MANY PATHS TO LITERACY:

FINDING SPACE FOR STUDENTS RESOURCES IN

AN URBAN CLASSROOM THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH

by

Mollie Welsh Kruger

Dissertation Committee:
Professor Marjorie Siegel, Sponsor
Professor Stephanie Jones

Approved by the Committee on

the Degree of Doctor of Education

Date

MAY

1*

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in
Teachers College, Columbia University
2008

UMI Number: 3327128

Copyright 2008 by
Kruger, Mollie Welsh

All rights reserved.

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ABSTRACT

MANY PATHS TO LITERACY:

FINDING SPACE FOR STUDENTS RESOURCES IN
AN URBAN CLASSROOM THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH

Children and families have a wealth of knowledge too often untapped in schools,
especially schools that are under-resourced. The purpose of this action research study
was (a) to examine closely the multiple resources that students bring into the formal
school setting, particularly in literacy curriculum, and (b) to explore the hybrid spaces
that were opened and/or created in an urban classroom to recognize and utilize
students' multiple resources. Grounded in socio-cultural perspectives and
understandings of literacy as a social practice, this study set out to recognize the wealth
of students' resources, confronting dominant, deficit attitudes.
Data collection for this qualitative study was conducted by a classroom teacher
during regular school hours over a ten-month school year, occurring in two phases. The
first phase was conducted from September to December and included observing
students and their resources, building a caring and conducive classroom environment,
and selecting focal students. In the second phase, action was taken to open and/or
create hybrid spaces utilizing students' multiple resources during literacy learning, such
as read alouds and writers' workshop. Artifacts were collected for documentation.
Another facet of the study was family member participation in collaborative meetings,
as well as individual conversations around their child's resources with the teacherresearcher.
Students' resources were recorded in case studies, which were organized in
sections by social resources, identities, and community resources. The findings of the
case studies suggested that students have some similar patterns in their resources but

that each child had her/his own distinct resources that she/he drew upon in the
classroom. Family member conversations contributed to identifying and understanding
students' resources throughout the course of the study.
Hybrid spaces in the classroom developed from students' resources. The findings
regarding space suggested that some spaces were student-created, while others were
teacher-created; some were planned, whereas others were unplanned. The spaces took
numerous forms and were complex, often contributing to the social relations and the
academic learning in the classroom community. In sum, utilizing students' resources to
open and/or create hybrid spaces welcomed children into the classroom and built
stronger connections between students' homes and school literacies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In celebration of the completion of this academic work, I am indulging myself to

put forth many thanks to the groups of people representing some of my various resources.
I must begin with thanks to the students of Class X, all my students for their open sharing
and curiosity, which were infectious. To my four focal students and their family
members, I owe you so much for joining in this research process with me; you have
taught me so much about students' resources, people in general, and myself. To the
cohort of teachers at PS 1955, Kohinoor Choudhury, Roni Gold, Jessica Mitchell, Kaitlin
O'Gara, and Judy Touzin, who have walked with me through my questioning about
teaching and what I was seeing while I was watching my students during this research, I
thank you for offering your perspective^ which provided me with deeper visions, for
sharing out on differencesour own and others, and for being such a vital, living part of
this work.
At Teachers College, Columbia University, I was fortunate to have Marjorie Siegel
as my professor for courses that expanded my thinking around literacy, culture, and
perspectives. I am appreciative that Marjorie accepted the role as advisor to me; her
intelligent dialogue and thought-provoking feedback encouraged me and advanced my
communication of these thoughts. Stephanie Jones, now at the University of Georgia, was
the second on my committee. She deepened my thinking with well-devised questions and
my communication by pushing for the finishing phrases. Her encouragement offered
support that inspired confidence, which was a gift, as research was a whole new world. I
feel indebted to a few professors who may not know that their impact was felt, including:
Beverly Falk, Celia Genishi, Gary Griffin, and Barbara Kiefer. Special thanks to Michelle
Hill, who helped me feel connected to the Teachers College community over my
extended tenure as a part-time student through her warm greetings and sharing of

iii

knowledge. Deep gratitude to Rocky Schwarz, who polished the writing and supported
the writer/learner.
I was blessed by participation in a literacy seminar begun years ago by Marjorie
Siegel, which is now student-run. The members, past and present, of this writing group
(nee literacy seminar) have offered support and insights to my thinking and writing, as
well as encouragement and humor. This group of doctoral students has influenced (and
inspired) my work greatly. For their friendship and clearly assistance, I am exceedingly
grateful to Jane Bean-Folkes, Francine DelVecchio, Ted Kessler, Peggy McNamara,
Maureen Minnick, Nadjwa Norton, Kristin Rainville, Emily Skinner, and Cyndy WeldonLassiter.
To my pastor, Father John Flynn, I am thankful for the regular reminders that we
are called to be God's love in this world. And my Liturgy Group friends who help me
find ways and strength to enact this belief, especially Miriam Ford and Colleen Kelly,
who continue to walk with me. To the dear members of my family, the Welshes and
Krugers, I appreciate your faith and support throughout this learning and, of course,
through the many unwritten dissertations of my life! To my mother, thank you for seeing
me through and for teaching me fortitude, and my dear father who was right when he
teased, "You'll miss me when I'm gone."
I am grateful for my dear husband, John B. Kruger, who encouraged me throughout
this entire doctoral program and our 17-year marriage to strive for my goals and my
dreams. He drove our baby girl to Teachers College early in my studies so that I could
spend some time with her between teaching second graders and learning how to do that
even better. And he has pushed me to finish this work, supporting my efforts to write and

write. Our daughter was born as I was in the midst of taking classes toward my doctorate,
in 1999. For Mother's Day, 2007, Olivia wrote me a poem that helped me realize that she
understood my schoolwork but also understood my priority. "Mommy you're my comfort
because at night you leave your work behind and come to me instead and read to me and
iv

talk to me...." Child, you have helped me through this process with your laughter,
insistency, and pride. This work is for youand young ones like you. May you find your
passion in this world, too.
M. W. K.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter

Page
PREFACE

I.

What it Takes to Raise a Child

Untold Stories

INTRODUCTION

Background

Debunking a Deficit Model

II.

Importance of Language and Culture

11

Curriculum Choices in the City

13

Teaching Across Difference

14

Statement of the Problem

16

Purpose of the Study

17

Research Questions

18

Significance of the Study

19

Overview of the Study

20

Overview of the Dissertation

21

LITERATURE REVIEW

22

Theoretical Framework

23

Students' Discourses

23

Mainstream Versus Alternative Discourses

24

Changing Views of Literacy

26

vi

er
Critical Literacy and Sociocultural Perspectives

28

The Family Factor: Influence, Literacy, and Action

32

Overlapping Contexts of Home and School

32

Seeking Links

33

Building on the Strengths of Families

34

Learning From and About Students

III.

36

Building on Family Literacy in an Urban Community

36

Students in School Settings

37

Home and School Connect

40

Understanding Hybrid Spaces

44

Hybridity in an After-School Setting

46

Hybridity within the Classroom

47

Culturally Responsive Teaching

49

Chapter Summary

52

METHODOLOGY

54

Rationale for Action Research

55

Design of the Study

57

Positionality of the Teacher-Researcher

63

The School Setting

67

The Literacy Curriculum

68

The Classroom

69

Learning from Exploratory Work

71

vu

er
Participant Selection: The Students and Their Families

74

Family Members in Collaboration

77

Data Collection

79

Observations

79

Conversations with Focal Students

82

Individual Family Member Conversations

82

Collaborative Meetings with Family Members

83

Additional Data Collection

84

Relationships Between Research Questions and Data

Collection Methods
Data Analysis

IV.

85
86

Analyzing Resources

86

Analyzing Spaces

90

Analyzing Family Member Involvement

91

Construction of Case Studies as Data Analysis

91

Presentation of the Findings

92

Trusworthiness

92

Limitations

95

DOCUMENTING STUDENTS' RESOURCES

96

Describing Resources and Charting This Chapter's Course

97

Jayson's Resources

99

Familial Funds

100

Kinetic: Relating to, Caused by, or Producing Motion

110

Vlll

Resources in Friends: Identifying as Friendly

112

The Entertainer: An Identity as Resource

114

Popular Culture: Finding More Social Connections and

Becoming a Writer
Summary of Jayson's Resources
Calvin's Resources

115
117
118

A Tight-knit Family Resource

119

Calvin and His Dad

125

"OLD MAN": A Social Resource (and Identity) That

Opens Space for Growth

129

Singing Sensational Songs

130

Popular Culture Seeps In

132

Summary of Calvin's Resources

134

Tali's Resources

135

Experiential Resources from Mom

136

Godfather and Friends

141

Sense of Fun and School Play

142

Mapping the World/Finding One's Path

147

Summary of Tali's Resources

148

Diamond's Resources

150

Status: Foster Child

151

Photographs and Letters

152

Determined for Success

154

Summary of Diamond's Resources

159

IX

er
Family Members: Vital Collaborators
Dynamics of Building Connections
Summary of Chapter on Students' Resources
V.

HYBRID SPACES IN THE CLASSROOM

164
166
167

Hybrid Spaces Defined and a Road Map of the Chapter

168

Exploring Hybrid Spaces

169

Read Alouds: One Possible Intersection

172

Writing: The Workshop Way into Students' Resources

182

Expanded Literacy Sessions: Beyond Formal

Curriculum

200

Chapter Summary

VI.

161

210

DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS REGARDING

STUDENTS' RESOURCES AND HYBRID SPACES IN
THE CLASSROOM
Discussion of Students' Resources

212
213

Funds of Knowledge and Discourses: Merging to a

Fuller Definition (and Understanding) of Students'
Resources

214

No Two Are the Same

217

Within Broader Understandings: Remixing Resources

218

Unconventional Resources

222

Family Members' Expertise

224

Discussion of Hybrid Spaces

Read Alouds

228
230

WritingIn and Out of the Workshop

231

Expanded Literacy Sessions

233

Talk, Language, and Learning in Space

235

Revisiting the Variations of Hybrid Space

235

Challenges in This Teaching

236

Summary of the Findings

239

Implications for Practice and Research

241

Implications for Practice

241

Implications for Future Research

244

Reflections on the Research Process

246

Critique of the Study

248

Concluding Thoughts

250

REFERENCES

252

XI

A.

Protocol for the Initial Interview with the Individual

Family Members

263

B.

Themes for Collaborative Family Member Meetings

264

C.
D.

Letter of Informed Consent for Focal Students

Letter of Informed Consent for Adult Family Members'
Participation

266
267

E.

Letter for Informed Consent for Non-Focal Students

268

F.

A "Start List" of Codes

269

G.

Class List

270

H.

Funds of Knowledge: Seeking Clarifications

271

I.

Jayson's Resource Chart

273

J.

Calvin's Resource Chart

274

K.

Tali's Resource Chart

276

L.

Diamond's Resource Chart

277

xn

LIST OF TABLES

Table

Page

1.

Delineating the Research Process

62

2.

Introducing the Focal Family Members

77

3.

Relating Research Questions and Methods

86

4.

Resource Codes

88

5.

Jayson's Resources

89

Xlll

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

Page

1.

The Research Design

2.

Hybrid Spaces

57
170

xiv

PREFACE

Over my sixteen years of experience of teaching at one urban public school, I have
noticed that incorporating students' worlds outside the classroom in the space of the
classroom impacts their learning and that the official curriculum is also affected. I am a
middle-class, White woman teaching at a school that serves predominantly African
American students in low socio-economic situations. I have learned much about cultures,
others and my own, as a result of the school's inclusion of a broad spectrum of
components from African American history and culture. In this setting, I have come to
see how vital culture is for each individual.
Learning about students is not a solitary act. Every day, students, family members,
and co-workers push me to consider new ideas and see new understandings in my
teaching practice. There have been many moments of joy; these are moments when my
own personal understandings around teaching and learning have been opened or
expanded in inspiring ways. Sometimes they are the result of difficult situations;
however, the joy usually follows when greater understandings are developed out of
reflection. Below I include two of these moments of joy that I have recorded, providing
some insight to these experiences.

What It Takes to Raise a Child

After school one day, Clareese's mom stated calmly but emphatically to me,
"Ms. Kruger, you don't know what it takes to raise a child in this neighborhood." We

were standing in the entrance hallway, discussing her daughter's progress in second
grade. Clareese's mom and I were meeting regularly at dismissal, as we were trying to
make connections and find some solutions to the difficulties we both had witnessed
Clareese having with her learning. Clareese loved books and would keep her nose buried
in a book for long periods of time. However, when she was asked to share details, retell,
or make inferences from the text, she was unable to communicate the story. Focus was an
over-arching issue. At home, her mom mentioned the grave troubles Clareese had
completing her homework, even with her mom at her side. Both of us had reached levels
of high frustration in our dealings with Clareese about academic issues and had shared
these feelings with one another.
That afternoon Clareese's mom was alerting me to the social factors that she felt
got in the way of her daughter's learning. "You don't know what goes on around here.
And how hard it is to keep my child on track." She spoke about "the things that go on
after dark" and the dangerous nature of the drugs, partying, and poverty in the area. "How
can I protect my daughter from all that?" These issues of safety clearly came before
schooling. It was not just traditional schooling experiences that needed to be addressed;
this was made clear. Although I have been teaching at this particular school for 16 years
and do feel I have a developed sense of the culture of the neighborhood, never had I had a
parent speak so truthfully, so vehemently, and so openly regarding some of the obstacles
in her child's path.

Untold Stories
One day, Clareese came to me during our Writers' Workshop asking, " Is it OK if I
write a story about my aunt?" At first I was puzzled. I remained quiet, feeling that there
was more to this question. After a moment, in which I believe she was gauging my
reaction, she went on to tell me the story of how her auntie got in a physical fight with

someone on the street. Her aunt cursed and punched the person with whom she was
arguing; Clareese told these details with zest though no mirth. It was a powerful story. I
was surprised she spoke about it, as it seemed early in the school year to feel secure
enough in the environment to share this story. Clareese knew this was a dynamic story but
questioned its appropriateness in school. "Should I write about this?" she asked,
wondering if the writer's notebook was the space for this story. She moved beyond the
"can I" to the "should I." It was clear that she was asking: Is it OK to tell this story ...
here in school? My response was: "It sounds like a story you want to tell. You can write
about that." We spoke about the writer's notebook being a place to collect thoughts and
that we don't even have to share all the ideas in it.
At the end of writer's workshop, as I was walking around checking students'
progress, I was sure to glance in Clareese's notebook. In the end, Clareese chose to write
a touching story about her mom and herself; it was a descriptive story, but it lacked the
urgency and action of the auntie tale. Clareese knew a lot about school. She knew that
often school does not want to hear these tales, the ones that reflect real life and its
difficult situations. To some teachers, they would not be acceptable. Because of her
knowledge that this place called school might not be the venue for this true story
involving violence, Clareese lost an opportunity to respond in writing to the altercation
she witnessed and share her experience, one that she was obviously processing. Another
lost opportunity was that the class was not able to benefit from her making this story
more public, which may have led to other students sharing stories they hold close in the
spaces of school.
When Clareese told me the story, I thought: "Wowif this girl writes this story

and shares it even with a small group, we are going to have some of the most amazing
possibilities of words and stories coming out in class this year. Other children will see
that all our stories are valuable; perhaps, other children will feel safe enough, brave
enough to share their own stories that push what is considered 'acceptable' in school."

Although Clareese did not record this particular story, she did feel comfortable enough to
verbally share this fight story in school, which speaks to her level of comfort in the spaces
of this classroom.
These vignettes emphasize three key aspects of the research I plan to undertake.
First, children's social, cultural, and literacy resources are a vital aspect of their learning,
in school and out of school. Children are constantly making sense of their world. Those
experiences travel into the school setting with them and impact them there. Second,
family members have a great deal of information to share with educators; as experts about
their children they provide background, understandings, and support to school learning.
Especially in situations where teachers are teaching across difference, as in this study
where the teacher is White and most of the students are Black, family members can
provide context that may be unknown to the educator. Third, the environments, routines,
and communications that we create in classrooms have an effect on children and their
learning. Those of us who work in schools need to find ways to open spaces for children
to bring those aspects of themselves, these resources, into their formal school learning.
Over my years as a teacher, I have noticed changes in how students take up their
schooling as I have worked to create spaces that allow students to bring their whole selves
to their learning. This action research project is an attempt to identify and understand the
resources that one group of African American students bring to school and to explore
possibilities of opening hybrid spaces of learning in the classroom with the support of
family members, validating students and their multiple resources.

Chapter I
INTRODUCTION

There is no single, uniform literacy; no one, straight-line path to literacy; nor

is the literacy club only [open] to a privileged few. Instead there are multiple
literacies, many paths, and a variety of ways for children to acquire and use
their literacy potentials. (McCarty & Watahomigie, 1998, p. 504)
School learning is often designed in a patterned way that suggests that all children
move along at the same rate, using the same methods. Who determines what is the best
way to teach children, especially when not all learners learn the same way? Over time it
has been determined that there are a multitude of learning styles and multiple
intelligences (Gardner, 1995) that are enacted daily in classroom activity. It has also
become clear that there are differences in learning based on cultural, social, and
educational influences (Au, 2000; Banks, 1995; Delpit, 1995; Nieto, 2003). Who is to
determine which is the one best method of teaching literacy? No one path meets the needs
of all learners, and no one single teaching method can be implemented to assist all
children to achieve their literacy potentials. The mosaic of children and of the
possibilities regarding instruction is too richly varied, and so multiple paths must be
explored (Barton, 1994; Gregory & Williams, 2000; Luke & Freebody, 1997). Employing
a critical literacy perspective, this action research study seeks to examine the multiple
resources that four African American students bring to their literacy learning and to
explore the spaces that are created in the classroom for the students' resources.
Do formal school settings provide spaces that allow children to find their own paths
to literacy? Often in schools, opportunities are not readily available for children to bring

their own cultural, social, and literacy resources (Delpit, 1995; Heath, 1983; Willis,
1995). This is partially due to prescribed curricula fashioned without consideration to the
differences children bring to their learning. However, when students' cultures and
languages are utilized in school literacy programs, it has been shown to be a promising
venture (Au, 2000; Labov, 1972; Morrow, 1992; Willis, 1995).
This study recognizes that there is a multiplicity of factors involved in literacy
learning, and it is important to examine what occurs in formal learning settings. Brenner,
Joyroe, and Boutwell (2003) address what it means to "do school" (p. 282); this phrase,
"do school," refers to the expected and enacted actions that are connected with students'
activities in school. Too often, these authors argue, efforts to improve literacy mean
sending school literacies home (i.e., read books to your child). What is usually
characterized as "family literacy" is not the ultimate solution. As Paratore, Melzi, and
Krol-Sinclair (1999) point out, "Looking to family literacy interventions as the primary
solution to the problem of school failure for many ... children is to dismiss the
complexity of the challenges they face both inside and outside of school" (p. 113). Yet,
educators have a lot to learn from students' families. Successful family involvement
programs build upon the strengths of families and respectful interactions with them.
Family members learn as they work alongside educators and vice versa. Within this
framework, family interaction may lead to educational reform through family
involvement and through recognition that schools can bring in a family component.
This study focuses on the ways a teacher can create bridges between home and
school and open up spaces in and around the classroom for students' multiple resources.
It suggests that schools explore change in order to most effectively teach students. The

institution of school can review and improve connections to home through social,
cultural, and literacy avenues; these connections might then be reflected in the classroom
through greater teacher understanding for students' resources, encompassing curricula
frameworks that include the children's resources, and hybrid spaces that are built from

these resources. Shirley Brice Heath (1983) concluded that "it is the schools that need to
change to accommodate family and community literacy practices rather that the homes
that need to change to support schooling" (p. 20). This study aims to document the spaces
that are created in the formal setting of school to make room for students' resources.
Mainstream school definitions of literacy do not incorporate the variety of
resources children do possess and use to learn about their world, and mainstream school
practices do not utilize the great wealth of knowledge or "funds of knowledge" (Moll &
Greenberg, 1990) that students bring with them to their formal school learning. Luis
Moll, writing with Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff, and Norma Gonzalez (1992), states that
the term "funds of knowledge" refers to the "historically accumulated and culturally
developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual
functioning and well-being" (p. 133). "Funds of knowledge" come from, but are not
limited to, household knowledge; it is a factor of what the family offers to the learner.
Household knowledge in this view can include information about farming, agriculture,
and medicine, to name a few examples.
These researchers recognize the importance of students' "funds of knowledge,"
which come with students from their homes to their schools, and they note how "teachers
rarely draw on the resources of the 'funds of knowledge' of the child's world outside the
context of the classroom" (Moll et al., 1992, p. 134). The term "resources" is one that I
utilize throughout this research project that has a "funds of knowledge" orientation.
"Funds of knowledge" holds a strong cultural understanding. Moll et al. examined
networks of families and were impressed with how "these social relationships facilitate
the development and exchange of resources, including knowledge, skills, and labor" (p.

133). These researchers use the term "resources" to address the underpinnings of the
"funds of knowledge." "Resources" refers to all knowledge and skills that learners bring
with them inclusive of resources from students' communities, families, and individual
lives, as well as their popular culture.

The premise of the study by Moll et al. (1992) was that by employing household
(individual and family) resources and community resources in classrooms, it is possible to
organize quality instruction that surpasses the rote, one-dimensional instruction that is
often encountered by children in school. "Our analysis of funds of knowledge represents a
positive (and, we argue, realistic) view of households as containing ample cultural and
cognitive resources with greater, potential utility for classroom instruction" (p. 134). In
this way of thinking, students come to school with a wealth of knowledgenot only "inthe-mind" knowledge, but also in their practices or the things they do.
Often students from poor communities are viewed as lacking academic knowledge
and skills. Yet, children possess a myriad of resources, which they bring with them to
their school literacy learning. Often these knowledges and skills go unnoticed,
unappreciated, or unutilized. Anne Haas Dyson (2003) works toward complex
understandings of children's knowledges and skills (or practices) in her studies of
children's language learning in the elementary years, and argues that "the children's
discourse flexibility and sociocultural intelligence counter the unsound, misleadingly
linear depictions of child literacy dominating public and professional discourse" (p. 168).
Dyson's studies of children's writing suggest that part of the problem is that the public
and the academic world may be underestimating children's literacy abilities. "Teachers in
every school will discover a similar wealth of literacy traditions and 'funds of
knowledge.' It is the teacher's awareness of this wealth that best exposes as groundless
the deficit myth" (Gregory & Williams, 2000, p. 1). The challenge is to recognize and
understand the resources children bring to school and to their learning. This work will
provide opportunities for students, families, and teachers to explore ways to help students
reach their literacy potentials within the context of school by capitalizing on African
American students' resources (Gutierrez, Baquendano-Lopez, Alvarez, & Chiu, 1999;
Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Moll et al, 1992).

9
Background
In this section, I will outline the major issues that have an impact on this piece of
research, highlighting those that affect the African American students who are the focus
of this action research project. The background of the problem begins with an effort to
expose deficit ideals as erroneous; this research builds on studies that recognize students'
strengths. There is an examination of issues around language and culture, as they are
deeply intertwined. Race, and its central importance in this study, is explored along with
a section on teaching and teaching across difference. These above areas comprise the
background needed to provide a foundation for the work of this study.
Debunking a Deficit Model
A deficit model of education views the resources that some students possess as
falling short of the standard expectations of schools, due to missing components in home
life or pre-school experiences. A deficit model does not address the substantial literacy
expertise that students do possess and bring to the classroom. The deficit model is apt to
oversimplify complex problems and situations regarding students' learning potentials.
Teacher-researcher Catherine Compton-Lilly (2003) observes that "family dimensions are
generally denied or ignored as urban families are routinely portrayed as deficit and
incompetent" (p. 75). A deficit model thus overlooks the positive contributions of the
individual students and the community influences from which the students come.
The terms "deficit hypothesis" and "deficit model" typically assume that children's
language, thinking, family, and/or culture are lacking in substantial ways. Furthermore, it
is suggested that families do not prepare children for schooled learning (Auerbach, 1989;
Delgado-Gaitan, 1991; Taylor, 1983). Deficit theories of learning, inclusive of literacy
learning, thus imply that the students, their parents, and/or society are to blame for the
child's inability to meet the mandated requirements. Children viewed through the deficit
lens do not possess the necessary skills to perform as expected on learning tasks. To

10

tackle this problem, teachers have to be willing and able to look openly and honestly at
the resources children do possess.
One way to debunk deficit views of children has been described in the introduction.
By focusing on children's resources, teachers can begin to see students through a different
lens and to focus instead on their strengths. Students come to school with their own
experiences of learning based on their cultural background. In this sociocultural view,
literacy is viewed as a cultural practice. Literacy becomes an assumed part of cultural
experience, recognizing differences in understandings and undertakings.
Teachers rarely examine how families view reading and how families then situate
this experience in their social and political world. Negative "assumptions are made about
children's families, their reading habits, and their reading abilities" (Compton-Lilly,
2003, p. 2) without much examination of the reality. Schools expect students' families to
conform to school literacy and send activities home to achieve this. Auerbach (1989)
challenges this idea that families should do school-like activities at home in the
"transmission model" in which information about literacy is transmitted in one direction
(school to parent to child). The transmission model makes false assumptions that families
do not have much to offer. Researchers and teacher-researchers, such as Denny Taylor
(1983), Catherine Compton-Lilly (2003), and Rebecca Rogers (2001), have created a
wealth of knowledge around the issue of family strengths. My work recognizes that
families are the experts in regard to their children and that I, as teacher, have much to
learn from family members. For this reason, family members will be an integral part of
the data collection process around students' resources. The work of this study is
collaborative with home and school working together, sharing information to make a

stronger school setting for comprehensive, whole world learning.

