill the same speech function has consequences for analysis of how the speech acts 47 occurred and for the analysis of discourse organization itself. In this approach, it is up to the researcher to discover the range of ways of realizing the functions of language. This approach to discourse analysis can illuminate the ways that the teacher and emerging bilingual students in this bilingual classroom make meaning by answering questions about the relationship between language and social life in this setting. This approach situates functions within sequential structure. The basic unit of analysis in this approach to discourse is a community or group, what Hymes (1972, 1994) would call a speech community. A speech community is a community that shares rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech and rules for interpretation of at least one linguistic variety. Hymes’ (1972, 1994) definition of speech community demonstrates the emphasis on the functional approach to discourse take up in this approach to discourse analysis. To study a speech community one starts with a social group and considers the linguistic variations that exist within it. Within a speech community one locates speech events, activities that are directly governed by rules or norms for the use of speech. Finally the speech act, which is the smallest until that can be studied in a speech event, is where the analysis of what speech does (the function) is analyzed. For example, in a classroom (the speech community) there was a conversation during a spelling lesson (speech event) during which time the teacher asked students to give definitions of one of the spelling words. A student raised her hand and listed synonyms for that word (speech act) that served to contextualize the new word with other known words helping students to produce a more comprehensive understanding of the new word. This example demonstrates how the sequential structure of a speech event is essential to understanding the function of the speech act. The speech act cannot be separated from the speech or 48 literacy event. While both the structure and function of language are important in ethnography of communication, the focus in this kind of discourse analysis is ultimately on the function of the speech. Fairclough (2001) argued that it is important to examine not only the language but also the visual images and body-language, or semiosis that accompany the discourse. Semiosis, or meaning making through language, body language use, visual images or any other way of signifying, provides important information about the relationship between language and social structures that cannot be achieved through analysis of language alone. This part of Fairclough’s (2001) theory lends itself to this study since the emerging bilinguals were working to master two languages and drew on myriad resources, which were not limited to the spoken or written word, to communicate and make meaning. Some students in this classroom regularly used pictures to communicate. I took into account their use of pictures and words when analyzing their communication since both served important purposes in this process. Since I was not granted permission to video record the children, my analysis of semiosis was limited to my field notes and artifacts. had a limited number of participants who sat near one another during whole group instruction. This small number of focus students and their proximity to one another in the classroom made the difficult task of collecting semiotic data more realistic. Lack of video recording limits my ability to perform large-scale analysis of the semiotic nature of language in the setting, but did not prevent me from capturing elements of semiosis and using them with other elements of language to make limited claims. I began my analysis of the discourse using the frame of ethnography of communication by employing an inductive constant-comparative (Creswell, 2003) 49 process. I followed the steps and use the guiding questions in Appendix D. An example of how I have used this process during my pilot study follows in the next section. As I embarked on analysis of the discourse during my dissertation study, I soon realized that to understand the function of discourse in the classroom I studied I needed to concentrate analysis on a specific speech act or a few speech acts. After careful analysis of emerging patterns in this classroom, I chose to focus on connections and intertextual connections. Microethnographic Approach to Analysis of Discourse of Classroom Language and Literacy Events This approach to discourse analysis builds on ethnography of communication (Gumperz 1986; Hymes, 1974) that is discussed in more detail in the previous section. Like ethnography of communication, a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis focuses on the function of language. Specifically, it examines how people use language and literacy events in the classroom while paying attention to social, cultural, and political processes. In this context, language is both the object of classroom lessons (ex: learning vocabulary necessary for academic discourse) and also the means of learning (ex: through classroom discussions, assigned readings). This approach emphasizes that language “involves complex social, cultural, political, cognitive, and linguistic processes and contexts—all of which are part of the meaning and significance of reading, writing, and using language” (Bloome et al., 2005). According to Bloome and colleagues teaching students to be readers and writers is an intimate part of identity formation, both individual and social. One’s identity is constructed and reflected by how one engages in reading and writing, when, where, and with whom they do it and how one engages in learning how to read and write. In this particular study, the language and literacy events took place in an 50 urban bilingual bicultural environment so the study of the language used there and how language functioned to form and reflect students’ identities while they engaged in reading and writing activities were interpreted in a way that reflects this rich and nuanced context. Social Interaction as a Linguistic Process In this study, I used Bloome & Egan-Robertson (1993) and Bloome et al.’s (2005) assumption that the actions and reactions people make to one another are basically linguistic. They argue that social interaction is a linguist process and derive their sociolinguistic view of language from the work of Bakhtin (1981, 1986), Gumperz (1986), Hymes (1974), and Volosinov (1973). Linguistic in this case is defined broadly, meaning to involve language (verbal and non-verbal) and related to semiotic systems such as words, prosodics, gestures, grouping configurations, utterances, and across media systems. Such a broad definition emphasizes that people’s actions and reactions stem from language systems, in other words systems that use language to make meaning and take action. There are numerous dynamic systems. Bakhtin (1981, 1986) viewed utterances as living and “having taken meaning and shape at a particular historical moment in a socially specific environment” as the utterance comes in contact with countless other living dialogic threads. Consequently an utterance will “become part of an active participant in social dialogue” (p. 276-277). In short, utterances are acts that make up part of a series of actions and reactions. Thus the meaning of an utterance comes from the interplay between what happened before and what will come after it rather than from the content of the words in the utterance. Put differently, the meaning of an 51 utterance cannot be determined outside of an ongoing event. This active process of understanding utterances makes the meaning of the utterance unstable even when considered in context. Since people’s actions and reactions arise through language, it is through language that the social relationships between people (teacher-student and student-student in this case) emerge, social acts are created, carried out, and organized (education) and social groups are formed (class). These social relationships become visible by examining the language and its meaning in the ongoing events being studied. Positions and Positionings Classrooms are marked by negotiations. In this space individuals interact with one another from different positions. According to Heras (1994), these positions over time serve to define each person’s roles, relations, rights, obligations, norms and expectations and become positionings. The roles or positions that teachers and students take up are often defined by the school organization and society. For example, in U.S schools teachers are expected to keep children safe, teach them social norms, control of students’ behaviors, and systematically direct students in learning a prescribed set of knowledge and skills that correspond with their grade level. In face-to-face interactions certain opportunities for participation in interactions are made possible or taken away. The positionings that people take up during interactions define what the positionings mean within particular sets of interactions, with particular individuals, for a particular purpose or task, and in a particular time and space. In school interactions, the individuals in that space position themselves and are positioned by others thus institutional roles are not givens (i.e. students can direct other students’ learning and act as a teacher or the teacher 52 can learn from her students thus act like a student). Relationships in classrooms partially define the classroom experience for the individuals in this space. While the teacher and students co-construct knowledge in a classroom they are constructing roles and relationships as well. In other words, positions and the positionings that people take up make up the academic contexts in which knowledge is produced. People become texts for each other (McDermott, 1982) that they use to learn about themselves and others. Members construct positions in local classroom interactions and in the history formed through patterns of interactions. With time, patterns of interactions provide resources for people to draw on in new situations (Bloome, 1993). At any given time in a classroom, there is potential for local and historical positions and positionings to be invoked. Interactions make visible the positions and positionings individuals take up in the current setting or have experienced in past settings. Analytic Plan Data analysis in qualitative research is an ongoing process that involves continuous reflection about the data, much of which occurs during data collection (Creswell, 2003; Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). During the reading block in third grade, I observed, took field notes, and audio and video recorded. I rewatched video and audio recordings of specific sections of literacy events in order to expand field notes. I then recorded information about the events, sub-events and the various literacy activities that occurred during them on spreadsheets to keep track of the kind of events I was beginning to see and the frequency of occurrence of these events. I sifted repeated events and patterns within each event in order to identify and name literacy practices. I 53 added a column to the spreadsheet for literacy practices that I observed during literacy events and sub-events. Over time I revised, eliminated or collapsed literacy practices as these patterns in this classroom became clearer to me. For the remainder of my time in the filed, I brought spreadsheets with me to observations and revised them until I saw no need to add additional items or make changes for them to provide an accurate picture of the literacy events and practices in this classroom. Each day I recorded and took filed notes about what the teacher and students were doing during the reading block. After approximately two weeks of observation, I was able to list several literacy events in which class members engaged on a regular basis. Conversations and interviews with Mrs. Rosales also helped clarify literacy events. Once I had generated a preliminary list of literacy events, I then concentrated more on the emerging patterns in the processes and behaviors of individuals participating in them (the literacy practices). I marked sections of field notes pertaining to processes and patterns so that I could spend additional time fleshing out my field notes as I watched and listened to recordings taken during those times. Using my detailed field notes, I went back over several days and weeks of data and began generating a list of what students and what Mrs. Rosales did during the reading block. In time, I was able to generate a chart similar to the ones below to create a kind of map to what I saw happening. I brought the maps with me to observations so that I could check them against what I continued to observe and make changes as necessary. The processes for making meaning, or the socially constructed literacy practices, sprang from what participants said and did. They were determined based on the social, cultural, and political processes that surrounded the language and literacy events in 54 addition to the events themselves. I began this process by rewatching and listening to identified literacy events already collected, looking for patterns of process and behavior over time. I generated a list of possible literacy practices for each event. Using the constant-comparative method (Cresswell, 2003), I verified, modified, or eliminated literacy practices, by marking places in field notes and flagging audio and video segments as I continued to collect data indicating practices such as those identified previously. This allowed me to go back and check the list of literacy practices I had generated for accuracy. This cyclical process continued throughout data collection at which time literacy practices and the descriptions I had generated to describe them were shown to repeat themselves without the need for further modification. Analysis of discourse began while I took field notes using the theoretical frames to guide my observations. At the end of each day of observation I fleshed out field notes and listened to recording flagging portions for transcription and close analysis using ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1994). Every Friday I conducted full thematic analysis of data collected up to that point: field notes, student artifact, interviews, and transcribed speech events. I used all sources of data to check the validity of findings generated from the analysis of the discourse and to make adjustments to findings when necessary. Next, I took drafts of findings and transcriptions to the teacher to perform member checking and further validate findings. The use of varied data sources including field notes taken during observations, audio and video recordings of literacy instruction, transcribed speech events and acts, interviews, and student artifacts provided effective triangulation of data about what characterized the literacy events and literacy practices 55 that took place in this classroom during the reading block, and the positional identities of emerging bilinguals as the participated in literacy practices. Considerations for Trustworthiness I made efforts to ensure the level of rigor of this study was adequate so as to be believable or trustworthy (Cresswell, 2003). The process continued for the duration of preparations and execution of the study. Trustworthiness was established as I used multiple sources of data and thick description, performed member checks and enlisted the assistance of peer debriefers. In order to properly present participants’ experiences, I shared transcripts, drafts of the findings, and preliminary conclusions with the participants. This process, known as member-checking (Mertens, 2005), is one of the most important ways a researcher can establish credibility. I asked participants to comment on and clarify any points of incongruity. Member checking with the teacher consisted of showing her written transcripts, preliminary findings and conclusions. However, with students, member checking was limited to oral discussion with students. During this time we discussed excerpts from transcripts and some of the preliminary findings and conclusions worded in a way that a third grader would understand and/or be interested in. These discussions presented students an opportunity to express thoughts and feelings about what was presented and granted them the opportunity to add or clarify anything they wished. I felt this oral method of member checking was be more appropriate for third grade students since they were unlikely to be interested in reading lengthy transcripts of recorded classroom interactions they may have forgotten about. In addition, many of them did not 56 yet have the English skills necessary to read preliminary findings and conclusions that were intended for a specific adult audience. The purpose of this activity was to help ensure factual accuracy, but in this study specifically I wanted to make every attempt to make participants voice heard in a manner they deem appropriate and accurate. Peer debriefing occurred at monthly intervals during data collection and the period of analysis and write up. The purpose of peer debriefing was to offer critique and extend my thinking regarding the data and direction of the study. A colleague, former elementary school bilingual teacher, and native speaker of Spanish from Monterrey, Mexico who moved to the U.S. when she was six years and began her formal schooling here in the first grade, acted the role of my peer-debriefing partner. In addition, I attended either in person or via Skype, bi-weekly meetings with my writing group. The members of this group were diverse yet their research was focused on issues of bilingualism and biculturalism. These characteristics added richness to discussions, a variety of points of views, and opportunities to share experiences as both insiders/outsiders as we debated each other’s work. For example, since my study focused on emerging bilinguals from Mexico, certain members of the group, such as one woman who is a Mexican national who moved to the U.S. as an adult and two others who were born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. as children, paid particular attention to my work so that elements of Mexican Spanish and culture missed by me were not overlooked. They had an insider status that I can never have and their input was invaluable in the peer debriefing process for my study. Unexpected events from field work, developing themes, coding issues, and preliminary conclusions were discussed at our writing group meetings. I kept a field note journal in which I made note of issues, wonderings, and questions that arose while in the 57 field. Fleshed out field notes and my initial analysis of the data helped guide these meetings. Regular e-mail messages were also sent back and forth between the aforementioned individuals in between scheduled meetings to help me deal with unanticipated issues that arose during the study. Also, we routinely read drafts of each other’s work and provided feedback to one another. Researcher Positionality My position as a privileged White woman who is an educated native speaker of English who chose to study children very different than me presented certain limitations and advantages for this study. The racial, cultural and linguistic differences that existed between my participants and me presented an ethical dilemma. My privilege existed on numerous levels. I am white, middle-class, and highly-educated with institutional support from a prestigious and powerful institution. I worked with and studied individuals who possess cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) that is not valued by the dominant group in our society, the group that exerts much control over schooling in this country. I am a native speaker of English and a Spanish second language learner who studied a classroom in which English, but predominantly Spanish, which was the mother tongue of all participants, was used in oral and written form. English is undoubtedly the language of power in this country and in U.S. public schools. I speak it fluently while the students I studied must dedicate themselves to learning it to access power I already possess. I chose to use the power granted to me by my institution and my place within U.S. society to explore the process through which certain individuals, in this case recent emerging bilingual children and their teacher, worked to define their own identities in the 58 face of multiple oppressions heaped on them by society. I approached this study as a former elementary bilingual educator. It was my goal to highlight the positive aspects of this program while using the less than positive aspects as a didactic tool for educators who strive to continuously improve their practice and programs to better serve emerging bilinguals. Preserving the voices of participants was of my utmost concern. In an effort to achieve this goal, I continuously addressed my own research biases that arose from the racial, linguistic, cultural, and educational difference, to name a few, that existed between my participants and me. While my differences presented challenges, they also presented certain advantages. Most notably, I have been granted a voice as a member of a powerful institution. I have chosen to use it to add to a discussion about students who deserve more attention in policy and research. While it is true that I have very little control over how this work will be received, I am pleased that it will be part of an emerging body of work that focuses on emerging bilinguals and their emergent literacies and identities. In addition, my position as a researcher offered me an opportunity to view instruction and learning with my frame of reference as a former bilingual teacher, but without the responsibility of being the teacher of these students. My work presents a view of the classroom and the students not normally afforded to the classroom teacher. Pilot Study Participants for the pilot study were recruited from one newcomer program (not the same teacher or school where dissertation study would later unfold) in a large central Texas school district. This pilot lasted approximately four weeks with three observations 59 per week during the spring semester of the 2008-09 school year. There were a total of twelve newcomer students and one teacher. All students were recent immigrants to the U.S. All but three came from Latin American countries. These three came from Laos and Sudan so while Spanish was the most common language other than English spoken by children, it was not the only other language. Sources of data included: classroom observations of small and whole group language arts, ESL and math lessons; analysis of student artifacts produced during observed lessons; interviews with the teacher (one at the start and one toward the end of the data collection period, each interview lasting approximately 20 minutes) that were focused on the teacher’s approach to teaching newcomers and her expectations for them. The research question that guided the pilot study sought to understand how a newcomer elementary bilingual teacher created a caring classroom environment for students. The theoretical frameworks of ethics of care (Noddings, 1984, 1992) and positional identities (Holland et al., 1998) were used. I began with descriptive observations to develop an overall feel of the classroom and participants. Next, I used the theoretical frameworks and preliminary hypotheses (it was not what the teacher said rather something about how she said it and the result was the development of student self-efficacy) that led me to focus more on classroom discourse to determine how exactly the teacher was guiding students to a sense of self-efficacy. Toward the end of the study, more selective observations were performed as a way to test hypotheses emerging for initial analysis of the data that occurred while I was in the field. All field notes from observations were taken using a laptop computer and diagrams sketched on notebook paper. As a rule, within one day of each observation additional thoughts were added to 60 notes to flesh out the field note and create a more complete picture of the scenes observed. Audio recordings were made of classroom interactions, between the teacher and students, among students as they interacted with one another. Selected portions of these recordings were transcribed in order to perform a microanalysis of the discourse. The first phase of analysis