In this investigation of classroom literacy contexts, the term “dialogic responsiveness” is introduced and utilized in order to provide a holistic framework for synthesizing, researching, and describing the complexities of responsive dialogue. An in-depth perspective was provided via one reading teacher, who exemplified dialogic responsiveness, as she interacted with six focus students during literacy instruction. A breadth of perspectives was provided via four regular classroom teachers as they interacted with four of these focus students during literacy instruction. Findings reveal how these teachers were able to be responsive to the cultural, cognitive, emotional, motivational, and physical needs of young literacy learners. The findings also detail how each teacher's dialogic responsiveness influenced the literacy participation of students. The complexities of these findings are discussed by reviving and extending a metaphor used previously in the literature-the metaphor of weaving. This metaphor is argued to be useful because it provides holistic insight into the complexities of being dialogically responsive to young literacy learners.
References
1.
AllenJ.MichaloveB.ShockleyB. (1993). Engaging children: Community and chaos in the lives of young literacy learners.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
2.
AlvermannD. E. (1986, April). Discussion: The forgotten language art: Becoming literate in the secondary school. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
3.
AshtonP. (1996). The concept of activity. In Dixon-KraussL. (Ed.), Vygotsky in the classroom: Mediated literacy instruction and assessment (pp. 111–124). New York: Longman.
4.
AuK. H. (1980). Participation structures in a reading lesson with Hawaiian children: Analysis of a culturally appropriate instructional event. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 11, 91–115.
5.
AuK. H. (1998). Social constructivism and the school literacy learning of students of diverse backgrounds. Journal of Literacy Research, 30, 297–319.
6.
AuK. H.JordanC. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. In TruebaH.GuthrieG. P.AuK. H. (Eds.), Culture in the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 139–152). Boston, MA: Newbury House.
7.
AuK. H.MasonJ. (1981). Social organizational factors in learning to read: The balance of rights hypothesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 115–150.
8.
BakhtinM. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin (HolquistM.EmersonC.HolquistM., Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
9.
BaumannJ.Seifert-KessellN.JonesL. (1992). Effect of think-aloud instruction on elementary students' comprehension monitoring abilities. Journal of Reading Behavior, 24, 143–167.
10.
BaumannJ.JonesL.Seifert-KessellN. (1993). Using think alouds to enhance children's comprehension monitoring abilities. The Reading Teacher, 47, 184–192.
11.
CargerC. L. (1996). Of borders and dreams: A Mexican-American experience of urban education.New York: Teachers College Press.
12.
CazdenC. (1988). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
13.
CazdenC. (1996). Selective traditions: Readings of Vygotsky in writing pedagogy. In HicksD. (Ed.), Discourse, learning, and schooling (pp. 165–185). New York: Cambridge University Press.
14.
ChristieJ. F.StoneS. J. (1999). Collaborative literacy activity in print-rich play centers: Exploring the “zone” in same-age and mulitage groupings. Journal of Literacy Research, 31, 109–131.
15.
ClarkeC.PetersonP. (1978). Teachers' reports of their cognitive processes during teaching. American Educational Research Journal, 15, 555–565.
16.
ClayM. M. (1979). Reading: The patterning of complex behavior.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
17.
ClayM. M.CazdenC. (1990). A Vygotskian interpretation of reading recovery. In MollL. (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 206–222). New York: Cambridge University Press.
18.
CreswellJ. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19.
DahlK. (1993). Children's spontaneous utterances during early reading and writing instruction in whole-language classrooms. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 279–294.
20.
DelpitL. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom.New York: The New Press.
21.
DuffyG.HoffmanJ. (1999). In pursuit of an illusion: The flawed search for a perfect method. The Reading Teacher, 53, 10–16.
22.
Duffy-HesterA. (1999). The effects of a balanced, accelerated, and responsive literacy program on the reading growth of elementary school struggling readers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Georgia.
23.
ElsterC. A. (1998). Knowledge-based importations in emergent readings: Evidence of contextual constraints on reading. National Reading Conference Yearbook, 47 (pp. 232–241). Chicago: National Reading Conference.
24.
FitzgeraldJ.NoblitG. W. (1999). About hopes, aspirations, and uncertainty: First-grade English-language learners' emergent reading. Journal of Literacy Research, 31, 133–182.
25.
GambrellL. B.CodlingR. M.PalmerB. M. (Winter, 1996). Elementary students' motivation to read. (Reading Research Report No. 52). Athens, GA: The University of Georgia, National Reading Research Center.
26.
GeeJ. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.). London: Palmer Press.
27.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research.Chicago: Aldine.
28.
HeathS. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms.New York: Cambridge University Press.