11
Importance of Language and Culture
One of the persistent misconceptions that fuels deficit models is that the language
of African American students is deficient. These misconceptions continue and are strong.
Issues around the language of African American students continue to be an area of
disagreement for educational researchers; camps are formed over the lines of so-called
standard English and the vernacular forms of language. A number of terms have evolved
for the language that is utilized by many African American students; some of these names
are: Black English Vernacular (BEV), African American Vernacular English (AAVE),
and Black English (Charity, Scarborough, & Griffin, 2004). Some teachers view African
American students as language deficient and thus view them differently than "normal"
students; Hilliard (in Delpit & Dowdy, 2002) writes that, "We need no more analysis of
the African-American child. We need to renovate the system that teaches error" (p. 102).
Sociolinguist William Labov has shown the richness and systematic structure of the
language that African American children do possess and use fluently and flexibly. In
1972, Labov published Language in the Inner City, which examined the structures of the
Black English vernacular (BEV); this volume explored "the rules which govern it, the
relations between rules, and the relation between them and those of other dialects"
(p. 241). One of the major purposes of this work was to examine how understanding
students' language in relation to standard English could help teachers of reading assist
their students in success by developing a deeper understanding of the students. Labov's
work took into account language, culture, social organization, and the political situation
of the students involved. Regarding the differences in the structures of the language
forms, Labov stated, "We do not believe that these structural differences are major causes
of the problem: on the contrary, the major conclusion of our research is that reading
failure is primarily the result of political and cultural conflict within the classroom"
(p. 35). This is a strong grounding for the problem that I undertake. There must be a

12

powerful recognition that students are not deficient but they possess a wealth of
knowledge.
Delpit and Dowdy (2002) point out the importance of valuing children's language;
"if students are to acquire a second language form in school, teachers must not only see
their students as non-deficient, they must understand their brilliance, and the brilliance of
their home language" (p. 42). If children are to advance not only in language acquisition
but also in school literacy practices, then value has to be attributed to what the children
bring to school learning. This is a major consideration in my study. Home language is
"viscerally tied to our beings as existence itself," write Delpit and Dowdy (2002, p. xvii).
Yet the establishment of a hegemonic, grammatically correct form of English has been
acculturated into and throughout our school systems and the educational institutions that
educate many of our teachers. Lisa Delpit writes about the code switching that her
daughter, who is African American, performed to fit into her school culture and then to
switch her language form to fit right in with her friends in casual conversation or "ghetto
talk," as Delpit refers to the relaxed speak of her daughter's social group. People, adults
as well as children, can perform this task of code switching from one setting to another.
By the age of two, children acquire the language of their cultural group. "All
people, every group of people on the face of the Earth, have created culture. Therefore,
they have created language, which is included in culture" (Hilliard, in Delpit & Dowdy,
2002, p. 89). Hilliard maintains that for African American children, language, culture,
history, and oppression are linked inextricably. The conversations on how to better assist
African American children in achievement in American schools have varying resolutions.
One suggestion has been that African American students may need to learn standard
English for greater functioning in school literacies. But one cannot attempt this without
taking into account where the learning, language, culture, knowledge, and experiences of
the children begin.

13
Curriculum Choices in the City
Equity differences may be seen in actual teaching methods and materials chosen for
the students. The National Reading Panel (2000) disseminated information regarding the
teaching of reading, addressing the needs of struggling readers. The United States
Government has implemented the policy referred to as "No Child Left Behind"
(http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/teachers/teachers-faq.html). These efforts to improve
reading address students who are not succeeding to the levels set by the government
standards by reverting back to skill-and-drill approaches. As a result, these skill-and-drill
methods are being applied in an effort to increase performance as documented on tests.
Some city schools have adopted reading programs that are highly structured or
scripted to address the perceived "deficits" of city students, leading to a more controlled
curriculum. However, as a whole, the New York City system has adopted a reading and
writing workshop model. Teachers are given some freedom in the decision-making and
implementation of daily curriculum issues, though a broad framework is provided and
followed strictly in some schools. Currently, the major units are given to teachers, and
scripted lessons are provided for teachers who need that support. Teachers in my school
are able to choose the components that their students need. Thus, in my classroom, the
workshop model of reading and writing opens venues to hear students' voices through the
encouragement of sharing; students' ideas, thoughts, and life experiences are given value,
as they are encouraged to make connections to others' texts, their lives, and the world in
this enactment of the reading and writing curriculum. My understandings of the workshop
model have been developed over the years with professional development through The
Teachers College Reading Writing Project, study of Donald Graves' (1994) and Lucy
Calkins' (1994, 2001) writings, and professional development sessions received as the
Lead Teacher for second grade. The curriculum choice of workshop model and balanced
literacy with its encouragement of read alouds has provided me with openings to examine
how students bring their resources into their literacy learning. My developing

14

understandings offer ways to view children and their achievement within the formal
setting of school but with awareness of students' multiple resources. This is similar to the
work of Moll and Greenberg (1990), which suggested that cultural and cognitive
resources are full of potential for classroom instruction. Yet in many cases, there are
differences of social class, race, and/or culture between teachers and the students in their
classrooms, which add a layer of exploration to the process of seeking resources because
teachers have to go beyond their own existing understandings.
Teaching Across Difference
Carter and Goodwin (1994) offer the following statistics: 30% of all public school
students are children of color. This percent rises to 70% in 20 of our nation's largest
districts; at the same time, the number of White teachers is increasing (Carter &
Goodwin, 1994). These statistics highlight the fact that children of color may not have
teachers who reflect their social class, race, and/or culture throughout their educational
experience. Without a critical awareness of differences in race and teaching across these
differences, barriers can be erected in the classroom. As Kunjufu (1984) writes,
"Effective teachers must be cognizant of the child's culture and learning styles before a
curriculum is designed" (p.

). Teachers must be self-reflective about their

understanding of race and racism, understanding not only their students' race and how it
impacts the classroom but the teacher's race and the connected Discourses (Gee, 1996) as
well. Educators need to find new ways to work with cultural differences on social,
personal, and educational levels; sometimes going beyond the boundaries of comfort.
The dominant culture in this society has historically been set by White culture; the
mainstream Discourse, represented by White, middle-class, male norms determines the
societal expectations of "how to do" school. As Mcintosh (1989) writes, "white is
normative," the accepted norm. White culture has established what is expected as
"proper" school behavior and activity, leaving many students unrecognized. Traditional

15

teaching reproduces this dominant culture, dismissing or missing the experiences of some
students of color. Mcintosh, speaking as a White activist researcher, encourages a
teacher's responsibility to develop links in theory and practice, reflection and action,
talking and doing, linking students' experiences to the classroom process. Willis (1995)
pushes the issue of recognition by asking: "Why do we as educators continue this 'sin of
omission' that is, allowing the cultural knowledge of culturally and linguistically diverse
children to be ignored, devalued, and unnurtured as valid sources of literacy acquisition?"
(p. 34). Dialogue and understandings across color borders is referred to as a beginning
move toward improved pedagogy for students of color and resolution in power issues.
An educator and accomplished author who set a strong example of teaching across
differences was Vivian Gussin Paley. Paley respected differences and modeled the need
to listen and learn from parents. She recognized that some students have different ideas of
behavior, and she addressed children who behave in ways different than she would prefer.
One student named Stephen hit other children regularly. Paley (1979) responded by
saying, "No matter what his emotional problems might be like, I wanted him to feel this
school was a safe place to be in" (p. 18). The school space has to allow children to feel
safe and respected. I have attempted to emulate the sentiment that children need to feel
secure emotionally and socially in the classroom. Valuing students and building upon
their assets leads to better teaching practices (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Nieto, 2003; Willis,
1995). Thoughts about teaching across difference and my personal teaching experiences
that reflect differences led me to this action research study, embracing action and
reflection.
Research has documented students' positive responses to cultural and linguistic

adjustments to school literacy programs (Au, 2000; Morrow, 1992). As Morrow (1995)
pointed out, "teachers must be educated as to the meaning and use of literacy in the ethnic
backgrounds of their students in order to enrich their teaching style and curriculum with
material of relevance and interest to all" (p. 96). This implied knowledge of these

16

resources as well as finding or allowing space to capitalize upon them. Regarding her
own experiences in the classroom, Nieto (2003) wrote:
I made sure to include the lives and realities of my students in the
curriculum; I encouraged them to speak and cherish their native languages; I
refused to accept anything but the best work from them; I welcomed their
families into the classroom-in short, I did everything I could to let them
know that they could claim a rightful place in school and in the world, (p. 17)
Her words provided inspiration for my research and for my teaching. I wanted not only to
create a classroom where these thoughts were embraced, but I hoped to share findings
with other teachers to broaden pedagogical understandings about the resources students
bring to their learning and how spaces are cultivated.

Statement of the Problem

Some teachers are unable to look at the multiple resources that African American
children possess. The challenge is to find what resources students bring to their literacy
learning and to discover how to build on those practices while confronting the dominant
attitudes about the potential of poor children to achieve. Building on students' existing
rich resources and practices seems to be a missing element in schools that teach poor
children. There are teachers who seek to understand the resources children do bring with
them to school; these teachers create classroom environments that embrace students'
home literacies, cultures, and social strengths (Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994;
Paley, 1979). Spaces are created in these classrooms that enable students' resources to
surface and contribute to the learning process. However, there are not enough teachers
who understand the importance of creating these culturally alert learning environments.
Teachers who are unaware of the power and potential of students' cultural resources do
not create spaces in their classrooms that allow students to bring themselves into their
school learning.

17

Through my 16 years at this school, I have seen students' abilities to communicate

and create using their social, cultural, and literacy resources. But it is with a critical
literacy perspective that I have begun to develop a deeper understanding of literacy, the
multiplicity of acts that literacy may entail, and the power that is both implicitly and
explicitly exercised through language and literacies. The difficulty is that, often, schools,
and specifically teachers, do not find ways to assist students in making connections
between their existing literacy resources and those that school literacy mandates. Schools
ignore the enormous amount of resources students bring with them to the classroom,
simply because the child's home may not be in direct alignment with the school's concept
of what home should be; the formal setting of school does not often open spaces that
allow children to employ the cultural, social, and literacy resources they possess. By
seeking the connections, it may be possible to help students strengthen their multiple
literacies in a school setting.
Unlike the banking model of education (Freire, 1973), children do not come to
school as empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge. Children come to school as
social, cultural, and literate beings, bringing with them their own resources that have been
cultivated through their experiences influenced by their friends, families, and
communities (Cushman, 1998; Gee, 1996). Through this study, I hope to examine the
multiple resources (Gutierrez et al., 1999) that four African American students in one
urban second grade classroom exercise with the intention of opening my eyes wider to the
students' resources, and thus potentials, for incorporating those resources into the formal
setting, spaces, and demands of literacy learning in school.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this teacher-driven action research project was to document and
develop an understanding of the social, cultural, and literacy resources African American

18

children bring to my second grade classroom, which serves African American children
living near or below the poverty level. As a White woman teaching predominantly
African American students, collaboration with family members helped me gain insights
into students' resources. This work built on studies that examine family literacies
exploring the strengths that exist in children's homes that support their learning efforts in
school (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Rogers, 2001; Taylor, 1983; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines,
1988). Understanding more deeply the resources that African American students in my
classroom bring to their school literacy learning has made stronger connections between
students' home and school literacies; this work built on existing studies of social
resources in students' learning (Dyson, 2003; Moll et al., 1992) and the creation of hybrid
spaces in the classroom where these resources enter and impact classroom learning
(Gutierrez et al., 1999). An ongoing effort was made to build a classroom environment
where students can safely bring their social, cultural, and literacy selves into the realm of
formal school literacy learning. This research provided an organized and structured
method to build on my personal learning that has occurred through my 16 years in the
classroom, an education I credit to my students, their families, and a sustained passion for
learning.

Research Questions
1.

What are the social, cultural, and literacy resources that African American
students bring into their classroom learning?
a)

In what ways do students bring these resources into their school learning?

b)

How do interactions between the children's family members and me, as

teacher, inform my understandings of the students' resources?

2.

What hybrid spaces are created in the formal classroom to recognize and build
on the students' resources as learning tools?

19

a)

How do these spaces come to be, and how are the spaces configured?

b)

What occurs within them?

Significance of the Study

There have been studies that examine students' resources to counter the deficit
theory that has remained prevalent (Ballenger, 2004; Delgado-Gaitan, 1991; Moll &
Greenberg, 1990; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). This study continued the exploration
of students' resources through an inquiry of second graders' social, cultural, and literacy
resources in this urban classroom. One goal of this study was to locate the possible
bridges between the resources of the child's home, family, and community and the
resources of school. One way in which this study was significant, therefore, lies in its
focus on building stronger connections between home and school learning, which may
lead to a clearer understanding of the community's needs, wishes, and goals for the
children's learning. The element of collaboration with family members in this action
research opened a venue of understanding between home and school that were not always
easily traveled. Studies done in this manner allowed for the possibility of strengthening
our understanding of what it means to work collaboratively with families.
This study was also significant because it examined the question of hybrid spaces
for learning. Often, families were encouraged to take school type learning home to
enhance children's learning. Home was asked to change to help the children. Perhaps, as
Heath (1983) asserted, it is time for school to change, by looking for spaces in the formal
setting of school where children bring their own resources and where those resources are
appreciated and valued. This study gave an opportunity to see where some of those spaces
were created for students and a chance to see how those spaces affect the learning.
Finally, it was significant that I am a classroom teacher. Because this research was
being done by a teacher in her actual everyday practice of teaching, further investigations

into home and school connections could be conceived as possible in other classrooms.
This research informed my own teaching practice and will perhaps inspire other teachers
to take up this exploratory work. Other teachers could adapt their own practice and
impact the formal settings of schools.

Overview of the Study

This study was a yearlong teacher driven action research project aimed at making
changes in the teaching and/or curriculum of the classroom in which this research takes
place by opening hybrid spaces that welcome students' resources. The plan involved
observing, documenting, collaborating with families, and creating hybrid spaces in the
classroom. One component was examining the ways students brought their own social,
cultural, and literacy resources into their formal school learning. Another component was
the collaborations with families in which discussion focused on the students' resources
and how they were used in school.
Since I was the teacher in this classroom setting, I had regular contact with
individual students' family members. In this manner, I sought to harness the family
members' knowledge of their children to help me further understand how, where, when,
and, possibly, why the children were bringing in their own resources, seeking ways to
capitalize on these strengths that the children already possessed. At the same time, I
hoped that families would gain from this experience through sharing discussions about
their observations and goals for their children. With these understandings, I wanted to
open spaces for students' resources and seek connections to strengthen already existing
resources. Thus, the ongoing learning of this study folded back into the teaching, creating
a stronger classroom that embraced learners and providing a space where learners were
comfortable to explore all the possibilities.

21
Overview of the Dissertation
Chapter I is introductory. It begins with the background, outlining and positioning
the need for this research, which looks to understand deeply the resources that students
bring to school and what spaces are opened in the classroom to build on those resources,
in the often formal place known as school. The problem statement and the research
questions speak to the questions to be addressed: what do students bring to school (as
witnessed by me and discussed with family members), and how can these resources be
"taken up"? Chapter II is the Review of Literature, beginning with the theoretical
framework. The subsequent sections include literature on students' resources in and out
of school, the ways that schools involve family members in the process of education, and
research on hybrid spaces. The third chapter, the Methodology, lays out the research
design, clarifying the choice of action research, the choice of participants, and a schedule
and explanation of the processes of the data collection. Chapter IV presents the findings
of the study regarding students' resources. Each focal student's resources are unpacked
and detailed, to develop understanding of students' resources. The impact of family
member collaboration is addressed at the end of Chapter IV. Chapter V discusses the
findings regarding the hybrid spaces that were created or opened further in the classroom;
the categories of the data are presented with examples to support those findings. The final
chapter, Chapter VI, presents a discussion of the findings, as well as reflections on this
study, a critique of the study, and implications for practice and future research.

22

Chapter II
LITERATURE REVIEW

This literature review begins with my theoretical framework for this research.
Three branches of theory that are addressed are: Gee's concepts of Discourses, a working
definition of literacy/literacies, and critical literacy theory. Gee's work on Discourses
discusses what we as humans bring to our lives and, thus, our learning. The literacy
section begins with an investigation of the term "literacy," focusing on the definitions that
are key to this research, which leads into a discussion of critical literacy and how this
viewpoint is vital to this study.
After the theoretical framework, the literature review is broken into three research
sections. First, I examine the ways that family involvement has been taken up in schools,
as family participation is such a vital part of this study. This section includes information
on family literacy that informs this study; the belief that children come to school with
literacies is central. This section on family involvement explores family literacy, family
resources, as well as the connections between families and schools, building on the tenets
of family involvement. The second section presents studies done by researchers who
examine children's resources in and out of classrooms. In most of these studies, families
have been an integral component, as the researchers recognize family members as
experts. These studies, especially the work of Taylor and Compton-Lilly, are mentor
studies to the work I do; these researchers allow themselves to be informed by the
children and their families. The final section, which has been influenced by the work of

23

Moll, examines how hybrid spaces are being created to recognize and validate students'
resources in various environments. In conclusion, throughout the Literature Review, the
threads of Discourses, resources, and hybrid spaces are intertwined as a supportive base
for the current research.

Theoretical Framework
Four tenets are central to my thinking throughout this research. The themes of
students' Discourses, mainstream versus alternative Discourses, multiple views of
literacy, and critical literacy and sociocultural concepts, are explored in this theoretical
framework, as they represent the larger conceptual underpinnings of my work.
Students' Discourses
Students bring themselves into their formal school learning. All of us have our own
cultural, social, and literacy traditions. James Gee (1996) provides insight into the term
"Discourse": "A Discourse, then, is composed of ways of talking, listening (often, too,
reading and writing), acting, interacting, believing, valuing, and using tools and objects,
in particular settings at specific times, so as to display and recognize a particular identity"
(p. 128). Each child brings her or his own identity kit to the classroom and unpacks that
kit in many ways. Gee's concept of Discourse points to the multiple layers of our
identities, extending beyond the concept of a discourse as a model of language.
Discourses, with a capital D, go beyond the concept of discourse as solely a language
construct. These Discourses are socially assembled and are acquired in individuals as they
participate in cultures of which they are a part. These Discourses become part of who we
are and how we operate and create. Gee speaks of our primary and secondary Discourses;
people are able to move between these different personal Discourses. A person
participates in multiple Discourses, as people are active in various social and cultural

24

groups. With this fuller understanding of Discourses, literacies are placed within the
learner's lived experience, and literacies change depending on the purpose and/or context
for engaging in a particular literacy practice.
Gee's framework allows us to view the broader realm of learning, literacy, and
identity construction inside and outside of schools, as well as across life spans. Literacy
learning is usually defined from the position of school learning; this limits literacy and
ignores the multiple literacy practices that children develop outside of school. Literacy is
more than neutral, technical skills used only to read textbooks and pass examinations.
"Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven to,
constituted part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction,
values, and beliefs" (Gee, 1996, p. 41). As an example, I refer to my nighttime ritual
(literacy practice) of reading with my daughter, Olivia. Now that Olivia is older, we focus
on thicker, meatier chapter books, which take some time to read. Within this literacy
practice, my primary Discourse as mother speaks to the passing of time, as my daughter
should be going to sleep. Yet, as a lover of stories who sees this stance being taken up by
the listener, I do not wish to rush my daughter off to sleep. These are just two aspects of
my social practices that affect and interplay within this literacy practice. Within our
literacy practices, our wider practices are ever present.
Mainstream Versus Alternative Discourses
"Mainstream Discourse" is a term that refers to the dominant social group's
understandings of, in this case, school. To many people in America, the understanding of
formal schooling fits a neat picture of the traditional image of school where the teacher
talks and the students listen. Many children in our country come to school with a shared
perception of the way "to do" school. However, the understandings of school are not the
same for everyone. McLaren (1988) states, "All too frequently the social reality of the
learner is assumed to correspond to reality as it is defined by the dominant culture"

25

(p. 221). This thinking presumes that all students come to school with similar preschool
learning experiences, understandings, and hopes of schools. The reality is that many
children come to school with very different experiences and understandings. Gee (1996)
asserts that our society has a Discourse, established by the dominant culture; people who
participate in this Dominant Discourse are provided access to power or the "social
goods," and Discourses can be used as gates for admitting people or preventing
admittance, which creates a barrier to opportunities. Since school literacy is based on the
goals of a Dominant Discourse, determinations about what is taught and how it is taught
come from dominant understandings of education that often ignore alternative realities.
Although Mainstream Discourse remains basically unchallenged, alternative Discourses
exist. As Compton-Lilly (2003) declares, "Alternative Discourses are ways of
understanding and describing the world that are grounded in people's lived experiences"
(p. 22). Mainstream and Alternative Discourses are not mutually exclusive; they coexist
in the reality of lived lives. But most of my students live outside the understandings of
Mainstream Discourses; they are centered in the Alternative Discourse of their families'
realities and the realities of their neighborhood. These Alternative Discourses come out of
the sounds and sights of the communities in which they live. Some of the students have
families who struggle to gain access to the Mainstream Discourse, while other students
come from families that view White Mainstream society as oppressive to African
Americans. These are two simplified examples of Alternative Discourses that impact the
students in this study. This work recognizes the disparities between the mainstream and
the alternative, the rich and the poor in America, but also in the gap between those with
political muscle and those without.
Theorists like Gee (1996) and Street (1993) write about the importance of
recognizing student Discourses; practitioners like Compton-Lilly (2003) and Taylor
(1983) have begun exploring and documenting the process of recognizing, identifying,
and utilizing them. This work will build on the work of these theorists and practitioners.

26
Changing Views of Literacy
The definition of literacy is in flux, constantly changing in relation to social,
cultural, and economic changes (Cook-Gumperz, 1986), educators' understandings as
well. In school, literacy is defined by standards that relate to reading, writing, listening,
and speaking as contextualized in an elementary classroom, often as separate skills. These
standards also treat literacy as a purposeful, communicative act that takes many forms
(i.e., written, spoken, drawn, acted, performed, etc.). Communication of ideas is central in
the purpose of literacy (Shannon, 1998). It is not a new concept to think of literacy as
expressing meaning in the act of communication (Wood, 2002); the shared, not
necessarily printed, word or idea is the connection. Through the spoken and written word,
ideas are exchanged. This concept of literacy speaks to the ability to exchange/change
ideas, whether it is with other individuals or with oneself through various modes.
Within an expanding definition, literacy can be shared among people regardless of
their level of reading or school-defined literacy. "Since all people are assumed to be
literate in some environment, the community of the classroom is charged with helping
individuals to build bridges between their home literacy and that of the classroom"
(Shannon, 1998, p. 51). This outlook broadens the way teachers view literacy in the
classroom; new avenues of exploring students' multiple literacies are beginning to be
opened by closely examining the resources students bring to their learning. My personal
definition of literacy builds on notions of multiple literacies, recognizing that each person
has a variety of resources that they draw upon.
The definition of literacy continues to expand. Working to define literacy, David
Barton (1994) states that literacy is a set of social practices associated with particular
symbol systems and their related technologies. Defining literacy in this way is a
movement away from studying the separate skills that underlie reading and writing. It
moves beyond the "Great Debate" (Chall, 1967) that placed the look-say method of
reading against phonics. This original debate later morphed to whole language versus

27

phonics and, then, the debate moved to talk of balanced literacy, recognizing a need for
an approach that balances the approaches. There is a recognition that literacy is much
more than the rudimentary skills around letters and sounds that are associated with
learning to read.
Barton (1994) argues that literacy is a social activity that is best explained in terms
of the literacy practices enacted in literacy events. Literacy practices are social practices
linked with the written word. "Literacy practices are the general cultural ways of utilizing
literacy which people draw upon in a literacy event" (Barton, 1994, p. 37). Literacy
practices are situated in contexts and are people's common practices that are regularly
occurring. Literacy events are defined as actual instances of everyday usage of reading
and writing in our lived lives; this idea arises out of Heath's (1983) work. Literacy events
are also defined within situated contexts where literacy has a complex role. "Literacy
events must also be interpreted in relation to the larger sociocultural patterns which they
may exemplify or reflect" (Heath, 1982, p. 74). By examining literacy events, one can
gain understandings of people's literacy practices, with recognition of the multiple social
contexts.
The New Literacy Studies (NLS) seek to extend the idea and scope of literacy
pedagogy by connecting "the 'what' and the 'how' of literacy pedagogy back to the larger
agenda focusing on situated practices in the learning process, which involves the
recognition that differences are critical in workplaces, civic spaces, and multilayered
lifeworlds" (New London Group, 2000, p. 36). NLS broaden the definition to include the
literacy "continuum" (Street, 1993), which joins rather than divides the concepts of
literacy and orality. Context becomes vital; space, purpose, participants, and other factors

have an impact in the realm of literacy. Within this frame, Street takes a distinctive
definition of literacy practices "as a broader concept, pitched at a higher level of
abstraction and referring to both behaviors and conceptualizations related to the use of
reading and/ or writing" (p. 12). This broader conception is reflected in "multiliteracies,"