was coding for content. This began with jotting down wonderings I had while observing. Content coding began with large predetermined themes from the critical caring framework. These themes were: 1. Variability in care giver actions or acts in a non-rule bound fashion on behalf of cared for; 2. Caring act has or seems likely to have a favorable outcome for the cared for. These broad themes or domains were then used for taxonomic analysis of more specific themes as data collection continued (Spradley, 1980). For example, as I read through the data I had coded the data for instances of “caring act has favorable outcome for the cared for or seems reasonably likely to do so” I found that these actions shared characteristics (and had been coded in a variety of ways): use of humor, emphasis on personal responsibility, and direct communication of high expectations. I reexamined the codes used for these characteristics and determined that there were only three (those listed above) after I collapsed like codes into one another, eliminated some that did not have enough examples to justify keeping the code or did not serve for negative case analysis. In other words these pieces of data were outliers and not particularly useful for making sense of the data. As I was working on refining codes under the predetermined themes I developed an initial hypothesis, that it was not what the teacher (or other students) said that communicated care it was something about how they said it. I then went back to test my coding and the themes to verify whether in fact this hypothesis would hold up. As data 61 collection continued and the hypothesis tested, codes were crafted and modified and segments of discourse were flagged for further analysis. The next phase of data analysis consisted of an examination of the classroom discourse. I used ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1994) to examine segments of transcribed data that demonstrated how the teacher enacted care during caring encounters, the positional identities of the students in these encounters, and the relationship between literacy practices and identity. I first determined which events fit the criteria for caring encounters and transcribed these. I used the steps and guiding questions in Appendix D. I examined the discourse in caring encounters (the speech event) to determine what kind of speech acts were important in this group, what Hymes (1994) would call a speech community since it created its own speaking codes and norms, what meanings the group applied to communication events, and how group members learned the norms and codes. Next, I spent time working on one speech act at a time to determine the function of it and how the participants in the speech act made sense of it. I went back and listened to the audio recordings (no video was recorded during the pilot study) and read through my field notes related to the speech event. Ethnography of communication helps to make sense of the decisions group members make and distinguishes groups from one another. To try to understand the decisions made in this group and it is unique, I reread the entire speech event. To demonstrate this process, I provide an example (Table 3.3) of a segment of talk collected that demonstrates the connectedness of each utterance to those surrounding it. By examining the speech acts in isolations and then as a group within the speech event, I was able to discern that in this speech community, it was common and accepted 62 Table 3.3 Example from Pilot Study Teacher: What did your see in the LBJ museum? [seems to be addressing Rafael] Maria: Un, ummm…pictures? Teacher: You saw pictures! Ok. What do you remember from the museum? [looking at Maria] Alicia: And we watch a movie. Teacher: [teacher looks from Maria to Alicia] You watched a movie. Ok! Rafael: Pienso que, we we give you UT [Alicia laughs and so does Rafael] Teacher: You what? [smiling and laughing, looking at Rafael] Alicia: We took some water. Teacher: Oh! The big fountain of water outside. Rafeal: YES! Teacher: Did you see something inside the museum that you remember? Rafael: Eh um the president when he, when he Teacher: When he was president. Do you remember anything that was in the museum? (3 second pause. No answer from students.) Teacher: You didn’t see ANYTHING? Your eyes were closed? [teacher puts hands over eyes] Students: [giggle, look at each other then back at teacher who is covering eyes] Teacher: Ok. Did you see a car in there? Rafael and Maria: YES! Yeah. (talking at same time) Teacher: Ok. Tell me about the car. Rafael: It black. Teacher: And whose car was it? Was it your mother’s car? Rafael: [laughing] NO! Teacher: Was it your mother’s car [looking at Alicia]? Alicia: NOOO! [laughing] Teacher: Whose car was it? Rafael: That black car… Teacher: It belonged to… to the president. Who was the president? [looking at Rafael] Rafael: Ehh LBB Alicia: LBJ [laughing, interrupts Rafeal] Teacher: LBJ, very good! [chuckling] Lyndon Baines Johnson. VERY good! for students to respond to questions the teacher had directed to another student when that student was struggling to answer. The teacher, in fact, seemed to encourage this practice by enthusiastically responding to the student who answered even though the question was not directed to her/him. She then drew the student who the question was initially directed 63 in to the conversation this time using additional engagement techniques so that the student could answer follow up questions. I sifted out more examples of caring encounters from the data and followed this same technique of tracking how questioned were answered to see if this practice was indeed a norm in this speech community. The norm of a student answering questions not directed to her was interpreted by the group as a means to support a classmate rather than speaking out of turn or depriving another of the opportunity to speak as it perhaps could be in other groups. I was able to verify this finding from performing analysis of the discourse by asking the teacher about this during interviews. I showed her a transcript and then shared how I had interpreted it. I then asked her to explain her intentions behind engaging students in instruction in the way she did. Her responses illuminated my understanding of the speech event further by explaining that it was her goal to build solidarity among the students and she found this kind of exchange a good way to foster solidarity. Three salient findings came from this study. First, the newcomer teacher was committed to teaching students to see themselves as having the resources and tools necessary to succeed academically. Students engaged in a variety of literacy practices where they were encouraged to make use of the tools available to them (i.e. the math text, each other, words they knew in another language, dictionaries, notes taken during previous lessons, etc.) to develop an understanding of challenging concepts. She shied away from being positioned as the only knower in the classroom. During an interview she expressed anxiety about the limited support students were going to have in the future and about her belief that newcomers were not building confidence in their increasing 64 scholastic abilities. This attitude played a role in her high expectations for student performance and demands that they learn to see themselves as their own best resource. Second, the teacher and students regularly used humor to encourage risk taking and learning. The use of humor set the tone for the classroom. Students’ mistakes were corrected with humor not harsh reprimand. For example, the teacher repeated words students had misspoken with encouraging smiles and giggles so that students, not just the one who had committed the error, would join her. She corrected spelling and grammar using a positive tone of voice and praised students efforts as well as for how close to correct they were. Students in this space could laugh while Mrs. Marina was correcting them. The teacher modeled new words to students in comical ways that resulted in students taking risks and using these new words as they continued speaking. Finally, the teacher and students worked to create solidarity between students that the teacher hoped would reach beyond the newcomer classroom. Students regularly stepped in to help each other with difficult questions or words in a way that seemed not to threaten the student being helped or stroke the ego of the one helping. The teacher promoted the practice of students helping each other since solidarity was one of her goals for her group of newcomers. During an interview, she stated that in her experience newcomer students draw strength from one another in the newcomer class, “The unity of being with their own gives them strength for when they go back and intermingle with other students”. Students were taught to care for one another by drawing on their social networks for support and guidance. The data showed students’ developing identities were characterized by a sense of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy in this space developed socially and was constructed 65 culturally as students experimented with different identities over time (Holland et al., 1998). Through a growing awareness of their own abilities and resources available to them in two languages and cultures, students found success. The use of humor with one another in this space created a safe supportive environment where students could take risk and eventually be successful. Finally, by learning to draw on one another for support and strength when presented with academic challenges students discovered success as individuals and as a group. Students developed self-efficacy through strategic positioning by the teacher and other members of the newcomer class and from an atmosphere that cared for the unique needs of newcomer students. Chapter four is focused on the literacy related activities that Mrs. Rosales and her students engaged in and how they made meaning during the literacy block. I present results regarding the literacy events and practices that they co-constructed. 66 CHAPTER 4: LITERACY CONSTRUCTION IN THE CLASSROOM Introduction This dissertation study asked two questions: What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom? This research question examined the daily routines and patterns related to reading and writing in a third grade bilingual classroom. Once these patterns had been established, I examined the literacy practices and the discourse in them to determine the answer to the final research question: How do the literacy practices constructed in a third grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilingual students' identity development? The connection between literacy practices and identities became visible through examination of positionings within the classroom discourse of Mrs. Rosales and her students during literacy events. In this chapter I present the results of data analysis related to the first research question about the literacy practices of this urban third grade bilingual classroom. In the following results chapter, I will present data to answer the second question about the influence that literacy practices had on students’ identities. To uncover the literacy events and practices and their connection with students’ identity development in a third grade bilingual classroom, I began by mapping out the literacy events that were typical in this space. My observations were guided by Bloome & Hamilton’s (2000) notion of literacy events as tangible, observable episodes in which reading and writing have a role. They conceptualized literacy practices as patterns that emerge from the ways in which teachers and students link the activities of reading and writing to the social structures within literacy events. In this chapter, I present results of the mapping process describing what the events (and in some cases sub-events) and 67 practices looked like in Mrs. Rosales’ classroom. I generated these descriptions based on ongoing observations and conversations with Mrs. Rosales and her students over the course of the fall semester. Literacy Events and Literacy Practices Data related to the literacy events, practices and student actions were collected over a period of 18 weeks encompassing the fall semester of the 2010-2011 school year. Table 4.1 represents the literacy events observed during the reading block, which began each day at approximately 9:15 A.M. and ended at 10:30 A.M. This schedule was consistent from week to week and changed only on abbreviated weeks when the reading block schedule was slightly modified. For example, when there was no school on Monday, the Monday schedule was followed on Tuesday. If there was no school on Friday the spelling test was given on Thursday and no practice Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) was administered that week. At the time of this study, TAKS was the criterion referenced test that students in the state of Texas took at the elementary level in grades 3, 4 and 5. The results of this test were used to rank schools and districts and as a factor in decision making about advancement to the next grade for students. More detailed description of each literacy event shown in Table 4.1 will appear in the following sections. 68 Table 4.1 Daily Schedule for Reading Block 9:15 AM Monday 9:30 AM 9:45 AM Introduction and generation of definitions of new spelling words 10:00 AM 10:15 AM Introduction and generation of definitions of vocabulary words from weekly story in basal reader Tuesday Finish up introduction and/or review of vocabulary from weekly story in basal reader Pre-reading story in basal reader Wednesday Read story in basal reader Guided reading and individual student work Thursday Friday Read story in basal reader or read aloud if reading of story in basal completed Spelling test Postreading activities Guided reading and individual student work Administration of TAKs practice tests or TAKS practice passages and questions as a group Literacy Events During the reading block, literacy events included introducing or reviewing vocabulary and reading (Table 4.2 and 4.3). Within each event there were sub-events, which I viewed as phases of the reading event. Nearly all of these events and sub-events, with the exception of some books and activities used for read alouds, were prescribed by the Spanish reading program adopted by the district called Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008), or in the TAKS preparation materials that teachers were required to use to prepare their students for the Texas state assessment. In this case Anthony Elementary 69 School was a focus school9. Some read aloud books and activities that Mrs. Rosales used were suggested in the district planning guides for teaching reading. However, she also chose her own books for read alouds and designed the supplementary activities herself. Across all of these literacy events and sub-events where reading was the focus the practices of predicting, inferencing, summarizing and questioning were normalized within literacy events. I will present all literacy events observed in the following section. Literacy Practices After observing and documenting the classroom literacy events and sub-events during the reading block, I began the process of teasing out the literacy practices coconstructed in this space. I was interested in how participants were using language and literacy events in the classroom to make meaning. I discuss the literacy practices constructed by the teacher and the students over time in Tables 4.2 and 4.3. The positions that students took up when they participated in literacy events were determined by the discourse strategies used in this space and repeated across the 18 weeks. In this dissertation study, I observed the discourse strategy of making intertextual connections (Bloome, et. al, 2005) since it was a common way that students made connections. In short, intertextual connections are links that useful in defining connections between language, images, characters, topics, or themes based on 9 In an attempt to more adequate prepare students for the TAKS, the district required teachers at focus schools to prepare lesson plans using a district mandated format and to attend additional training about preparing students for the TAKS. Teachers were also required to begin using the TAKS preparation materials at the beginning of the year rather than in January as they had done in previous years. Officials from the district and school administrators observed teachers and students on a regular basis and provided feedback. Students targeted for intervention were pulled out of the classroom by school staff for additional tutoring during the school day, during lunch and attended after school tutoring sessions with their teachers. 70 similarities in languages, discourses, or genres. Intertexual connections may involve connections that build social meaning whereby a person makes an intertextual connection to build a social relationship or connection (Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993). Intertextual connections must be proposed, acknowledged, recognized and have social significance. While intertextual connections will be discussed briefly in the section that follows, more in depth discussion of selected intertextual connections will come in the following chapter. Descriptions of Literacy Events, Sub-Events & Literacy Practices Vocabulary Instruction/Review Vocabulary study was important and a regularly scheduled literacy event (see Table 4.2) An average of 135 of the 450 minutes of the reading block was spent on introducing and reviewing vocabulary. Vocabulary was also studied at other times during the reading block, but on an as needed basis. For example, a student might raise her hand to ask what a word meant during a read aloud. Mrs. Rosales or another student might define the word orally or with an example and the group would quickly transition back to reading. Since a portion of the week was spent solely on the instruction and/or review of vocabulary I chose to isolate this literacy event from reading for analysis of interactions. During the reading block, definitions for vocabulary words were usually generated as a group (Table 4.2) demonstrating one way in which Mrs. Rosales and her students worked together to construct the literacy practices in their classroom. Construction of this literacy practice involved nearly all members of the classroom in some capacity. The teacher would introduce a new word either orally or by using a sentence strip on which she had 71 Table 4.2 Literacy Event: Vocabulary Instruction/Review written the word and then ask students what they thought the word meant. As a class they would engage in discussion that included students providing a definition in their own words, providing synonyms for the word, telling stories of how they knew what this word meant, or giving an English equivalent. While the large group discussion was going on, pairs or small groups of students would engage in discussions where one student would explain the word to others in the group. Frequently students disagreed with each other’s definitions so they spoke up and the definition was modified. This occurred on 9/14/10 and 9/15/10 when the class was discussing the word determinación (determination). Yesenia told about a flood that happened at the place where her mother worked and said it took a lot of determination to clean up such a huge mess. Ramón said that was not a good example so he gave another. He said it takes determination to not get robbed in 72 Mexico and that when kids are playing on the playground and strangers come up to the fence to offer them candy it takes determination not to take the candy since this is wrong. Mrs. Rosales asked them to both explain how their examples illustrated the meaning of the word determination. They were both able to explain that their examples, though different, demonstrated that determination meant to have a fixed purpose or to make a decision not to do something. Mrs. Rosales acknowledged that the word determination had multiple meanings and both of the definitions that students offered were correct, but she pointed out that Ramón’s example about not being robbed in Mexico did not fit the definitions of determination they had constructed as a group. Ramón agreed, but added that it can be dangerous in Mexico so people should always be careful when they go there. Because a consensus was reached, Mrs. Rosales wrote a definition for determinación-dedicarse a hacer algo aunque sea muy difícil (to dedicate oneself to doing something even though it may prove to be very difficult), by writing it on the sentence strip (Figure 4.1) and orally repeating it to students, incorporating elements of students’ responses. Spanish reading vocabulary was introduced on Monday (or the first day of each week) and reviewed on Tuesdays. A very similar process was followed on Tuesdays, but definitions were given and agreed on orally since the class needed to transition from learning new vocabulary to reading the story of the week from the basal reader. On Tuesdays, Mrs. Rosales would ask students what a word meant and several students would define the word in their own words. After several students had answered, Mrs. Rosales would either restate the definition or tape the sentence strip with definition that was created the previous day up on the blackboard. The process of defining or reviewing vocabulary demonstrated the importance of contribution by multiple members 73 GROUP GENERATED DEFINITIONS Figure 4.1. Vocabulary Words 9/15/10 of the group in the construction of this literacy practice. Definitions were consistently cocreated in this space. The practice of defining words together provided access to participation for many of the students. It appeared that in co-constructing this literacy practice members of the group were building relationships with one another (during small group discussions where students helped explain words to other members of the small group) and between ideas (examples provided by Yesenia and Ramon to define vocabulary word). The practice of generating definitions as a group also built a sense of self-efficacy for students since they demonstrated a growing confidence in defining new words, if not all alone then surely with the help of the others in the group. As the semester progressed and 74 students increasingly participated in generating definitions, students’ repertoire of literacy engagement was expanded. With time students took risks and speculated as to what words might mean and, more often than not, they came close to the conventional definition. The literacy practice of defining and reviewing vocabulary drew on the linguist and cultural knowledge of members of the classroom. Members of the group encouraged and supported everyone’s participation in this process. Over time the group approach to defining vocabulary words led to a greater sense of community and augmented students’ vocabulary knowledge since students learned a wealth of new vocabulary from one another in a supportive collaborative environment. Reading Reading as a literacy event in Mrs. Rosales’ classroom consisted of several subevents. These sub-events can be categorized as falling under one of three areas: prereading, reading (or during reading), and extending comprehension activities. Pre-reading consisted of picture walks and genre discussions. Reading included round robin/choral reading, guided reading, independent reading and writing, read alouds, and extending comprehension activities. Pre-reading was a common reading sub-event (Table 4.3) that occurred for the story from Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008) starting on Tuesday after the introduction and review of vocabulary was finished. During this time, students regularly volunteered stories from their lives, stories they had read or heard before, or stories from other peoples’ lives. Students also experimented with and used literary terms during prereading discussions. These practices show how the students and Mrs. Rosales worked 75 76 together to socially construct pre-reading. The ways in which they did this were unique to this space and time. Picture Walks Picture walks were one of the literacy practices that occurred during pre-reading. They occurred before round robin/choral reading of stories from Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008) guided reading, and read alouds. During picture walks, the teacher would prompt students to look at pictures, captions, headings, and other text features 77 before they read a