This article positions a view of student responses with relation to current literacy expectations. Student responses to a single book, The Egypt Game, are explored. The responses are analysed from a group and individual student perspectives. The responses demonstrate the complex understandings that young students created about this book. Connections to current classroom practices are explored.
BaroneD (1990) ‘The Written Responses of Young Children: Beyond Comprehension to Story Understanding’. The New Advocate, 3(1): 49–56.
2.
BauschL (2007) ‘Boy-Talk around Texts: Considering how a Third Grade Boy Transforms the Shape of Literacy in Book Talk Discussions’. Journal of Early Literacy, 7(2): 199–218.
3.
BerthoffA(1987) Dialectical Notebooks and the Audit of Meaning. In: FulwilerT (eds) The Journal Book, Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
4.
Compton-LillyC (2007) Re-Reading Families: The Literate Lives of Urban Children – Four Years Later, New York: Teachers College Press.
5.
CopeBKalantzisM (2000) Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures, New York: Routledge.
6.
DahlR (1984) Danny, the Champion of the World, New York: Yearling.
7.
DysonAH (2003) The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write: Popular Literacies in Childhood and School Culture, New York: Teachers College Press.
8.
DysonAH(2008) Children out of Bounds: The Power of Case Studies in Expanding Visions of Literacy Development. In: FloodJHeathSLappD (eds) Handbook of Research in Teaching Literacy through the Communicative and Visual Arts, Vol. IINewark, DE: International Reading Association.
9.
EricksonF(1986) Qualitative Methods in Research on Teaching. In: WittrockMC (eds) Handbook of Research on Teaching, 3rd edn. New York: Macmillan.
10.
GaldaL (1988) ‘Readers, Texts, and Contexts: A Response-Based View of Literature in the Classroom’. New Advocate, 1(2): 92–102.
11.
HancockM (2000) A Celebration of Literature and Response: Children, Books, and Teachers in K-8 Classrooms, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
12.
HarveySGoudvisA (2000) Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding, Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
13.
HeilmanABlairTRupleyW (2002) Principles and Practices of Teaching Reading, 10th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
14.
IserW (1978) The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response, Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.
15.
KeeneE(2002) From Good to Memorable: Characteristics of Highly Effective Comprehension Teaching. In: BlockCGambrellLPressleyM (eds) Improving Comprehension Instruction, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
MartinezMMcGeeL (2000) ‘Children’s Literature and Reading Instruction: Past, Present, and Future’. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(1): 154–170.
18.
National Reading Panel (2000) Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instruction: Report of the Subgroups, Washington, DC: National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health.
19.
PressleyMDolezalSRaphaelLMohanLRoehrigABognerK (2003) Motivating Primary-Grade Students, New York: Guilford Press.
20.
RaphaelTFlorio-RuaneSGeorgeMHastyNHighfieldK (2004) Book Club Plus! A Literacy Framework for the Primary Grades, Lawrence, MA: Small Planet Communications.
21.
RosenblattL (1938) Literature as Exploration, New York: Appleton-Century Crofts.
22.
RosenblattL (1978) The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
SerafiniFYoungsS (2008) More (Advanced) Lessons in Comprehension: Expanding Students’ Understanding of all Types of Texts, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
25.
SilversPShoreyMCraftonL (2010) ‘Critical Literacy in a Primary Multiliteracies Classroom: The Hurricane Group’. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 10(4): 379–409.
26.
SipeL (2008) Storytime: Young Children’s Literary Understanding in the Classroom, New York: Teachers College Press.
27.
SloanG (2003) The Child as Critic: Developing Literacy through Literature K-8, New York: Teachers College Press.
28.
SnyderZ (1967) The Egypt Game, New York: Atheneum.
29.
StanovichK (1986) ‘Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy’. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4): 360–407.
30.
StraussALCorbinJM (1998) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
31.
VaccaRVaccaJ (2002) Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum, 7th edn. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.