28

the term introduced by the New London Group. This term suggests that literacy has
multiple communication channels, hybrid text forms, new social relations, and increased
linguistic and cultural diversity.
Literacy pedagogy is viewed as having an important role in ensuring equitable
social participation. The first of two concepts from the New London Group is that they
"want to extend the idea and scope of literacy pedagogy to account for the context of our
culturally and linguistically diverse and increasingly globalised societies" (New London
Group, 2002, p. 9). The second tenant of this group revolves around the new media forms
in multimedia technologies and information. A contribution from the New London Group
is their effort to broaden understandings of literacy and literacy teaching.
Critical Literacy and Sociocultural Perspectives
Critical literacy recognizes the social, cultural, and political nature of literacy
education. As Peter McLaren (1988) states, "a critical literacy situates itself in the
intersection of language, culture, power, and history" (p. 225). Within this paradigm,
there are three necessities: to raise the learners' awareness of the power relations that
affect them, to establish collaborative pedagogies between teachers and students, and to
create an opportunity for learners to use their own reality in their learning (McLaren,
1988).
Critical literacy is not a unitary approach and is often referred to as critical
literacies or critical literacy practices, signifying a pluralist approach (Comber, 1998;
Lankshear & Knobel, 1998). Literacy is viewed as socially constructed forms of multiple
cultural and communicative practices. Although critical literacy is not strictly defined, the
following theorists offer insights to the term. Allan Luke and Peter Freebody (1997)
assert that critical literacy "marks out a coalition of educational interests committed to
engaging with the possibilities that the technologies of writing and other modes of
inscription offer for social change, cultural diversity, economic equity, and political

29

enfranchisement" (p. 1). In this view, critical literacy theory recognizes these four
dimensionsthe social, the cultural, the economic, and the politicalas central to
education. Often teachers do not recognize these four dimensions of education. However,
employing a critical literacy stance allows educators to see more in their students and
their potentials by recognizing and building upon these four dimensions. A critical
literacy perspective, then, opens up the classroom, making possible broader recognition of
hybrid spaces where children's resources mix, mingle, clash, and collide with the official
spaces of the classroom. Classrooms where critical literacy theory is practiced: ask
complicated questions about language and power, take action on local issues, involve
conversations between teachers and students questioning the ways in which texts work to
maintain and promote inequalities, explore ways we read the world, and use words like
"liberation" and "empowerment" (Comber, 1998). These activities encourage students to
take up learning, using their resources.
An important aspect of critical literacy is the element of critical engagement with
one's world. Paulo Freire (1973) led us to the thoughts that our lives are connected in
deep social and political ways and that learning is a definitive part of that connection.
These powerful thoughts speak to the importance of students' learning being connected to
and grounded within their lived realities. Learning is meaning-filled, pertaining and
connecting to one's life. Building on Freire's concept of reading the word to read the
world, Patrick Shannon (1995) argues that critical literacy is "the ability to use multiple
texts, including all symbol systems and expressions of disparate points of view, to make
sense of one's life and the world in a particular context" (p. 103). This thinking highlights
the cultural and the textual aspects of critical literacy; it also points to the usage of

multiple texts for a deeper understanding of one's life situation and ideally to position
students as agents with the tools necessary to construct various kinds of social change.
Critical theorists hold that there are relations between knowledge and power
(Freire, 1973; Giroux, 1988; McLaren, 1988); the political dimension becomes

30

understood in the exploration of the context in each learning situation and the lived reality
of each learner. Critical theorists examine the ways that power is involved in learning.
Issues of power are very present in schools. Within the classroom, power issues can be
generative or degenerative, depending on the classroom environment and the schools' and
the teachers' philosophies. It is productive when teachers share the power in the
classroom, valuing everyone's presence, or voice, in the classroom dynamics, realizing
that everyone contributes. These contributions are resources to the class. Timothy
Lensmire (1998) points out that the concept of voice is not a simplistic one. Within the
writing workshop model, voice is viewed as individual expression; using a critical
pedagogy, voice is participation, a call for critical dialogue among teacher and students.
Critical literacy practices attempt to recognize and critically examine these multiple
resources, inclusive of voice. Risk taking and imagination become necessary tools in the
classroom (Lensmire, 1998). Dimensions of language, culture, power, and history
resound in this view, encouraging the acknowledgment and utilization of students'
multiple Discourses that enter into classroom spaces. This perspective also connects to
views of multiple literacies that push beyond traditional views of literacy by examining
students' multiple social practices and recognizing (and embracing) cultural and linguistic
diversity, as both connect to literacy practices but also speak to the power within the
places of these practices.
In his book entitled, Official Knowledge, Michael Apple (2000) argues that a goal
of education should be to create critical literacy that is a powerful or political literacy; this
critical literacy should allow the growth of understanding and, also, control over the
social life in which we participate. "The curriculum begins from the crucial political

question, 'From whose perspective are we seeing, or reading, or hearing?' This

re-politicizes the issue of what counts as official knowledge, making it subject to critical
scrutiny by students, teachers, and others" (p. 38). These thoughts questioning official

31

knowledge connect to the earlier discussion about Mainstream versus Alternative

Discourses. Who decides what is important in the classroom?
The classroom is a place of power, bell hooks (1994) proclaims that "the classroom
remains the most radical space of possibility" (p. 12). It is in the classroom that teachers
and students have the opportunity to create spaces of change that reflect the
underpinnings of critical literacy. When classrooms become open to hybrid spaces where
students actively insert their social, cultural, and political selves, they become places of
power and possibility. The possibilities multiply as the space in classrooms is explored,
expanding to accommodate students' multiple Discourses and multiple literacies. In my
work, I attempt to take up "Freire and Macedo's rallying cry to make the content of the
curriculum relevant to the transformation of the sociopolitical reality and life situations of
learners" (McLaren, 1988, p. 228). A classroom is a place for everyone, including
teachers, to grow. Critical literacy challenges teachers to build a classroom community
that values each voice and empowers learners. Luke and Freebody (1997) suggest that
the challenge then is not just one of equity of access (or lack of access) to
such technologies and institutions, but also of the possibilities of using
discourse and cultural and textual capital in communities and workplaces,
and to explore ... what kinds of citizenship, public forums for discourse and
difference are practicable and possible, (p. 9)
Critical literacy provides a challenge to normativity by exploring the bounds outside what
is perceived as everyone's shared experiences. People have their own Discourses and
come to a shared Discourse in a given experience. There is not one universal experience.
Comber (1998), whose work involves elementary students, generates questions. She
writes " I still collect questions: questions which contest the way things are" (p. 10).
These questions are intended to generate conversations among teachers, students, and
family members; the conversations are more important than the "right answers." Comber
has become more and more interested in how teachers construct critical literacies in
actual classrooms. The prospect of re-envisioning new kinds of public spaces,

32

institutional structures, or classrooms that might facilitate hybrid spaces where critical
literacies are nurtured becomes a possibility. The lens of critical literacy provides a way
toward social change or transformation, with the understanding that students come to
learning with their own histories, thus resources. Because of the emphasis on the social,
the cultural, the economic, and the political, critical literacy theories provide the
framework for my examination of my teaching and the research that is being conducted in
this study.

The Family Factor: Influence, Literacy, and Action

Within this section, the connections between home and school are explored through
examination of studies in this vein. First, a discussion about the overlapping contexts of
home and school will ensue. Then, the links between home and school are explored.
Finally, building on the strengths of families is investigated, especially as it is an explicit
facet of this research project. This section takes up research on home and school
relationships because this study incorporates family members as experts on the students'
cultural, social, and literacy resources.
Overlapping Contexts of Home and School
The research of Morrow, Tracey, and Maxwell (1995) examines concepts that are
naturally occurring in homes through observation and description. This work echoes the
work of Moll et al. (1990,1992), whose work is elaborated later in this Literature Review
and stresses capitalizing on households and community resources. The research of
Morrow et al. (1995) focuses on how literacy is naturally occurring in homes though it is

not deliberately connected to the school curriculum. "Writers and researchers opposing
the deficit model propose viewpoints being referred to as the wealth model. This model
stresses that all families have strengths and have intact literacy patterns within the home"

33

(p. 11). Literacy providers/teachers can find ways that literacy interactions are culturally
consistent with the family. The wealth model promotes basing the family literacy
curriculum on the strengths voiced by the particular families. Following this line of
thinking, this action research project implements regular informal interviews or
conversations with family members to capitalize on the strengths each family brings to
their child's learning. This action research project takes up this logical move forward, not
only seeking to understand the resources coming from the home but to make connections
between what occurs at home and what occurs in the classroom, using the resulting
information to help drive the teaching and curriculum in my classroom, building on
students' strengths and watching the effects on school-valued literacy.
In another study performed by researchers from the University of Maryland, Baker
et al. examined the context of emergent literacy in the everyday home experiences of
urban pre-kindergarten schoolchildren. This study, as presented in Morrow et al.'s book
(1995), investigated the contexts in which children from various socio-cultural
backgrounds experience literacy as they enter school, and how the overlapping contexts
of school and home interact to facilitate or impede reading development. Baker et al.
suggest "teachers should learn what types of literacy activities take place in their students'
homes and relate the early reading and writing activities of their students to familiar
backgrounds and events" (p. 92). This connects to my study because of the wealth model
perspective and the interactional (or collaborative) component with students' families. I
want to explore what students bring from home and how school can make the effort to
build on those occurrences while ever-increasing students' school-valued literacy
learning.

Seeking Links
It has been well documented that book reading experiences enhance children's
reading (Heath, 1983) and that parental involvement has a positive impact on student

34

learning (Handel, 1999; Henry, 1996). These facts cannot be ignored in my work. They
are confirmed in the research of Jeanne R. Paratore, Gigliana Melzi, and Barbara KrolSinclair (1994). These researchers' work was based on the Chelsea Project, a cooperative
partnership between Boston University and the Chelsea, Massachusetts Public Schools.
Paratore et al. (1999) recorded that the lessons they learned included that lowincome, poor, minority parents do care about their children's academic work. All parents
engage in some shared literacy activities. Children who were successful in school had
frequent (near daily) literacy interactions; these literacy activities occurred not just
reflecting school learning but reflecting other purposes as well (e.g., home literacies).
Also, in these homes, literacy was not just for learning; it occurred for other purposes.
Parents rather than teachers initiated the routine contact with school personnel. They
found that parents were more likely to approach and interact with teachers when they
shared linguistic or cultural background. Parents would monitor more from a distance if
no "link" with the teacher were developed. Inviting parents to school is not enough.
These researchers suggested that parents need a clear mechanism for involvement; in this
fashion, developing a link to each family member is vital within my study. In
documenting my efforts to have regular contact with family members, I have the
opportunity to see what effect this has on the teacher and family member relationship. My
pilot work for this research project has shown results from rich informative relationships
that build up around trust when family members come to know the teacher as fully
involved and interested in their child's learning. I further document the results of inviting
family members into the research process in Chapters IV and VI.
Building on the Strengths of Families
The work of Devon Brenner, Teresa Joyroe, and Angela Boutwell (2003) examines
the assumptions that are often made of low-income, minority families: uninterested in
their children's learning and unable to support that education. These authors hold that

35

families are proactive for children's sake. Like Lisa Delpit (1995), Brenner et al. (2003)
feel that it is the responsibility of the educator to assist families and children in
understanding "the literacy practices that provide access to economic and political power"
(p. 276).
The Promising Readers Program, which occurred in the summers and after-school,
was based on the theory that readers, especially struggling readers, need authentic literacy
learning opportunities. Children participated in frequent reading and writing experiences.
Family members who expressed an interest were encouraged to help with the program,
sharing in the literacy experiences. There were as many as eight to eleven family
members working with the program at one time. With additional pre-service teachers, the
ratio was one adult to four/five children, an ideal situation for attention on students. The
activities that family members participated in varied from fundamental care to read
alouds. "All the adults demonstrate literacy by participating in many of the same activities
as students, including keeping journals, writing letters, and reading books" (Brenner
et al., 2003, p. 277). Their analysis examined what happens when family members work
with students as co-teachers in a literacy program that focuses on struggling readers.
Family members were invaluable support to these struggling readers. Family
members took active roles in decision-making, such as helping to decide which children
should work together in small groups, creating a sense of ownership for the family
members. Also, family members knew the children and their families. In Brenner et al.'s
(2003) study, the background knowledge gave a stronger picture of the students and their
learning; a communal sense was felt. Family members became more involved in the
regular running of the school and drew more critical conclusions about the teaching and

learning at the elementary school where the program took place.

In the course of their study, the researchers did experience differences between the
family members and the school staff (directors), which they attributed to cultural
difference. One of the challenges of working with family members revolved around

36

scheduling inconsistencies. Also, some family members were authoritative, using

different management skills with the children than the educators valued (i.e., threatening
children with consequences, giving directions without explanation, or using loud, stern
voices). It was suggested these were cultural practices that differed from practices of the
researchers. I have anticipated these differences in my research.

Learning From and About Students

This section outlines the work of four studies that are mentor studies to this action
research project. The following researchers have applied three principles central to my
study. These principles are: recognizing that educators have a lot to learn from their
students, understanding the depth of sociocultural underpinnings and their impact on
classrooms, and realizing that families are experts regarding their children.
Building on Family Literacy in an Urban Community
My study builds on the work of Denny Taylor and Catherine Dorsey-Gaines (1988).
This study builds upon families' strengths; they focused on Black children living in urban
poverty who are perceived, by their parents, to be learning to read and write effectively.
Their work took them into the lives of the families they were studying. The effort was
made to get beyond images and stereotypes of specific groups. "If we can persuade others
that sex, race, economic status, and setting cannot be used as significant correlates of
literacy," then the work is worth it (p. xx). These researchers moved beyond the cultural
lines with open eyes to attempt to see a detailed picture of the literacies of families with
successful readers and writers.
One father involved in Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines's (1988) study said, "I try to
explain every little thing to her, every little detail" (p. 29). This quote speaks to the
communicative nature of learning and this family member's desire to be helpful to the

37

learner. The importance of oral language among family members became recognized. Too
often the point of reference of social scientists in America has been to place Black home
environments as pathological or deficient, less able to properly prepare their children for
school (Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1998). The mass media perpetuates these stereotypical
images; thus, the impressions continue to dominate.
My research is seeking not only to find the strengths that children bring to their
school learning, but to find ways to connect the home and school learning for the
betterment of the learner and the entire classroom community.
A strong picture is portrayed of families and their abilities to support their
children's learning. While discussing Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines's (1998) work, the
implications suggest that teachers need to be aware and open to the possibilities that
emerge out of the homes of their students, on all socio-economic and educational levels.
Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines did not examine how the schools work with the families to
make a bridge or connection between home literacies and school literacies. My study
seeks to take the results a step farther and ask: How do teachers not only gain information
about their students but utilize this information in classrooms to enhance student
learning?
Students in School Settings
The next three studies examine research that was done in classroom contexts to
build on students' resources. Many studies on students' literacies are done in after-school
or controlled settings (Schultz & Hull, 2002). The sizes of the groups are smaller than the
numbers in a regular classroom, and often there are additional adults available to assist
children with greater attention. Also, the curriculum is designed for a particular afterschool program's purpose. Within the regular classroom, the teacher must meet the
expectations of the school system, while seeking ways to meet children in a hybrid space.

38

These three studies look at classrooms similar to mine where there are approximately 20
students and 1 teacher, and the teachers are addressing the district mandates.
Students Broadening Our Conceptual Frameworks. Some researchers have looked
for ways to examine what resources children do bring with them to their school learning.
One study that was done by Cynthia Ballenger (2004) speaks to this issue. Through her
study, she watched four- and five-year-olds from Haitian backgrounds who did not
experience regular bedtime stories, which are considered a determining factor in one's
independent reading (Heath, 1983). Ballenger (2004) wrote, "I hoped to help my students
to become familiar with books and to love them as I did" (p. 32). At the beginning,
Ballenger thought the children did not know how to listen, as they were very excited and
talkative during story time at school. She was challenged to look at what the children
were doing. To enact her study, she allowed talk to occur around and throughout the
readings. Many connections were "visible" here. The children focused on "issues situated
in their world" (p. 36). These young students were making connections from the text to
their lives. Although Ballenger sometimes felt "out of control and frustrated," she was
impressed with the children's responses and lively engagement.
Ballenger looked outside the classroom and noticed that people use books not
always for comprehension of the story or material but to make sense or understand
important aspects of their lives. As her data were examined, Ballenger (2004) noted that
the students were making lots of connections to their own lives. In conclusion, she wrote:
"My classroom story now includes these children and their view of books. Including them
has opened up my own assumptions for scrutiny and thus deepened immeasurably my
own ability to think about literature and stories and their uses" (p. 42). Ballenger's study

is an excellent framework for understanding the concepts raised by Gee, Street, Delpit,
Barton, Ladson-Billings, and others that suggest that children bring their own resources to
their school learning. In ignoring this starting point, teachers miss the opportunity to
capitalize on the "funds of knowledge" students possess upon entrance into school, each

39

and every day. This study provides weight to my argument that children do possess their
own resources, which add a rich dimension to school learning.
Students Reconceptualizing Their World. Other researchers have studied children
to locate and understand the cultural capital that exists and have followed those findings
into and through the work of the classroom. Dyson studied a group of six-year-olds,
referred to as the brothers and the sisters, in the context of their classroom as the children
participated in writing activities. Dyson was alert to the concept of "school-valued"
practices. She differentiates between children's official and unofficial practices. The
official practices are equated with school-valued practices; the unofficial practices are
those children bring with them into school. "Children have varied textual landscapes
against which to interpret the school's efforts to teach them" (Dyson, 2003, p. 6). Dyson
studied the processes by which children connected their childhood practices with official
school ones. She "began to document (through observations and audio taping) the
children's official and unofficial participation in school" (p. 19). Dyson was aware that
children bring great strengths with them into their school learning. She found that
children were contextualizing their behaviors and then recontextualizing them over time;
children used their recontextualizations as a relevant way of participating, moving from
one situated event to the next one. It is an opportunity to reorganize and rearticulate one's
resources; recontextualizing is defined as borrowing and voicing resources. Students
maintained themselves (their cultural practices) while reconceptualizing their
understandings of school. These reconceptualization processes included processes of
differentiation, appropriation, translation, and refraining of cultural material across
symbolic forms and social practices (Dyson, 2003).

With this knowledge, Dyson (2003) challenges schools to be actively engaged in

reaching to children. "The role of school, then, is to provide cultural symbolic forms ...
that help children gain distance from, differentiate, and recontextualize their everyday
experiences within academic discourses and practices of school (a view based on

40

Vygotsky, 1962)" (p. 14). Schools need to help students make the connections between
their unofficial and official literacy practices, perhaps by building a ground or a space
where children can recontextualize their unofficial and official practicesstrengthening
them as learners. Dyson states that "those official and unofficial events sometimes
overlapped, interrupted, and sometimes peacefully accompanied each other" (p. 20). The
goal is to find the space where they complement each other and add productively to
students' literacy learning.
Home and School Connect
Another researcher whose footsteps I follow is Catherine Compton-Lilly (2003),
who was committed to social justice and researched in her own context, her own
classroom, similar to my research situation. Compton-Lilly employed the idea that
students' identities and attitudes are constructed within the social histories of families and
their communities. Believing that teachers take limited time to learn about the reading
lives of their students, she set out to research along these lines, seeking to better
understand her students and their resources through understanding their actual reading
lives. She stated, "The major goal of this research is to document the ways my students
and their parents view reading and to situate their experiences within the social and
political world they inhabit" (p. 2). This is the first component of my research to find out
who my students are as literacy learners; I, also, want to develop relationships with family
members for greater understanding of my students and build a more inclusive and
responsive learning community.
Compton-Lilly explored the discourses that occupy schools, some of which are
noticeable in my own school or, at least, in my school system. Some of the issues of
teaching in an urban school that she documented included: teachers had loss of faith/hope
in their abilities to reach and teach children; large schools were singled out as particularly
difficult due to large numbers of students; and principals and teachers had conflict

41

through lack of communication. Compton-Lilly's work seeks to explore how the

discourses operate in educational realms and examine the alternative discourses (those
that challenge the mainstream). Her methodology was organized to "identify the way that
learning is situated within particular communities" (Compton-Lilly, 2003, p. 32). The two
goals were seeing reading as it is situated for her students and how that experience fits
into the larger experience of learning to read.
The children in Compton-Lilly's study were urban, poor, from minority
backgrounds with diverse family backgrounds. There were ten parent-child focus teams.
The data collection methods implemented were parent interviews, student interviews,
additional interviews, classroom data (behaviors exhibited by the childrenor not), audio
and documents, and fieldnotes.
Compton-Lilly's work recognized the resources that parents were to their children.
She explored parents' ideas of reading. Parents in her study held schools accountable for
children's successes or failings. "Other parents point to the role schools play in children
not learning to read" (Compton-Lilly, 2003, p. 53). Parents mentioned students who
passed along regardless of their learning and schools getting rid of trouble-makers.
Parents in this study equated education with better earning potential. Compton-Lilly knew
it was important to have an understanding of parents' ideas on the purpose of school and
value parents' input. Through this kind of work, parents/families become informants
rather than recipients of information regarding students.
An important aspect of Compton-Lilly's research, and mine, is the reality that
school expectations and home expectations are not directly aligned in most cases. As
Compton-Lilly (2003) states:

Of critical importance is the reality that some children's home and school
discourses readily align, while other children encounter great disparity
between the discourses (ways of using language, acting, interacting,
thinking) that they use at home and those that they are expected to acquire at
school, (p. 74)

42

I want to capitalize on the dimensions of home discourses. I want to find common ground
for building multidimensional classrooms. Like Compton-Lilly, I want my work to
challenge stereotypes of urban families and, more specifically, the school possibilities for
poor, urban children.
This work expresses that there exists ground where students' cultural literacies and
schools literacies meet. "Specifically, I explore the ways mainstream discourses,
generally accepted ways of viewing the world, position my students and their families and
how alternate ways of viewing the world intersect with their mainstream discourses"
(Compton-Lilly, 2003, p. 2). Mainstream Discourses are not flexible. But ways are being
explored to create hybrid space for greater entrance where desired and greater respect of
the multitude of literacies that exist; this aspect of Compton-Lilly's work is adapted in the
action research study I am conducting. This literature review will continue with a section
that explores the research on documenting those hybrid spaces.
An Inclusive and Responsive Learning Community. Building on Compton-Lilly's
ideas toward respecting and exploring students' abilities, including conversations with
family members, I recognized that family members in my study had a wealth of
knowledge to share with me. The work of Diane Reay (1998), which focused on mothers,
reminded me that family members were supporters and advocates for their children; her
work revolves around this premise. Parents are viewed as having knowledge and
understanding about good educational choices for their children. Parent and teacher
relationships are addressed as a possible struggle for control and definition. Her research
explores intereactions between moms from the middle and the working classes and the
teachers of their children.

Reay (1998) employed social class and cultural capital as conceptual tools for how
mothers' actions "add up" to significant social differences. Reay opines that "it was
cultural capital which facilitated this weaving in and out of different roles and provided
the middle class mothers with choices that were not open to their working class

43

counterparts" (p. 30). Cultural capital, as expressed by Bourdieu and taken up by Reay, is
exchanged for power or privilege if the capital is recognized by the "authorities" within a
particular context or Discourse as valuable. Thus, Reay analyzes the cultural capital of the
middle-class mothers as affording instances to wield power because schools recognize the
middle-class mothers' capital as valuable. Parents (and children) are regarded
differentially for accessing advantage in school settings by the very "valuing" of different
families' cultural capital from the school's perspective. Reay suggests that people say
social status does not matter, but she holds that it does. Reay calls our attention to this
disparity among classes.
However, an individual teacher or an entire school community could decide their
own views of families' culture capital, perhaps, appreciating the value within each family,
which reflects a wealth model versus a deficit model of families. In this view, schools and
classrooms are more malleable spaces, where very different cultural capital (or various
kinds of resources) can be recognized as valid and valuable for exchange in academic
settings. I strive for this perspective.
Some working class moms separate themselves from the teacher, which may be
caused by their experiences of schooling or a negative impression of the teachers. Reay
(1998) examines oral communication between parent and teacher and written
communication (sent to school), suggesting that middle class moms were more
comfortable in roles that questioned teachers, seen as authority figures. "Everyday
communication between teachers and mothers is shaped by the differential social power
that individuals bring to their interactions" (p. 102). A teacher can improve the relations
with family members through respecting and understanding family members' personal
histories with school and teachers. Not all people's experiences of school have been
positive.
This perspective on families was invaluable to me as I proceeded with my research.