new story. She directed them to make predictions based on the pictures and to volunteer explanations for what they thought was happening. Students described pictures and proposed descriptions of characters’ personalities and probable actions based on illustrations. They used illustrations to explain why they thought the author(s) selected the title. Both Mrs. Rosales and her students used literary terms regarding genre (fiction, nonfiction, fable) and text features (caption, heading, title) to describe what they saw in pictures (character, setting, sequence) during these discussions. Mrs. Rosales encouraged students to use background knowledge of ten in the form of stories about what they saw in the pictures as a way to generate more elaborate predictions about what they thought the story was going to be about. She also prompted them to justify their predictions by using what they observed in the text to support their argument. Mrs. Rosales encouraged students to tell stories about their own lives or experiences that were triggered by looking at the pictures or text features during picture walks. Students frequently shared stories about themselves, their families, and their home countries. Students engaged in discussions with each other and with the teacher as they previewed the book. They exclaimed thoughts about what they saw during the picture walk and asked questions about the content or context of the pictures. For example, on 9/15/10 Grace raised her hand to ask Mrs. Rosales the word for a nose ring because she saw that a lady in one of the pictures had one in her nose. On another occasion, a student noticed that all the children in the story appeared to be Mexican like them and asked Mrs. Rosales if that was possible. On both occasions Mrs. Rosales engaged the students in a discussion about the question raised. In this space, interactions between students and with 78 Mrs. Rosales helped to create context and meaning based on the pictures and other text features encountered during picture walks. Group members drew on background knowledge as they socially constructed meaning during this literacy practice. Genre Discussions In addition to picture walks, Mrs. Rosales and her students also engaged in genre discussion as part of the pre-reading sub-event (Table 4.3). Discussions regarding literary genres were often brief and mainly dominated by Mrs. Rosales. To introduce a new literary genre she would tell students directly what the literary genre was and list clues that would help them to identify the genre. For example, on 9/8/10 before reading Pedro y el lobo (Pedro and the wolf) (Durán, et al., 2008) she told students that they were about to read a fabula (fable). She said that fables were a kind of fiction story, but were different than other kinds of fiction stories since fables have moralejas (morals). When students had been exposed to genres previously that year, such as fiction, Mrs. Rosales would ask student to identify the genre and students would volunteer the answer. After students answered, Mrs. Rosales would point out features of the text that would suggest the genre, list and describe the distinct features of various genres and then explain how she decided on the genre of the book the class was discussing. When she introduced a new genre the process of identifying the genre and elements of it was more formal. For example, on 10/6/10 she introduced textos no ficción (nonfiction texts). Mrs. Rosales had made a chart with three columns; one for elements of ficción on the far left, one for elements of no ficción on the far right and a column in the middle for elements of ambos (both). She asked students to identify the genre of ¿Qué me gustaría ser? (What would I 79 like to be [when I grow up]?) (Durán, et al., 2008), a short nonfiction text designed to introduce vocabulary that came before the story of the week in the basal reader. Jovana answered “no ficción” and explained that she knew this because there were fotos (photographs) and not illustrations in the story. Mrs. Rosales listed fotos under the column labeled no ficción. Mrs. Rosales then pointed out other elements of nonfiction texts in the story and added them to the chart; tabla de contenido (table of contents), índice (index), pie de foto (caption), diagramas (diagrams), glosario (glossary), subtitulo (subtitle). As a group they listed elements of fiction texts and added those to the chart as well under the column ficción. Finally, they compared and contrasted stories the children were familiar with from various genres with the story they were about to read and added items to the ambos column. Mrs. Rosales modeled and encouraged students to connect reading to their own lives during pre-reading. Discussions during pre-reading were rich and involved all members of the classroom. With support from Mrs. Rosales and their classmates, students told stories that helped them create connections with and provided meaning for the story they were about to read. This social practice appeared to help students see connections between what they learned at school, here the text they were engaging with, and their lives giving meaning to the text and learning. Round Robin/Choral Reading A reoccurring literacy event I observed each week was the class reading of a story from the basal reader Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008). They read the majority of these stories round robin style (students take turns reading a section of the text when called on by the teacher while the others follow along in their own books). They also read 80 portions of text chorally to emphasize or review an important section (Table 4.3). At the beginning of the year and occasionally thereafter when a story was very long or when the schedule did not allow sufficient time Mrs. Rosales would read sections or the entire story aloud to students. During choral/round robin reading, nearly all students tracked print with their fingers as they read or read along. Mrs. Rosales directed them to do so as she walked around the room during this activity. Students reached over and showed others who were lost where they were so they could start tracking the print with the rest of the class. Mrs. Rosales corrected miscues10 and the student reading would repeat the word correctly. At various times during the reading the class stopped to make and verify predictions, discuss the characteristics of genre of the text, talk about the author’s purpose for writing the story, take note of text features and discuss the functions they served, or to determine the definitions of words in the text. Students tracked print on the page as one person read aloud and demonstrated comprehension when they were able to answer questions posed to them by Mrs. Rosales. Constructing word meanings as a class did not occur only during introducing new vocabulary literacy events. For example, on 9/21/10 Mrs. Rosales stopped round robin/choral reading to ask students if they knew what the word cucha (doghouse) meant. She stopped the child who was reading and asked if anyone knew what it meant. Nobody did so she asked Mrs. Suarez, the student teacher and me. We did not know either and she 10 The term miscue initiated by Goodman (1969) is an observed response in the reading process that does not match the expected response. Miscues are not considered errors or mistakes since departures from the text are not always negative. Rather they present opportunities to better understand the reading process. 81 went to look in the dictionary. The students talked about what they thought the word might mean based on the context and the pictures. The word was not in the dictionary so I volunteered to look the word up on-line. When I found it, I turned my laptop around and showed the class a picture of a doghouse and read out the definition. Next, the group engaged in a conversation about what a funny sounding word cucha was and that the children, Mrs. Rosales, Mrs. Suarez and I knew other words for doghouse (Mrs. Rosales orally listed all of them both in English and Spanish) and had never heard the word cucha before. Mrs. Rosales segued back in to the reading by saying that we all learned something new that day so it was a good day. The longest pauses in reading occurred when either Mrs. Rosales or the students proposed connections between the current text and other texts. One way in which they did this was to relate dichos 11, moral or lesson to be learned from a story they were reading in class. Each day a number of students would tell stories during reading proposing connections between the current text and others they and perhaps others in the group were familiar with. Over time, Mrs. Rosales and other students recognized and acknowledged some of the connections students proposed resulting in a few of them meeting the criteria for intertextual connections as defined by Bloome et al. (2005). This kind of strategy to make meaning was positively received by other members of the class and appeared to be an integral part of round robin/choral reading since it was observed so frequently and was utilized by nearly all members of the class. Mrs. Rosales also 11 Dichos are expressions that serve as motivational strategies for children’s educational efforts (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994) or saying or proverbs usually embedded in family discourse that transmit intergenerational values, attitudes and perceptions rooted in a larger social context (Espinosa-Herold, 2007). See Fránquiz & Salazar-Jerez (2007) for further reading. 82 proposed connections frequently and over time many of them were successful in gaining recognition, acknowledgement and resulted in some kind of social consequence, thus becoming intertextual connections, for some or all of the students. Mrs. Rosales modeled making and also helped students to co-construct connections over time helping to engage students in the reading and to reinforce connections students were making or attempting to make. Mrs. Rosales and her students promoted a culture where students affirmed the contributions of each other in a positive learning environment (Goldstein, 2002). These affirmations for one another were accomplished through the use of stories (often reflective of students’ bilingual/biliterate sense of self and environment) that demonstrated the knowledge and experiences they had acquired in life both in and out of school. Guided Reading After round robin/choral reading (Table 4.3) small groups of 4-6 students met with Mrs. Rosales for guided reading12. Mrs. Rosales met with each group once during the week for a 20-30 minute session of guided reading. Students participated in picture walks, genre discussions and by making predictions about what they believed would happen in the story and justifying reasons for their predictions. As one student read aloud 12 Based on the work of Fountas & Pinnell, (1996) guided reading consists of the teacher reading with students in a small homogeneous group using leveled books that match students’ needs, abilities and interests. The teacher acts a facilitator by teaching reading strategies to students to help with decoding and using prompts and questioning strategies to guide students to comprehension. The goal is to teach students to independently use reading strategies and monitor their own comprehension. Each child has a copy of the book and reads the text independently aloud in a soft voice after the teacher introduces the text and one or more reading strategies. The teacher spends time with one or more students in the group listening to the child read and offering support when needed. 83 with Mrs. Rosales, the others read silently. Students tracked print as they read or were directed to do so by Mrs. Rosales or other students in the group. When all students had taken a turn reading out loud to the small group, they participated in a variety of other activities including generating definitions of vocabulary words, determining the purpose of the author, summarizing the story, naming and describing characters, answering comprehension questions, chorally rereading sections of the text to practice intonation and fluent reading, or completing graphic organizers. During guided reading, Mrs. Rosales had the opportunity to work one-on-one with students. Mrs. Rosales was attentive to students in several ways. Guided reading provided an opportunity for her to work with students to assess and remedy individual challenges they were experiencing with reading. She used this time to focus on connecting with students and building trusting relationships with them. Mrs. Rosales also promoted these same kinds of relationships between students. During guided reading and individual meetings with students, Mrs. Rosales encouraged students to take risks such as using their growing knowledge of the Spanish language to decode unknown words since they had her support and that their classmates in the guided reading group. If she were busy working with a student, other students would ask questions of one another as they read through stories individually. In this way, other students and Mrs. Rosales provided assistance and academic support in these groups as they worked together to read and understand a new text. The focus of the group appeared to be on helping one another learn rather than task completion. 84 Independent Reading Students not in the guided reading group read independently at their tables (Table 4.3). They could choose books to read in either English or Spanish from the classroom library. They could also read books they brought from home. At the beginning of the year Mrs. Rosales showed students how to select a book at their independent reading level, to which she and students referred as un libro perfecto para mi or el libro justo. Students sat either on the rug in the classroom library or at their desks to read. Nearly all the students tracked print with their fingers while they read independently and often engaged in quiet conversations with each other, with me or with Mrs. Suarez. During these times they might explain why they selected the book or books they were reading, what they liked or did not like about the book, and described books they planned to read in the future. Noteworthy was their eagerness to make connections with previous experiences in school, with their families, and with movies or cartoons. When students finished reading their books, they completed an entry in their writing journal following the rubric guidelines (Appendix F). On a few occasions, pairs of students read word lists to one another to practice fluency. Read Alouds For read alouds (Table 4.3), the district provided a list of recommended books in the district planning guides. For the most part, Mrs. Rosales chose books for read alouds, only rarely using the books from the guide. The books she chose ranged from picture books that she read one time to chapter books that lasted for several read aloud sessions. 85 She chose a life history book Sadako y las mil grullas de papel (Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes) (Coerr, 1996) when students were learning about writing life history stories. Other read aloud books were selected based on students’ interest. For example, students were interested in the environment so she chose El gran capoquero (The Great Kapok Tree) (Cherry, 1994). Mrs. Rosales also read newly acquired books that she thought would be relevant or interesting to her students such as ¿Qué puedes hacer con una paleta? (What Can You Do With a Paleta?) (Tafolla, 2009), which was the 2010 winner of the Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award13. Students moved from their desks to sit on the carpet for read alouds. They chose their own space to sit. During read alouds, there were frequent pauses in reading for reasons ranging from students asking questions about a vocabulary word, summarizing the story up until that point, answering questions posed by the teacher, making predictions, or telling stories connecting the story to their lives or those of people they knew. Mrs. Rosales stopped as well to draw students’ attention to pictures, ask comprehension questions, and to ask questions about the plot, characters, or genre. Students often spoke and responded to her questions without raising their hands. All of the students participated in each read aloud session. She also worked with students to provide definitions for words and told stories from her own life or from the lives of students that were in some way connected to the book. Occasionally she explained why she chose the book and talked about how reading made her feel. For example, on the final day of reading the chapter book about Sadako she cried when the main character died of 13 A prize awarded to recognize authors and illustrator who create quality children’s literature depicting the Mexican American Experience and to enhance awareness of this literature among teachers, librarians, parents, and children so it can be used to educate, inspire and entertain all children. 86 leukemia saying it was a beautiful story and it made her sad that she died no matter how many times she had read the story. One student raised her hand to say she had an aunt who had died of leukemia and she planned to write about her as part of her life history writing project. She liked the story of Sadako because it was not all sad, just like her aunt dying was not all sad. Her aunt was a good person and was remembered by many, in the same way that Sadako would be. Thinking of her aunt made her happy, not sad. Mrs. Rosales thanked her and told the students that this was a great reason to like the story of Sadako and not all aspects of writing life history had to be happy. Students demonstrated pleasure and anticipation when a read aloud was announced at the beginning of the reading block. Some would clap, many would smile and nod their heads and a few would fist pump and say “Yes!” in English. Read alouds were popular literacy sub-event in which student participation was high. The choice of reading materials was a factor in creating this environment. More importantly, the participation of all group members was key to constructing this kind of literacy practice. Extending Comprehension Activities After reading a story the students in Mrs. Rosales’ classroom participated in a variety of extending comprehension activities that were intended to develop and clarify students’ interpretation of a text (Table 4.3). All stories were summarized. To summarize, students would use or be directed to use text features, such as pictures, charts, graphs, or captions. As a rule, students were expected to summarize a story by differentiating the beginning, middle and end of the story. This expectation was set from the first week of school by Mrs. Rosales. This format was also required when producing written 87 summaries of books read. Students used specific vocabulary such as idea principal (main idea), problema de la historia (problem in the story) and resolución (resolution) in their summaries. In class, Mrs. Rosales usually began the summarization process by asking students a series of comprehension questions. Students responded to them and often explained how this story related to other texts drawn from their own experiences or interactions or to other stories they knew. The answers to the comprehension questions resulted in a retelling or summary of story events. On a few occasions Mrs. Rosales stopped and asked a student to introduce or explain regional Spanish vocabulary used in their retelling. She seized this opportunity to have students explain the word and its use to her and others who might not have been familiar with it. The idea was not to ameliorate their less than perfect (non-Castilian) Spanish, it was to enrich everyone’s knowledge of the wide variations in the Spanish language expanding their vocabularies, registers and styles. In other words, group members were becoming more equipped to function in monolingual Spanish environments and developing an appreciation for their language (Gutiérrez. 1997). They were expanding their ability to use several registers of Spanish that had potential uses in business, academic or other professional settings (Roca & Gutiérrez, 2000). As a class, they also used graphic organizers14 to help students with reading comprehension (Darch, Carnine & Kammeenui, 1986) and to use target vocabulary from the story effectively (Moore & Readence, 1984). This process started with the generation of a list of events and details from the story, which included target vocabulary words. Next, story events were placed in sequential order. Then, descriptions of characters were generated to map out who did what in the story. 14 Graphic organizers are visual and graphic displays that show relationships between facts, terms, and/or ideas within a learning task (Hall & Strangman, 2002). 88 Third grade bilingual teachers at Anthony departmentalized the teaching of science, ESL, and writing. This meant that Mrs. Rosales taught writing to all the children in the bilingual program in third grade. The writing block was separate from the reading block and students were always assigned a topic or a task for which they wrote. The bulk of students’ writing instruction was beyond the scope of this study since the focus here was the reading block. Consequently, I present data that corresponds only to the writing and writing instruction that occurred during the reading block. During the reading block, students engaged in independent writing (Table 4.3) as part of extending comprehension activities. They wrote entries in their Writer’s Diary and this acted as a kind of reading log to keep track of the books they read during independent reading and writing time. While the teacher worked with small groups of students during guided reading, students chose a book that was perfecto para mi (just right) from the classroom library; the book was read independently. After reading their selected book, students drafted entries that answered a series of questions about the book such as listing the author, illustrator, genre, summarizing what the story was about, describing the scene, mapping out the beginning, middle and end of the story, detailing why they liked the book and listing difficult words in their Writer’s Diary notebook. A laminated copy of the Writer’s Diary rubric (Appendix F) was pasted to the inside cover of this notebook so they could refer to it each time they completed an entry. At the beginning of the year, Mrs. Rosales demonstrated how to write an entry and the class completed one together based on a read aloud book to prepare students to complete entries independently. For the most part, students wrote their entries independently. The expectation was to write the entry in Spanish. As a result students asked others 89 (classmates, Mrs. Suarez, or me) for assistance with translation or spelling of unknown words or they consulted the dictionary as they drafted their entries. Periodically, Mrs. Rosales would read student entries in the Writer’s Diaries and respond with comments or suggestions. She focused on the completeness of the entry and accuracy of content. While she did not usually correct spelling or grammar, she did correct students for not following the directions (ex: putting their name on one line and the date on a separate line below it). Students would read her responses to their entries (often out loud to themselves at their desks before they began to write a new entry) and on more than one occasion students read her comments to me or other students as a way to share the positive comments Mrs. Rosales had written. Students did not revise or edit their entries based on her comments. Questioning, Predicting & Inferencing Questioning, predicting and inferencing were practices that spanned the reading event. Questioning was observed during: picture walks, genre discussions, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, read alouds, extending comprehension activities. Predicting was observed during: picture walks, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, read alouds. Inferencing was observed in: picture walks, genre discussions, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, read alouds, extending comprehension activities. I have chosen to present questioning, predicting and inferencing in a separate section rather than listing them in each of the descriptions for the reading sub-events due to the prevalence of these practices across reading events. Answering questions posed by Mrs. Rosales and other students was common during picture walks, genre