29.
HicksD. (1996). Discourse, learning, and schooling.New York: Cambridge University Press.
30.
HicksD. (1997). Working through discourse genres in school. Research in the Teaching of English, 31, 459–485.
31.
LabboL. (1996). Beyond storytime: A sociopsychological perspective on young children's opportunities for literacy development during story extension time. Journal of Literacy Research, 28, 405–428.
32.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children.San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
33.
LeCompteM.PreissleJ. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research.San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
34.
LoflandJ.LoflandL. (1995). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and anlysis.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
35.
ManningB. (1991). Cognitive self-instruction for classroom processes.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
36.
MartinezM.TealeW. (1993). Teacher storybook reading style: A comparison of six teachers. Research in the Teaching of English, 24, 229–260.
37.
McCartheyS. J. (1997). Connecting home and school literacy practices in classrooms with diverse populations. Journal of Literacy Research, 29, 145–182.
38.
McCartheyS. J. (1998). Constructing multiple subjectivities in classroom literacy contexts. Research in the Teaching of English, 32, 126–160.
39.
MesmerH. A. (1999). Scaffolding a crucial transition using text with some decodablity. The Reading Teacher, 53, 130–142.
40.
MerriamS. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education.San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
41.
MollL. C. (1990). Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology.New York: Cambridge University Press.
42.
MollL. C.GonzalezN. (1995). Critical issues: Lessons from research with language minority children. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 4, 439–456.
43.
MorrowL. M. (1992). The impact of a literature-based program on literacy achievement, use of literature, and attitudes of children from minority backgrounds. Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 250–275.
44.
MorrowL. M.TraceyD. H.WooD. G.PressleyM. (1999). Characteristics of exemplary first-grade literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 52, 462–476.
45.
OldfatherP. (1994). When students do not feel motivated for literacy learning: How a responsive classroom culture helps. (Reading Research Report No. 8). Athens, GA: The University of Georgia, National Reading Research Center.
46.
OldfatherP.DahlK. (1994). Toward a social constructivist reconceptualization of intrinsic motivation for literacy learning. Journal of Reading Behavior, 26, 139–158.
47.
PalincsarA. M.BrownA. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension monitoring acitivities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117–175.
48.
PattonM. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
49.
PerezB. (1994). Spanish literacy development: A descriptive study of four bilingual whole-language classrooms. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 26, 75–94.
50.
PerezB. (1996). Instructional conversations as opportunities for English language acquisition for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Language Arts, 73, 173–181.
51.
PhelpsS.WeaverD. (1999). Public and personal voices in adolescents' classroom talk. Journal of Literacy Research, 31, 321–254.
52.
PinnellG. S.LyonsC. A.DeFordD. E.ByrkA. S.SeltzerM. (1994). Comparing instructional models for the literacy education of high-risk first graders. Reading Research Quarterly, 29, 8–39.
53.
RogoffB. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context.New York: Oxford University Press.
54.
SipeL. R. (1996). The construction of literary understanding by first and second graders in response to picture storybook readalouds. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University.
55.
SipeL. R. (1998). Individual literary response styles of first and second graders In ShanahanT.Rodriquez-BrownF. (Eds.), National Reading Conference Yearbook, 47, (pp. 76–89). Chicago: National Reading Conference.
56.
SmagorinskyP.CoppockJ. (1995). The reader, the text, and the context: An exploration of a choreographed response to literature. Journal of Reading Behavior, 27, 271–298.
57.
SnowC. E.NinioA. (1986). The contracts of literacy: What children learn from learning to read books. In TealeW. H.SulzbyE. (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 116–138). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
58.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques.Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
59.
St. PierreE. A. (1995). Arts of existence: The construction of subjectivity in older white southern women. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation: The Ohio State University.
60.
SulzbyE. (1985). Children's emergent reading of favorite storybooks: A developmental study. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 458–481.
61.
SulzbyE.TealeW. (1987). Young children's storybook reading: Longitudinal study of parent-child interaction and children's independent functioning.Chicago: Spencer Foundation.
62.
TharpR.GallimoreR. (1988). Rousing minds to life: Teaching, learning, and schooling in social context.Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
63.
TriplettC. F. (1999, April). The affectively defined experiences of a struggling middle-school reader. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
64.
VygotskyL. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
65.
VygotskyL. (1986). Thought and language.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
66.
WellsG. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
67.
WertschJ. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
68.
Wollman-BonillaJ.WerchadloB. (1999). Teacher and peer roles in scaffolding first graders' responses to literature. The Reading Teacher, 52, 598–607.
69.
WoodD.BrunerJ.RossG. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89–100.