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Understanding Hybrid Spaces

The word "space" holds a concrete definition, but in discussions around places, like
classrooms, the definition of "space" becomes expanded. "Whereas space was once
thought of as empty, available, and waiting to be filled up, recent theorizing about space
has brought to light that space is a product and process of socially dynamic relations"
(Leander & Sheehy, 2004, p. 1). There are many layers in the space of the classroom that
are social and not measurable. Space is always changingnot stabilizing. Change
involves power; researchers need to take issues around space into account, as well as how
power is used, shared, and/or controlled in a classroom environment.
There are various terms used to refer to space. "Spatial metaphors such as
boundaries (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1993), borders (Anzaldua, 1987), margins, centers,
and peripheries (hooks, 1984; Lave & Wenger, 1991) are similarly visual means of
addressing physical experiences and effects of social life" (Leander & Sheehy, 2004,
p. 1). This research is grounded in the idea that students bring their own social, cultural,
and literacy Discourse(s) into the formalized setting of school, where another space has
potential to arise as these multiple Discourses are recognized, valued, and shared. "More
often than we usually care to think, our everyday lives are crisscrossed by border zones,
pockets, and eruptions of all kinds" (Rosado, 1993, p. 207). These spaces, be they zones,
pockets, or eruptions, have the potential to exist and are waiting to be filled with
resources gained from daily interactions in families and communities.
"Hybridity" is a term and construct used in conceptualizing "spaces"; there are
variations in the understandings of hybrid space. Gutierrez et al. (1999) used the hybrid
context of the "third space," where there are rich zones of collaboration (Moll &
Greenberg, 1990). Compton-Lilly (2003) suggests that "third space" constructions within
classrooms would benefit from merging home and school literacies and learning practices
and perspectives. Another similar term is "borderlands," which refers to the space where

45

home and school literacies are situated (Gee, 1992); it is the space that merges where the
two Discourses blend. There are concerns that a student loses a part of herself within a
borderland; the term suggests that only two Discourses come together at the dividing line.
The third space analogy allows for a multidimensional reconstruction of space, opening
beyond pre-established borders. Another variation of the concept of a third space comes
from Soja (1996). In this construction, it is conceivable that one brings one's own
Discourse into another established Discourse, and then a third space is created by the
blending and mingling of the multiple Discourses presented.
Ideas around space are becoming more detailed but share the understanding that
people bring social constructs with them into classrooms. In this study, the hybrid space is
not a neat space where one could easily divide out the two contributing Discourses,
because multiple Discourses are involved in the space's creation. For this reason, I prefer
the term "hybrid spaces," recognizing the vast mixture of contributing resources. Each
individual in the space adds multiple aspects of their identity kit (Discourses) and
multiple knowledges, thus creating a hybrid entity. Each student and the teacher are
contributing to the space at various times, bringing in numerous Discourses and
knowledges to ricochet about the spaces of the classroom. The word "hybrid" in this
definition does not use only two distinct elements in the creation of a third space, but
rather a mixture of elements to create a multifaceted, hybrid space.
Anita Wilson (2000) challenges researchers to examine the point of view that all
learners bring their own Discourse, their vernacular literacies, into learning. Wilson
states, "However, just as borderland Discourse involves culturally-specific thoughts, acts,
opinions, events and practices, so in-between literacies embedded within it retain a

culturally-specific understanding that expands beyond the mere acts of reading and
writing" (p. 67). People choose to reappropriate inside practices and outside practices "to
determine the culturally-specific space and features of their everyday lives" (p. 61). There
is no escape from hybrid spaces; they cannot help but exist (Wilson, 2000). But can they

46

be recognized and utilized? The question becomes: Can teachers pick up on that space,
thus creating more inviting learning spaces for our students?
Hybridity in an After-School Setting
Much research on hybrid literacy practices took place outside the regular school
hours in after-school programs and extended activities outside the school completely.
Gutierrez et al. (1999) documented the work of an after-school computer program for
bilingual students that was developed with language and literacy as the mediating tools in
collaborative learning. There was a "focus on how the larger learning context influences
and organizes learning in the cooperative learning activity" (p. 1). The cooperative
learning environment was set in place as a recognition that hybridity is not the students'
code-switching but of a community's efforts to come to a shared or mutual
understanding. Hybrid literacy practices were "more a systematic, strategic, affiliative,
and sense-making process among those who share the code" (p. 3). Community members
needed to negotiate their roles and understandings as they co-participate in the activities
of learning, seeking to create a shared space of understanding. These productive spaces
for learning have been referred to as the third space (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, &
Turner, 1997) in this study.
Another aspect of this study that the authors established was a fun, playful
environment. Adopting the belief that natural learning comes out of play, a character
called "El Maga," a co-member in the Spanish-speaking community, was developed;
students maintained regular computer communication with El Maga as part of the
ongoing literacy activities in which the students engaged. Problem-solving was part of
their regular computer exchanges. Through documentation of these activities, findings
included productive joint activity and the building of relationships using students'
hybridity. "There is an urgency for creating such rich contexts for learning ... embedded
in a playful and stimulating learning environment" (Gutierrez et al., 1999, p. 7). Bilingual

47

students who connect their larger linguistic inventory, including their home languages, to
their literacy practices make noticeable gains.
Although this study was done around the work of bilingual students, the lessons
learned carry to my study. The bilingual nature of the study informs my study because
multiple ways of speaking are seen as generative and open up spaces for new kinds of
thinking and communicating. Hybridity provides learners with an opportunity to
capitalize on their personal resources while making sense of others' understandings. It is
important, as evidenced in this study, to create learning environments that allow space for
students to bring their Discourses, their histories, their lives. Can this space be provided
even in the formal classroom setting?
Hybridity within the Classroom
Luis C. Moll and James B. Greenberg (1990) have examined creating zones of
possibilities where social contexts are combined toward instruction. Their study
examined households' social histories, inclusive of labor and language particularly. The
researchers made attempts to derive what instructional innovations were made possible by
this research. The research had three main parts, interrelated activities:
1.

an ethnographic examination of the transmission of knowledge and skills

among households

2.

creation of an after-school laboratory setting where teachers and researchers

explore literacy instruction innovations with the community information that
is unearthed

3.

classroom observations that seek to use the innovations from the after-school
laboratory to change instruction in the classroom and improve instruction.

An effort was made to create "multiple paths, between classrooms and households" (Moll
& Greenberg, 1990, p. 320). This work began by examining the "funds of knowledge,"
the social sharing of knowledge. The researchers compared these to the usual social

48

practices in classrooms. Finally, the household concepts and the classroom contexts were
merged in two case studies to develop innovative literacy practices, which built on the
strengths of students' "funds of knowledge."
Moll and Greenberg's (1990) study was conducted in Tucson, Arizona with a
predominantly Mexican-American population. Moll and Greenberg adopted the term
"confianza," which means mutual trust, as a vital aspect of their work. "This term refers
to reciprocal exchange relations that form social networks among households" (p. 321).
The transmission of knowledge, skills, and information occurs in these networks of
people or shared social contexts.
Moll and Greenberg(1990) highlighted the Aguilar and Morales families, as an
extended family or network. They were being studied because they shared and exchanged
their "funds of knowledge" or bodies of knowledge. To these researchers, the funds of
knowledge were an "operations manual of essential information and strategies households
need to maintain their well being" (p. 323). These "funds of knowledge" required specific
knowledge of strategic importance in one's world/reality. An example from the Aguilar
family clarified this point. The father did mechanical work; his son followed his lead at a
young age. Though the child's help was negligible, he was encouraged to learn this family
"fund of knowledge." It was understood that the task may be easier without the child's
assistance, but that the participation was essential to learning. The social relations were
the motivation for applying and acquiring knowledge. Learning was taking place within
an authentic learning environment. Furthermore, these learning exchanges were multistranded in that they involved multiple persons. Thus, there was a reciprocity to the
learning, a give and take.

In this study, connections were developed among the households, the laboratory,
and the classroom. Modules were developed to assist the connections. Each module
opened itself to a variety of learning. There was a respect of the constraints that teachers
work withinmandates of curriculum, testing, and the like. Students had limited room

49

for ownership in classrooms that must yield to the demands of local, state, and national
mandates. "In our classroom observations we have found many of the rote and
reductionist instructional elements that characterize working-class schooling in general"
(Moll & Greenberg, 1990, p. 328). Moll and Greenberg encouraged teachers to provide
situations where students had more control over their learning. In this work, the
researchers suggested that students seek answers to self-posed questions in units or
modules that students construct, using themselves and their classmates as resources.
Adults did not control the activities; students did.
Teachers extended this module, inviting parents into the classroom as experts
assessing their funds of knowledge for academic purposes. Moll and Greenberg (1990)
state, "It is the 'harnessing' of social resources for the transformation of teaching and
learning that is the essence of our project" (p. 344). Teachers reported that students were
surprised to view parents as experts. As a result, social networks became regular features
in classroom instruction. Also, networks were built of available people in the community,
and teachers invited other community members. "These social connections help teachers
and students to develop their awareness of how they can use the everyday to understand
classroom content and use classroom activities to understand social reality" (p. 346). An
important aspect of this research, then, was the relationship between teacher and student,
which has been delineated in the next section on culturally responsive teaching.

Culturally Responsive Teaching

When students come to school, they bring their home lives with them. This fact has
implications for teaching. Geneva Gay (2000) stated, "Individuals cannot be separated
from the contexts of their lives ... if their human integrity is to be honored and their
achievement potential maximized" (p. 207). Students' social and cultural selves are

50

entwined with their academic learning. Teachers need to understand the relationships and
distinction between students' social and academic selves; culture is a significant factor.
Some teachers do recognize the resources that students bring with them to school.
Students may be reached by teaching to and through the students' personal and cultural
strengths, as well as their intellectual abilities and their prior accomplishments. Culturally
responsive teaching requires this approach. Teachers filter curriculum content and
teaching strategies through the students' cultural frames of reference. According to Gloria
Ladson-Billings (1994), this type of teaching "uses student culture in order to maintain it
and to transcend the negative effects of the dominant culture" (p. 17). The students'
cultures are used to enhance learning on many levels.
There are six facets of understanding the term "culturally responsive teaching," as
reported by Gay (2000); culturally responsive teaching is validating, comprehensive,
multidimensional, empowering, transformative, and emancipatory.
Validating: building on students' prior experiences and frames of references,
seeking to validate or affirm their identities
Comprehensive: integrating the whole child, the intellectual, social emotional,
and political aspects inclusive
Multidimensional: throughout the learning process; "encompasses curriculum
content, learning context, classroom climate, student-teacher relationship,
instructional techniques, and performance assessments" (p. 31).
Empowering: enabling students to see their potential as human beings and as
learners
Transformative: recognizing existing strengths of students while moving toward
growth
Emancipatory: creating learning environments that carry students beyond the
traditional school setting, freeing them for deeper understandings.

51

A dimension of caring is a necessary feature in culturally responsive teaching.

Students need to know that teachers are supporting them. Teachers can develop respect
for the students' backgrounds, identities, and humanity, plus they can maintain high
accountability in areas of social, personal, and academic performance. Culturally
responsive teaching stresses the development of self-esteem and positive self-image.
Through pedagogical means, teachers can create cultural awareness, pedagogical
relevance, and academic rigor for their students of color (Hale-Benson, 1986). LadsonBillings (1994) writes in The Dreamkeepers about culturally relevant teaching and ideal
teachers for African American students. She has five main points about culturally
responsive classrooms:
Students are envisioned as competent, and teachers teach with that expectation.
New lessons scaffold to the students' learning experiences.
There is a structured, instructional focus; skills are rebuilt to give foundation.
Teachers look to extend students' thoughts and abilities.
Teachers are expected to know their students and the educational material.
A culturally responsive classroom supports individuals within group contexts, that
is, building the esteem and knowledge of one with the many. These concepts offer
teachers material to contemplate within the realm of their classrooms. Ladson- Billings
recognizes the fact that harsh social and economic conditions also play into the
experiences and difficulties of many African American students in socio-economic
groups. Culturally responsive teaching is needed for everyone and not just for students of
color. Direct membership in the cultural background of one's students is not necessary to
harness the strength of culturally responsive teaching. Ladson-Billings writes that
teachers and schools can have a positive effect. However, an important connection is with
the home, with the families of the students.

52
Chapter Summary
Beyond detailing the theoretical framework for my study, this chapter provided a
discussion of the literature, exploring students' resources (inclusive of family
involvement and influence), hybrid spaces, and culturally responsive teaching. The
theoretical framework drew heavily upon the work of Moll et al. (1990, 1992) with Latino
families, recognizing that students bring their cultural, social and literacy practices (thus
their resources) into their school learning (Moll et al., 1992). I extended my
understandings of resources to include Gee's (1996) concept of Discourses as identity kit,
examining each individual's contributions to the classroom. There was recognition that
literacy was a social activity (Barton, 1994) that was situated within specific contexts.
The lens of critical literacy gave attention to language, culture, power, and history, as they
were enacted in the classroom.
Studies exploring family factors were cited that speak to family involvement. These
studies took various forms. Some consisted of observation and description of what was
naturally occurring in students' homes (Morrow et al, 1995). Others explored authentic
literacy learning opportunities for struggling readers (Brenner, Joyce, & Boutwell, 2003).
Many of the cited works built on family strengths, focusing on conversations with family
members (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). Within the exploration
of family strengths and community additions to the classroom, a few of the studies
reviewed were conducted in classrooms settings, such as the work done by Ballenger
(2004) and Dyson (2003).
Most of the reviewed studies about hybridity occurred outside the regular
classroom, in after-school settings. Gutierrez et al. (1999) explored hybrid spaces in afterschool settings, through a computer program that developed language and literacy skills.
In that study, hybrid spaces were viewed as opportunities for students to utilize their
multiple resources. One exception to the pattern of studying hybridity in settings other

53

than the classroom was Moll and Greenberg's (1990) study, which initially studied
resources in a lab setting and then moved to enacting innovation in the classroom. These
researchers were seeking instructional innovations that emerged from students' resources,
adding to the students' learning. This review of literature closed with a section on
culturally responsive teaching, recognizing the necessity for teachers to develop respect
for their students' resources toward the development of self-esteem and positive selfimage, using students' resources and recognizing families contributions. Looking at
students' resources and the occurring hybrid spaces seemed related to some of the key
aspects of culturally responsive pedagogy.

54

Chapter III
METHODOLOGY

It is the teachers who, in the end, will change the world of the school by
understanding it. (Stenhouse, in Ruddock & Hopkins, 1985, p. iv)
The purpose of this action research project was to understand more fully the
cultural, social, and literacy resources that African American children bring with them to
their formal school literacy learning, albeit through the eyes of their White teacher, so as
to aid in the creation of spaces that allow students to more fully reach their literacy
potentials. The research design for this study was action research, which was conducted
by a teacher-researcher within a second grade classroom in a large Eastern city of the
United States. The study was carried out in two phases in the 2006-2007 school year. The
first phase was an introductory phase where the teacher and participants sought to build
familiarity and trust through the creation of a safe classroom environment of comfort and
sharing among all class members. I was watching for students' resources and recording
some of those findings. Toward the end of the first phase, four focal students were
chosen. In the second phase, observations during literacy learning in the classroom began,
along with the family member conversations and the introductory collaborative family
member meeting. Within phase two, there were three cycles of activity where I was
revisiting the data collection methods, reviewing trends in the results, and building on the
learning of the previous phases. Although four focal students were chosen, resources and
themes were presented with some reflection on the activities of the whole class.

55
Rationale for Action Research
Kemmis and McTaggart (2000) have described action research as a social process,
participatory, collaborative, emancipating, and critical. This study's design had these
qualities in mind. The study was subjective in nature because results were being
presented from one person's point of view; therefore, in my position as teacherresearcher, I had to strive to be reflective, open-minded, and representative of the
participants in the study. Thus, a collaboration component of this study added a
dimension of inter-subjective understanding of the children and their families. Bogdan
and Biklen (1998) wrote that "qualitative researchers attempt to expand rather than
confine understanding" (p. 27), reaching toward deeper understandings of students, their
families, and the learning that occurs in school. So the research project did not just define
resources and activities but sought to develop a greater understanding as to how, when,
and why they appeared and occurred in classroom spaces and what these spaces looked
like in action.
The selection of action research as my methodology supported the ongoing effort to
improve, change, and renegotiate the curriculum and teaching in my classroom to align
with my students and their needs. Campano and Carpenter (2005) suggested that "by
infusing the official curriculum with their own life-world experiences, teachers and
students may develop new, more enabling learning experiences where students both
recognize the epistemic value of their cultural backgrounds and gain access to educational
capital" (p. 187). Action research was used as a form of teacher-research that allowed me,
as teacher-researcher, to improve my teaching and the curriculum of my classroom; this
process of collecting and analyzing data closely examined the daily life of the formal
school setting. In this methodology, research was viewed as transformative, aimed at
social change (Noffke, 1997). Action research has been implemented in situations where
teachers wanted to make a reflective change, thinking about where they were and how

56

things might be changed (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2000). I wanted to thoughtfully explore
ways of developing spaces, sometimes through curriculum, sometimes through teaching,
that valued students' resources. My approach was in contrast to research that documented
how schools send school learning into homes. This research suggested that school should
perhaps seek ways to honor and extend home learning practices in classroom spaces. This
addressed my desire to examine the ways that my students employ their own cultural,
social, and literacy resources in their literacy learning and the ways that I draw upon
students' resources. Action research, as this project was designed, provided the
opportunity. I had been studying these resources informally for years, but this action
research study offered the opportunity to examine closely and document holistically and
analytically the findings of my teaching experience.
In this light, change was reflected in the way the teacher views and/or interacts with
students given a deeper knowledge of the students. Change was seen in the way that
students responded to the creation or recognition of less restrictive or defined spaces.
Finally, change was reflected in the ways families and I, the teacher, interacted. The study
capitalized on engagement and transformation.
Teachers are insiders because they have intimate knowledge about the functions of
their classrooms. It is not inconsequential that the questions teachers ask emanate from
their day-to-day work in classrooms. Teachers' questions come out of the critical
intersection of theory and practice; I have chosen this methodology to enhance the
intersection of my doctoral work and my teaching work, completing one while improving
the other. Other components of teacher research that affect this study and my teaching
include altering the power relations in schools and a deep sense of reflection.
Teacher observations were sifted through the teacher's philosophy, knowledge, and
assumptions. The research was conducted with the mindset that I, as the teacher, learn
and grow with my students. The students who fill my classroom each year have educated
me on many issues about learning, teaching, and, indeed, our world. This research was

57

being done with the hope that students can benefit from the conclusions but also that
teachers, specifically myself, enhance our teaching craft, growing to a stronger
understanding of who our students are and what they bring with them to the formal
setting of school. Echoing Gutierrez et al. (1999), "the goal was learning" for the
students, the teacher, and the families, as well as curious co-workers.
Another aspect of action research was a spiral effect in the design (Kemmis &
McTaggart, 2000). As researcher, I set out with a plan to act and reflect. Then the plan
was re-evaluated before continuing with more action, observation, and reflection. It was
an ongoing continuum. This recursive nature of action research was embedded in the
study's design because of the opportunities to revisit, rethink, and rework the
understandings of the findings.

Design of the Study

This study was an action research project that spanned a school year, comprised of
two phases (see Figure 1). The first phase took place in the months of September through
January, as I got to know my new class of students. During this time, I observed students,
Figure 1
The Research Design
Cultivating
Hybrid Spaces

Identifying
Students'
Resources

Classroom
Observations
>

PHASE ONE
Conversations
with Families
and Students

PHASE TWO
(in three cycles)

58

watching for children who brought their social, cultural, and literacy worlds easily into
the school setting; I watched for students who demonstrated a sense of agency (Dyson,
2003). All children possessed resources, but some children shared them more easily. I
sought four African American students who infused their school learning with their own
cultural, social, and literacy resources. Although all students were observed throughout
the study, four focal students were chosen to study more closely before Phase 2 began.
This study focused on four children who struggled with performance, academically
or behaviorally, in the formalized setting of school. Therefore, I centered this action
research on building common ground between home and school, and creating spaces for
children within the classroom has had positive benefits to students' engagement and
learning. Like Jo-Anne Wilson-Keenan who taught in a first/second grade classroom
(Willett, Solsken, & Wilson-Keenan, 1999), I wanted to "build a community of learners
in [my] classroom where language and literacy would flourish through social interaction
and meaningful communication, where students' growth would unfold from the language
and literacy they brought with them from home" (p. 177). I began cultivating space to
make this type of environment a reality with the start of the school year.
My activities in this first phase included keeping a researcher's journal in which I
recorded thoughts on the research as it began to unfold. This journal was a place for
reflection throughout the study. Separately, in a notebook I recorded fieldnotes on what I
observed students doing to bring their multiple resources into the classroom. How did I
hear their multiple voices? Where in the day did students find opportunity to share these
facets of themselves? Both methods, recording and reflecting observed moments, were
beneficial tools when it came time to choose my four focal students. Once I had chosen

my four focal students, I approached family members to see if there was an interest in
participation from the family.
How did family members come to trust me, as there were many differences that
could separate us? First, family members knew that I had been teaching at this school for

59

over 10 years; my longevity spoke to my commitment to the neighborhood and the

children. Second, there was an understanding among families at my school, evidenced in
notes and comments from family members, that I cared about my students and wanted
what was best for the children. This was a huge benefit in doing research in my
classroom, as I had an established rapport with the families. Third, over the last 16 years,
I had been improving my skills listening to family members as experts, recognizing
people's power and their expertise that opens the channels of communication. By the end
of this phase, I had chosen the four focal students based on my observations of students,
as well as the availability of the children and their family members. Once the children
were chosen, a number of activities were undertaken: paperwork/permission, an
introductory collaborative meeting with family members (as a group) to discuss the
purpose of this research study in more depth than the permission letter allowed, and
documenting the cultural, social, and literacy resources that children brought into their
literacy learning.
The second phase began in January and continued through June. This phase was
broken into three cycles of action and reflection. Throughout these three cycles, I
continued to document cultural, social, and literacy resources that children brought into
their literacy learning. In the second cycle, observations were scheduled twice each week,
which allowed each focal student to be observed twice a month, depending on the
schedule of the class and school (e.g., trips, testing). There was flexibility during
especially active weeks where time may not have been available to have a formal
observation. I had regular conversations with individual family members, seeking their
expertise by sharing data and ideas about the data collected in class. These individual

conversations took place at school at the family members' convenience, as well as outside
the school building upon dismissal. There were multiple conversations with family
members; I tried to have at least two informal conversations with individual family
members. There were more moments after school and on trips in which I was able to

60

follow up on reflection. These conversations were very informative because family

members had an opportunity to share their impressions of their children's experiences and
learning so far at home and in the formal setting of school.
During each cycle, I took action to purposely create and/or recognize students'
creation(s) of hybrid spaces that opened, utilizing students' multiple resources. Some of
these spaces were opened or created by the students and others by me. Laman (2006)
suggested that "examining children's cultural models has implications for studying
classroom conversations and curriculum" (p. 213). To examine classroom conversations
and curriculum, some of the areas I focused on were: interactive read-aloud, talk, critical
reading strategies, and critical inquiry in the classroom (Laman, 2006). Van Sluys (2006)
provided a list of activities that helped guide this study:
Establishing a consciousness of resources and literacy practices through regular
reflection
Assembling rich sources from libraries, families, etc. so students see their lives
in school context
Encouraging students to be decision makers
Inviting families into the learning process (i.e., classroom events)
Incorporating technology as a process tool
Including language learners in a rich, holistic language experience
Recognizing, supporting, and utilizing identities that students bring with them to
the classroom
I encouraged hybrid spaces to be powerful, taking up the lens of critical literacy that
encouraged growth of understanding and control over the social life that we participate in.

All of these actions reflected our attempts to open up, work within, and question these
complex, enriching, and, sometimes, messy spaces.
In my researcher's reflective notebook, I watched for what was working and what
needed to be improved in the stages of data collection progress; the analysis of fieldnotes

61

and interviews assisted in determining the direction of the next cycle of documenting
resources and spaces. Throughout the three cycles of the second phase, I concentrated on
collecting data that reflected students' resources by documenting what I noticed in the
classroom and what family members noticed at home. I was mindful of spaces in this
second phase but continued concentrating on identifying students' resources as well.
The first cycle of Phase 2 began in January and continued through February; this
was an early start phase where I began experimenting with my research tools, as I awaited
the final permissions necessary to begin the project in my classroom. The second cycle of
Phase 2 took place over March and April. The second family member collaborative
conversation took place during this time. There was at least one individual conversation
with each family member. I watched for patterns and themes that arose out of the data to
discuss with the family members individually and collectively. The conversations
between family members and myself became deeper at this time of the school year, as
hoped; we had had a chance to get to know each other on a more personal, interactive
level.
The third cycle of Phase 2 bridged May and June; the cycle of action and reflection
was repeated for the third time. There were ongoing observations of the four focal
students, and continued conversations occurred with family members. Where it was
possible, we built on what had been learned thus far with an effort to take our thinking
and thus the research further. Reflection on what was being learned was continued. At
this stage, I wanted to share the patterns and themes that came out of the data and discuss
the findings. Not only did I want to discuss with family members what was learned about
the children's resources and hybrid spaces in the classroom; I also wanted to get family

members' perspectives on the work that we had done together.

As the school year drew to an end, the study also came to its conclusion. At this
point, there was a culminating collaborative meeting with family members to discuss this
process of research and what we learned from it. At the end of this phase, the classroom

62

observations were discontinued, though any occurrences of interest that popped up in

ongoing classroom activities were still documented. I was sure to keep connections with
family members open so that further inquiries could be pursued as needed.
The design outlined above is summarized in Table 1, representing the phases of
data collection for the study, the activities that were planned for the two phases, and the
data sources that emanated from them.

Table 1
Delineating the Research Process
PHASE
PHASE 1
(Sept.-Dec.)

ACTIVITY
*Build caring classroom
environment
*Observe students, watching for
students who bring their resources
easily into the classroom

DATA COLLECTED
*Teachers' reflections
*Observational fieldnotes on
recognition of students' resources
*Collect artifacts from students'
school work

* Selection process for four focal

students
PHASE 2
CYCLE 1
(Jan.-Feb.)

*Document cultural, social, and

literacy resources that children bring
into their literacy learning

""Observations/ fieldnotes of read

aloud, class meetings, and
workshops.

""Initiate first Family Collaborative

Meeting

*Notes from first Family

Collaborative Meeting

*Begin individual family

conversations seeking family
member (FM) expertise

* Audio tape of focal students'

conversations

*Work to create/recognize hybrid

spaces

* Audio tape & transcripts of family

conversations
Teacher's reflections

*Revisit and organize data

^Collect artifacts from home and
school (drawings, writings,...)

63
Table 1 (continued)
PHASE
PHASE 2
CYCLE 2
(March- April)

ACTIVITY

DATA COLLECTED

*Remain open to new directions

"Observations/ fieldnotes of class

moments (See cycle 1) but also
spaces children create inside/outside
the spaces being created by the
teacher

* Began "What's on Your Brainsregular sessions

* Audio tape of focal students'

conversations

*Repeat activities of Cycle 1

*Watch for patterns and big ideas

* Audio tapes & transcripts of family

conversations
Teachers reflections
*Collect artifacts (drawing,
writing,...) from home and school
PHASE 2
CYCLE 3
(May- June)

*Repeat the cycle, building where

possible on what has been learned
thus far
""Implemented The History Club

*Same as Cycle 2

"This phase marks end of

observations

""Concluding collaborative meeting; "Maintain connections with family

share data and findings and seek FM members so that further inquiries
impressions
can be discussed

Positionality of the Teacher-Researcher

My 16 years of experience teaching 2nd grade have all taken place in this school.
Previously, I taught kindergarten for five years in a Bronx private school, so I have a
grasp of the concept of school cultures and how they can vary from school to school. My
teaching and my collegiate learning have taken place in an urban setting, though my own
education took place in suburban settings up to 12th grade. My choices to live and work
in an urban setting, particularly in a school located in a region that is viewed by some
people as failing, come from my political and spiritual beliefs centered in concepts of
social justice.