discussions, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, read 90 alouds, and extending comprehension activities. It was usual for students to answer questions without raising their hands and several students’ responses often overlapped. Students also answered questions not necessarily posed to them. Thus, it was common to see students helping classmates when questions were posed. Help consisted of translating, providing meaning of a vocabulary word, or revoicing the question posed or the section of the story being discussed by the class. Students regularly looked for evidence to help them answer questions posed. They also verified an answer by searching for evidence. Sometimes responses were contested and contradicted. Mrs. Rosales encouraged this argumentation by doing the same. At times she modeled argumentation and at other times followed students’ lead. The most common response to a posed question was for students to provide a connection to life or to another text. Students answered questions or responded to each other’s answers to questions by telling stories that proposed connections between the current text and other texts. While the connections themselves varied, students’ enthusiasm for making them and Mrs. Rosales’ encouragement for them doing so did not. This behavior was modeled, encouraged, and valued in this space by all members of the group. Making text-to-life, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections was valued in this space. While not all did, some of the proposed connections met the conditions for intertextual connection (further discussion in Chapter 5). Making predictions was an on going practice since it began during picture walks and continued through round robin/choral reading, guided reading, and read alouds. Mrs. Rosales directed students to use clues from the text, such as pictures, to make, confirm or 91 revise predictions. Students also made, confirmed, or revised predictions based on their own life experiences. Making inferences was the most prevalent of the three overarching literacy practices I observed in this urban third grade bilingual classroom. This practice was observed during picture walks, genre discussions, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, read alouds, and extending comprehension activities. One possible reason for the frequency of this literacy practice in this urban bilingual third grade class is that inferencing is one of the most salient objectives in preparation for the standardized reading items on the state TAKS assessment. The stories from the basal reader were aligned with the reading objective of making inferences. At the beginning of the semester, Mrs. Rosales modeled her thought process for making inferences. Gradually students made and justified their own inferences by using context clues and connecting current stories to other texts including their own life as a text. Members of the group helped one another make inferences by directing each other to bits of information from context or sharing experiences that would aid in making an inference. Questioning, predicting and inferencing are important literacy practices in any class. In this urban third grade bilingual classroom they were especially important. Bilingual students draw from two linguistic systems. As they move toward full bilingualism/biliteracy, they develop a dexterity to move between their two languages. Put differently, they are learning to critically analyze two linguistic systems so they can take advantage of what they both have to offer. Engaging in the literacy practices of questioning, predicting and inferencing helped students to develop their ability to analyze and use their two linguistic systems as they were becoming bilingual/biliterate. 92 Summary The third graders in Mrs. Rosales’ classroom engaged in a wide variety of literacy practices during the literacy event and sub-events during the reading block. During these moments they drew on numerous resources to construct meaning from the texts at hand. The resources included the material resources available to them in their classroom in the form of dictionaries and computers, their teachers, their bilingual abilities, prior experiences both in and out of school and each other. Mrs. Rosales was key in students’ language and literacy development during the reading block. She consistently interacted with students and supported them as they experimented with literate actions during reading and writing. Over time, students in the Spanish language arts classroom successfully built their skills and confidence as readers and writers. I presented details about the literacy events and literacy practices that existed in them in this chapter. The following chapter focuses on how the literacy events and practices presented in chapter four influenced emerging bilingual students’ identities in this urban third grade bilingual class. 93 CHAPTER 5: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LITERACY PRACTICES AND STUDENT IDENTITY Introduction In the previous chapter, I demonstrated that emerging bilingual students in Mrs. Rosales’ third grade bilingual classroom engaged in a variety of literacy events (Table 4.3) during the reading block such as picture walks, genre discussions, round robin/choral reading, guided reading, independent reading, read alouds, and extending comprehension activities. Within each literacy event, there were numerous patterns that emerged. These patterns in the ways that people engage with reading and writing are what Barton & Hamilton (2000) referred to as literacy practices (Table 4.3). Several literacy practices were seen within and across literacy events. To understand the literacy events and practices and the role Mrs. Rosales and her students played during them, I maintained focus on the research question, What literacy practices are socially constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom? In this chapter I delve deeper into the literacy practices and explore identity as I endeavor to answer the final research question, How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilingual students' identity development? To answer this question, I examined the discourse from transcripts collected during observed and recorded classroom literacy events. Analysis of the discourse required looking at segments of talk from distinct angles: the ways in which members of the class constructed literacy practices and the relationship between literacy practices and students’ identity development. I provide details of the analysis of discourse performed upon selected segments of classroom talk 94 collected during the literacy events and practices observed. I show how these transcripts aided in understanding how Mrs. Rosales and her students positioned themselves and were positioned as they engaged with texts in literacy events and co-constructed literacy practices. Some of the segments of classroom talk included one of the most frequent and rich discourse strategies I observed during literacy events, connections. Schema theory was used to explain how readers’ previous experiences, knowledge, emotions, and understandings influenced what and how they learned (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). Skillful readers use schema, or their background knowledge and experiences, when they engage with a text to help them understand what they read. In this study, they used their knowledge and experiences to make connections. According to Keene & Zimemerman (1997) people understand texts better when they make different kinds of connections. They argue that connections fall into three categories: text-to-self, text-to-text, text-toworld. Text-to-self connections are personal and connect a text to the reader’s own experiences. Text-to-text connections are the kind of connections that people make when they read a text that brings to mind another text they have read or experienced. Text-toworld connections are larger connections about how the world works that are beyond a person’s personal experience. Such notions about the world often arise from learning that results from watching television, a movie, observing others, reading a magazine, or the internet to name a few. The literacy practice of making connections helped the readers in Mrs. Rosales’ class several ways (Tovani, 2000). However, the focus of this dissertation was not solely on the value of connections per se, but on how students demonstrated identity through literacy practices, such as connections. 95 Connections in the form of text-to-world, text-to-text, and text-to-self were valued in this urban third grade bilingual classroom. For example, on 9/15/10 Mrs. Rosales proposed a text-world connection by using Jovana’s mother as an example. The class was discussing the noun don (gift, knack or ability) as they were reading the story Mi propio cuartito (My Own Room) from Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008). Determination was the theme of the week in weekly unit of study during the reading block. The class was discussing how even when someone has a don she needs to be determined if she is ever going to develop that don. This could only be accomplished by working hard at times in spite of setbacks. Jovana’s mother was an accomplished knitter and recognized for the high quality sweaters, floral hair clips, scarves and the like that she made. Mrs. Rosales made the connection between a character in the story who had a don yet worked hard to develop her don in a similar way to how Jovana’s mom worked to develop her knitting. She asked Jovana is her mother ever has to undo something she was knitting and start over. Jovana said she did so frequently. Mrs. Rosales asked if her mother had been working on her knitting for many years and Jovana answered affirmatively. According to Mrs. Rosales Jovana’s mother demonstrated determination since she continued to work to develop her don even when she experienced difficulties. Some of the connections made by Mrs. Rosales and her students met the criteria for intertextual connections. “Intertextuality refers to the juxtaposition of texts” (Bloome et al., 2005, p. 40) where a connection is proposed, acknowledged, and recognized as having social consequence. Each intertextual connection was proposed (most often by the student in this class), acknowledged, recognized by at least one other person and had some kind of social consequence (Bloome et al., 2005). Recognition and 96 acknowledgement often happened simultaneously (Bloome, et al, 2005). Recognition had to be overt and there had to be acknowledgement that the intertextual connection proposed had meaning. For example, just because a teacher proposed an intertextual connection between a story the class was reading about dinosaurs and a science lesson about geologic periods that occurred a month ago, it did not necessarily mean that students acknowledged or recognized the connection. The final element of intertextuality, social consequence, was defined as “a consequence for social relationships or social action” (Bloome, et al., 2005, p. 238). Describing the social consequences of intertextuality required identification of social positionings (refer to chapter two for further discussion) and other social work done through the social construction of intertextual connections. To establish social consequence it was also necessary to identify the role that intertextual connections played in the construction of the ongoing event. Identifying the social consequence of intertextuality often required much inference based on sociolinguistic theories about the relationship between language and social processes since social consequence was not always revealed by explicit actions by speakers. In this study of classroom interactions, the social consequence of an intertextual connection included establishing an instructional context defined by speaking rights and responsibilities and indication of the location and nature of knowledge in this space. The notion of text in intertextuality was defined broadly and not limited to literary text. Rather it included any written or conversational texts, electronic texts, signs, pictures, and non-verbal texts among others (Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993). During a lesson in a classroom setting for example, students can have their textbook open to the same page, engage in conversation with the teacher while she writes on the board, and make 97 reference to a webpage they explored while in the computer lab thus connecting all of these texts to one another. They use these texts and the connections between them to experience something in a way they could not in the absence of the text. In many classrooms intertextuality, such as in the example above, is taken for granted and participants may not even realize that it is happening. The establishment of an intertextual relationship does not mean that the intertextual relationship (proposed, recognized, acknowledged and social significance) is not or cannot be contested. People in a particular event may take actions to contest the legitimacy of the intertextuality. Examination of connections in general and specifically intertextual connections proved to be a fruitful site for exploring the demonstration and development of students’ identities over time. They provided a window into the ways in which Mrs. Rosales and her students co-constructed them since connections were “socially constructed rather than given in a text” (Bloome, et al., 2005, p. 40). They required negotiation and reaching a “working consensus of what is happening and what meanings are being established” (Bloome, et al., 2005, p. 44-45), to fit the criteria for intertextual connections. It was because of the social nature of connections and intertextual connections that they provided a site in which I could examine the dynamics of interpersonal and group relationships. Required elements of intertextual connections were met in this study through both spoken and/or written discourse. An example of an intertextual connection in this classroom occurred when the class was reading a story from their basal reader and read the word cañería (pipes, specifically plumbing) as they were reading a story about a family that lived in an old house that had some issues. Vicente called out and told a story 98 about how a few weeks earlier there had been a leak in the pipes in the school cafeteria (proposed). He said that when they asked the cooks why they were being served lunch in the hallway instead of in the lunch line in the kitchen, they replied that the kitchen was a huge mess because of a leak in the pipes and was filled with water. Several students agreed that there had been a musty smell and how “nasty” the kitchen was. They acknowledged Vicente’s proposed connection. Grace said that thankfully the leak in the pipes was fixed the next day so they did not have to search for a new school (in the story the family searched for a new house because their old house proved to be unlivable). Several students laughed in response to her comment (social consequence). This example met the criteria of an intertextual connection because Vicente proposed a connection between a text the class was reading and a shared experience at school and a conversation with the cooks (another text) about a situation with the pipes that the other students readily acknowledged and recognized. The social consequence here was that members of the group now had a vivid connection between a leak at school to use as a referent for what the family in the story was going through with the leaky pipes in their house. In this case, the conversation students had with the cooks about the leak and their experience with leaky pipes provided them with valuable context to understand this situation in a different setting (in an academic text). In all of the segments of talk included in this chapter, I focused on identity as it could be seen in the social interactions that surrounded literacy practices. Identity in this study was conceptualized as positional identity, or the sense of self relative to the students’ social position (Holland et al., 1998). Identity in this sense was made visible when students took up positions while negotiating with their teacher and classmates 99 (Heras, 1994) during literacy events. Over time, student talk or actions became positionings because they defined certain roles, rights, obligations, norms and expectations (Heras, 1994). In other words, student talk and actions become positionings as individuals interact with one another from different positions. This negotiation process defines their roles, rights, etc. in specific contexts. From the forty transcripts that I transcribed and coded, I selected six representative transcripts for microanalysis in this chapter as a way to answer the research question, How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom influence students’ identity development? I adapted Heras’ (1994) analytic system to organize and code my transcripts. Heras’ (1994) system focused on knowledge construction15. She examined how knowledge was constructed through interactional spaces16. Heras organized transcripts by talk, action, and positions/positionings. I organized and coded discourse in a similar fashion. Each transcript was coded for identity as it was demonstrated in the positions/positionings that students took up in this classroom during the reading block. My transcripts are organized by discourse in the original Spanish, an English translation, connection/intertextual connection (where applicable), and positioning during the interactional space. To answer the research question about literacy practices and their influence on emerging bilingual students’ identity development, I focused on identity as it was performed when students positioned themselves or were positioned as they con15 Knowledge is a construction not an object. It is constructed by members of a social group through interactions in an interactional space. Knowledge arises from opportunities group members have and/or construct as they engage each other in and through events in the space. 16 In this case, the interactional space is defined by the social and academic interactions constructed within the institutional organization of the school and classroom. 100 constructed literacy practices. In some cases, I chose segments of discourse that included connections and those connections that met conditions of intertextual connections. The theoretical framework of literacy practices and identity theory, I was able to explore the practices that the individuals in Mrs. Rosales’ class co-constructed and the effects they had on the identity development of emerging bilingual students. This chapter is divided in to two sections. To begin, I provide a description and background information for each of the focus students. Next, I present the examples of positionings that each of the focus students took up during classroom literacy practice. Descriptions of Focus Students Yesenia Yesenia moved to Texas from Cuba during the summer of 2010, less than two months before data collection began. Her father had immigrated several years prior and arranged for his family to join him. At the time of the study, he ran a small transportation business providing rides between towns on the Mexico Texas border and cities in central Texas. He was also involved in the local music scene, acting as a manager for local Latino music artists. Yesenia’s mother and older sister worked in hotels cooking and cleaning. Her sister was saving money to attend classes once she mastered skills in English. The family lived together in an apartment near other Cuban families. There was a strategic social network established in this community similar to those identified by Velez-Ibañez & Greenberg (1992) in which families shared responsibility for transporting children to and from school, providing afternoon and evening childcare, and helping 101 children with their homework. Yesenia was eight years old and had no history of interrupted schooling. As a recent immigrant, Yesenia was eligible for a limited English proficient exemption from testing for up to three years.17 Yesenia was a gregarious child who loved to tell stories. She talked about and made observations about life in Cuba versus life in the U.S. everyday. In Spanish she was reading at grade level when she entered the third grade and during the semester in which I observed her, her reading kept pace with her classmates. Her writing in Spanish however, was not always at grade level. It was common for Yesenia to get off task during writing. She stopped to tell stories about what she was writing or about Cuba. She shared these stories with Mrs. Rosales, Mrs. Salazar, her classmates, and me, but often neglected to write them down. Her integration into Mrs. Rosales’ Spanish reading class was significant since she was only with this group for 90 minutes of the day. She spent the remainder of her day with students from her homeroom, another bilingual classroom. Joaquin Joaquin, the oldest of two siblings, was eight years old at the time of the study. He was born in Guanajuato, Mexico but moved to the U.S as a toddler. When I asked him to tell me which state in Mexico his family was from he told me, “solo Mexico” (just 17 Under that TAKS program the state responded to federal mandates to include emerging bilinguals in federally required tests by administering TAKS with linguistic accommodations to recent immigrants who are exempt under Texas law. The scores of recent immigrants like Yesenia are included in calculations for federal Adequate Yearly Progress accountability measures. However, since these students are exempt under state law they are not included in state assessments or accountability data. Mrs. Rosales thought it was a good idea for Yesenia to take TAKS since it would be good practice for her. 102 Mexico) and seemed to find my question rather ridiculous. His father worked in construction and his mother was a homemaker. Joaquin had family members that were still in Mexico and told me that he had talked to his grandmother on the phone a couple of times. He also disclosed he had never been back to Mexico because his parents told him if they returned they would not be allowed to come back to the U.S. so he had no reason to ever go back there. Joaquin was in Mrs. Rosales’ homeroom and was nearly at grade level in reading and writing. He was a serious boy with a competitive streak. He liked to be right and recognized for this by his teacher and peers. He occasionally had conflicts with his classmates about who got the correct answer first, but they were not highly contentious or long lasting. When asked questions in class, he always gave very precise answers rarely elaborating or giving more information than requested. However, his answers were often very witty and profound for a child of his age. Mrs. Rosales was often surprised by his responses and laughed and complimented him for making everyone think differently about the topic they were discussing. Joaquin had been in the bilingual program since he entered school. He took both reading and math TAKS in Spanish in third grade. In fourth grade, he will begin the transition process. At Anthony Elementary fourth grade students with a profile like Joaquin’s receive nearly all instruction in English with occasional support in Spanish. They typically take the TAKS writing (the exam given in fourth grade) in English as well. 103 Grace Grace was nine years old at the time of the study. Her mother is Guatemalan and her father Mexican. She was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. from Monclova, Mexico at the age of five. She was the oldest of three children and her mother was expecting a baby girl. Her father worked in construction and her mother worked in a restaurant, but had recently left her job due to her pregnancy. Grace came to Mrs. Rosales’ class only for the literacy and writing block. She spent the rest of the day in her homeroom with Mr. Marvin, another third grade bilingual teacher. Grace had been part of the bilingual program since she entered school at the age of five. She took the math TAKS in English and the reading TAKS in Spanish in third grade. She, like Joaquin, would be transitioned to mainly English in fourth grade. Grace was an active and outspoken member of Mrs. Rosales’ class. She was on grade level in reading and writing and took pride in knowing the correct answers to Mrs. Rosales’ questions and enjoyed being acknowledged for her contributions. Often, she responded to questions not directed at her. She had strong opinions and the ability