Chapter 4: Striking a Balance: Implications for Struggling Readers’ and Writers’ Classroom Immersion in the New Literacies

Rafael, a bilingual fifth grader who does a lot of phone texting and visiting social networking sites on the Internet, can’t “get into” reading an entire book, and he has little interest in reading at school. His teachers’ classroom observational reports describe him as a student who is trailing his classmates in competencies for reading and writing, and his motivation for participation in literacy activities is low. For example, he does not complete the traditional English language arts reading assignments that have been selected by the district and distributed in class. His responses in classroom discussions are minimal and literal, and occur mostly when he is directly appointed/selected by his teacher to answer a question. His writing journal entries are short and telegraphic; that is, they provide a few keys words or phrases that he remembers from his reading and class discussion (when that occurs), but these short groupings are not cohesive. His literacy achievement in content area activities such as in health, math, and science classes are equally weak and frustrating for him, especially since there are fewer picture associations he can make in the school textbooks. As a result, Raphael’s academic literacy competencies seem inadequate for his needs in the classroom, and his content area vocabulary is weak. A further concern for his teachers is Raphael’s off-task behaviors and withdrawn disposition in class. Recently, they have observed that there are more instances of Raphael’s withdrawal from classroom activities as he scribbles in his books, on his desk, and in the margins of his writing journal. With each day, his teachers feel that he is “spiraling down” in his academic progress.