64

Teachers must understand what they personally bring to their classrooms. My

personal Discourses are a part of this study, as they affect the students. Having grown up
in a White, middle class family, I bring expectations and understandings of education
with me to the process of studying students' learning in the formal educational setting of
our classroom. These expectations and understandings need to be scrutinized in regard to
how they affect the literacy learning in our classroom, whether positively, negatively, or
neutrally.
Literacy has been considered a gift in my family; the sharing of words and stories
was part of every day. There were always stacks of books, newspapers, and magazines
around our house. My parents were always reading from a pile at one time. It was a given
that we would all reach for formal education and achieve high levels of it. My father was
the first person in his family to attend college; in doing so, he broke barriers for other
family members after him. My mother's attending college was an expectation. Thus,
regarding a college education for my parents' children, the expectation was always clear:
we would attend and graduate.
Coming out of my school experiences, I believe that students need to find books
that speak to them. I bring a strong belief that enjoyment is a large part of the learning
process. Students should be engaged in personal ways. My own childhood experiences of
travel and curiosity lead me to want my students to be able to find their way around their
own world ... and also run and jump into a book to go elsewhere and explore new realms.
I want my students to know about their lives and the world around them; literacy,
therefore, holds significant meaning toward this exploration. Some of these ideas come
out of my youth, but they are supported by the work of many other teachers like Freire,
hooks, and Nieto, scholars who have influenced me.
How did I come to teaching in this urban setting? I attended college in this large
Eastern urban center in which I teach. I felt that I was in the right place: the music, the
dance, the art, the varied faces, the languages. The cultural multiplicity spoke to me,

65

awakening my imagination and appreciation for our extended world and its diversity. I
tutored at a city school and found personal learning opportunities and loving exchanges
with appreciative students. This volunteer opportunity and others helped me develop a
fuller understanding of the rewards of teaching experiences.
When I first came to teach at P.S. 1955 (a pseudonym), I was concerned as to how I
would be viewed by the people around me. The other White faces in the building
belonged to half of the teaching staff. There were many White teachers, but there were no
identified White students. What would the African American and Latino student majority
make of me? How would they treat me? Trust me? And would I be able to teach them?
My discomfort was not so misplaced. Although that would have been my 6th year
teaching, I felt like a new teacher. My students were constantly challenging and testing
me. I believe that were testing my level of care and concern. Of course, I had a lot to
learn, as this was a new cultural setting to me. In the latter part of winter, an event
occurred that let me know that the tides were changing regarding students' understanding
of who I was. As I was bent down in conversation with one student, I heard across the
room a discussion among a small group of African American students about White
people. The students were talking about the "White man" and oppression. One student
stopped, as the conversation escalated, and added, "Ms. Kruger isn't White though." I
was not being considered a negative force; a distinction was made between forces that
were viewed as bad and me as an individual. I believe children have an innate ability to
recognize a person's ability to care. Since my first-year experience, I have watched new
teachers go through a similar test. I did not and do not want to be viewed as only a White
teacher, as that was just one of my Discourses. I was glad to feel a part of the connected,

larger school family.

Examining myself as a teacher, I have to refer to the work of Sonia Nieto and her
emphasis on the words: love, passion, joy, concern. Karen Gelzin, a teacher working with
Nieto, articulated that relationships transform (Nieto, 2003). By cultivating relationships

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with children and their families, where the children know that the relationships are
providing support, we enable children to empower themselves, to believe, and, hopefully,
to achieve.
Creating environments where students feel safe takes work around issues of teacher
and student relationships. Respect is an important aspect of teaching, as are close
relationships between students and teachers (Nieto, 2003). Sonia Nieto expands on the
idea of respect and uses the term "love." "Love, then, is not simply a sentimental
conferring of emotion; it is a blend of confidence, faith, and admiration for students and
appreciation for the strengths they bring with them" (pp. 37-38). In this view, teachers are
expected to cultivate rich relationships with their students; relationships that recognize
and celebrate difference or variation.
How do teachers open their classrooms to make space for children so that children
can be grounded in their education and their education can be grounded in them? Some
suggestions from Nieto include: respecting and affirming students' identities, forging
deep connections with students (regardless of teaching across difference), setting high
expectations, and maintaining solid faith in students' abilities. She also reminds us that
we should be refusing to give into the negative expectations that others may have of
urban schools and the students within them. Nieto's challenges have had rich results in
my own classroom. Throughout my school, students know teachers who care about them
and want the best for them; many positive effects have been witnessed from these
relationships.
How teachers respond to students makes a difference in the information that is
shared in school situations. Stephanie Jones has written on living in poverty and literacy

learning. Though not all of the students I teach are at the poverty level but many are near
or below that point, Jones (2004) suggests that teachers' responses to students should be,
first, as a human and then as a teacher. Listening to my students' ideas is placed in the
forefront. My students and I may not share the same Discourses. Although it is

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comfortable and natural to listen to stories that concur within my own understandings, the
challenge is to find the familiar and the importance in the stories that students share with
me, even when, or especially when, they are not in line with my personal Discourses. One
positive is that students feel more connected to school when their stories are listened to
and given validity. I strive to cultivate a classroom atmosphere that provides a sense of
safety for students to share their realities.
The School Setting
The class where the study took place was Class X (a pseudonym), a second grade
classroom situated in P.S. 1955 Elementary School. The school is located in a
predominantly African American neighborhood, an urban setting, surrounded by city
housing buildings; there are two separate housing units each with an economic culture of
its own. The three-story school building was built in 1967, and the building is full, with
near 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten to sixth grade.
Within the school, there are 968 students. Approximately 82% are African
American, 12% are Latino, and 6% are divided between Asian American and Middle
Eastern descent. 88.5% of the students, school-wide, are allocated free lunches. The
students come from homes with two parents, single parents, foster parents, grandparents,
and other related adults caring for them.
The school is in a school district that has consistently scored low on the required
citywide testing, reported report card style (http://schools.nyc.gov/daa/SchoolReports/).
These tests, which are challenged on cultural and educational levels, still serve as a
benchmark of success as determined by the city, state, and national governments. These
test scores have increased for P.S. 1955 in recent years, but the school district is still
viewed as struggling by city officials.
There are 62 teachers in this school. At this public school, 98.4% of the teaching
staff is fully licensed. Sixty-nine and seven-tenths percent of the teachers have two or

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more years experience teaching at this school; 58.1% have experience teaching in any
school. Three-fourths (74.2%) of the staff have earned their master's degree or higher;
citywide this statistic is 83.8% (http://schools.nyc.gov/daa/SchoolReports/). With these
statistics in mind, I have been teaching at this school for 16 years, have a master's degree
and 30 credits above, and am fully licensed.

The Literacy Curriculum

In 2003, New York City mandated the use of a balanced literacy curriculum model.
This literacy curriculum included sessions of time devoted to reading workshop, writing
workshop, word work, and read alouds/shared reading. Teaching instruction is focused on
more time for students' actual time reading, whether individually or in small groups. The
city's Department of Education recognized that there is not one method for meeting the
diverse needs of all students. A balanced literacy approach allowed various possibilities
to accommodate a large range of learning styles and teaching practices. The three
components that were considered the pillars of balanced literacy according to the city's
handbook were word work, writing, and reading (Stabiner, Chasin, & Haver, 2003).
The phonics component of this Balanced Literacy curriculum was referred to as
Word Work; within this daily study of words, teachers presented short, intense, and
explicit lessons in exploring the making of words. Each week teachers were expected to
introduce students to five new words, which would be posted on the class word wall,
virtually a working dictionary. Throughout the week, there were various activities that the
class did to reinforce the words and build on them. Hall and Cunningham's (1998)
Month-By-Month Phonics was adopted to strengthen the phonics, or more generally, word

work component of the citywide literacy program.

The literacy programs implemented in the school were based on the workshop
model of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Although this mandate was
recent, I had been practicing reading and writing workshops as defined by the Teachers

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College Writing Project since 1996, when our school received professional development
opportunities from the college on site. Comprehension lessons were part of the reading
workshop; this workshop was scheduled for an hour daily. During this hour, the time was
divided into 10 minutes for mini-lessons, 40 minutes for individual practice, and 10
minutes for sharing. This same structure was in place for the writing workshop as well.
One of the powerful additions of this curriculum was that it encouraged children to
construct their multiple voices. The workshop models opened classrooms so that teachers
and students alike could hear and see (through the writing) students' thinking,
understandings, and experiences, allowing children's voices, thoughts, and ideas to be
heard. The writing workshop sought to develop students' stories, and the reading
workshop pushed children to interact with text on various levels: text-to-world, text-totext, and text-to-self. Thus, the literacy sessions provided excellent opportunities for me,
as researcher, to learn more about the resources that students bring into their formal
school learning. One powerful tool for discovery in the workshop model was conferences
between the individual students and the teacher. I learned a lot about students as learners
but also as people in these one-to-one meetings.
Reading aloud was stressed in multiple ways in this new program to extend
throughout the learning, across the subjects. Books were shared in read alouds to extend
children's vocabulary strength and confidence, and to connect to learning themes. Also,
as always, a read aloud could be for pure enjoyment.
The Classroom
The classroom is configured with particular interactions in mind. This section
provides an image of the setting of this study. The classroom is square more than
rectangular. Closets and a sink line one side, while two sets of windows bookend bulletin
boards on the opposing wall. The front of the room has chalkboards, mostly wall-to-wall,
that are covered by chart pockets on one side and students' science work on the other

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side. The back of the room has bulletin boards as well; one third of that board is a word
wall that grows as the school year continues. The walls are blue and the ceiling is freshly
painted white, with brand new lighting. The red-trimmed windows are new, too, but the
blinds within the windows are often not working, which inhibits sunlight in the
classroom. A hanging plant collects some light by the set of windows in the back of the
classroom.
The classroom is organized with four tables made up of individual desks, clustered
toward the front. This structure is used to capitalize on collaborative modes of learning.
Surrounding this section in an L-shape are the writing/art center (paints, scissors,
markers, crayons), the library, the Word Work center (dry erase board, magnetic letters),
the Math center (rich with manipulatives, such as base ten blocks, calculators, and
attribute blocks), and the science/technology center. This science section, located by the
front windows, has some plants adorning it and changing exhibits depending on the
current science learning. Behind the science table is a computer that was donated to the
classroom with a working printer.
Located in the back of the room, the library is full of many reading texts,
organized in baskets by level and genre. There is a large rug that easily provides space for
this class of 20 students. Near the back windows at the edge of the carpet, there is a big
chair and a small table with library books and a read-aloud book basket; a globe adorns
the small table, too. Students often read at the long, rectangular table in the writing/art
center, at their desks, in the Math center, or stretched out on the carpet. That long,
rectangular table in the back by the sink also serves as cooking table, art table, game
table, and writing table.

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Learning From Exploratory Work
During the spring of 2004,1 conducted an exploratory study in my classroom from
March 9th through April 19th. The purpose of the exploratory work was to document my
students' literacy practices and watch for ways that students brought their own Discourses
into their classroom learning by incorporating resources. This work was grounded in the
belief that students had much to contribute to their learning in the classroom setting. For
the exploratory study, I chose two focal students; both were African American males who
were second graders and had been held over two different times. These students were
struggling in the space of school in behavioral and academic ways but also demonstrated
a sense of agency about their learning, infusing their lives into the classroom.
This exploratory work gave me the opportunity to try research from the role of
teacher, to watch my students purposefully and closely for the multiple resources they
employed in their literacy learning, and to gain an understanding of how to go about
interviewing young children. Six classroom observations were documented through
fieldnotes kept in a notebook that were re-visited when I was alone and could add further
description. At that time, I was able to read over the notes and enter information that was
not jotted down initially. This style of keeping fieldnotes was beneficial for capturing
examples while a multitude of other activities were transpiring and distracting me, as
teacher, in a variety of ways.
When it was time to read over the fieldnotes with the purpose of coding, I found
the process easy, as the images remained clear. I could still relate to most of the notes as
purposeful, though there were a few that I was unsure of why I had recorded. I challenged
myself with the complexity of "seeing" in a multicultural classroom (Freedman, Simons,
Kalnin, Casereno, & the M-Class teams, 1999), trying to observe outside of my own
perspective, and being alert to students' selves and the literacy practices encompassed in
the classroom. Data were analyzed through constantly revisiting the material, re-reading
and rethinking the events. New thoughts and concepts were noted near the original notes.

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When the data became familiar, I attempted to code my notes. Some obvious categories
surfaced: literacy practices (in general), writing practices, interactions, friendship (and/or
teamwork), attitude, and "outside of school seeping in." These categories forced me to
see that students' resources in the classroom extended beyond literacy practices informing
my first research question for this current study, which examines the multiple resources
upon which students draw. In this exploratory work, what became interesting was how
the two focal students developed a "friendship team" because of the combination of
friendship's caring and social aspects of teamwork. I began asking, what are the students
bringing to the learning from outside school? I found myself more interested in the
multiple resources they were utilizing than the school-bound literacy practices in which
they were engaging. My research took on new dimensions while documenting their
literacy practices.
Before I undertook this work, I was unsure how I would have time to document the
examples I witnessed in my classroom. There was not much "down time" once children
filled the room. This work helped me find a balance to document events closely during
class time. Much was learned through this exploratory process. Also, in this whirlwind
adventure, it became clear that not all questions raised during my observations would be
answered. In one researcher's entry I asked, "Was it me? Or this his own?" regarding
whether a student was impacted by something we discussed in class (set forth by me) or
whether he had another resource as his focus. I wanted to get back to probe the student on
this point, but I never returned to that point. It did not negatively affect the direction of
the exploratory work and, actually, appeared to be part of the questioning process's ebb
and flow. Some opportunities were lost while others were gained. Research took on a

natural flow of its own as I revisited the previous observations and moved ahead.
During this exploratory work, talking with students while observing the classroom
felt different from the informal, one-to-one interviews. These two students knew that I
was focusing on them, as I had spoken with their mothers and with them. All had given

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their permission. The boys did not seem to act differently in class, which I attributed to
their youth and the atmosphere of the class, where we were always asking questions and
trying to understand things more deeply. In fact, one of the focal students seemed to have
a curiosity toward my questions and extremely thoughtful responses, more like a
co-researcher. During the one-to-one, informal interviews, my focal students were not as
fully engaged as during the informal conversations we had during class time, directly
related to their learning and their literacy practices in the moment. For the interviews, one
focal student and I would meet together usually in the library or the empty classroom. I
struggled through one interview with Kyle that left me wishing for time in class to talk. I
had directions for our informal interview, though no slated protocol. Kyle answered my
questions in a very brief manner that did not ignite our talk. Some new information was
documented, but much more came from the time in the classroom.
There was another side to this issue of talking with students. In late March, I
needed to interview one of the focal students again. But I was unable due to angst
between the two of us. In my researcher's notebook I wrote:
Today I attempted to interview Jonathan.... Disrespect drips off himhe
focuses a lot of his negative attention ON me. Two seconds earlierhe held
the door open for me ... he doesn't want to be challenged to be responsible
for his BEHAVIOR. (Yet, I believe he does.)
It was a rough time of the year, and we were both feeling it. I let some time pass and then
got back to the interview. When we sat down together, we were both ready. I learned a
lesson not only about letting time elapse but also about being sensitive to the timing of
the school year as well. It has become clear over the years that there are some patterns in
the school year. The reflective researcher's notebook helped me gauge the passage of time
and recognize that there were elements of my humanness embedded in this research.
One tremendous source in this exploratory work was the meetings with the focal
boys' mothers. Neither of the interviews was recorded, and much information was lost as
I was caught up listening and conversing with these moms. I tried to keep notes, but the

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passion that each woman had as she was given the chance to talk about her son pulled me
from that task of note-taking. The use of audiotaping was needed. It was clear to me that
the family members enjoyed having the opportunity to share their thoughts about their
child around more than the grades on their report cards. Listening was an effective
method for gaining understanding and building trust. This exploratory work provided
many insights to the study I have designed for my doctoral work, particularly in the
choices that I have made for my methodology.
Participant Selection: The Students and Their Families
At the beginning of the school year, the majority of my students were seven-yearolds, turning eight over the course of the school year. This year there were four children
repeating second grade. The class dynamics this year differed slightly from the school's
demographics; this year's class statistics were: 67.5% African American, 30% Latino, and
2.5% Vietnamese. This is a higher population of Latino children, as compared to the last
few years. Another intriguing and irregular dynamic of this year's class was the ratio of
girls to boys. There were 7 girls and 13 boys, which affected the general space of our
classroom. A roster of only 20 is the smallest class of my teaching career, but the amount
of boys kept the energy level high.
For the purpose of this study, I chose focal students who were somehow outside the
mainstream of school. In other words, the focal students were in some way struggling
with school, whether that was academically or behavorially. However, the focal students
were to be agentic (Dyson, 2003) students who were self-advocates and brought
themselves, and their resources, into the setting of school. All four focal students were
children who needed to expand their writing abilities in crafting and revision.
Handwriting was challenging for two of the focal students, in that they had difficulty
forming letters rapidly to express their ideas. For example, Jayson, who was the class
spelling champion in multiple monthly spelling bees and represented the class in the

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schoolwide spelling bee at the end of the year, claimed to hate writing. Ironically, he was
a master storyteller. But putting the stories on paper was challenging due to handwriting
and composing issues.
Four focal students were chosen after five months together in the classroom
through observations of their abilities to bring in their own resources to the classroom
learning. Two of the four focal students, Jayson and Calvin, noticeably and fluidly
brought their resources into the classroom; early in the year, I decided that they would be
interesting focal students for this study. On September 9, 2007,1 wrote in my researcher's
journal: "Jayson brings in so much of himself. His emotions are hitting very hard right
now. He goes to tears very quickly. New to schoolhe cried regarding lack of friends.
Another day he cried in frustration of an argument and getting in 'trouble'." Jasira,
Jayson's mom, informed me that Jayson had participated in an anger management group
at his last school to help him with his anger issues. His tears showed a softer way of
dealing with his anger, but rage was sometimes a method of emoting. Fights in class with
other students were a byproduct. "Jayson's mom was truthfuland clearly sharing to
inform of details she wanted me to knowknowing, it seems, that the more I know the
more I can work with her son" (Researchers' Journal, 10-23-07). Jayson was bringing his
multiple resources into the classroom, and already his mother was participating to help
me understand her son more deeply. Calvin brought in his family stories frequently to our
read alouds and other spaces. He was signed up by his first grade teacher to participate in
our extended day program that focused on literacy skills for children who needed extra
help. Both of these characteristics made him a prime focal student candidate.
In my researcher's journal, I noted: "Talilearning (focus?) is a challenge

potential is evident. As the year passes he becomes more understanding of my insistence

to good 'behavior.' He responds faster and smiles more easily. He doesn't bring himself
forward quicklyhe's somewhat immatureyet he 'knows' things. (Hmmm?)"
Although Tali was not bringing his multiple resources forward as easily as the first two

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chosen focal students, I believed that he would add to the dynamics of this study. It was
suggested to me that not all my focal students should be children who bring themselves in
easily. How does this work look when the teacher has to delve in to unveil the resources?
So Tali became a prime candidate.
Including a girl as a focal student was more challenging. First, there were fewer to
choose from. Then there were only three girls struggling academically in literacy, reading
below grade level, as measured by the mandated E-CLAS assessment. (E-CLAS measures
basic phonetic understandings and has a comprehension component as well. It is given
individually to each student, by their teacher.) I chose Diamond because of her
enthusiasm; she was willing to share and not hesitant to open spaces for herself.
Prior to moving into a discussion on the family members' participation, the term
"family members" deserves to be delineated. "Parent" is the word that often is used to
talk about the primary caregivers of children. However, many children have caregivers
other than their biological mother and father. So, for this study, I employ the term "family
member(s)" to refer to the primary caregivers of students. In so doing, I am attempting to
respect that role of primary caregivers, noting that they may not be the child's birth
parents. The family members representing three of the four focal students were mothers.
The fourth was a foster care mother. It was four female family members who consented to
participate, four moms. This reflected the findings of Diane Reay (1998), who found that
mothers predominantly are the family members who interact with children's schooling,
possibly due to traditional roles of mother as caregiver and father as provider. Another
aspect of interest was that three or the four focal students did not have father figures
living with them; yet, there were male role models in most of their lives. The four family
members are introduced in Table 2.

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Table 2
Introducing the Focal Family Members
Name

Jasira

Camille

Jess

Deiiise

Age

20s

Late 30s

Mid- 40s

Late 40s

Occupation

Mother

Security Guard

Student/clerk

Mother/
Foster Mother

Years in this
Neighborhood

Less than 1

Less than 5

Less than 1

Over 5

Child's Name

Jayson

Calvin

Tali

Diamond

Family Members in Collaboration

Recognizing the magnitude of family members' contributions, when organizing
this study, I knew family members would be a vital aspect for gaining information,
though in the early stages of formation of this study I struggled with this component,
apprehensive of the interactions with family members due to differences of opinion,
language, and experiences. Would collaboration be beneficial? Would conversations be
focused on the students and the research issues? Or would family member interaction
focus solely on their individual child and current concerns in the classroom? What I have
come to learn is that the answers to these questions is yesand that the convergence of
ideas circles around the action research, which examines the students' resources and the
hybrid spaces in the classroom. All of the above topics occurred for the enrichment of
understanding; it was not problematic to focus on one child for a time, considering the
possibilities of meeting students' needs and the directions that were spurred for the
research.

The pilot study that I enacted prior to this research taught me that family member
involvement was going to be imperative for this study, even though it was not central to
that work. In my reflections of the pilot study, I wrote: "Throughout the research I had a
number of informal meetings with both boys' mothers. The talk that transpired was

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enriching and helped with further understanding [of] their sons' needs." This
collaboration made me realize the importance of family members' viewpoints, as insights
to understanding students more deeply and with multiple perspectives. The brief informal
meetings in the pilot study also changed the dynamics of the overall interactions I had
with the boys' mothers, leading to more open and balanced exchanges, which was a hope
of this broader study.
One early question in my researcher's journal was: How would the family members
respond to the invitations? I was concerned that family members might not see this
collaboration as potentially beneficial for everyone involved. Perhaps the time
commitment would be overwhelming. I requested three collaborative meetings and at
least two individual conversations, with, perhaps, a few other interchanges. Thankfully,
my worry was misplaced. The first two family members that I approached were Calvin's
and Jayson's mothers, Camille and Jasira. Both women accepted quickly and
enthusiastically, which gave me confidence to pursue the remaining two family members.
The third family member I approached, Tali's mom Jess, was cautious and concerned that
the research might negatively portray herself, her child, or her cultural group. She shared
with me that she spoke with people in her college classes about the prospect of
participating in a research project; the reactions within that group were mixed. When I
shared that Camille was participating, a family member she had met on a trip and
respected, she considered it. Jess agreed to attend the first collaborative meeting with the
option to withdraw if she felt disenchanted; she participated throughout the entire study.
Diamond's foster mom, Denise, agreed to come to the first meeting, though she was
concerned over the two little children she was responsible for. During each collaborative

meeting, two teachers volunteered to watch after the children for us, which brought
Denise out to join us for the first meeting. However, once she arrived, something
happened with the two-year-old child's coat, making it impossible to zipper. This event
changed Denise's decision to remain at that first collaborative meeting. She left, and she

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never returned to the collaborative meetings, citing her responsibilities to these foster
children. I never pushed her participation, but when I called her to follow up on her
participation, she stated that she wanted Diamond to remain a focal student; she was
willing to have phone conversations to help me with questions I had about Diamond's
work. She seemed to recognize that being a focal student might lead to extra teacher
attention on some level, and Denise had been extremely active in seeking extra services
of every sort for Diamond, who had been held over once already to repeat second grade.
Denise wanted school success for her foster daughter this year, finding her tutoring
through her child services agency, too. Thus, the study had four focal students and three
participating family members.