to argue her points in conversations not common among other students in her class. Frequently Grace offered unsolicited advice to other children in the class. She is what is humorously referred to as a “mother hen”. Grace’s strong personality did not make her unpopular. Many of her classmates sought her out to work with and wanted to play with her at recess. She was respectful and affectionate with Mrs. Rosales and all of the teachers with whom I saw her interact. Grace’s teachers interpreted the behaviors she exhibited as mature behaviors. They commented on how she was one of the first of the third graders that year to be acting like an adolescent. They saw her as having a lot of 104 influence over other children because of her maturity and they pointed out that she was bossy. Positionings of Focus Students During Classroom Literacy Practices From the larger body of transcripts, I selected representative transcripts to demonstrate the positionings (positions taken up over time) of focus students to present in the write up. In the section that follows, data and analysis for each focus student are presented in separate subdivisions. Yesenia: Outsider Yesenia’s background shaped her sense of self and equipped her with resources and experiences to aid her in her transition to a new country, new school and new academic language. The positionings she took up in the reading block and the ways in which she was positioned by her teacher and peers revealed how her identity as an outsider in this group changed over time. The first instances where the positioning she took up provided information about identity occurred in August, just two months after she arrived in the U.S. and two week after she had started third grade at Anthony Elementary School. In the following example taken from my field notes from 9/31/10, Mrs. Rosales was reading a story aloud about a baker’s apprentice entitled Aprendiz de panadero from Tesoros de lectura (Duran, et al., 2008), the reading series adopted by the district. Each student had a copy of the book open in front of them on their desks. Mrs. Rosales paused when she read the highlighted vocabulary word inspección (inspection) 105 and asked students if they knew what that word meant. The sentence the word appeared in was quite complex. It read “Aunque él se hacía el distraído, yo estaba bajo su atenta inspección.” (p. 93.) (Though he pretended to be busy, I was under his intense inspection at all times.). The sentence appeared to provide little context for students to determine the definition and no one responded to Mrs. Rosales’ question about the meaning of the word inspection. She then asked the students if any of them had ever crossed the U.S. Mexico border. Several hands shot up and many excited voices talked over one another trying to share stories about when they had done this and what happened to them. She then asked if the agents had ever inspected their cars. Again a harmony of excited voices rang out and Ramón told about the poles with mirrors on the end that agents used to check under the car for drugs and guns hidden there. This, according to Mrs. Rosales, was an inspection, and she thanked Ramón for his response. In response to the exchange between Ramón and Mrs. Rosales, Yesenia raised her hand and asked if she could say something to which Mrs. Rosales agreed. Yesenia said the border is sometimes on the water. To this comment, a few students looked over at her with puzzled expressions. Mrs. Rosales asked Yesenia to elaborate and explain what she meant. Yesenia detailed her father’s experience crossing to the U.S. from Cuba on a raft. She described his fear of sharks attacking his raft and how he ultimately arrived safely in Miami. For this reason she knew that the border was sometimes on the water. Mrs. Rosales nodded in response to her comments and the other students appeared to accept Yesenia’s assertion since nobody vocalized an objection. Yesenia then said that when she crossed the border there were large arched machines (metal detectors at security checkpoints in the airport) that made a lot of noise when they inspect you. She said that 106 these things inspect you so that you do not bring things that are not allowed into the country. With a skeptical look on his face Ramón protested that there was no such thing. To this, Yesenia defended herself and said these machines do exist. These machines were on the border in Miami so it was a different kind of border than the ones the other students were talking about. Mrs. Rosales smiled and said that indeed sometimes people cross the border in the airport where they have machines that inspect you like that. She also said that the U.S. border is different in different places. Yesenia smiled a bit selfrighteously and looked over at Ramón as Mrs. Rosales spoke. None of the other students voiced a protest, however, Ramón retained a skeptical look. Yesenia’s experiences with crossing and inspections at the border differed markedly from the experiences of her classmates. Ramón openly refuted her claims and several other students stared at Yesenia. Mrs. Rosales’ intervention and clarification for the class mitigated the consequences of Yesenia’s positioning as outsider. Her overt recognition and acknowledgement of Yesenia’s proposed text-to-self connection gave the text of crossing from Cuba relevance and authority. Mrs. Rosales’ response to and restatement of Yesenia’s proposed connection made it appear that she was trying to persuade the class to acknowledge it. However, she was not entirely successful in persuading all the students (Rámon). Yesenia positioned herself as an outsider whose experiences differed from the group and her connection from vocabulary word to her father’s crossing experience did not meet all the conditions of intertextual connections at the class level. However, the social significance of this social interaction was two-fold: for Yesenia and Mrs. Rosales the proposed connection was legitimate on a personal level and helped create a deeper understanding of the vocabulary word inspección. Mrs. 107 Rosales positioned herself as a sociocultural mediator by inviting the class to consider Yesenia’s proposition, if not now, at some future time. Another instance of Yesenia being positioned as an outsider occurred on 9/15/10. The class was discussing the vocabulary word afortunado (fortunate). Mrs. Rosales asked students to think examples of being fortunate. Grace said she was fortunate to have both a mother and a father, Jovana said she was for having her family living all together in Texas, and Ramón said he won prizes in games and raffles a lot so he was fortunate. Yesenia raised her hand and said she was fortunate because she was able to study at this school. Her comment was met with smirks from nearly all of the other students including two boys, Vicente and Joaquin who were sitting at the table next to her. Vicente, smirked and groaned after she made the comment and looked over at Joaquin who rolled his eyes. Yesenia looked over at them when they did this, but then frowned and turned her head away to signal that she was purposefully ignoring them. Mrs. Rosales stopped calling on volunteers to respond and restated what the students had said regarding being fortunate. This move prevented any further responses to her question and offered responses. It would appear from Yesenia’s response to Vicente and Joaquin that she was aware that at least they did not understand or value her response. In this case, Yesenia was positioned as an outsider for saying they were fortunate because they were attending their school by Vicente and Joaquin and several other classmates who provided non-verbal responses to her comment. Yesenia: Neophyte It took time for Yesenia’s positioning to shift from an outsider position to that of neophyte. This transition process was not always linear and there were moments when 108 she was positioned or positioned herself as outsider on a few occasions after she had exhibited the neophyte position. As was often the case and will be demonstrated by the examples that follow, Mrs. Rosales played a key role in helping Yesenia to articulate her thoughts in a way that demonstrated her position as neophyte. Yesenia positioned herself as a neophyte on 9/7/10. She did this by providing information to others that with a bit of help from Mrs. Rosales aided the class’ understanding of a new word. The class was generating definitions for a list of new spelling words for the week. One of the words on the list was transvía (tram, trolley or streetcar). Mrs. Rosales asked if anyone knew what the word meant. Yesenia quickly raised her hand and said she had been on one lots of times in Cuba, but they did not use that word for them. She said the Cuban word was camello (camel). According to Yesenia, a camello “Es parecido a un tren, pero no va por una linea sino tiene ruedas.” (It’s similar to a train, but does not go on a rail instead it has wheels.) Mrs. Rosales asked her to explain where she had seen camellos. Yesenia said she saw them in large cities in Cuba like Havana. Mrs. Rosales excitedly responded by saying that Yesenia was correct since this form of transportation is common in places where a lot of people need transportation. She said that since at the time the city in which this study occurred was not large enough to have a transvía so students might not be familiar with this form of transportation. This was one of the first times that I documented Yesenia being positioned as a contributing member of the group or neophyte. Her input proved valuable for group understanding of a concept signaling a shift in her position from outsider to neophyte. Another instance of Yesenia as neophyte occurred on October 19, 2010 when the class read a story in the basal reader Tesoros de lectura (Durán et al., 2008) entitled Una 109 ayuda para la tierra (A Helping Hand for the Earth). The story was an expository text about natural disasters. The purpose of reading this text was for students to explore the relationship between cause and effect and to introduce new vocabulary that students would read in a subsequent story. As was explained in the previous section, Mrs. Rosales wrote the word temblor (tremor), a vocabulary word taken from a list in the book, on a sentence strip and taped it to the chalkboard at the front of the room. Next, she asked students if they knew what a temblor (tremor) was (Table 5.1). Joaquin answered by saying “Es algo que tiembla”, it is something that trembles. Yesenia responded to Joaquin’s answer by saying this was like in her country where the Earth trembles. He said, in Cuba, which demonstrated Joaquin’s overt recognition and acknowledgement of Yesenia’s proposed text-to-self connection. This acceptance marked a change in the legitimacy of Yesenia’s connections in the group. Here her experiences serve as a resource not just to her understanding the vocabulary word, but for her classmates as well. Mrs. Rosales also recognized and acknowledge her proposed connection, but prompted her to give more information to help her establish her proposed connection. Yesenia explained what it was like in Cuba when the Earth trembled. She said that building crumbled, things fell off of shelves and from cupboards in homes and roads were sometimes damaged. Several students gasped and made faces as she described the damage that tremors could cause. Her description provided a vivid picture of a tremor for children who had not experienced a tremor before. In this example, Mrs. Rosales invited Yesenia to make sense of her experience in relation to the new vocabulary. In this interactional space, Yesenia used her own experience from having lived through Earth tremors in Cuba to help her classmates make 110 Table 5.1 Temblores sense of the word as well. In this way her position shifted from being an outsider to being a neophyte, or new contributing member of the group. Working together and using each other as resources was a common practice when the class was generating definitions to new vocabulary. This excerpt marks one of the first times that Yesenia was positioned as neophyte having gained recognition as a contributing member of the group. Here her positioning as an outsider having experiences different than those of her classmates proved to be a resource to her and her classmates. Yesenia’s experiences in Cuba granted her insider knowledge of a concept important in this class, learning the meaning of a new vocabulary word. Her classmates accepted her difference in this case and saw it as a resource thus changing her position from outsider to newly inducted member of the group, or neophyte. Mrs. Rosales mirrored Yesenia’s move of using an example from her home country to makes sense of a new concept in a subsequent portion of the discourse. After Yesenia responded to her prompt to further define the word temblar (to tremble or shake) 111 successfully Mrs. Rosales nodded in response to her more detailed definition. She then looked over at me to ask if we ever had tremors in Texas saying she did not know since she had not lived in Texas very long. I responded no rather doubtfully, since I am not a Texan, but a couple of students yelled out that we never had them in Texas. Mrs. Rosales thanked them and then told us all that in Mexico they have tremors, just like in Cuba, and demonstrated how the street shakes by stacking items on a desk to replicate buildings and shaking it so that students could see the effects of the shaking. Her move extended the connection Yesenia made between the vocabulary word and her experiences with it in another context, also known as intercontextuality (Floriani, 1993). This added further value in this space to Yesenia’s positioning as neophyte with knowledge that benefitted all members of the group. Mrs. Rosales also granted status to the positioning of neophyte since she positioned herself as a neophyte, which helped Yesenia gain acceptance in the group further solidifying a shift in positioning from outsider to neophyte. Yesenia: Emerging Expert The following segment of discourse is from pre-reading of Hagamos un trueque or Let’s Swap from Tesoros de lectura (Durán et al., 2008). Hagamos un trueque is a short text designed as an introduction for vocabulary students would read in a larger reading selection from unit two of the Tesoros reading series. This lesson began with the teacher directing students to examine the list of vocabulary words (refunfuñar, trueque, prosperar, lamentarse, mercado, desamparado—grumble, swap/barter, prosper, regret, market, unprotected) in the Tesoros student book. A common practice in this group was for the teacher and students to work together to generate definitions of vocabulary words based on prior knowledge from their lives, educational experiences, or word knowledge 112 (ex: other words from same word family, sharing prefixes or affixes). The group read the list and defined words in their own words, which as described in the previous section of this chapter often consisted of several students giving definitions or telling stories and ending when Mrs. Rosales summed up all of the contributions. In line 103 of Table 5.2, Yesenia raised her hand to say she had seen the word desamparado (unprotected) before in a prayer (text-to-text connection), but she was not sure of exactly what it meant. Mrs. Rosales recognized the connection that Yesenia was making and acknowledged it by smiling and nodding and asking to revoice what she had said. Though Yesenia expressed a bit of hesitation in line 104, Mrs. Rosales pursued her question as a scaffolding strategy. In face in this segment of transcript Mrs. Rosales asked three questions in line 104, 106 and 108 that acted as a scaffold that lead Yesenia to develop a more complete connection. This technique of Mrs. Rosales’often yielded more complete connection, like in this case. In line 106 she asked, “Qué dices cuando usas esta palabra” “What do you say when you use that word?” When the wait time indicated that Yesenia needed more assistance, Mrs. Rosales said “Vamos a usar las claves del context” “We’ll use the context clues”. In line 111 Yesenia, with the help and support of her teacher, worked to define the root word amparar (to protect). A few minutes later in the transcript she also defined the prefix des (un) and ultimately what the word desamparado (unprotected) meant in the context of the prayer included in the story. The way that Mrs. Rosales took up the connection that Yesenia proposed and extended it demonstrated its value in creating a deeper understanding of the vocabulary word. Yesenia’s connection met the criteria for an intertextual connection and positioned her as an emerging expert in the group. 113 Table 5.2 Ángel de la Guarda 114 The day after the conversation in Table 5.2 took place, the class reviewed the vocabulary. Mrs. Rosales read words from the list and asked students for their definitions. When Mrs. Rosales read the word desamparado, Angela, in line 131 (Table 5.3), asked what this word meant. Joaquin volunteered to provide its meaning but Grace was as confused as Angela. Mrs. Rosales responded to Angela and Grace’s questions by reminding students of the conversation from the previous day when Yesenia made a textto-text connection and told everyone about this word in the context of la oración al ángel de la guarda. In line 135, Mrs. Rosales went on to say that probably the rest of them say this prayer as well, but may not have realized it. She directly asked what la oración al angel de la guarda was. Vicente was the first to respond and then Jovana both stating that they were familiar with the prayer. Their recognition and acknowledgement of the vocabulary word despamparado (unprotected) in this context reinforced the meaningfulness of the connection that Yesenia had proposed the day before and built group solidarity. In line 139, Mrs. Rosales recited the prayer and nearly all of the children chimed in demonstrating their familiarity with the use of the word desamparado (unprotected) in another context. In addition, Vicente and Angela (lines 140 and 141) affirmed the connection Yesenia had proposed positioning her at the heart and center of the third grade bilingual community. Yesenia moved along a trajectory of integration into her class taking up the positions of outsider, neophyte and emerging expert. These positional shifts were possible because of the space and opportunity afforded to Yesenia to propose a relevant connection during the reading block. 115 Table 5.3 Ángel de la Guarda II 116 The kinds of connections students like Yesenia proposed in this class stemmed from their prior experiences living and learning in a bilingual/bicultural community and affirmed their bilingual/bicultural identities. Yesenia’s prior experience with la oración al ángel de la guarda served as a way to engage her and others in affirming prior knowledge and building vocabulary. As was the case with other students in this class, in this example Yesenia was granted time to explain herself, wrestle with uncertainty and finally discover with the teacher what a new vocabulary word meant. Though the discussion about the new word was lengthy, the time, space and practice of drawing on prior experience when learning new material during the reading block provided Yesenia and her classmates the opportunity to see themselves as capable users of the languages and cultural experiences they possessed. Over time, these connections helped students build connections with one another, their literacy skills and their self-efficacy in literacy. Yesenia was not the only student who proposed connections that when analyzed demonstrated identity development through literacy practices. To answer the research question How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom influence students’ identity development? two other focus students were chosen for this study in addition to Yesenia. In the sections that follow, segments of discourse that included Joaquin and Grace were analyzed to reveal how the literacy practices they participated in during the reading block influenced their identities. Like Yesenia, each of these students took up different identities depending on the ways that they positioned themselves or were positioned during literacy practices. 117 Joaquin: Guide ushering other students into the fold On a chilly day at the end of September, members of Mrs. Rosales’ third grade bilingual class read a passage from one of the test practice packets created to help students prepare for the TAKS. Mrs. Rosales had a copy of the story projected on the overhead and each child had a packet including the story and the corresponding TAKS style questions that followed. As the teacher and students read the story chorally, Mrs. Rosales demonstrated on the overhead how to mark what could be important information in the text. The selection read was about a young boy, Hiroshi, who had recently immigrated to the U.S. from Japan, and his experiences at a new school. As the story unfolded, the children read about how Hiroshi got confused about which classroom was his when he came inside from recess on one of his first days in his new school. After the class read the story together, they discussed how and where to find the answers to comprehension questions. One question asked what time of year it was in the story. Mrs. Rosales modeled looking back through the passage to find the section where information to answer this question could be found. She read aloud a sentence describing how Hiroshi put on his jacket, boots, scarf, and mittens before going out into the cold indicating that the clue to answer the question was here. She asked students why a person would wear boots and then told about how when she lived in Canada it was very snowy so she wore snow boots everyday during the winter to keep her feet dry. She reread the question and Ramón chose one of the answer options, which was winter. Then he said that at Anthony Elementary it was also winter. Mrs. Rosales responded by saying no it was not winter, that fall was actually just beginning. She reminded him it was September 118 and that fall would last until December when it became winter. At this point in the segment, Mrs. Rosales gave Ramón a brief explanation signaling a segue back to choosing a response to the TAKS question the class was discussing. Yesenia asked for clarification to this exchange between Ramón and Mrs. Rosales by asking in line 121 (Table 5.4) ¿Cuál es otoño? Which season is fall? Mrs. Rosales responded to Yesenia’s question by giving a description of fall in Texas. She said that the current season was fall and one would know this from the falling leaves and the windy weather. Joaquin responded to this opening (line 123) and used it to explain what he perceived to be the source of Yesenia’s confusion about the seasons. He interrupted Mrs. Rosales’ explanation to connect Yesenia’s request for clarification about the seasons with the fact that Yesenia had recently arrived from Cuba and it did not snow there. His move positioned him as a guide by explaining what he presumed to be the source of her confusion. Yesenia, Mrs. Rosales and Joaquin succeeded in co-constructing an interactional space. In this space Yesenia’s question could be addressed ushering her more fully into group membership in spite of the fact that Yesenia did not posses the same background knowledge about seasons as her classmates. On several previous occasions while students were working in small groups, Yesenia had mentioned Cuba. In addition, students were aware of Yesenia’s country of origin because on several other occasions she and Mrs. Rosales had talked about it during whole group discussions. Students in the group had briefly discussed the climate of the island, Cuban foods, her school, and friends. Joaquin worked with Yesenia during small group time and engaged with her during all of these discussions. Joaquin invoked the text from previous conversations about the climate of the island in this excerpt. Both Joaquin 119 Table 5.4 Otoño and Yesenia liked to be knowers and often explained things to their classmates. When they worked in small groups they disagreed on occasion and were forthcoming about voicing their disagreements, but did so in a respectful way that Mrs. Rosales felt pushed them and the rest of their small group members to learn well together. All of the references to Cuba which were accepted here demonstrated that bicultural identities were valued in this space. Joaquin’s move to invoke the text about the climate in Cuba pointing out how different it was than that of Texas inferred to others that since it does not snow in her country Yesenia may not have understood the section of the story about the clothing that Hiroshi donned to go outside, Mrs. Rosales’ story about wearing snow boots in Canada, 120 or the marked change in season common in certain parts of the world. By explaining Yesenia’s need for clarification to Mrs. Rosales and any other classmate who might have been listening, Joaquin took on the identity of guide by positioning himself as such with his explanation that Yesenia might not know about seasons or snow because of where she came from. In assuming this identity and having it be recognized by the group, Joaquin helped to usher Yesenia into the group based. Recognition of his identity was seen in line 124 by Yesenia judging form her enthusiastic recognition of his identity and line 125 by Mrs. Rosales. Joaquin’s demonstration of his positioning as guide was not a singular example of him taking up this positioning. On various occasions, he helped classmates at his table find their place in the text during choral/round robin reading, whispered answers to questions the teacher had posed, or explained things to clear up a confusion or misunderstood concept. He had a skill for doing this because in all of the occasions I observed him act in this manner his efforts were received positively. He positioned himself and was positioned by his classmates as a guide as a result of his interventions. In the discourse presented in Table 5.4, Mrs. Rosales began to answer Yesenia’s question even though the objective of this lesson was for students to use information from the reading passage to answer questions in preparation for the TAKS exam. Mrs. Rosales provided information to clarify this concept to Yesenia. Her final comment in response to the exchange between Joaquin and Yesenia praised Joaquin for positioning himself as a guide to help Yesenia and other members of the class make meaningful connections. The social consequences of his connection were threefold: validation of bicultural identities, recognition of Joaquin’s identity of guide, and the effects of his guiding on Yesenia. 