Data Collection
There were four main data collection sources used to gather information for this
study: observations, conversations with focal students, semi-structured conversations with
family members, and collaborative group meetings with all families. The data were
recorded by: fieldnotes, a researcher's notebook, audiotaping, and artifact collection.
Observations
Observations were used in both phases of this research. First, I watched students
closely to see what resources they brought to school. The climate of the classroom was
very important in this phase, as creating an expressive, open environment helped students
reveal their resources (Dyson & Genishi, 2005). For example, one student who was
listening to the touchstone personal narrative, Grandad Bill's Song by Jane Yolen, shared
his personal connections to family experiences. Shortly after the whole class discussion,
he told the teacher that his father always told him stories like that about his family.
Students' rich resources surfaced with the effort to see and acknowledge them. Second,

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observations focused on the hybrid spaces that were created in the classroom, recording
the examples of how and where hybrid spaces become known in the classroom. This
meant documenting the events that took place when children engaged in the literacy
curriculum. This work was influenced by researchers such as Moll and Greenburg (1990),
who documented how teachers used particular literature to open up conversations and
awareness as a means of creating spaces that accept and nurture students' resources.
Books were not the only way of opening spaces, though the choice of particular read
alouds was a part of the process. Talk or class meetings were another obvious site of
opening spaces for children's resources. Most importantly, I developed some sensitivity
for recognizing where and when those spaces were arising.
It was through the efforts to watch, closely and purposefully, and by taking action
to create an open, inviting environment for students that I was able to document the
resources that students brought and the hybrid spaces we cultivated in the classroom
using these resources. "Researchers make decisions about how to angle their vision on
these [educational] places, depending on the interplay between their own interests and the
grounded particularities of the site" (Dyson & Genishi, 2005, p. 12). Some of the
resources and the hybrid spaces were easier to see than others, as they were easily
recognizable. I did not gain an appreciation for some resources and/or spaces until time
had passed, thought had taken place, and/or another source (i.e., family member) had
given me some insight. Some resources and hybrid spaces, possibly, were undocumented,
as they may not have surfaced to my vision or my efforts to learn about them.
Observations occurred on a regular basis, twice a week during the literacy
learning, lasting for an hour or the duration of the activity. Observations concentrated on

where and how children brought their cultural, social, and literacy resources into the
formal literacy learning of school. I elected to focus on literacy as the site for observing
how children brought their resources to their learning and how hybrid spaces were
cultivated so that these resources could be tapped as tools to enhance students' literacy

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learning; the literacy sessions offered opportunities for sharing written and verbal ideas
and connections that often reflect students' resources. Observations were made of whole
class activities and of individual and group activities between and among classroom
participants. Even though there were focal students who demonstrated agency, which I
defined as an ability to bring themselves into the formal setting of school in this study, I
suspected that there would be moments when non-focal students' resources came into the
school day.
Methods of Recording Observations. For this study, I maintained a fieldnotes
notebook, separate from the researcher's notebook. This fieldnotes notebook was easily
carried throughout the classroom; it served as a place to jot quickly about the events I
witnessed in the classroom. Fieldnotes were taken immediately in a fieldnotes notebook,
when possible, and also shortly after events occurred depending on what worked best
given how the data were observed. This notebook had two columns. The first column was
for documenting the visible, the audible, etc. of the particular event; the second was for
recording thoughts, reactions, and connections to what was observed. "Observation in
ethnographic research is continuing and total. It is quite unstructured. Field notes should
be synthesized and summarized immediately after the observation" (Wiersma, 1995,
p. 261). Afterward, these fieldnotes were entered into a data bank on my iBook, where I
was able to (1) stretch out the details of the events noticed and (2) print out the
observations to re-read, re-visit, and code them. I was unable to log my fieldnotes to my
computer daily, but entered the fieldnotes on weekends and during school recesses. I
enhanced my memory by re-reading the notes and writing my summary ideas in the
second column to respond to the fieldnotes while the observations were fresh in my mind.

These ideas were transcribed to my computer to "stretch" the fieldnotes. Photographs

were also used to augment my memory for particular happenings, creating a method of
capturing an image of events that were occurring to be examined and reflected upon at a
later time.

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Conversations with Focal Students

Another method of data collection to engage with children was informal
conversations about students' use of their cultural, social, and literacy resources in the
classroom so that a greater understanding of what the child was employing could be
developed. As the classroom teacher, I had an established relationship with my students
so these kinds of conversations, which function as informal interview, were an ordinary
part of classroom activities. I talked with the four focal students when I needed their
assistance to understand with greater depth and/or perspective what I was seeing.
Sometimes students' artifacts drove the conversations as I sought to understand the
resources or spaces that the students employ. These informal conversations helped me to
understand more deeply the events or phenomena I observed in the context of literacy or
other parts of the school day. Originally, I tried to have these conversations as part of
classroom time, but I noticed that if I wanted time to get some deeper questions
addressed, then I needed to ask the focal students to join me on some free time (i.e.,
preparation period, lunch) in the classroom or the school library for 10 to 15 minutes.
This way we were not interrupted, as can happen in a full classroom. This implementation
proved very helpful, though questions and answers were still addressed in the classroom
as well, as they are with all students.
Individual Family Member Conversations
After four focal students were chosen, semi-structured conversations, lasting 30-45
minutes, were arranged with a family member from each of the four focal students'
families. These individual family member conversations took place at least twice
throughout the study. These semi-structured conversations were an opportunity to enact
the collaborative aspect of action research. Like Dyson (2003), I wanted to discuss my
understandings of what I see in the classroom, what I see students doing with their
reading and their writing, seeking clarity and confirmation from family experts. During
these conversations, I also shared students' artifacts with family members to either seek

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perspective and/or spark discussion around children's resources and work. The
organization of the conversations was adaptable to family members regarding time and
place, recognizing that teachers have to be open to the family members needs as well
(Waldbart, Meyers, & Meyers, 2006). In this study, all the family members meetings,
individual and collaborative, took place in the classroom. There was a stress on authentic
invitations to family members as well as efforts to build trusting relationships (Waldbart
et al., 2006).
The family members provided insights to the students as learners, as seen outside
of school. An important role of the researcher in these conversations was listening.
Conversations offer an opportunity for in-depth communication with mutual trust,
listening, and caring for the experience described by the participant (Clandinin &
Connelly, 1994). The family member conversations were a chance for me to check my
data with people who closely understand each student in ways I do not. These
conversations provided an opportunity to address various issues and questions that
emerged as the study continued. With permission from the individual family members,
these conversations were tape recorded to provide the opportunity to revisit the shared
ideas by listening to audiotapes and/or reading transcriptions. However, I did not record
the first meetings until we had established trusting relationships. These conversations
were an effort to have multiple methods for examining the same construct, providing
more eyes on the details.

Collaborative Meetings with Family Members

Three collaborative meetings were planned to include the teacher-researcher and
the four family members representing the four focal students: at the beginning, the
middle, and the end of the research process. These meetings, with family members'
permission, were audiotaped after the initial meeting, thereby supplying a data source that
was revisited. I also took some notes at these meetings. Note-taking helped keep me

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focused on people's words and ideas. Classroom artifacts were presented to family
members, serving as prompts to conversation. As Fine et al. (2000) suggested it was vital
to have multiple methods for firm reliance. With this thought in mind, the conversations
were an effort to have multiple methods and voices or viewpoints for examining the same
construct, namely, the various resources children brought with them to school literacy.
The first meeting was introductory to build a common understanding regarding the
purpose of this study. The midpoint meeting was an opportunity to share results and ideas
with family experts. The culminating meeting was an exercise in unpacking what we had
learned and gained (or not) through this work.
There were three purposes of involvement that were foreseen from these
collaborative meetings. First, these collaborative meetings were seen as a chance to find
the common grounds between home and school. What were we talking about with
literacy learning? What was the purpose of formal schooling? What resources did family
members see their children using? Second, these meetings were held as a way of getting
further input from the family members about what was actually happening in the
classroom. I had the opportunity to share data and get the thoughts and feedback of the
family members that provided the teacher with a way of re-visioning the data because of
their close understandings of the children's homes and community. Third, these
collaborative meetings were a hope at creating greater connections and understandings
between these two places that deeply affect childrenhome and school.
Additional Data Collection
Two other forms of data collection occurred throughout this study: the use of a
researcher's notebook and student artifacts.
Researcher's Notebook. This notebook was a place for recording reflective notes
regarding the ongoing realities and emotions involved with this study as well as recording
working hypotheses. This reflective notebook differed from fieldnotes in that it was a

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place to record thoughts on trends and patterns, feelings on the process, and hypotheses
regarding the findings. My personal reactions to the research were recorded in this
reflective journal, providing me with another vehicle for making sense of the data being
collected. The writing in this notebook documented my hopes and hesitations, as well as
my understandings of and difficulties with the processes of the data collection. This was a
helpful tool in assessing the progress of the research and acted in a way of identifying
problems that needed to be addressed or re-evaluated as the study proceeded. Another
possible vehicle for reflection was conversing with teachers outside our classroom about
issues occurring inside; seeking other perspectives added to my own reflection. Like
Rogers (2002) suggested, this notebook was a "place for ongoing reviews of literature,
notes from peer debriefings, and [a place to] plan the emerging design of the study"
(p. 255). The researcher's notebook was implemented prior to the study's beginning, as
entries dated to Fall of 2005, and used continuously throughout the study.
Artifact Examination. Students' work was photocopied throughout the study to
document any writing or drawing that reflected the cultural, social, and literacy resources
that they brought to the classroom. These documents, as well as other artifacts, were
shared with the family members and focal students during our meetings for the purpose of
gaining deeper understandings of the students and their work.

Relationships Between Research Questions and Data Collections Methods

Table 3 shows how the research questions for this project line up with the methods
being employed. The four main methods of data collection include: classroom
observations/fieldnotes, informal conversations with family members, family member
collaborative meetings, and a teacher-researcher's notebook. The correlation is made with
the two research questions that are driving this piece of research.

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Table 3
Relating Research Questions and Methods
What are the social, cultural,
and literacy resources that
African American students
bring into their classroom
learning?

What hybrid spaces are created

in the formal classroom to
recognize and build on these
students' resources as learning
tools?

Classroom Observations:
Fieldnotes/Artifacts

Informal Interviews with

Family Members

Family Member
Collaborative Meetings

Teacher-Researcher's
Notebook

Focal Students'
Conversations with
Teacher

Data Analysis
Data collection commenced with the beginning of the new school year, and the data
analysis ran concurrently. Data analysis was a recursive process in which I revisited and
re-envisioned the data in order to improve, change, and renegotiate the curriculum and
teaching in the classroom, as well as the collection processes. Once the school year ended
data analysis focused less on improving teaching than on understanding more fully the
children's resources and the hybrid spaces created.
Analyzing Resources

As all the data were coded, constant comparative analysis transpired across patterns
and themes of the case studies. As I continued my review of my fieldnotes, I added to the
second column of my reflections, thinking, and reactions, but I also began coding the
fieldnotes. The fieldnotes were then typed to my computer to easily file and access them.

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Transcriptions of informal interviews, collaborative meeting transcriptions, and

classroom literacy sessions (i.e., read alouds) were treated in this way. These pieces of
data were printed and moved to binders, where I read and re-read them, coding them in
two and three separate sessions, revisiting the thinking, the themes, and the patterns
(Huberman, 1994). In my researcher's notebook, I noted emerging patterns throughout the
data. It was an important tool for me, as I recorded what I noticed in memos and lists
across the multiple sources of data.
Codes were categories deriving from research questions, hypotheses, key concepts,
or important themes; they were used as organizing devices (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
The study used coding for student resources and hybrid spaces. The initial codes were
broad and become more specific as the research continued, choosing those most pertinent
to the study. Letters and/or short chains of letters representing categories were placed
beside the areas where those findings are found in the data. These codes cue where the
particular activities are occurring. The first level of analysis was on resources, beginning
in Phase 1. The codes at first were as broad; some beginning codes were FR for family
resources, PC for popular culture resources, P for power, L for language occurrences, and
SL for school literacy resources. More specific codes evolved.
Since classroom observations started in Phase 1,1 used the fieldnotes from those
observations to develop codes for further analysis of students' resources. A "start list" for
creating codes began before data collection; this list was begun prior to fieldwork. One
way that codes were developed was by reading the observation fieldnotes repeatedly and
making notes in the margins where I noticed students presenting their resources. These
resources were identified and named. Thus, these codes were refined and renamed as data

collection continued. This list changed and expanded slightly throughout the study, as
reflected in the second column of the resource codes list below (Table 4). This working
list of resource codes was a starting point for organizing the data around students'
resources; it gave a foundation for understanding the resources. All of the categories were

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considered to contain a variety of the students' resources so the word resources could be
added to each category. For example, C for community referred to community resources.
Data from observations, individual conversations, and collaborative family members'
meetings were coded using these categories throughout the two phases of this study.

Table 4
Resource Codes
START LIST/RESOURCE CODES

WORKING LIST/RESOURCE CODES

MR for multiple resources

MR for multiple resources

FR for family resources

FR for family resources

EX for extended family

EX for extended family

P for power

P for power

C for community

C for community

CH for church

R for religion

L for language

L for language occurrences

SL for school literacy

SL for school literacy

PC for popular culture
F for friendship
TM for teamwork

Using this list of working codes, each child's resources were abbreviated on data
charts to record them. Four charts were developed, documenting the four focal students'
resources (see example below). For each student resource chart, there were five headings.
First, I provided a key word or words that referred to the overarching resource, attempting
to name it or, as least, give reference to it. The second column gave a summary or
summaries of stories or examples in the research that helped unpack that resource. Third
was a column titled: "Access to Knowing," which referred to how that resource came to
be identified. The fourth column listed the resource's code(s), demonstrating how that

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resource was categorized. Finally, some of the literacy practices that were reflected
through each resource were listed to keep me connected to thoughts on the literacy
practices and, more specifically, the usage of the students' resources. Then, using each
focal student's chart, I made an effort to unpack each resource for the reader to have-an
indication of what the resource is, how it might have impacted the learner and the class,
and how I gained access to understanding the resource in Chapter IV. These results were
recorded in Chapter IV. Jayson's chart (Table 5) provides an example of one focal
student's resource chart (see Appendices H, I, and J for three more examples).

Table 5
Jayson 's Resources
KeyWord
Mom
*Open talk
*POET
*Faith
Uncle

Cousins

Friends

Entertainer

Summary
Story/ies
'I'll tell him
anything and he
knows it'/ her
usage of
words/language
Role
model/playmate
Lots of play
infused in his
storytelling
Jayson's
comments in
class around
friends, his
striving to get
and keep; tears
over 'not
having'
He likes to
laugh and hear
others laugh
too- yet he's
NOT like a total
class clown?!?!

Access to Knowing
Jayson's Mom in
individual & collaborative
conversations; Jayson's
questions and comments in
class
Jayson's writing; talk with
mom and with Jayson
Mom/individual
conversation.
Jayson interplay talk
Jayson's stories written
and spoken in class;
mom's talk on his desire
for friends and ease in
making them

Observations which led to

talk with Jayson's Mom;
students reactions to him
as an entertainer

Resource
Code
FR
L
R
P

Literacy Practice
Attached
Conversations/TALK
Knowing contexts
Word play (Tongue
Twisters)

FR
EX
C
EX
L

Writing
Storytelling

C
F
P

Choosing words and

ways of
communicating
Negotiating
relationships

MR
FR
L
P
F

Knowing audience
Appropriate word
choice
Performance skills

Conversations
Knowing contexts

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Table 5 (continued)
Key
Word
Popular
Culture

Kinetic/
Movement

Summary Story/ies

Access to Knowing

Dragonball Z story;
wrestling
(WWF);games

Writing; Jayson's talk in

class

Flash; poising/sixpack

Observations; talk with

and his mom

TM for teamwork
P for power
MR for multiple resources
FR for family resources

RESOURCE CODES
PC for popular culture
R for religion
SL for school literacy

Resource
Code
PC
C
F
L

Literacy Practice
Attached
Writing
Audience awareness
Performance reading

PC
C
F
P

Planning a dance;
Exercise connection
to his poem on
exercise

F for friendship
L for language occurrences
EX for extended family
C for community

These tables in no way represented the totality of any of the focal students'
resources. Instead, the resources detailed on these charts are ones that were repetitive in
or rose out of the data. The recorded resources were also the ones that I was able to
identify, since there were multitudes that I did not have had access to or have missed.
Following each focal student's chart, as mentioned, I attempted to detail each resource as
it emerged from the data.
Analyzing Spaces
In each of the three cycles of Phase 2,1 used the information collected about
students' resources and attempted to cultivate hybrid spaces. I identified the moments in
the literacy learning where space was created and described what happened in these
moments, pulling out the details of these events. What were the children doing? What
was the teacher doing? What words were spoken? It was possible that students initiated
hybrid spaces through their agency; these moments were also described. Again, not only
events involving focal students were involved. Any events of interest around hybrid

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spaces were recorded. I coded the hybrid space events to understand how the children's
resources become part of the class practices. Regarding the hybrid spaces created in the
classroom setting, the codes began with SC for student created, TC for teacher created,
and N for negotiated. These codes for hybrid spaces grew to include planned and
unplanned spaces; these spaces are discussed further in Chapter V.
Analyzing Family Member Involvement
Both the individual family member conversations (which involved individual
meetings with four focal students' family members) and the collaborative family
members' meetings (which involved a collaborative meeting with all four family
members) were audio recorded. The transcripts of these observations and conversations
were kept in binders and coded for students' resources using the same coding system,
which expanded as new codes were introduced from examination of the data (see
Appendix F). While listening and transcribing, I gave consideration to whose perspective
I was seeing, hearing, and reading (Apple, 2000). In the intersections of conversations and
across the interactions with participants, there was thought and reflection on the
interpretations and meanings of the students' resources, due to the different explanations
and various perspectives that were verbalized. Artifacts were collected and shared with
family members throughout this study; they were reviewed in our informal meetings,
individual and collaborative, to reference points of interest and learning. I asked family
members questions like: What do you see? And what do you think was happening in this
piece of work? But I also stated what I noticed in the artifacts and sought confirmations
and/or extensions of my ideas about what the children were bringing into their school
work.

Construction of Case Studies as Data Analysis

The studying of the four focal students unfolded into multiple case studies. I
organized the data by focal student to examine each child's resources and ways of using

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them in class, as well as how each child takes up the task of cultivating space for these
resources. An effort was made to document participants' own words, providing full
pictures of the students and the resources they bring into the classroom. The writing then
addressed patterns and themes across the case studies, inclusive of supporting details
from "pop up" examples with the whole class or other groups of students. Highlighted
throughout were the students' resources that surfaced in the classroom and the hybrid
spaces that were cultivated.
As the case studies were constructed, comparisons were made across the studies,
but mostly for the purpose of exploring the vast possibilities regarding students' resources
and hybrid spaces, pushing to understand the multitude of resources. One student's
resources gave insights to another student's, providing fuller representations of resources.

Presentation of the Findings

Regarding resources and spaces, the patterns and themes that were identified are
shared in Chapters IV and V, respectively, as well as particular examples that occurred
across the process. Results are presented in descriptive, narrative form supported by
evidence from the talk and events recorded in the notes and interviews. Also, I document
the relationships that had developed throughout the process, especially as they connected
to the data. The relationships between students and teacher, and the family members'
interaction with the teacher and each other, were of interest.

Trustworthiness
Four criteria of trustworthiness in qualitative inquiry were set by Marshall and
Rossman (1999), who drew on the work of Lincoln and Guba (1985): credibility,
transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

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Credibility addresses the concern that participants of the study were identified and
described giving an emic (insider's) representation. A component that addressed the
credibility of this study's design was the collaborative aspect of the individual
conversations and collaborative family meetings; similar to Dyson (2003), I invited
families into the conversation to gain more consistent and complete perspectives, staying
as close as possible to "the credibility of portrayals of constructed realities" (Kincheloe &
McLaren, 1994, p. 151), as one criterion for critical trustworthiness. I remained true to the
participants' experiences by relying heavily on their words in the presentation of the data.
But also I relied on their words in our informal interviews where family members offered
their insights to add to the constructions of students' resources that I had noticed.
This kind of research could not be taken on alone. A criticism of action research
where the teacher participated was that the teacher became the central figure. To work to
balance this issue and create a more collaborative setting, this study invited family
members to participate as experts regarding their children and their children's resources,
assisting the teacher in gaining a deeper perspective of the whole picture of literacy
learning via students' resources and the spaces that were created.
How might my findings benefit another teacher who wished to explore her
students' resources and the hybrid spaces that arose from them? This work had
transferability. The study was designed so that other teachers could take up this model
and do similar research around the students in their classrooms and the spaces that
emerged in those settings, as the findings would be of interest within other contexts. The
cases and examples I detailed provide examples for others who wish to take up this kind
of research, using "thick description" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) of the phenomenon which

were studied.
To address the criterion of dependability, which examines the changing conditions
of a study (whether in the design, the enactment, the participation...), I applied prolonged
engagement and persistent observation (Glesne, 1999), which were facets of this research;

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they were unavoidable, as it was my own classroom that I studied over the course of a
year. Even though the second phase of the research formally began mid-year, previously
there was ongoing work of establishing a welcoming learning environment that allowed
for students to feel comfortable and enabled students to bring themselves fully into their
learning, as well as documenting resources. By maintaining this watchful eye over time, I
gained deeper perspectives. Working as teacher-researcher endorsed both prolonged
engagement and persistent observation by necessity.
There were changes in the study over time; these were noted in my researcher's
notebook, where I followed the development of the study. One example was when I was
concerned that I was not learning enough about the students' resources. With the
suggestion of my advisor to try a group sharing time, I initiated the very popular "What's
On My Brain?" sessions on Monday mornings to provide a new way of learning more
about my students. [This initiative is detailed in Chapter V.] The changes in design,
enactment, and participation were recorded in my researcher's notebook.
How were the results of this study confirmed? Confirmability, to stress that others
would find similar results from the data, was addressed by the informal interviews and
collaborative meetings with family members in which family members actually
confirmed, denied, and/or expanded my thinking on the data. Two other structures were
in place to assure confirmability. First, I worked with a small group of co-workers,
informally discussing what I was seeing regarding my students and our classroom, as they
shared findings from their own classroom experiences providing references to my own
experiences. These teachers' insights added to my understandings regarding this research.
Second, I was an active member of a Teachers College writing group (formerly a literacy

dissertation seminar); the continued conversations throughout the formation and

implementation of this study with these doctoral students pushed my considerations and
conclusions, adding to the element of confirmability in this study.

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Limitations
One limitation that affected this study was that there were only four focal students
being closely watched with regular observations and family member participation. This
small number limited the breadth of the data collected; yet, the depth of information
around the four focal students hopefully balanced this limitation. Equally, only examining
one classroom environment did not provide a comparison to other environments.
However, this one environment was understood deeply by the teacher-researcher, who
works everyday in that one place. Another aspect to this "small sampling" idea of
limitation was that there will be only one teacher-researcher, which does not allow for
multiple perspectives in the designing, enacting, and reflection of the study. The
collaborative nature of the research design attempted to provide multiple voices and thus
perspectives from the vantage point of adult family members.
The methodology of this study was dependent on relationships, as communication
was central to gaining understanding. It was necessary to note that communication can be
one of the largest limitations. The quality of the communications depended on how
sincere and trusting the relationships that were developed between the teacher-researcher
and the participants became. I had a concern that my words would not always be clear or
the way I heard participants would not match the intent. This reverted to the relationships
developed, because as strong relationships were cultivated, everyone took interest in
understanding each other's ideas regardless of the limitations of our words.

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Chapter IV
DOCUMENTING STUDENTS' RESOURCES

In Chapters IV and Chapter V, I present the results of the data analysis of this
study, which is directly linked to the research questions. In Chapter IV, I document the
students' resources that noted in this study. In the next chapter, I present explicit
examples of the hybrid spaces created in the classroom throughout the study. Thus, the
focus of this chapter is resources brought to the second grade classroom by students, as
well as how I, as teacher and researcher, become aware of the students' resources. This
addresses the first research question of this project:
What are the social, cultural, and literacy resources, including literacy
practices, that African American students bring into their classroom
learning?
(a) In what ways do the students bring these resources into their school learning?
(b) How do interactions between the teacher and the children's family members
inform the teacher's understandings of the students' resources?
To answer this research question with its sub-questions, I set out to observe
students in the classroom, and then to use my data analysis to organize for understanding
the multiple resources that students brought with them to school. As the first sub-question
suggests, I was interested in how the resources came into the classroom, for example,
directly through talk or indirectly as a source or inspiration for some evidence of learning,
such as writing or drawing. The second sub-question regarding family member

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interactions became a vital part of this work, as family members were active within
individual conversations and our collaborative meetings. Family member interactions
included: sharing background information, such as family stories, as well as sharing
perspectives regarding the student resources and artifacts that were presented in our
meetings. The family members' participation has been documented throughout this
chapter on students' resources by referencing the conversations that occurred and
documenting their noticings of students' resources. Students' resources and family
member interaction were the focus of this chapter.

Describing Resources and Charting This Chapter's Course

Throughout this study, resources were not only envisioned as families' funds of
knowledge, but as sifted through multiple Discourses, including identities and multiple
social practices. Thus, I viewed resources through two theoretical lenses: funds of
knowledge and Discourses. The term "resources," I took from the work of Moll and his
numerous colleagues (1990, Moll et al., 1992; Moll & Gonzalez, 2001), who have written
about the "funds of knowledge." Most recently, in the edited edition, Funds of Knowledge
(Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005), the term "funds of knowledge" was defined in
multiple adaptations, which suggested that the definition was still evolving. (See
Appendix H for definitions of funds of knowledge from Gonzalez et al.) One adaptation
was:
Funds of knowledge are generated through the social and labor history of
families and communicated to others through the activities that constitute
household life, including the formation of social networks that are central to
any household's functioning within its particular environments, (p. 18)
In this context, this term, "funds of knowledge," was closely linked to the socioeconomic resources of families, which provided children with some understandings,
experiences, and/or knowledge. Yet, this definition of "funds of knowledge" expanded to

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include thinking around other resources (e.g., cultural, social) that families afford
children, as suggested above with awareness to the social history of families, recent and
past. Therefore, I employed the term "resources" in a "funds of knowledge" orientation;
from this perspective, "resources" referred to all knowledge and skills that learners carry
with them, inclusive of resources from their communities, families, and individually-lived
experiences.
The second theoretical lens associated with my usage of the term "resources" came
from the work of Gee (1996), who recognized that students' Discourses were socially
attributed aspects of self. Discourses reflected the multiple social groups that people
participate in whether by choice or not. In my analysis of students' resources, I blended
the concepts of funds and Discourses. Gee proposed that Discourses are not static and
that we have primary and secondary Discourses, which we live and enact. I employed
Gee's concept of Discourse, which spoke to our individual identity kits built from the
multiple experiences of our lives, extending beyond our family and even our primary
social communities. My work melded Gee's Discourse work and Moll's "funds of
knowledge," the former acknowledging that individuals are complex social beings
developing out of many experiences and the latter recognizing households as treasure
troves of resources for students. While analyzing the data, I remained open and
committed to this broad definition of resource, documenting students' "funds of
knowledge," identities, social practices, and multiple experiences, seeking ways to utilize
students' resources within school literacy.
In this direction, I began by documenting the data about students' resources, as both
researcher and teacher. The resources exhibited and utilized by the four focal students
presented in the rest of this chapter have been composed into four sections or case
studies, each section detailing each child individually. The purpose of choosing this
structure of representing the students' resources child by child, versus, for example,
categorizing the individual resources into groups (e.g., family resources, popular culture

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resources), was to honor the children, presenting their cases and detailing the students'
resources in a holistic portrait of each child, as evidenced in the classroom.
In this chapter, each of the four case studies begins with a brief profile of the
featured focal student. Then I highlight some of the significant, interesting, and/or unique
resources of each child in the hopes that this fuller body of work on all four children
provides insight to what students' resources are, how children bring them into their
school learning, and how I have come to know them. Each case study is presented
following the organization of each child's resources chart (see Appendices I-L). Thus, all
four case studies begin with social resources, including resources influenced by
immediate family members, households, extended family members, and friends. Within
this section on social resources, some literacy practices are depicted, deriving from the
social resources. Next, the focus moves to the individual, where identities as resources are
presented, though identities have also been presented within examples of other resources,
particularly in the cases of Tali and Diamond (all names of participants have been
changed).
At the end of this chapter, I have addressed the sub-question, which led to
exploration of how interactions among family members and me, as teacher, informed my
understandings of students' resources. Although throughout the case studies, the impact
of family members' participation is documented, this final section of Chapter IV
specifically addresses the important component of family member collaborations.

Javson's Resources
Jayson lived with his mother, Jasira, as well as his grandmother and his uncle at the
start of the study. Then later in the school year, just he and his mom were living together,
though he was still in contact with his extended family members, who influenced him.

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Although his parents were not living together, Jayson had regular visits with his father,
who also lived in the city.
Jayson entered the class after the beginning of the new school yearnear the end
of September. It quickly became obvious that he was reading above grade level; he was
reading a year and a half ahead of second grade expectations, as set by the city's
evaluation, a bi-yearly individual reading assessment (E-CLAS). In all areas, his curiosity
served him well, though writing was a challenge for him. Accumulating ideas to write
about was not his issue, but producing a body of written work was at stake, due to
difficulties with both transcription and composition. Jayson could not keep himself, his
resources, out of his learning process; he had constant connections and comments,
demonstrating talent for expressing himself orally. He was verbal and skilled at sharing
his thoughts, and he did not tolerate being silenced.
After school, early in the year, I began a conversation with Jasira, his mom, about a
fight Jayson had had with another student during the school day. As we talked in front of
the school building, the two boys moved toward each other with puffed chests, ready to
physically engage again. Jasira noticed the action, and we moved to break the boys apart.
Jasira, at this point, informed me that Jayson had been receiving anger management
counseling at his previous school; her candor helped me to begin planning support for
Jayson about anger management, complementing the academic planning for growth.
Familial Funds
A funds of knowledge orientation suggested examining the historical resources of
family. In our first individual conversation, Jayson's mom, Jasira, shared the close
structure of her family, including her patriarchal father, her mother, and brother; she
spoke also of her sisters and Jayson's cousins. One resource noted throughout the data
was Jayson's family relationships, which supplied multiple supports from those
connections.

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As mentioned, Jayson permanently resides with his mother but visits his father
regularly. His father has two other children in his household, providing Jayson with
siblings, though he is his mother's only child. When with his mom, he lives with her
mother and her brother, Jayson's uncle, who is 18. His grandfather, who suffers from
diabetes, lives in a nursing home, separate from this family unit. There was a change in
housing near the end of the year, as mentioned previously. Each familial relationship
offers differing resources to Jayson, which are further explored in this section.
Word Collectors. A readily noticeable resource for Jayson, deriving from his
familial funds, was his mother's love of language, which inspired Jayson in one form as
word collecting. As learned through this research, Jasira was a poet; she informed me of a
website where she was published as a poet, encouraging me to read some of her work.
Upon reading her poems, I noticed that she played with words and knew how to craft
them for her purpose. She shared this love of language with her son in interesting ways.
In school, this resource was noted in the classroom and throughout the hallways; other
teachers- preparation teachers who come to the classroom and neighboring classroom
teachers- noted Jayson's elaborated vocabulary. One way this resource was understood
was from a conversation with Jasira about the things they do at home with words. Our
discussion began with me telling his mom how many of the adults around the school were
noticing Jayson's proficiency with words, in usage and understanding. I continued to
describe my practice of using "larger language," bigger vocabulary words in my teaching,
creating opportunities for students to think out the meanings. When Jayson was unable to
figure out words I had used, he stopped me and asked about a word's definition. I told
Jasira, "It's like he's collecting them."
She shared some of the comments she heard at home. "He asks me a lot about
which word is which. And every day he learns like a new word. Mommy, what does this
mean? Mommyand if I don't know I tell him, 'Oh, we got to look it up in the
dictionary.'"

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This conversation helped me recognize the importance of words for Jayson (and
also his mom). I became aware that Jayson was inspired by work with words at home and
that he was collecting words and their definitions. He continued this work in school. One
example was when Jayson talked about how it was hard to read during vacation because
he was "busy having fun." Having acknowledged that it is indeed difficult to read when
there was so much going on around him, I asked Jayson for a commitment to read more.
Jayson: What's a commitment?
Mollie: Like a promise...
He stopped the conversation to clarify the word, to be sure he understood its meaning.
This was a common occurrence with him and his learning process.
When our class discussed the school learning purposes of popularly played video
games that the students have at home, Jayson informed us, "Did you know you could
learn words from games?" The games the children were playing introduced new concepts
in some realms, even school literacy concepts, an idea I will explore in the section on
spaces. It was clear from his multiple interruptions questioning definitions that Jayson
had a noticeable penchant for words and their meanings. During a read aloud, if I read a
word that he was unfamiliar with and he was unable to determine its meaning from the
story, Jayson would interrupt the reading to inquire about that word.
Jayson's love of language was constantly fostered by his mom. Later in the school
year, in the second individual family member meeting, Jasira said, "You know what I was
surprised aboutis that he knows a lot of words that I never realized he knew. A lot of
adult words." She filled me in regarding some of the word inquiry that occurred with
Jayson at home. At first Jasira referred to Jayson's word knowledge as a "natural thing,"
but later she reflected, "I study with him sometimes, you know, but I don't force it on
him." When Jasira suggested it was a natural thing with Jayson, I was left doubting that
nurturing did not have an impact due to her rich word choice and even code switching in

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our collaborative conversations, demonstrating her command of language. In those

collaborative conversations, Jasira spoke in accordance with her audience, the setting, and
the topic at hand, similarly to her son, who also changed his language patterns depending
on his audience and other specifics. Continuing to speak about the word work they do at
home, Jasira shared that Jayson wanted to know more, and she found ways to satisfy his
word collecting.
Another way Jayson's mom imparted resources for her son was through her free
and honest conversations with her son; she provided truthful information about living in a
modern world. Jasira was open to real, direct talk with her son, which gave him access to
knowledge. She stated that she answered any question he brought to her. In the second
individual family member meeting that the two of us shared, Jasira gave me a sense of
what these mother-and-son conversations looked like:
Jasira:

He asked about sex-

Mollie:

Yeah

Jasira:

and how babies are made. And I explained it to him.

Mollie:

Yeahthat's great.

Jasira:

I'm not promoting it.

Mollie:

No [acknowledgment that she's not promoting sex]. I agree.

Jasira:

He was asking me about AIDS yesterday and I explained to him

it's a disease and you get it this way, that way- you know.

Mollie:

Yep- that's right.

Jasira:

And you have to protect yourself.

(Transcript from Individual Interview, May 28, 2007)

She felt it is necessary for him to have knowledge before he might need it, even though
that knowledge is typically reserved for more mature audiences in mainstream society.
The talk between Jasira and Jayson translated positively to school. At home, he asked

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questions and knew he was getting the truth, even on difficult topics, due to his mother's
belief in equal or balanced intergenerational exchange. His mother's open approach to
questions with her son also provided Jayson with the understanding that questions have
an important purpose and that truthful answers are available; he brought this know-how
to school, where I believe his thoughtful questions also found answers among the teachers
and the students, leading to deeper questioning and understanding.
Evoking God. Another resource from Jayson's identity kit was religion, which
came out of multiple Discourses of religion with which his family surrounded him.
Although he did not have a regular church routine, he did have strong knowledge from
multiple religious backgrounds. At the finish of a reading mini-lesson as the class was
preparing to leave the carpet where we were gathered and return to their seats for
independent work, Jayson evoked God. One student made reference to making mistakes,
with a negative connotation. On February 5, 2006, when my class was leaving the carpet
after a mini-lesson, a student made reference to getting something wrong. I said,
"Nobody's perfect" [a refrain in our class]. Jayson responded, "Only God is perfect." He
spoke of how we all have imperfections [not his word].
Jayson spoke with authority and understanding about God; he was versed in who
God is to him. He had referred to God in meaningful ways regarding his classmates, too,
not shying away from religious ideas. Although Jasira stated that she was not religious,
she spoke to the place of religion in her family and in her own life. During a prior
informal meeting with Jasira, she informed me that her sister, known as Aunt LuAnn, was
like an embracing grandmother to Jayson and would always talk to him about issues of
faith. She suggested that I should use Aunt LuAnn as a reminder to return to positive
behavior when Jayson began moving toward a more aggressive manner, as mentioned in
the introduction to Jayson's section.
Jayson had religious thoughts in his head, and these connections were present in his
school learning (and social interactions). These thoughts were born at home from family

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members and extended family members. During one conversation with his mother outside
of school after dismissal, I spoke to Jayson about his responsibility to be part of
something positive in school, about his power (e.g., in the decisions he made about
treating others) and how to wield it. Whatever my words, the direction was that we were
all responsible to goodness. When I finished, his mom said, "That's what his Aunt LuAnn
would have said." I noted the comparison between home and school approaches and
enjoyed feeling connected.
Although Jasira stated that she was not associated with a particular denomination
of faith, she spoke about her family's various religious affiliations. She seemed to have
witnessed over-zealous religiosity that affected her decisions about organized religion.
Yet, it was clear that she had faith in a higher being, as revealed in our second individual
meeting.
Jasira:

You look at itthey all say the same thing. They all say the same
dang thing. I don't look down on NO religion. I truly believe the
best thing is for him to grow up and choose his own thing.

[Conversation turned to forcing religion upon children. Jasira believed

children should be exposed and come to their own decisions.]
Jasira:

He [referring to her brother] wanted to become a minister. That's a

big thing in my familythe different religions. Like my sister
she's an Israelite she goes to the temple and she wraps her head
and do all those things. My brotherI forgot the term.... Me,
personally, I don't have a religion ... we believe in a higher powerme, myself personally I believe in a higher power. There's one
point where I wanted to become a Buddhist. And, you know

Mollie:

When you read about themsome of them [the precepts or ideas]

are valuable.

Jasira:

What I realized when I started reading upon different religionsif

you read every single religion all focus on the same thing. It all
goes back to the same thing.

(Transcript Individual Meeting, May 28, 2007)

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Though the family resources did not include an explicit connection with organized
religion, threaded through familial interactions was a belief in doing good. This was
reflected in the classroom, through his comments and responses, spoken and enacted with
other students and myself.
Wrestling His Uncle. Although Jayson has no siblings in his mom's home, having a
teenage uncle, Ray, provides him with some sibling-like experiences and multiple
resources. In our first informal interview, Jayson was speaking about a piece of writing
created in school that was about a family member, providing context to the relationship
between him and his Uncle Ray. He talked with me about siblings, or extended family
members, in a new way- "house" sister or brother, as per some of my own experiences.
Jayson and I were sharing about his writing, when I mentioned my daughter in a brief
comment about homework and handwriting. Jayson asked numerous questions about her.
"Is she in this school?" And "Does she live with her father?" I answered his questions,
talking about my immediate family, and mentioned, "We all have different families,
though right?" Our conversation continued.
Jayson:

Well, one time my cousin he used to help me with bully problems

when he used to live with me. He used to help me with bully
problems.

Mollie:

Is this the cousin you play the wrestling games with? He lived with
you for a while? (Jayson nods yes.)

Mollie:

That makes you like brothers. Olivia [my daughter] had that for a
while. It wasn't a cousinit was a family that had a little girl near
her age. We all used to live in the same house. She used to call her,
her house sister.

Jayson:

I still got somebody as a house brother. My uncle [Ray].

Mollie:

Oh cuz he's with you, you mean.

Jayson:

He's 17he's 18.

Mollie:

He's young.

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Jayson:

We was listening to some songs on the wrestling game.

Mollie:

Haa-hhaa. Lots of wrestling. You might be a wrestler.

(Transcript from Jayson's First Individual Conversation, February 27, 2007)

It was remarkable to me how quickly Jayson took up my analogy of a "house" sibling and
incorporated it into his life, sharing his feelings about his uncle. Jayson did not see his
uncle as an older relative but as a "sibling" with whom he could play. In this interaction, I
enjoyed speaking from and about my family experiences and hearing about Jayson's
family. As the mother of an only child, I have watched for ways my child can experience
the sibling experience without an actual brother or sister. One way is to include more
interaction in sibling-like situations such as a "house" sister or close family friend who is
like a brother. I felt it was important that Jayson saw his uncle as a contemporary,
providing sibling-like experiences. The space created and the time spent in conversation
around Jayson's questions about my immediate family and his interactions with his uncle,
allowed for deeper, richer understandings, not just of the concepts but of both of our lived
experiences. Had the notion of family been "normalized" in the classroom (referring to
mother, father, and sister/brother), the space may not have formed.
Jayson's mother has a few thoughts on her younger brother, Ray, too. In her
opinion, the two were "all boy"; she expressed her opinion when telling about some of
their interactions. Jayson's mom provided one picture of their relationship as she spoke
about what Jayson did when he came home at the end of the school day. Jasira described
how Jayson played with her brother and they made a whole bunch of noise. She said,
"They look just alike and act just alike. So when them two get together it's like having
two four-year-olds. So they all over the place." Although Jasira made references to Ray as
playful, she also suggested that her brother recognized the importance of his role as male
role model for Jayson [which connected to one of the ongoing conversations from the
family member collaborative meetings about male role models]. Ray acted as a model
regarding the Discourse of being an urban Black male; on many levels, Ray was

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influencing Jayson's perspectives and understandings of what it was to be a young Black

male in our city.
Jasira recognized that Ray was a role model for her son. And she verbalized that
Ray had an understanding of his influence on Jayson. "At first my brother was going to
anger management, he had problems when he was about Jayson's age [with containing
his anger]. He just gotnow he, he's trying to be more grown up. He wants to be an
example for Jayson." But it was a complex relationship, as evidenced by the two
depictions of their relationship: wrestling partners and Jasira's mention that Ray wanted
to be a role model for Jayson. In both of these scenarios, Jayson's uncle provided multiple
resources for Jayson as he approached being a learner of school literacy and of life.
The Cousins' Connection. Because of Jayson's only-child status in his mother's
home, he seeks his cousins as playmates when with that side of his family. His mom
indicated that cousins are important to Jayson. There were two that were regularly
mentioned in talk or featured in Jayson's writing: a male cousin and a female cousin,
Timothy and Zarah [pseudonyms], both about Jayson's age. During Jayson's first
individual conversation, we explored his writer's notebook to see what we were learning
about Jayson as writer (and learner). Jayson chose a story to talk about from his notebook.
It was a short piece of text, approximately nine lines. I noticed his topic, wrestling, a clear
love for him, and also the verbalized editing that Jayson accomplished as he re-shared the
piece orally in this one-to-one conversation. (Italics represent Jayson's text from the
written story as they were used in the recounting of this story about his cousin and him
wrestling.)
Jayson:

Me and my cousin was playing al... my cousins was playing

wrestling. My cousins

Mollie:

and I

Jayson:

My cousins and I ...let's go ... it was actually cousins because it

was two.

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Mollie:

OKso you could still edit.

Jayson:

outside. It's a nice day. OK said my cousin Timothy. As soon as we

got outside in the park we started playing tag. Now let's play
wrestling.

Mollie:

hmm. Lots of wrestling, right? [Jayson writes lots of wrestling

stories.]

Jayson:

Tim...

Mollie:

Tim for Timothy.

Jayson:

You 're eliminated. We was doing a wrestlemania eliminate. And

we was doing it on the bridge. And I eliminated him. It took a long
time. YESyes, I won. I won.

Mollie:

R (the letter)somethingOK?

Jayson:

A rematch

Mollie:

Oh ... very good. OK. A rematch, (laughs)

Jayson:

I wanted a rematch.

Mollie:

And when you went back and edited I like how you added: And I
won again. But then you wrotewho said? "I give up. "

Jayson:

My cousin

Mollie:

That's cool.

Jayson:

He gave up because he couldn't take it. (Both teacher and student

were giggling.) My cousin ... when he was outside the ring
rightoutside the bridge. He pulled him out of the bridgeit was
in a park with a bridge, rightand he was pulling and I was
pushing. And we finally got... He got him....

Mollie:

See here's my problem with writingI want tothis was

Septemberbut even nowwhen you're writingIt's stretching,
right? This is what I want you to notice. You're writing's been
getting longeryou've been writing morebut still when you talk
you tell EVERYTHING!

Verbally, Jayson told more details of his stories than when he put pen to paper. In this
conversation, Jayson picked up on the idea of talking to stretch the details of a story,
which was exciting since his fine motor skills (i.e., his handwriting/formation of letters)

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still slowed him down when recording his story ideas. I tried to build on this ability to tell
stories, as demonstrated in the preceding conversation with Jayson about his wrestling
story and his cousin, to encourage him to expand his written tales. Two other concepts
were also noted in this conversation: his high level of engagement with his topic (his
cousin and wrestling) and his usage of dialogue to drive his story.
As his multiple notebook entries demonstrated, Jayson and his cousins were
"tight"; they were close. His cousins frequently were characters in the written pieces in
his writing notebook. These examples of multiple family resources, such as his mother's
love of language, his uncle as playmate, and his wrestling cousin, were powerful in
Jayson's life and in his learning.
Kinetic: Relating to. Caused by, or Producing Motion
Jayson had a high level of activity. His mom expressed that he was in constant
motion, which was also reflected in her son's activity and energy in class. In the second
individual meeting I had with Jasira, she and Jayson (who was present in the classroom as
the adults talked) gave me some insight to this kinetic resource. His mom asked me about
how he was doing in class, regarding activity and movement, as she expressed that she
knew her son had a lot of energy and that it was not always focused toward school
activities.
Mollie:

.. .he learns those limits. He's got a lot [of energy]that's a lot he
brings to his learning. And it's like an enthusiasm, as long as it
doesn't get crazy. But he's learning.

Jasira:

He likes to be crazy right? (turning to Jayson)

Jayson:

I like to do exercises.

Jasira:

Yes, he likes to dohe loves to exercise.

Mollie:

That's the other thing he was talking about was his cousin and
WRRRestling!

Jasira:

He's obsessed with wrestling.

Ill
Mollie:

He's totallyhe wants to be

Jasira:

He's not alone (implied: cousin and/or uncle, too). He wants to be

a wrestling, architect.

Jayson:

Plus a bodybuilder.

Jasira:

A wrestling-bodybuilding-architect.

Jayson identified himself as a physical being. Both Jayson and his mom reported this
future desire to me (a wrestling-bodybuilding-architect), which represents multiple
aspects of Jayson's resources. It holds no surprise as it represents Jayson's active or
physical self, and the architect aspect spoke to his intelligence and recognition of his
abilities. When attempting to take photographs to enhance my memory of classroom
occurrences, I noticed that photos of Jayson were often blurred in the action of the
moment. Active aspects of Jayson were evidenced in these blurred images of him in the
photographs and in the Hulk-like stance he often took to demonstrate his muscular
physique. Muscles were important to this child. He would flex his biceps regularly,
demonstrating to the teacher and groups of classmates his defined arm muscles. During
our Class Poetry Slam, Jayson shared his poem called Exercise; while sharing it with a
classmate, he acted out the exercises he evoked in his list poem in high speed motion.

Exercise
You do
Jumping j ax
Push ups
Sit ups
Running
Jogging
Swimming
Diving
Lifting
Climbing
That's all
No
It's not
And boxing too.
-Jayson

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Resources in Friendship: Identifying as Friendly
Jayson's appreciation of friends, and friendship, was a strong social resource and an
aspect of his identity. Not only were friends important to him; he had an ability for
finding and making friends, as his mother shared in our first individual meeting. She
stated, "He's good in that aspect. He'll play with anybody." She was telling how Jayson
takes up thinking about other people, which was reflected in a conversation he had with
his mother about racism. Jayson actually reminded her to remain open-minded on this
topic of respecting other people. As she revealed, Jayson made friends with all people
easily, as he would engage anyone in conversation, which had led to many people in the
neighborhood knowing him. His mom commented that all different people outside knew
Jayson, young and old. "Ever since he was a baby, he had no problems making friends, no
problem in that area. No problem," she said. Jasira was not surprised that her son made
friends easily. She also spoke to how important friends were to him, which was
documented in the classroom as well and converted into strong partnership work in the
work within the literacy learning.
An example came from a day when one of Jayson's classmates was upset over a
conflict in class. I spoke to the student about friends, how we get them and how we keep
them. The upset classmate blurted, "I don't care," in response to my suggestions about
friendship. Jayson jumped in and responded to the student, "Everybody wants friends."
Friends were important to Jaysonthey were one of his motivating forces.
There were multiple places in the data that show how his concern and
understanding of friendship provided a foundation for his approach to school and
learning. One early example was when Jayson had arrived in mid-September. Already, it
was clear that he brought a lot of himself, his friendship resources forward. When he was
new to school, he cried for a lack of friends; Jayson expressed these feelings to me. His
emotions were hitting hard when he felt left outside the friendship circles of the
classroom, as reflected in tears that came quickly (and with frustration). A later example

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was when Fabian, a classmate and member of his dance "troupe," was fighting in the
month of May. Jayson had come a long way with his understanding of self-control and
fighting in the classroom when he informed Fabian to come to him if he felt like fighting,
offering to help Fabian gain control of angry feelings. Since he was his friend, he wanted
to help him do the "right" thing, by avoiding fighting in the classroom. His friendship
resource impacted him in multiple ways.
When the class was studying process writing, Jayson chose a topic close to him
"How to Make a Friend":

In this piece of writing, Jayson demonstrated that he understood the steps to

cultivating a new friend. He began with introductions, giving his own name and inquiring
about the potential friend's name. Jayson reflected that play was central to this newfound

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friendship. And that when it was time to go home, one said good-bye to show that it was
fun, while providing closure. It was a short, unpublished piece but reflected Jayson's
sophistication in the realm of friendship.
The Entertainer: An Identity as Resource
As well as making friends, Jayson had a clear desire to be the center of attention
and entertain people. He entertained his friends, which is one way he gained more friends
throughout the school year, and it was a very successful method for him, as evidenced by
the next segment regarding popular culture. This entertaining resource seemed to come
from his extended family but also connects to his friendship resource and the resource of
popular culture, demonstrating how interconnected resources can be.
His entertainer resource was evidenced in his verbal stories and served as
motivation to write lengthier, more detailed written stories. Inquiring about where this
entertainer resource was inspired from, I asked his mom, "Are you a big talker?" Jasira
asserted that she was rather quiet in social settings, as was Jayson's father. "I don't know
where he gets that [ability to put himself out there] from." But later she admitted that her
father was also an entertainer"My father's a comedian too"which Jasira cited as a
connection between her father and Jayson, as he was a favored grandchild.
During one individual conversation with Jayson's mom, I spoke about her son's
talent for entertaining, which I see as very different from clowning. "Oh, I thought he'd
be the class clown," she said. But there was a distinction between Jayson's entertaining
and clowning; he possessed a sophistication, as well as an understanding of classroom
dynamics and boundaries. He had found space to entertain without distracting (too
much)which I credit as an attribution of a class clown. However, Jayson was an
entertainer in class who sought connections with other children. Regarding resource, his
craft as entertainer put multiple literacy practices into movement; two examples included
recognition of audience and word choice for entertainment value, as discussed in the

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segment on his Dragonball Z story, which follows in the next section, because many
connections exist among students' multiple resources. At the heart of the Dragonball Z
story was popular culture, as experienced by Jayson and many of his classmates.
Popular Culture: Finding More Social Connections and Becoming a Writer
In using familiar popular culture connections, Jayson attracted other students into
his stories, providing him (the entertainer) with an audience. In one example, he also
demonstrated his ability as a writer, using the aforementioned crafting techniques of
audience recognition and word choice, as well as telling the fuller version of a story,
complete with intricate details. Word choice and even topic choice were clearly noticed in
his writing of the Dragonball Z story that he wrote at home of his own volition, based on
the popular animated television series, Dragonball Z. He brought the first part of his story
in to show to me, requesting to read it with the class. I suggested that if he took the story
home, edited the writing, and made sure he was ready to perform a fluent read aloud, then
he would get that opportunity.
The next day, Jayson returned with his Dragonball Z story edited, and he was
prepared to read the story aloud. He even had help getting all the details written down, as
evidenced by a change in handwriting, As he stood at the chalkboard at the front of the
classroom, he showed knowledge of performance; he paused before beginning, letting the
title settle upon his readers, who giggled in reaction to the popular program and
characters. When he began reading his story, he took his time and read with inflection,
especially when the action hit. He worked the crowd with the line, "The spirit bombed
stronger 'aaaggggghhhhh'" he practically yelled. In this adventure combat story, he kept
the listeners on the edge of their seats to hear the actions of these familiar characters, such
as Vegeta and Kakarot (his spellings). And his culmination was masterful: "He's gone.
O.K. That's the end. Or is it?"