121 Joaquin: Expert Joaquin liked to assume the position of knower or expert. At times he positioned himself as expert by guiding other students in the group, as in the example with Yesenia above. Other times he gave correct answers to a questions posed. These incidences served to position him in the group with the identity of knower or what I labeled expert. In the following example, Joaquin proposed an intertextual connection that positioned him with the identity of expert in his group of peers. During a lesson using a book about sea animals intended to demonstrate that nonfiction texts have different text features than fiction texts, Mrs. Rosales paged through consulting text boxes, charts, captions, and the text to find answers to questions that students asked about sea animals. Vicente had positioned himself as an inquisitor by asking Mrs. Rosales “Pero ¿cómo se pegan?” “But, how do they stick?” attempting to discern how starfish move along the ocean floor. Mrs. Rosales answered him and positioned him and Ramón as learners since their comments show they were receptive to Mrs. Rosales’ position as expert. As this point in the conversation about starfish, Joaquin positioned himself as an expert in line 122 (Table 5.5) by proposing an intertextual connection between two texts: a non-fiction text the class was currently using and another nonfiction text he had read recently. Joaquin equated the anatomy and function of the body parts of starfish and those of octopuses (suckers) he had read about during independent reading. The book he pointed to as he spoke in line 122, which was about octopuses and had a large illustration of an octopus on the cover, was propped up against the chalkboard with several other nonfiction books that Mrs. Rosales had set out and used during lessons the week the class 122 Table 5.5 Pulpos was focused on nonfiction texts. I had noticed him reading this book two days prior during independent reading and noted this in my field notes. Mrs. Rosales looked where he was pointing and enthusiastically recognized and acknowledged his connection in line 123 and repeated “Exactamente! Como los pulpos con sus ventosas.” “Exactly! Like octopuses with their suckers”. Her enthusiasm demonstrated the value she placed on students like Joaquin proposing meaningful connections and also corroborated his move to position himself as an expert. Her response to Joaquin elevated the status of his connection and positioned him as an expert with both his teacher and his classmates. Joaquin smiled broadly and gave Vicente, his on-again-off-again rival, a smug look after Mrs. Rosales’ comment demonstrating how much he enjoyed his position as an expert. 123 This segment of discourse provided a representative example of how Joaquin positioned himself and was positioned as an expert in this classroom. Grace: Emerging Author During the discussion directly preceding the conversation presented below, Mrs. Rosales directed the class in reading the bios and looking at the photos of the author and illustrator of the story they had just read. This text was located in a section at the end of the story of the week Las tortillas de Magda from Tesoros de lectura (McMillian/McGraw Hill, 2008) that the class had just finished reading (entire story was included in the basal). Mrs. Rosales proposed a connection between the story written by Becky Chavarría-Cháirez and illustrated by Anne Vega and the personal narratives students were writing. Las tortillas de Madga was based on the author and illustrator’s experiences as children. The students were engaged in a similar kind of writing assignment during the writing block. This assignment consisted of students crafting personal narratives about memories from their own lives. They had been working on this assignment for approximately one week so students were at varying points in the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing). Mrs. Rosales assured the class that there were ample sources of material from our own lives worthy of writing about, just as the author of this story did. She reminded the students of some of the stories she had told them about her childhood growing up in Mexico. For example, she retold about how she loved Barbie dolls when she was a girl. According to Mrs. Rosales, Barbie clothes were difficult to find in Mexico in those days. They were only available from people who had recently traveled to the U.S. So her 124 mother and mothers of her friends made Barbie clothes for their daughters. The girls would swap clothes so that they could have a variety of Barbie clothes to play with. She told students she thought this was beautiful since they were being resourceful. Next, Mrs. Rosales provided examples that students were writing about from their memories. She read about a student who had recently traveled to Mexico for an aunt’s weddings. She also read about another student’s recent visit to Six Flags with her family. Mrs. Rosales said that these stories were just as interesting to read as the story of Magda and the tortillas she made with her grandmother. Mrs. Rosales’ message was that people like them, a Mexican author and illustrator, were doing things much like what they in the class were doing (writing a personal narrative about a memory they had) and all these stories should be shared with others. The third grade curriculum requirements for this assignment included writing about a personal experience for the purpose of entertaining an audience. The goals of the assignment were for students to produce a focused and organized sequence of events from beginning to end and to communicate why the story had a special meaning to the writer. In the semester I spent in her classroom, this was the only time Mrs. Rosales ever took class time to read the author and illustrator bios with the students. After this episode, I went through all the stories in the basal reader and read the section at the end of each story where information about the story, author and illustrator were provided. While all the stories in the book were written in Spanish, this was the only one originally written in Spanish and not translated from English to Spanish. In addition to being the only story not translated into Spanish from the English, this story was the only one written about a topic (Magda making tortillas with her grandmother) that had cultural relevance to many 125 of the students’ lives outside the classroom. I discerned that this story was relevant to the children since many of them excitedly spoke of making or eating tortillas during class discussion. The author and illustrator shared many characteristics with the children (ethnicity, country of origin, family mentoring experiences, foods). Put differently, this story had cultural authenticity (Ada, 2003; Escamilla & Nathenson-Mejía, 2003) that none of the other stories in the basal reader had. It seemed that this quality stood out to Mrs. Rosales and for this reason she made the decision that the class should spend time learning about the author and illustrator of this story. Grace was the first student to respond after Mrs. Rosales made her final comment about the important work of the author and illustrator of the story and the children’s own work writing their memories. She excitedly pointed to an illustration in the story of the grandmother and children and said she thought they were from Mexico. The characters depicted in the illustrations (Figure 5.1) had brown skin, dark hair and facial features not unlike those of many children in the classroom (Durán, et al., 2008, p.105). Grace appeared to have found this book to be culturally authentic perhaps because of the topic, the Mexican author and illustrator, and/or the Mexican characters in their story. It is also possible that she had attended to Mrs. Rosales’ message about there being something noteworthy about this story. Mrs. Rosales smiled and replied that indeed it seemed that they were from Mexico and several students who were looking at the illustrations smiled or nodded. This text paired with the nonverbal cues of the class and Grace’s comment demonstrate that this text met the criteria for a cultural authentic text in this context and with these students. Reading and discussing this kind of text 126 LAS TORTILLAS DE MAGDA Figure 5.1: Illustration from page 105 of story. prompted students to think about their identities as authors of Mexican or Latino/a descent. Grace’s awareness of the uniqueness of a story in the basal reader written by and about Mexicans were part of her demonstration of a growing sense of ethnic identity as a Latina of Mexican and Guatemalan (see Figure 5.2) descent living in the U.S. Herein I define ethnic identity, of which there are multiple, discrepant and highly contested definitions, using Phinney’s (1990, 2003) definition. According to Phinney (2003) 127 “ethnic identity is a dynamic, multidimensional construct that refers to one’s identity, or sense of self as a member of an ethnic group” (2003, p. 63). One claims an identity within a subgroup whose members share at least a similar culture, race, religion, language, kinship, or place of origin. In keeping with the general definition of identity used in this dissertation, Phinney’s (1990, 2003) notion of ethnic identity is a fluid and dynamic understanding of self and ethnic background. Individuals construct and modify ethnic identity as they become aware of their ethnicity, within the large sociocultural setting. Grace crafted !Cuando mi Mamá Hizo Tamales! (Figure 5.2) for the personal narrative writing assignment, which showcased her growing awareness of her ethnic identity and her expectations for maintaining an ethnic identity. Since Grace’s mother was Guatemalan she was a Latina with a hybrid identity. This story also demonstrated Grace’s identity as an emerging author of culturally authentic stories that highlight element of ethnic identity. Grace wrote about when over the summer she and her mother went over to a friend’s house to make tamales. According to Grace, they had to go to the friend’s house because her mom had forgotten how to make them. Grace’s story included a vivid description of how they gathered and prepared the ingredients for the tamales. Grace even explained why certain steps in the process were necessary thus demonstrating her own growing knowledge of how one prepares high quality tamales. According to Grace, the smell alone was so delicious that it nearly caused fainting. She said the tamales were so delicious she wanted to eat 100 of them, but she was only given a few since her mother said that they should save some tamales for her father. At the end, Grace expressed her sadness over the fact that her mother had forgotten how to make tamales. This 128 ¡CUANDO MI MAMÁ HIZO TAMALES! Figure 5.2. Grace’s personal narrative. 129 (Translation: When my mother made tamales! It was one day during summer vacation when mi mother made tamales. She did not know how to make tamales so she went over to a friend’s house that was from Guatemala like my mother. Between the two of them they bought the things to make corn tamales, meat, pork, filling made of roasted sliced poblano chiles, onions, cheese and cream. My mother arrived back to the house with her friend and they started to wash the cornhusks and began to boil water so they could wash the husks better. Next, they started to shred the chicken and pork and cheese for the tamales. Next, they made the dough to put the meat inside. The apartment smelled so good that you would faint! When they finished they gave me 4 delicious tamales and I wanted 100, but my mom said “Let’s bring some to your father, ok?” So my mother brought 12 tamales home my father ate 8, I ate 3 and my mother ate 1. The bad thing is that my mother had forgotten how to make tamales.) demonstrated Grace’s attitude about how important it was for one to maintain the knowledge of how to make tamales. For her, making tamales was an important aspect of maintaining an ethnic identity. Grace demonstrated her identity as an emerging author to the class and elements of her hybrid ethnic identity in this example. Grace demonstrated her developing ethnic identity and helped other students ponder their own developing ethnic identity through her comments about the story Las Tortillas de Magda. Grace further demonstrated her feelings about how one maintained an ethnic identity through the personal narrative story that she wrote. This story also showed Grace’s identity as an emerging author who could write culturally authentic texts that foregrounded ethnic identity. In Grace’s personal narrative, her mother had to relearn how to make tamales from a friend since she had forgotten how and Grace did not think this was a good thing. Grace’s story demonstrated that her mother’s Guatemalan friend was instrumental in restoring the cultural expertise that her mother had lost. Grace’s mother and her friend co-constructed an interactional space in which ethnic identity was preserved. Grace had clearly paid attention to what was going on during the tamalada and included many of the details in her writing 130 demonstrating the value she placed on the preservation of this kind of cultural knowledge. Grace: Translator On 10/19/10 the class had just finished reading a selection from Tesoros de lectura (Durán, et al., 2008) called Dale al bate a nonfiction text about a baseball academy established in Compton, California wherein professional baseball players volunteered their time to teach children about baseball. After round robin reading of the text, Mrs. Rosales asked students a series of comprehension questions about the selection. In the discussion that followed (Table 5.6), she posed a question about how much children had to pay to attend the academy. Daniel, one of the students guessed and said “Cien dólares” “One hundred dollars.” Mrs. Rosales probed him further since this was not the correct answer and she knew he often struggled with reading especially in the whole group setting when they were engaging with the basal reader. Her prompting paired with Daniel’s shake of the head positioned him as a struggling reader. Other students seemed to be aware of his position as a struggling reader since when he expressed confusion, some of them tried to help him by reaching over and pointing to the section of the text where it said that the academy was free. When his classmates Vicente and Joaquin answered for him in lines 114 and 116 saying that the academy was gratis, they were halted by Mrs. Rosales. Their repetition of the word gratis (free) did not seem to generate any meaning for Daniel. He repeated the word gratis in line 117 looking from the text to his teacher, but seemed to not understand what it meant and why his guess of cien dólares was incorrect. This move also positioned him as a struggling reader. Grace 131 Table 5.6 Free stepped in to help after Mrs. Rosales asked Daniel what gratis meant. She drew on her knowledge of English since Daniel had not responded to two other classmates giving him the word in Spanish. Translating the word for Daniel in line 119 proved effective since 132 Daniel’s expression signaled that he understood what the word free in English meant. Mrs. Rosales interpreted his smile as understanding and provided an oral definition of the word in Spanish and an extension of what this meant by using the example of a student in the class who would not have to pay if he attended the baseball academy. Grace positioned herself as a translator by demonstrating her knowledge of both English and Spanish and using it to help her classmate Daniel create meaning. Vicente and Joaquin had both been literal in finding the answer in the Spanish text. Grace read the situation differently by offering Daniel help and more so by doing it in English during Spanish time. However, by providing Daniel with the English equivalent of the word, she translated the concept that he was struggling to comprehend in Spanish positioning herself as a translator and Daniel as a learner. While Mrs. Rosales did not directly respond to Grace, she position herself and an authority by acknowledging that Daniel had made meaning, no doubt in response to Grace’s help, by moving on to define the word for him in Spanish and providing an example of how gratis (free) would look if it involved a classmate. Grace’s positioned herself as a bilingual expert, but more specifically as a translator. She emphasized her bilingual identity in this segment of transcript. Summary Examination of student identity through positionings during the literacy practices revealed that in Mrs. Rosales’ class she and her emerging bilingual students coconstructed mutually supportive relationships that affirmed students’ bilingual/bicultural identities by expanding their linguistic and cultural knowledge. Literacy practices were 133 characterized by high-expectations for all students and built students’ self-efficacy in literacy. In the case of Yesenia, she gained acceptance into the group gradually moving from a positioning of outsider to positions of neophyte and emerging expert as her classmates learned to acknowledge, accept, and respect the contributions that she was able to make. At the same time she was able to assert her identity as Cuban and celebrate the uniqueness of her experiences. This process was facilitated by the artful way that Mrs. Rosales’ positioned her own personal experiences as important resources for learning in the classroom and encouraged students to do this as well. Mrs. Rosales’ strategically guided students to explore the richness of the Spanish language encouraging them to compare the varied regional vocabulary. In this space, differences were viewed as an opportunity to learn from each other and grow closer to one anther. In subtle and not so subtle ways, Mrs. Rosales and her students worked to build a community marked by solidarity. They worked together to build mutually supportive relationships with one another as they strategically connected classroom learning to their lives. Joaquin positioned himself as a guide and an expert. Joaquin’s intervention on Yesenia’s behalf showed his desire and ability to guide her into the group. This was one of several occasions where Joaquin acted in this way. Positioning himself as a guide was acknowledged, accepted and significant for strengthening relationships between group members. Mrs. Rosales modeled how to be a guide for others and recognized students who engaged in it. Joaquin was also recognized as an expert in the group for providing valuable context that scaffolded his classmates to understand a word or concept and by connecting information from two or more sources. Providing context that acted as 134 scaffolding for learning was one of many ways that students built solidarity among the students and with their teacher. The ways in which Grace positioned herself or was positioned exhibited a growing ethnic identity and her expertise in languages and literacy. Grace was able to articulate her developing ethnic identity in a variety of ways during classroom literacy practices and provided a impetus for her classmates to do the same. Also, Grace skillfully drew on her resources in both Spanish and English to help a classmate by translating for him. Grace’s positioning as translator showed that she was a competent bilingual and biliterate who used her skills to help others. In doing so, she provided valuable connections for learning and for building relationships within the group. Yesenia, Joaquin and Grace’s identities differed in one very important way. Yesenia and Joaquin’s identities, which were demonstrated through the positionings of outsider, neophyte and emerging expert in the case of Yesenia and guide and expert for Joaquin, were related to individual identity development. For Grace, the identities seen through the positionings of emerging author and translator, were related to the development of group and coethnic community identities. Talk in this classroom was powerful. The study of vocabulary, which occurred in stand-alone lessons and was embedded in other literacy events, provided students with opportunities to connect texts to their lives in meaningful ways. Mrs. Rosales’ classroom was a place where students drew on each other’s strengths. These strengths resulted from differences between members of the group, two language systems, and shared experiences. 135 In chapter five I presented data about the influence literacy practices had on students’ identities. I used positionings to demonstrate the ways in which Mrs. Rosales and her students demonstrated who they were to one another while they were engaging in literacy practices. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I discuss the overall themes and findings of this dissertation study. Implications of this work, limitations of the study, and possibilities for future research are also presented in chapter six. 136 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS This chapter is divided into three sections. I begin by providing a brief overview of this qualitative case study. The second section includes discussion of the study’s overall themes and findings generated from the study. I then present implications for preservice and in-service teacher training and practice. The limitations of this study and recommendations for future research follow the implications. Finally, I conclude with an epilogue in which I briefly present additional information related to students’ academic performance on standardized measures and other changes that occurred in the school after I left the field that further elucidate the findings. Overview of the Study This qualitative case study focused on emerging bilingual (Escamilla, 2006; Garcia, 2009; Gort, 2006) third grade students and their teacher, Mrs. Rosales in an urban bilingual classroom. This study ventured to better understand the ways that Mrs. Rosales and her emerging bilingual students co-constructed literacy practices during literacy events. In addition, the literacy practices and the influence they and the teacher had on emerging bilingual students’ identity development were explored. The ultimate purpose of this study was to present a view of this classroom and the members of the class in relation to one another to develop an understanding of the literacy practices and identity development for emerging bilingual students during literacy practices. I worked with the premise that emerging bilingual children bring with them a wealth of important resources (Moll, Amanti, Neff & González, 1992; Yosso, 2005) 137 acquired in their homes and communities that support them in school. Although emerging bilinguals come to school armed with skills and experiences that differ from mainstream student they have to learn the same content as their peers and must acquire a new academic language. Because different literacies are associates with different domains of life (Barton & Hamilton, 2000), this study examined the ways in which young emerging bilinguals traversed different literacies as they learned new academic content related to reading and writing and developed new academic languages, academic Spanish and English. Adult child relationships in school are extraordinarily important for Latino students (Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Salazar & Fránquiz, 2008) particularly when they are emerging bilinguals (Olsen, 1997; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Suárez‐Orozco, Suárez‐ Orozco & Todorova, 2008; Valenzuela, 1999; Walqui, 2000). For this reason, the interactions between students and Mrs. Rosales were of particular interest. I examined her words and actions as she interacted with her students during literacy instruction. The unique educational needs of emerging bilinguals have come to the attention of educators, policy makers, and the general public in recent years. Yet little is known about how emerging bilingual students’ educational needs are being addressed in the context of the elementary classroom. Guided by the frameworks of literacy from New Literacy Studies (Barton, 1994; Barton & Hamilton, 2000; Heath, 1983; New London Group, 1996; Street, 1995, 2003), figured worlds (Holland, et.al, 1998) to understand the classroom community as a whole and positional identities (Davies & Harré,1990; Heras, 1994) to understand how individuals demonstrated their identities, and communities of practice (Lave &Wenger, 1998) to understand the specialized community created around 138 literacy learning, this study endeavored to fill the dearth of information about how a teacher supported (or not) emerging bilinguals in the elementary bilingual classroom as they moved between various domains and developed multiple literacies that they need for future success as bilingual/bicultural individuals. Specifically, this study examined the influence that literacy practices had on emerging bilingual students’ identity development. Research Questions There were two primary research questions guiding this study of literacy events and practices and student identity development during classroom literacy practices. 1. What literacy practices are socially constructed in this urban third grade bilingual classroom? 2. How do the literacy practices constructed in an urban third grade bilingual classroom influence emerging bilingual students' identity development? Findings In order to answer the research questions about the literacy practices and the influence of literacy practices on emerging bilingual students’ identity development in the figured world of this classroom, I observed Mrs. Rosales and her students during the reading block and performed an analysis of the discourse from this period of instruction. Also, I collected district planning guides, classroom handouts, and samples of student work taken from activities they engaged in during the reading block for analysis. 139 Literacy events in this classroom included vocabulary instruction/review and reading with all of their sub-events and phases. Mandated curricula and materials served as the foundation of the majority of the events. Using discourse analysis, I identified the typical literacy practices in an effort to determine how Mrs. Rosales and her students constructed them and to explore the kind of meaning they constructed in and around these practices. A synthesis of literacy events, sub-events, and practices were presented in chapter four in tables 4.2 and 4.3. Members of the community co-constructed literacy practices as they built mutually supportive relationships that affirmed their expanding linguistic and cultural knowledge. I argue that the literacy practices in the figured world of this third grade classroom were characterized by high expectations for students and over time these expectations bolstered students’ self-efficacy in literacy. Through examination of positions taken up in discourse, I determined that literacy practices fostered students’ developing linguistic and cultural knowledge and affirmed students’ bilingual/bicultural identities. In the figured world of this classroom, community building strategies were located in discourse strategies related to the building of solidarity among individuals in the class. All members of the group felt responsible for each other’s learning and drew on available resources to support one another in the learning process. Students developed self-efficacy as they engaged in lessons and discussions that honored who they were and the unique contributions they could bring to learning. From the data presented in chapter four, I identified overall themes related to literacy events, the co-construction of literacy practices in this classroom, and the influence literacy practices had on students’ identity development. Mrs. Rosales and her 140 students co-constructed a distinct bilingual/bicultural community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1998) during the literacy block as they engaged in literacy practices. This community of practice was characterized by: inclusivity, expanding repertoires, the opening up of interactional spaces, and caring. As part of generating overall themes, I examined classroom discourse closely to determine what (if anything) made them unique in defining this specific community of practice. The domain, community and practices of this community of practice sprang from examination of the positions Mrs. Rosales and the three focus students took up during a variety of literacy practices during the literacy block. Construction of a Bilingual/Bicultural Community of Practice Mrs. Rosales and her students co-constructed a specific bilingual/bicultural community of practice within their classroom during the reading block. Their community of practice could serve as a model to others teachers, because it fostered students’ academic success and supported the development of students’ identities related to language, literacy and culture. Shared interests defined the domain in the classroom. For example, members demonstrated their interest in the academic achievement of all students. Also, members of this community of practice saw cultural knowledge and language acquisition both in Spanish and English as teaching and learning tools that helped them develop and move between the various literacies they needed to call upon in the classroom. As members of this community, Mrs. Rosales and her students engaged in joint activities and discussions during literacy events when they helped and regularly shared information with each other. In sum, they built relationships that helped them 141 learn from one another. The practices they engaged in-inclusivity, purposefully opening up interactional spaces, expanding repertoires, and caring-will be discussed in the following section. Inclusivity One of the most salient features of the community of practice in this 3rd grade classroom was the sense of community that Mrs. Rosales and her students demonstrated as they engaged in literacy events. Purposeful inclusivity characterized their community of practice during the reading block. Great care was taken by members of the community to include rather than exclude, such as when Joaquin positioned himself as a guide to Yesenia. As part of building an inclusive environment, members of the group demonstrated a commitment to one another. They were also committed to building knowledge about topics (academic reading and writing, the Spanish language, their community) that were deemed important in this space. Mrs. Rosales modeled how to be inclusive and encouraged students’ efforts to strengthen connections with each other in the community by working to incorporate individual contributions in all the phases of literacy events. Her efforts to build a cohesive community of practice that supported each other did not go unnoticed. At times, students emulated her efforts to build solidarity. On other occasions, students acted as innovators and found novel creative ways to be inclusive. Mrs. Rosales and her students applauded students who helped classmates understand vocabulary, concepts, or disciplinary knowledge. Such help positioned the learner positively in lessons or literacy practices and built teacher-student and student- 142 student relationships. These moves demonstrated how over time members of the community learned to trust and take responsibility for each other. The actions of the members of this class to learn from each other and to draw members of the community in to the group resulted in a strong sense of solidarity between the individuals. Their actions helped define and solidify the group’s goal of creating an inclusive and supportive literacy learning environment. Joaquin, Yesenia, and Grace demonstrated their commitment to inclusivity in other ways. They used their knowledge and skills to demonstrate their developing language and literacy expertise positioning themselves as experts in the group. Their actions worked to include rather than exclude their classmates from knowledge that was deemed important in the group at the time. By helping to construct shared knowledge, these students bonded members of the group closer together in addition to positioning themselves in certain ways that helped shape their identities within the community. No matter the strategy, members of this community continuously found ways to draw each other in to the community and to build shared knowledge that was important in the group. They worked together to share their strengths with one another and support each other in times of weakness. Their efforts were rewarded in the resulting inclusive community of practice they developed. Purposeful Opening of Interactional Spaces While this community of practice was characterized by inclusivity, members of the group also worked to open up interactional spaces. Opening of interactional spaces meant that members of the group could cultivate literacy practices that were valued in 143 this space, that helped them to develop academic skills they needed for school success, and that helped them develop their languages and cultural competence (in and out of school). Moreover, this space allowed for students to use discursive moves to position themselves in the class and develop aspects of their identities. Mrs. Rosales used her position as expert to open interactional spaces. For example, she did this with Yesenia the day she mentioned she had prior experience with a vocabulary word in the context of a prayer by prompting her to explain more fully the context in which she had encountered this word. Likewise, Grace opened up an interactional space when she translated an unknown vocabulary word into English for her classmate Daniel so that he could understand and participate in the lesson. The interactional spaces that members of the community of practice carved out provided avenues for community building, the development of bilingual skills and the validation and nurturance of students’ bicultural identities as they engaged in a variety of literacy practices. Expanding Repertoires of Practice The emerging bilingual students in this study had two linguistic and cultural systems from which to draw on as they worked to make sense of their world-Spanish and English. Mrs. Rosales and her students were either from or the children of immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba. All of the students in Mrs. Rosales’ class spoke Spanish at home and were learning academic English and Spanish at school. For the majority of these students, 3rd grade was the final year in which they would formally learn academic skills and language in Spanish. In 4th grade, they would be instructed almost exclusively in English at school. From that point on, Spanish would be used only 144 to support their English learning. The expanding repertoires of practice that students displayed reflect their bilingualism/biculturalism and their abilities to make connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world). Some of their connections during classroom literacy events across the two languages met the criteria for and can be classified as intertextual connections. In the sections that follow, I will elaborate on the expanding repertoires of practice-the bilingual/bicultural practices and connections-that students demonstrated. Bilingual/Bicultural Practices Both Grace and Joaquin demonstrated their expanding repertoires of practice (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003) in their ability to move between English and Spanish during literacy instruction. Repertoires of practice refer to the ways in which people engage in activities where they observe and participate in cultural practices. Their participation in activities is varied and often changes over lifetimes. Joaquin and Grace showed how they were expanding their repertoires of practice in regards to bilingualism and biculturalism by engaging in language brokering (Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez & Shannon, 1994) as they mediated meaning between the two languages for classroom members. They also engaged in translation in accordance with Orellana’s (2009) definition of translation as an active social and cognitive process where children use language as a tool of negotiation. Grace proffered English equivalents of Spanish vocabulary nearly every time the class engaged in learning or reviewing vocabulary. Joaquin was prone to switch between languages to demonstrate an emotional response or wanted to draw someone’s attention to something. He would use colloquial forms of English when he did this. For example, 145 when his friend and rival Vicente would answer a question Mrs. Rosales had posed to the class correctly he would utter the phrase “Oh man.” regretfully while shaking his head and grimacing. On another occasion when Joaquin was looking at a web page about tyrannosaurus rex on discoverykids.com he exclaimed, “Oh COOL! How awe:some! Mira, mira! Le está comiendo!” (Look, look at this! He’s eating him!) to draw my attention to the video of tyrannosaurus rex attacking another dinosaur. Both Grace and Joaquin skillfully drew on both languages for specific purposes demonstrating that they had achieved one of the goals of bilingual education and were expanding their repertoires of practice in both languages. Moreover, as proficient bilinguals, they had developed a keen sense of audience and were able to identify who “needed” translation (Orellana, 2009). During literacy practices, the repertoires of practice they drew on were translations and language brokering. In doing so, they contextualized or expanded the meaning of texts for themselves and their classmates, exhibited emotion, or drew attention to something or to demonstrate power to others. The use of English to demonstrate expertise and recognition of expertise of this kind were contested in this space. During the reading block, Spanish was the language of instruction. Mrs. Rosales rarely mixed languages during the time I spent in her classroom. She spoke nearly all of the time in Spanish, even responding to students who spoke to her in English in Spanish. Moreover, she seldom used English for the purposes for which Grace and Joaquin did in the instances she did use English during Spanish instruction. This seemed to indicate that Joaquin and Grace were not acting in this manner in response to their teacher having modeled this kind of behavior. Grace and Joaquin took the lead and often recreated these practices in new circumstances with few (if any) 146 models to emulate rather than learning how to do this in an apprenticeship model of cultural transmission (González, 2006; Rogoff & Lave, 1984; Scribner & Cole, 1981). The apprenticeship model fails to account for innovation or resistance like that demonstrated by Grace and Joaquin since they did not appear to learn their skills in a community of practice where they apprenticed. The ways in which Grace and Joaquin engaged in language brokering and translation fulfill Orellana’s (2009) argument that the study of children’s language brokering could help address the complex relationship between cultural continuity and change. Connections The ability to make text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections were examples of students’ expanding repertoires of practice. Yesenia made text-to-self connections that included references to church-based literacy or cultural knowledge of her heritage home, Cuba. Joaquin made text-to-text connections during instruction between a book the class was reading about sea creatures and non-fiction text about octopuses he had recently read independently. When these connections were recognized and acknowledged by other members of the community of practice, and referred to across the weeks of the dissertation study then these connections met the criteria set by Bloome and colleagues (2005) as intertextual connections. I argue that in this community of practice connections established the domain, were sites of identity development and a vehicle for more full participation in the group, and linked what people were learning in school to their lives beyond the school walls or to previous learning experiences. I will elaborate on these three in the sections that follow. 147 Connections helped to establish the domain of this bilingual/bicultural community of practice. Connections that Mrs. Rosales and her students proposed included a wide range of location, site, knowledge, skills and experiences that reflected the pedagogy, nature of the classroom environment, and the characteristics of the members of the class. They covered a wide range in geographical location (U.S., Mexico, Cuba) and site (school, home, community, church) and were skillfully woven into classroom instruction. They also demonstrated the unique knowledge/skills (bilingual Spanish/English, preparation of certain food and drink, academic learning in school and out of school) and experiences (border crossing, cross-cultural and cross-generational communication, maintaining family ties and customs) of the bilingual/bicultural people in this space. These kinds of connections helped to define the space and were an integral part of literacy practices in this classroom. Both Mrs. Rosales and students proposed text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-totext connections. Connections were sites within literacy practices in which members of the group demonstrated or developed aspects of their identities. In this study, identities were formed or reshaped in a process of co-construction as individuals interacted with each other as they engaged with texts. Identity in this dissertation was defined as selfunderstandings that were dynamic, co-constructed and relational (Holland et al., 1998) arising as individuals positioned themselves or positioned one another (Davies & Harré, 1990). Over time, people’s positional identities (Davies & Harré, 1990) thickened through their day-to-day encounters in this space. Connections also represented a way in which newcomers moved from peripheral to full participation in the community of practice. The move from peripheral to full participation that resulted from proposing 148 connections in turn shaped the individual’s identity. For example, over time Yesenia’s identity shifted from outsider to expert. When this process is viewed through the lens of legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), her participation in the group and her identity changed as a result of the connections she proposed. These connections, characterized at times by her sameness and other times by her difference from others in the group, were put together because in this group proposing connections that members of the group were able to put together and find meaningful represented a way for a newcomer to move from the periphery to full participation in the community of practice. Full participation in the group also shaped the individual’s identity since in time a person’s connections helped her gain recognized as an expert in the community of practice. Connections in this community of practice linked the micro of the classroom to the macro of the community and world beyond it. For example, issues of immigration and transnational identities were clearly shown in comments the students, such as with Yesenia and Grace, and Mrs. Rosales made in the classroom over the course of this study. References included experience crossing the border, feelings about the inability to go back to one’s country of origin due to fears related to immigration status, the need to learn English to be successful in school and life outside of school, status derived from being able use academic English in school, and pride in having and maintaining an ethnic identity in the context of the U.S. Discussions about these very complex issues were reoccurring in this 3rd grade classroom and not presented in their entirety here. While discussions of social issues that link macro to micro look different at elementary level and often go unrecognized by adults, they were consistently seen in this bilingual 149 community of practice at a level recognizable to 3rd grader bilingual/bicultural students and their teacher. Critical Caring The final aspect of this 3rd grade community of practice was caring. For Mrs. Rosales and her emerging bilingual students, caring was part of the process of constructing a bilingual/bicultural community of practice as they engaged in literacy practices. In this urban bilingual classroom, caring reflected the unique linguistic and cultural aspects of group members. Previous research argued that caring is culturally specific (Antrop-González & De Jesus, 2006) referring to ethnic culture. This study also suggests that the cultural specificity of caring extends beyond notions of ethnic culture to include classroom culture as a figured world that shifted and changed over time. The critical caring framework was useful for understanding caring in the context of this classroom because of its emphasis on the cultural aspects of caring. Mrs. Rosales was aware of the cultural knowledge of students and their families and frequently drew on this knowledge during classroom literacy practices. Because of this, she was able to integrate and uphold many of the values they held in the classroom; values such as trust, respect, and mutual honor that were found to be part of caring-centered education in previous research (Pang, Rivera, Kerper Mora, 2000). She maintained high expectations for and supported students’ academic achievement (Antrop-González & De Jesus, 2006) in the area of literacy. Mrs. Rosales also embraced the idea that students needed an educación (Valenzuela, 1999; Zentella, 2005); to be successful and well educated in their particular context required academic knowledge plus knowledge of social relations, self-awareness 150 and respect. Mrs. Rosales and her students worked to build a classroom environment based on trust, interpersonal connection, safety, and high academic expectations (AntropGonzález, 2003; De Jesus, 2003). Like in previous research with Latin/a students and caring, they actively worked to include rather than exclude people and their sociopolitical and community realities (De Jesus, 2003). Their ability to create such a literacy learning environment was hinged on their respect for cultural practices from their homes and communities. Members of this bilingual community of practice made the decision to employ cultural values that reflected those of their community both in and out of the classroom. This bilingual/bicultural community of practice was unique because it was characterized by inclusivity, expanding repertoires of members, the opening of interactional spaces, and caring. According to McKamey (as cited in Antrop-González & De Jesus, 2006), critical caring is a process theory of caring rather than a prescription for conditions or actions that result in the existence of caring. This study demonstrated the process that Mrs. Rosales and her students engaged in as they purposefully created a community of practice that was characterized by caring. It also expands understanding about critical caring. Previous research in this area had concentrated on high school students, but this study demonstrated the process of critical caring in an elementary setting. This study also revealed how caring can be learned in a classroom, and how caring and literacy practices are linked to students’ identity development. 151 Implications Mrs. Rosales and her students engaged in a wide variety of literacy practices during the literacy events that occurred in the reading block. They drew on an abundance of resources when they engaged with texts some of which were found inside the classroom and others that came from their homes and communities. They also skillfully forged a connection between the two languages and cultures they used as they engaged in various literacies they needed to make sense of their world. The members of this classroom used their linguistic and cultural knowledge during literacy practices to fully explore and call on all of their literate and linguistic resources (Fránquiz & Reyes, 1998) for reading, writing and making meaning in two languages. Their success in doing so helped them to develop identities as emerging bilingual/bicultural people in a world that increasingly demands such knowledge and skills, but often endorses educational policies that do not foster their development. Results garnered from this study of the teacher and emerging bilingual students in an urban third grad bilingual classroom have implications for research, teacher education and practice, and policy. This study explored the possibilities for applying the community of practice theoretical framework to emerging bilinguals. Results suggest that school and the relationships emerging bilinguals form there have a great deal of influence on their language and academic preparation. Wenger (2007) argues that learning is central to identity thus this framework focuses on the construction and modification of identity through a person’s social participation in a community. Exploring learning and identity 152 development in school through the lens of a community of practice framework can help educators understand how emerging bilinguals actively develop successful practices for literacy development. This theoretical framework can also help researchers reveal how emerging bilinguals create personal and shared identities through interactions with their teacher and classmates. Previous research (Goldstein & Lake, 2000) suggested that pre-service teachers thought an ethic of caring could not be taught or learned, rather it was instinctual. On the contrary, this study demonstrated that caring changed over time when a teacher and students were dedicated to working at it. Over time, Mrs. Rosales and her students adapted caring practices according to the needs of different students and situations by using what they learned about each other across the months of living and working together in 3rd grade. Consequently, in her classroom caring was specific to situation and to student. Mrs. Rosales also taught and encouraged students to embrace caring ways for relating with each another. The ways that students cared for one another has not previously been studied in elementary aged students. These findings suggest that an ethic of caring can in fact be taught and learned over time contradicting views held by preservice teachers in the Goldstein & Lake (2000) study. More discussion and models for how teachers enact and adapt caring for students should be included in teacher education programs that prepare pre-service teachers and design in-service teacher professional development. It is time to move beyond a model of teacher education that focuses solely on teaching pre-service and in-service teachers knowledge and skills. While expertise in content areas is vitally important to preparing high quality teachers, what is needed now is a focus on teaching the sociocultural ways of 153 learning and the accompanying dispositions, such as caring or an ethics of caring, that teachers can learn. This study suggests that teacher affect can be learned consequently teacher education programs should address the importance of and ideas for how to teach dispositions that have been shown to make a difference in students’ lives and educational outcomes. One way to accomplish this goal is by weaving models of teacher caring and how to build teacher-student and student-student relationships that are based on caring in to methods courses. This study demonstrated that personal and academic connections during literacy instruction were powerful. They helped emerging bilingual students connect what they were learning to their lives and prior schooling experiences. In this continuum from life prior to 3rd grade to the present students were positioned to draw on all resources they had available to them. For emerging bilingual children, their languages and dexterity in two cultures were especially significant in maintaining a positive perspective in identity development. Making connections built students’ self-efficacy in the bilingual classroom. It also built resourceful relationships. In this study, different types of connections acted as sites for positioning old, new, and developing identities. Students showed their teacher and classmates who they were in the moment as they worked to construct meaning through the connections they were making. Connections can be fruitful sites for both researchers and teachers to better understand how elementary school students are making meaning, developing a sense of how to position their identities and in building positive relationships with others in the classroom. Of all of the literacy events presented in chapter four, discussions surrounding vocabulary, which occurred strategically during vocabulary instruction/review, but also 154 in all other literacy events as well sometimes in a less explicit manner, afforded identity development to the largest degree. Students regularly drew from past life and schooling experiences, their developing knowledge of two language and cultures, and each other as resources to create definitions and make meaning as they engaged in literacy related activities. Through negotiation process of defining vocabulary, students were learning to read the word, which according to Freire (2000) could and should empower learners to develop and act upon their critiques of the world around them and the powers that govern it. Freire’s (2000) redefinition of the purpose of education speaks to the empowering nature of education. Mrs. Rosales and her students worked together to give meaning to vocabulary words by drawing on their cultural and linguistic resources. They provide an example of how schooling can honor students and affirm their identities. This study has a rich relational message about teachers and students. Results have implications for not only bilingual teachers, but for all teachers exploring how to build relationships that foster student success in their classrooms. The ways in which this teacher and her students worked together to construct a bilingual/bicultural community of practices can serve as a model for other classrooms and teachers striving to build a successful community of practice that fosters students academic, social, and cultural development. Often teachers ask themselves questions in an effort to improve their teaching like, How do I create a community of practice in my classroom? Do I let the only the dominant students thrive in my class? What can I do so that less dominant students get the support they need to succeed from me and their peers? Mrs. Rosales and her students demonstrated numerous ways to build a community of practice characterized by inclusivity, expanding repertoires of practice, a purposefully opening of interactional 155 spaces, and caring. The ways of knowing in Mrs. Rosales’ class were the opposite of individualism because community was central to life in their classroom. Viewing classrooms as unique co-constructed communities of practice where teacher care for their students and create a learning environment that honors students and their families, upholds high academic standards and prepares students for academic success is especially important at present when moves to standardize teaching focus solely on the products of teaching not on the process of learning. Moreover a study of this kind that explores the identity development of immigrant children or the children of immigrants is critical since anti-immigrant sentiment is currently very high. 2012 is an election year consequently the issues surrounding immigration and what politicians refer to as immigration reform are regularly discussed in the media. At the time of this study, the U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating Arizona SB 1070. The stated purpose of this law is to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of undocumented immigrants. This controversial legislation signed in to law in Arizona on April 23, 2010 directs police officers during a lawful stop to determine the immigration status of individuals they reasonably suspect to be undocumented and for all individuals they take in to custody. The elementary aged emerging bilingual students in this study are growing up in an environment marked by school reform efforts focused on standardization and antiimmigrant discourse. We know very little about how such factors shape their identities and schooling experiences. This study is one of the first to explore identity for this age group of emerging bilingual children and at a crucial time in U.S. history. The current educational climate neglects the individual contributions and needs of an ever more diverse student population, one that often differs from our population of 156 teachers. This kind of knowledge is especially important since the teaching population in this country is overwhelmingly White (82% in elementary, 83% in secondary) and middle class (U.S. Department of Education, 2007-08). The U.S. teaching corps does not mirror the ethnic/racial make up of its students (54 % White, 22% Hispanic, 17% Black, 5 % Asian/Pacific Islander, 1% American Indian/Alaska Native) or share the same socioeconomic realities of their students (U.S. Department of Education, 2009-10). Learning about students who are different from themselves and who have had a diverse set of experiences with schooling can equip teachers with the tools they need to focus on their students so they can build meaningful long lasting connections with them and work to better meet their needs. Working to develop an awareness of their students and their communities can create a trusting and collaborative relationship beneficial to the teacher and crucial for the student. Mrs. Rosales and her students exemplify how teachers and students can learn to co-construct communities of practice in their classrooms that promote interpersonal connections, honor race/ethnicity, culture and language while upholding high academic standards. The notion of periphery is central to this study. As a group, emerging bilingual students still exist on the periphery of our school system. Little is known about how they learn and their experiences in U.S. schools. Within this peripheral group there were other peripheries. For example, Yesenia was positioned on the periphery in this class since she was a newcomer to the group thus unfamiliar with the norms of living in the U.S., style of schooling, and had no previous relationships with her classmates from previous years spent in school together. She was also from a different place than her classmates making her a different kind of Latina. As a Cuban, she came from a more distant and less known 157 place for her classmates, most of who were of Mexican origin and much more familiar with Mexico. Yesenia had been brought up and schooled in a monolingual Spanish speaking environment in Cuba. Her high proficiency in Spanish could be observed in her speech, reading and writing. Indeed her level of English was lower than most of her classmates, but often times her level of Spanish was higher. In a bilingual environment, especially when Spanish was used as the language of instruction as was the case during the reading block, these kinds of differences did not go unnoticed. Yesenia was also a legal immigrant, which some of her classmates may not have been, because she was Cuban. Yesenia was doubly peripheral as a newcomer and as a Cuban American living and learning in a group of mostly Mexican American students. To move from the periphery to the center, one must cross borders. All of the emerging bilingual children in this class lived in the borderlands (Anzaldúa, 1987). Like Anzaldúa (1987) these bilingual/bicultural children’s lives spans two languages and at least two cultures. Their family culture and structure differ from those of the mainstream nuclear family. These children are growing up in a time and place in history where their ethnic culture as Latinos is either ignored, pushed to the margins or despised because by members of the mainstream culture and schools that were designed by and for members of the mainstream. By necessity they must become both bilingual and bicultural. As such they will constantly have to negotiate their languages and cultures both in school and in their lives outside of school. According to Anzalúda (1987), the constant negotiation that defines life in the borderlands requires one to develop tolerance for contradictions and ambiguity. 158 The emerging bilingual children in this study demonstrated that life in the borderlands offered the possibility of new identities. Some, like Grace demonstrated that developing new identities was a process of forgetting and remembering. To Grace, her mother had lost contact with her ethnic identity by forgetting how to make tamales. Her mother’s Guatemalan friend helped her remember. For Grace, remembering how to make tamales was one way her mother could reconnect with her ethnic identity. Making tamales with her mother and her friend was a way for Grace, the child of a Mexican father and Guatemalan mother, to explore and develop her own ethnic identity. In the figured world of this bilingual third grade classroom, Mrs. Rosales and her students worked together to cross borders as they worked toward their goal of having everyone move from the periphery to the center. Strong, supportive relationships and a sense of community were central in this space. Mrs. Rosales and her students all had many borders to cross and they helped one another determine how and when to cross them. While Yesenia’s borders were different than those faced by many of her classmates, in time her teacher and her classmates helped her find her way across her borders and meet them in the center. The community of practice focused on literacy learning that they created and the literacy practices that arose from it were crucial for helping all of the members of this class cross borders and develop identities that affirmed their bilingualism and biculturalism. Limitations and Future Research This particular study, like all case studies, has certain limitations. Case studies do not represent a sample capable of producing generalizable results for populations. One 159 chooses to sacrifice breadth for depth in an attempt to more fully understand the phenomenon under study. This teacher and group of students were unique in many ways that made them ideal to study literacy practices in Spanish and student identity development. The singularity of this group and site, which made them an ideal location to conduct a case study, also limits generalizability of the findings regarding the literacy development of emerging bilinguals. This case study is only generalizable to theoretical propositions with the goal of expanding and generalizing theories related to urban elementary emerging bilingual students, literacy practices and identity. Another limitation of this study was the homogeneity of the students in this class. All students in Mrs. Rosales’ class were from Spanish speaking countries sharing linguistic and to some degree cultural similarities. However, the majority of students in this study were Mexican nationals or the children of Mexican immigrants, with only Yesenia as a newcomer from Cuba and Grace whose mother was Guatemalan not fitting this rule. In this region of the country because of its proximity to Mexico, it is not uncommon for the population of emerging bilingual students to be predominantly of Mexican origin. This type of homogeneity is not the case in other areas of the country. Not all bilingual classes have such a uniform composition, thus results from this study may not be applicable in settings where students come from several countries. Much more research is needed to understand the diverse settings of the bilingual classroom. There is a widely held misconception that just because students share at least one common language in bilingual classrooms that they also share many other commonalities. Studies focused on the intra-group and inter-group diversity within bilingual/bicultural classroom settings are long overdue. 160 Mrs. Rosales shared many similarities with her students. Like most of her students she was from Mexico, a native speaker of Spanish, and an English learner. Consequently, she shared many aspects of ethnic culture and language experiences with her students. Mrs. Rosales was very clear about her desire for them all to maintain an ethnic identity as Mexican or Cuban in spite of pressures to lose elements of this identity. She also understood intimately the challenges her students faced as emerging bilinguals. She often spoke of learning English as an adult and the challenges of doing this. However, she also talked about the opportunities and value being bilingual presented for her in her life. Perhaps most importantly she routinely asked students to help her learn language demonstrating that all members of the class had something to offer as they worked to develop high levels of proficiency in both Spanish and English. Finally, Mrs. Rosales shared the experience of recently immigrating to the U.S. with many of her students. As a result, she was very sensitive to the issues related to immigrating and talked about them openly in the class. Mrs. Rosales used all of these similarities in order to create a caring community. It is not a rule that bilingual teachers in this country (myself as an example) share so many similarities with their students hence results from this study may be limited. Future research would be needed to see if teacher caring when the teacher shares fewer similarities with her students looks and sounds the same. The gender of participants was not fully explored in this study and participants were not chosen based on gender. Of the fourteen children in Mrs. Rosales’ class during the reading block there were eight boys and six girls. Five girls agreed to participant, but only four of the boys did. In a classroom where boys dominated numerically, it is also probable that they dominated in other ways stemming from a sense of entitlement that is 161 typical in males in patriarchal societies like contemporary U.S. society. A more focused exploration of gender in the activities and discourse could have yielded quite different and potentially illuminating results regarding literacy practices and identity development in this space. For example, Yesenia was on the periphery for two reasons-because she was a newcomer and also because she was a different kind of Latina than her classmates since they were mainly of Mexican origin and she was Cuban. However, I could have more fully explored the notion of peripherality in the case of Yesenia and discovered that she was triply peripheral due to newcomer status, difference in origin and also gender if I had explored gender further in this study. Finally, this study lasted only five months, which was a very brief segment of the school career of the emerging bilinguals in this study. It is possible that a more prolonged study could yield more conclusive evidence of emerging bilingual students’ developing identities and literacy practices. Epilogue In late May, Mrs. Rosales contacted me with good news. All but one of the fourteen children in Mrs. Rosales’ reading block passed the TAKS exam in reading in Spanish. Six of them were commended for high scores on the exam. Anthony Elementary School’s TAKS scores rose in all areas from the previous year and they were again rated as recognized in the 2011 School Accountability Rating system used by TEA’s Division of Performance Reporting. Due to higher test scores and a higher rating, for the 2011- 162 2012 school year Anthony Elementary School was no longer classified as a focus school and all interventions from the previous year were eliminated. The bilingual students from Mrs. Rosales’ class all passed to 4th grade. Many of her students were placed with Mrs. Salazar who had been their student teacher during the fall semester of the 2010-2011 school year. Mrs. Rosales was very pleased that so many of her students would have continuity of learning with someone who she believed knew them and their abilities well. 163 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL-STUDENT • What are your favorite activities in third grade? (¿Cuáles son tus actividades preferidas en tercer grado?) • Which activities are the most difficult in third grade? (¿Cuáles actividades son las mas dificiles en tercer grado?) • How do you know you are learning? (¿Cómo sabes que estas aprendiendo?) • How does the teacher help you learn? How do other students help you learn? (¿Cómo te ayuda a aprender la maestra? ¿Los compañeros?) • What do you think would help you learn more? (¿Hay otra cosa que te ayudaría más?) • Today in class when (fill in event that occurred) how was the teacher supporting your learning? (Hoy día en clase cuando (pasó lo que pasó) ¿cómo te apoyó en tu aprendizaje la maestra? 164 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL-TEACHER (INITIAL) • What are the literacy practices that are central for learning in your bilingual classroom? • Can you provide an example? • What purposes do they serve? • How do you think students in your class develop their identities? • Are there things you or other students do/can do to influence their identity development while they are in your classroom? 165 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL-TEACHER (FOLLOW-UP) [Show transcription of and play video/audio recording of data collected during reading block.] • Give me a brief description of what happened here from your point of view. • What was your motivation for handling the situation this way/talking to the student this way? • Do you think you succeeded? 166 APPENDIX D: STEPS AND GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSE USING ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION 1. Start with a transcribed speech event. 2. Read through the speech event. Which speech acts in this event are important? Denote the beginning and end of the speech act with different colored pens. Highlight each speaker’s utterances with different colored highlighters to give a visual as to who is participating in each speech act. 3. Now read each speech act one at a time. Why are they important? What meaning does the group apply to this speech act? How does this speech act enhance communication in the speech community? How are members of the speech community making sense of the speech act? 4. Listen to audio recording (or watch video) of each speech act and ask questions from step 3 again to see if it provides more nuanced answers to these questions. 5. Re-read entire speech event and filed notes taken while observing it. What distinguishes this speech community from others? 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She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Latin American Iberian Studies. Anissa completed an Alternative Certification Program in elementary education at Prescott College and received a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from the University of Alabama before entering the Graduate School at The University of Texas at Austin in 2005. Professionally, she taught ESL to adults in Quito-Ecuador at the Fulbright Commission for one year. She worked as a bilingual kindergarten teacher in Phoenix, Arizona at Garcia School in the Murphy School District. Anissa spent five years at Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito in Quito-Ecuador teaching second grade ESL, working as an early interventionist for pre-k through second grade, and as a curriculum coordinator in the early childhood section of the school. Contact Information: [email protected] This dissertation was typed by the author. 179