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The following day, unprompted, he arrived with the newly added Part II. His use of
dialogue kept his readers attentive. This was Part "To":

When he read the story to the class, again from the front of the classroom, it was
noticeable that he had prepared his reading through his fluent and expressive presentation.
He had also prepared his writing, as evidenced in the word choice, dialogue, and
punctuation. He had written about Dragonball Z, a piece of popular culture, a television
program, which was appealing to his classmates, and he used words that brought forth
laughter and engaged listening, which refers to students' appropriate responses either in
quiet or verbal response, usually laughter. This ability to entertain affords him much
popularity in class, especially as he draws upon this popular culture connection to his
classmates. Other children want to listen to his storieswhen he actually writes and
writes.

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Early in the school year, Jayson disclosed, "I hate writing." The word "hate" was a
powerful one, such a definitive word. Jasira commented that he writes more fully when
he gets to choose his topics. Thankfully, after writing and getting a positive response from
the class on his Dragonball Z story, Jayson said, "I think I'm beginning to like writing."
Jasira's advice was very helpful in engaging Jayson into the writing process in the
classroom. I wrote Jayson's quote on the dry erase board at the front of the classroom and
left it for days, celebrating a movement, perhaps, into the power of the written word to
accomplish some of his personal goals, such as entertaining people.
Jayson's growth as a writer was documented through his writing process and the
products it produced. Yet even at the end of the year, he verbalized his feeling of futility
regarding copying over a final written published piece. Because the actual, physical act of
rewriting was difficult for Jayson, I encouraged him to type his final draft on the
computer so it could be shared. With the motivation of sharing his story with his
classmates and using the computer, Jayson took up the computer keyboard readily,
seeking the stage and the audience again.
Summary of Jayson's Resources
Jayson was the student who most easily brought his multiple resources into the
classroom. He was very verbal and social, which made his resources more easily noticed.
Recognizing his propensity with words and honoring his need to talk through his ideas
became two ways his resources were utilized in the classroom; further evidence of the
welcoming of Jayson's resources is recorded in Chapter V on hybrid spaces.
Jasira, his mom, facilitated his language resource through regularly occurring
practices at home, as evidenced in their word play (i.e., tongue twisters). Although his
immediate family was small, Jayson had many family resources that came from his
extended family members, such as his Uncle Ray, his Aunt LuAnn, and his cousins. Not
only resources of family knowledge but multiple Discourses were adapted from his

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relatives. For example, Jayson's Discourse around faith in God was emphasized by his
Aunt LuAnn, as discussed with Jasira, who herself admitted that she too had beliefs of
her own which she and Jayson shared. His Uncle Ray, recognizing that he was a role
model to his nephew, affected Jayson's Discourse of what it meant to be a young Black
male.
Jayson's social interactions outside his family were vital resources to him as a
learner and were easily noticed by me in class, as detailed in this chapter with his
Dragonball Z story. With his entertainer resource, Jayson capitalized on shared
understandings (and joy) of popular culture like cartoons and video games with his
classmates. He blended these resources for entertainment value and social value, but they
also enhanced his school literacy practice of writing.
I began documenting students' resources with Jayson because his resources of
friendship (social practice), religion (family Discourse), entertainer (identity), and word
collector (literacy practice) were easily identifiable. He presented his resources
dynamically for all to experience. A further reason to start with Jayson was supported by
the numerous interactions with Jasira about Jayson's resources. Jasira was instrumental in
the development of my understandings of her son's resources. Our conversations
enhanced my level of knowledge about her son.

Calvin's Resources
Calvin, the second focal student, was the youngest of three children, living in a
household with both his mother and his father. He was the only boy in his family of three
children. His mother admitted in our first collaborative meeting that she stayed very close
to Calvin, her baby, almost stifling him. Calvin's mom, who will be called by the name
Camille, told of a pre-kindergarten experience where other parents made their thoughts on
this issue of overprotectiveness blatant to her, moving her to anger. Yet, in further

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conversations with me, she acknowledged that she was, indeed, very protective and that
Calvin was becoming older, more ready to be responsible for himself.
In school, Calvin was a focused student who was willing to try even more difficult
learning activities. His first grade teacher recommended him for the Extended Day
Program, which met four mornings a week for remedial assistance, particularly with
literacy, to strengthen his reading. Though in early assessments of his reading he was not
far behind the benchmarks set for second graders at that time of the year; based on
observations, he would benefit from the extra support of the morning program to build his
stamina as a reader and in responding to his reading.
A Tight-knit Family Resource
Camille hinted toward the fact that her own childhood was less than idyllic, but
clarified what she wanted for her own children. Camille made it clear that she could be a
different, more participatory mom than her own mother was and that she knew what was
at stake, even beyond just this generation. Her hard work in the role of mom was
evidenced in her attendance on class trips and her participation in classroom events, as
well as the interactions after school, with questions about homework and other
assignments. And Calvin's past teachers all had had the same experience of Calvin's
mom being participatory; she made time for her son and other children, too. One day after
a short talk with three family members from my class, as I was returning to the school
building I heard, "Ms. Kruger! Ms. Kruger." I whirled around and headed back outside to
find two children fighting. Camille was calling for my help, knowing, as she said, that
some parents do not want another parent touching their child. But she was clear that the
fight was wrong, and she wanted it stopped. Her nurturing expanded beyond just her own
children.
One day she approached me after school with information about a walk-a-thon for
her daughter's school; I realized she goes that extra mile, literally, for all her children.

Camille's commitment to her husband, her family, and her faith in God were revealed as
family resources. Camille acknowledged that she spent quality time with her son, saying,
"He's going to always remember that, and then he'll pass that on to his family, if he
decides to have a family."
I asked if her commitment to quality time spoke to her parents. But she informed
me that she did not know her father until she was 16. And when she talked of her mom,
she hesitated and got quiet. I asked Camille if she wanted something different for her
children. She indicated that she worked to develop a close relationship with her children
because she was never close with her family.
Mollie:

And you wanted it [this closeness]. And I like the way you speak
about it for the next [generation]because a parent can make all
the difference. Look at you!

Camille: True, Ms. Kruger. I just thank God. I'm not saying I'm a perfect
parent. I'm not saying I'm a good parent. I'm an OK parent. You
know cuz I have God in my life and my husband ... I can't do it
alone. I cannot do it alone. I think I said that before. [Reference to
first Collaborative meeting and a conversation that recurs with the
"moms" regarding single parenting.]
Mollie:

Yeah ... yeah. [Signaling that she remembers that past

conversation.]

Camille: I might have offended a couple of parents.

Mollie:

I don't think you did. I think they agreed with your general idea.
And I think it's hard when you don't have someone with you to
walk that. On nights when I'm tired ... [if makes me relax]
knowing she's in the best of hands [with her dad]. Yeah. It's hard.
It's hard work, but it's so rewarding.

Camille: It is, Ms. Kruger, at the end, it's very rewarding. If God is able to
keep you here, to stay, for your kids to be grown and, I mean, that

would be so great.
Mollie:

I would like to see it, I agree. (Both women are getting

sentimental.) You get mesorry. (Shared laughter.)

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Camille had spoken before about her gratitude for her husband's participation and
support; she felt that a child, and she emphasized a boy specifically, needed both his
mother and his father. This was an important commitment to her. Also, her faith was
forefronted in this quotation, but we also spoke about religion in our first individual
conversation.
Mollie:

... Do you guys, I don't know if this is too personalbut like do

you guys practice religion in any way? Are you part of a church?
Or

Camille: We believe in God. But we go to church maybe once in awhile.

Mollie:

OK. But it's not a regular

Camille: But
Mollie:

I ask because your son is clearly grounded in some sort of

understanding that the world is MUCH bigger than him.

Camille: (soft, warm laughter)

She was proud of this comment, the recognition that her son reflected her commitment
and love and, even, her religious convictions. At the end of the school year, as the
weather turned warmer, Camille and Jasira walked their sons to the local park where a
Christian group staged shows with interactive participation. Sometimes Camille took both
boys, giving Jasira a break. Their relationship was clearly deepening through participation
in the study, but more from the regular sharing of ideas that had been sparked. The
Christian group's programs came up in the boys' talk in school, as well as that of other
children who attended. This was one example of where religion or religious messages
were shared with Calvin (and Jayson). Camille's concept of family, a tight-knit family,
was strengthened by her religious beliefs.
Dedication Valued. There was a determined work ethic in this close-knit family as
well. Calvin's father worked for United Parcel Service, and his mom worked in security.
Both parents held jobs that they had had for a while. Resources came from a home with

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both parents united, hardworking, and striving for something better for the children. The
focal students' family members spoke to this resource in our first collaborative meeting
and about the possibilities of single parenting in the second collaborative meeting also
and about the possibilities of single parenting in the second collaborative meeting.
Camille and I had the common experience of sharing of responsibilities within a two
parent family structure. Both of us were grateful for the second pair of hands working
with us to raise our children. Although I did not strongly verbalize my opinion, based on
my personal experiences, I was thinking how fortunate I am to have a partner who is
hands-on with the rearing of our child. I was silent so as NOT to silence the other
members of the group, aware that my positionality as a White, middle class woman could
have worked to "legitimize" my opinion and make it less probable that the family
members would voice theirs. Ultimately, I shared my opinion, valuing my participatory
role in this research, but I attempted to do so in a manner that showed respect and interest
all perspectives.
Camille reiterated her commitment to having two parents in the household. Jess
agreed, saying it was an honor to have both parents, wishing she had that partner's
support. Jasira said, "It's only as hard as you make it...." These two women continued the
debate, finding common ground in the end.
Jess:

I can't replace his father. I can't do the things that he wants to do.
There's no way in heck that I'm going to pick up a bat, I mean a
ballhis father....

(Jasira was talking in and among that last whole statementseeking and
clarifying her thoughts too...)
Jasira:

If you're a single parentit's a wayit's all in how you're

teaching a kid and how you interacting with your kid. Cuz you
don't have to haveI mean it's always better to have the, you
know, the family

Jess:

Hm-hmwe know. We know that.

Jasira:

But if you can'tcuz nowadays it's rare to have that

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Jess:

Yeah, more and more.

Although agreement was clear through the larger conversation that one person can
raise a healthy and happy child on her own, all four of us concurred that a family structure
would be a benefit, due to the teamwork. We also recognized that in today's world, a
traditional family structure is not a given; examples existed within the data that
alternative family structures existed (i.e., Jayson's grandparents and Tali's godfather).
Throughout the study, Camille returned to the fact that she purposefully made a
commitment to Calvin's father believing that that was what was best for the children.
Camille stated, "It's just hard to explain. Like I was telling the girls before, I would never
want to raise a boy by myself. I just feel a man needs to be there ... that's just how I feel.
There's a big difference you can just see it.... He loves his dad." She believed that fathers
make that difference. And she was grateful for Calvin Senior's participation. Camille
declared, "God helps and my husband helps me.... We've been together for 20 years;
we've been married for 9. The Fourth of July will be 9. It'll be 9." They have developed a
partnership, celebrating their dedication to family.
A Mother's (Expectations and) Devotion. His mom's presence in his life was a
huge resource. Camille worked nights, but she was ready, willing, and able to go on every
trip, regardless of sleep. At first, I believed this was because she was fearful to allow her
son to go off on a trip without her supervision. She spoke at our first collaborative
meeting about being too stifling with Calvin. Camille spoke later about how she was
seeing him grow and how it was hard, knowing little by little she was letting him go. But
she added multiple resources because he could count on her and he felt her love and
support, as evidenced in her actions as mother.
Calvin's mom expressed her expectations on her children's educational future in
one of our individual meetings after school. She had a clear understanding of what
education means to her children's future and a devotion to helping them achieve the
goals.

Camille: I told the kidsthe only things I want is: respect yourself, respect
me, and give me educationhigh school diploma. College degree.
If you want to go to grad school, that's on you. I'm not asking for
that.
Mollie:

Rightcuz you are asking through college.

Camille: Exactly.
Mollie:

Right.

Camille: Because, Ms. Kruger, I feel in this day and age, a high school
diploma is not good enough. You need more than that. Andlike,
my kids want to become teachers.
Mollie:

They need it.

Camille: You need that high school diploma and you need that college
degree. You need it.
Mollie:

It's true. I agree with you 100%. I was just pushing to hear your
"whys" too.

Camille: You really do need it now, Ms. Kruger. If you want to make any
kind of money, you need that. You even need a high school
diploma for McDonald's.
Calvin was growing up within a household where the message is that college is an
expectation. His two sisters, one 20 and the other 14, were already working toward
teaching careers, with this educational understanding; the older sister was already
working on her college degree, and the younger had taken college classes as part of a
program through the local college. An example was being set.
Regarding devotion, Camille found out through a school assignment from her
oldest daughter part of the impact her efforts at being a participatory mother were having
on her children. In our second collaborative meeting, Camille explained the feelings she
experienced as she read her daughter's essay and learned that she was her daughter's role
model. Camille reported, "See, I didn't know that I was my kids' role model. I didn't find
this out 'til my daughterfirst day of college you have to write an essay ... she wrote her
essay all about me."

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The collaborative group collectively reacted with a gentle "awww," relating to that
tenderness of having someone show their respect and care in such a visible way.
Camille told us that she sat and cried, with joy. The essay was hung on a wall in
their home. Calvin's mom was obviously honored by her daughter's essay. The family
member collaborative group had similar reactions; we found her story touching, as we
related to the feeling of being appreciated for the work of parenting, as well as actually
having a child express their appreciation for her mother's efforts.
Calvin and His Dad
Calvin's father was out on medical leave from his position at United Parcel Service
at the beginning of the school year, which allowed him extra time with his son. At that
time, Calvin's mom informed me that his dad was responsible for helping with the
homework, which was a role his mom enjoyed because he had the homework process so
organized and complete, giving her a break, too. In our first individual meeting in the
spring, Camille spoke in depth about the car accident that Calvin Senior had experienced,
which presented him with some time out of work on disability. Both parents had
informed me of the accident in the fall when Calvin's dad picked him up regularly, easily
sharing information about their family life. Calvin was excited to see his father at
dismissal, even when it became a regular occurrence after a few months. Then Camille
told how upon Calvin Senior's return to work, regular clients were glad to have him back;
he knew information about each household, recalling names, preferences, and necessities.
I admired the efforts to know one's clients and provide elevated service, recognizing that
Calvin's dad has a heightened awareness of the magnitude of his position.
Late in the spring, Calvin Senior approached me on a day he was able to pick
Calvin up again. He addressed the issue of schools in our conversation and what they
were teaching children today. He questioned why schools were not preparing children for
the responsibilities of owning their own businesses, suggesting that schools should be

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preparing children for greater responsibilities and possibilities in their futures. His wife
told how he directs Calvin to think about the world, thinking about bigger and realistic
issues. During our first collaborative meeting, Camille informed me about the
relationship between Calvin Senior and his son.
Mollie:

... your son is clearly grounded in some sort of understanding that

the world is much bigger than him.

Camille: (soft, warm laughter)

Mollie:

That's how

Camille: That's his daddy. (She said quietly.)

Mollie:

That's his dad. (re-stating)

Camille: That's his dad cuz his dad treats him like he's adult. I don't know
if you noticed that or not.
Mollie:

Yeah.

Camille: I treat him like a kid. His dad treats him like an adult.
Mollie:

His dad shares stories with him that blow me away. Cuz I know
one of the reasons I asked you to be a part of this study was that at
the beginning of this school year, anytime I opened up a book, and
I wish I could think of one off the top of my headbut I was
opening When I Was Young in the Mountains and Cynthia Rylant
writes about being in the mountains and, she um, everything is like
in the old days when there were outhouses and then there was
something else that was the old days. And he was like that reminds
me of my grandma when she was little. And I was just like: How
do you know that?

Camille: (Gigglingbecause she knows where that comes from.)

Mollie:

Not every kid comes in with these connections.

In his family stories, connections to his life and his world are crafted with him; Calvin has
thought about these stories and discussed them with his family, especially with Calvin
Senior.

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Share stories. Children came with some stories, but Calvin had really digested the
family stories and made historical connections, too. Calvin's dad wanted schools to be
part of this preparation for the real world. Calvin and his dad had a special way of sharing
time together. Calvin Sr. told stories of his own life but also of the family's past; he was
passing on the family legacy, as well as sharing their lives. These stories were not lost on
Calvin; he understood what he heard and connected to the stories/life around him. In the
beginning of the school year, when we, as a class, were reading stories mirroring Personal
Narratives, our second writing unit of study, the stories evoked a lot of remembering from
the students and me. Calvin always had a story to share, connecting off the touchstone
texts or the shared, repeat readings that provide examples of particular genre and entry
into studying that genre more deeply. For example, In My Mama's Kitchen was a
touchstone text we used for personal narratives; this book shared short stories from an
African American family's experiences that take place in Mama's kitchen. Another day,
as we shared another touchstone text, Calvin offered that "my dad always tells me these
stories." He explained how his father relates the family stories. In my researcher's
notebook responding to another incident of text-to-self connections from Calvin, I wrote:
The oral sharing of family stories makes C. Rylant's When I Was Young in
the Mountains [which tells small moments of life in the mountains back a
generation or two] come alive for Calvin because he has other stories of the
"olden" days floating in his head. He also seemed proud to share this fact. I
moved out to speak with other students and then returned to Calvin saying,
"I'm glad you and your dad share these family stories."
Share life. Calvin's father, Calvin Senior, served in the Navy and traveled
extensively. Calvin told me that "my dad tells me, like, stories what the things he did
before. Like the things you'll be talking about. It's like connections." Calvin's dad shared
stories from his own journeys to many different countries, which Calvin listed in his
homework regarding an assignment to list places our family members have visited.
Calvin Senior showed artifacts, like money or coins, from other countries to his son and
talked regularly about his experiences in the Navy. There was a reason Calvin had many

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connections to make. I asked Calvin about hearing the story his father shared of his Navy
days in an informal conversation.
Mollie:

How 'bout how did you feel when dad was telling you that story?

Calvin:

Happy.

Mollie:

Why?

Calvin:

Because he was telling me about other countries, and when he was

in the Navy and about the dollar and stuff.

Mollie:

That's neatdo you like learning about other stuff like that?

Calvin:

Yes.

Mollie:

Can you think whywhy does that feel good to you?

Calvin:

Because I get to learn more and more.

Calvin's curiosity was cultivated by his father's storytelling and legacy sharing.
In an early conversation I had with Camille, she wondered what I was doing in the
classroom, because Calvin was coming home asking so many questions about things. I
laughed and explained that I wondered what they were doing at home that their son came
to school always with a question, comment, or connection. An example of how
conversations at home informed activities at school occurred as we were studying slavery
in 19th century America. On February 11, 2007, as students generated ideas of what they
knew about slavery, Calvin raised his hand and said: "Some of us have ancestorsgreatgreat-grandparents who were PROBABLY slaves." I remarked on his history connection
and asked what sparked those thoughts. Calvin responded that he and his dad were
talking about slavery, and his dad shared this historical information.
Calvin constantly made thoughtful connections with stories, involving his life, his
world, and other texts. One day while working with his reading group, his Series Study
Group was reading books from the Magic Tree House Series. Calvin said, "We're making
connections through everything." He continued, after a bit, "[we're] making connections

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like text-to-world." This group was exploring their world while exploring these
adventurous texts that take the main characters, Annie and Jack, on journeys around the
world and through time. Calvin's connections were not just to his own life, but those
story connections surely proved a resource to him in our literacy studies regarding readers
being people who make connections: text-to-self, text-to-world, text-to-text (Harvey &
Goudvis, 2000; Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).
"OLD MAN": A Social Resource (and Identity) That Opens Space for Growth
In the transcription from our second collaborative meeting, Camille spoke to some
of the reasons that Calvin is a "good boy" and some of the associated resources, such as
"Old Man," as his mom also refers to him. She said:
He's got a book shelf. He grabs his books. Now he's in a habit.... Like when
he writes when he can't spell a word he goes to his sistershow do you spell
this word? Well, it gets to a point where they say you don't know how to
spell. If I know how to spell it, I wouldn't be asking you. I don't know how
to spell it now can I have the correct spelling please. And this is from a
7 year old! And I always wonder why people in our building call him "old
man.'"
She proclaimed she was wondering why people referred to Calvin as "Old Man,"
but she was clear in her talk. There was a level of responsibility and curiosity in Calvin
that others noticed and admired. Although Camille shared that in the past she had been
somewhat overprotective, she agreed that Calvin had been growing and maturing. She
spoke about how Calvin Senior treated Calvin like an adult and that she treated him like a
kid, a young one, suggesting that his father was preparing their son for life in different
ways that she was. But in one of our conversations, she admitted that Calvin was getting
older and that she too was trying to see him no longer as her baby.
Camille: Yeah, he's taking more. For some apparent reason, it's like he's
doing things on his own. By himself now.
Mollie:

Good.

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Camille: I'm seeing a big change from the beginning of the year until now.
I've seen a great big difference. That's what I told you. I totally
agree that he's ready for the third grade.
And although she admitted that it was hard to see her little boy getting older and more
mature, she knew it was his time. The "Old Man" nickname referenced identities that
Calvin expressed within his community and also within school. Two examples from the
classroom include how he demonstrated an extreme responsibility to completing
assignments and how he extended himself to classmates who needed assistance with
school work. His resources in these examples were beneficial to himself as a school
learner and to his classmates.
Singing Sensational Songs
Songs attracted Calvin's attention. In class, I used lyrics as our shared reading
pieces frequently; Calvin enjoyed the singing but did not stand out as a performer. Yet,
his mother had more information on music as a resource in Calvin's life. One day, after
school, Camille reported that Calvin and his father sang songs to her on Mother's Day. I
asked Calvin whose songshe said that he and his father made the songs up and sang
them to his mom. I also asked if he remembered them, but he didn't. (It was unclear if
that was a memory issue or a performance issue.) But these Mother's Day songs are not
the only way songs come into Calvin's life. In our first individual meeting, Camille
described for me how she knows when Calvin's favorite television show comes on.
Mollie:

Songs did you say?

Camille: Yeah, he like to sing songs on the TV.

Mollie:

Ah, neat.

Camille: Um, his favorite show is "Naruto." He watches that; he has a video
game of that too. He loves that.
Mollie:

Oh, OK.

Camille: This is how I know his song is on: he'll turn the TV all the way up!

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(I cackled with enjoyment; she had placed a picture put into my head of
Calvin singing at the top of his voice!)
Camille: (Laughing at me) He'll turn the TV all the way up. (She seems
to be working my laughter.)
Mollie:

(another laugh)

Camille: (Laughing at me.) He'll turn the TV all the way up ... enjoying
himself.
She continued to tell me that he would sing the theme songs of his favorite television
shows at the top of his voice. This was a new insight for me into Calvin's resources and
ways of playing with language.
Later in the school year, around the beginning of May, another song connection for
Calvin was documented in school. I spoke with Camille that I noticed Calvin writing
some poems about rap and rapping. It surprised me that Calvin expressed so much about
this musical form; it did not connect to me automatically, because Calvin was not
presenting or performing rap songs in class. Camille listened as I continued, "I don't
know if there's cool rap in the house or likethere's also a poetry book we read that had
this poem called 'Nathaniel's Rap' by Eloise Greenfield." I was seeking her assistance in
understanding Calvin's resources, wondering if it was cultivated at home or wondering if
he was inspired by the Greenfield poem. I read to her Calvin's published poems, which
were about the musical genre, rap.

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I
Wonder
If
I can be a rapper
Up

I grow
I
Can do it that

Can
Be

Rapping
I rap I tap and a
Walk to talk
Nut
Most things you like
You do it's the best
Thing to do.
-Calvin

The
Best
Thing
Ever. To me or anybody.
Or somebody
Is
Being a rapper.
-Calvin
On some level, he identified with rap. Camille responded to Calvin's poems with delight.
When I asked his mom about this persona, she shared that he goes into his sisters' room
and listens to music with them. They enjoy the rap stations. Camille added another layer
as I teased apart the multiple resources Calvin was pulling upon as he wrote these poems.
Popular Culture Seeps In
Popular culture did not have an established place in our curriculum. However,
students found ways of bringing in their love of these aspects of their social and cultural
lives. One day Calvin told me a story about his SpongeBob Squarepants toys, which were
developed from the characters of the popular television program of the same name. He
told how he plays with the toys, manipulating them and making them talk. This was a
literacy practice he had from home that added to school literacies such as story crafting,
verbal presentation, and play writing.

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Mollie:

What games do you play with your toys? Like what toys are you
talking about?

Calvin:

Like SpongeBob.

Mollie:

You have a SpongeBob toy?

Calvin:

Yes (sing-song), it's the little one. It has SpongeBob, Square

Word, Patrick and Sandy.

Mollie:

So, like, they have all the figures and you play with them and make
them do things. Oh, that's cool. So it's like making- you're writing
your own play when you do that kind of stuff, right. You're a
playwright.

Calvin:

(giggle)

I told him he was a playwright, and he smiled. He got it, and he appreciated it, having
read a few play scripts in our morning sessions. Later in the school year, he mentioned
play writing when we were creating a graphic organizer about writing forms, later in the
year.
Other television shows had an impact on Calvin and offered resources toward
learning. One day, while preparing the class for a mandated end of the year literacy
assessment, I noticed Calvin with a small, blue, spiral-bound notepad but did not
comment about it initially. Calvin was equipped with a pencil, too. I was in teacher mode,
outlining the "testing" day agenda, including E-PAL (a reading, listening, and writing
assessment taken by individuals in a whole class group), poetry stations (which got a
YEA!), Book Clubs, Quick Write Paragraph, and lunch. As we discussed the day's plan,
Calvin continued writing in his notebook; he was engaged in very quiet and intent work.
As the class got up to move their desks in preparation for the E-PAL assessment, Calvin
kept writing in his notepad. Pointing to the notebook, I casually asked him, "What's
this?"
Calvin told me that it was a notepad like "Ned ... who's on TV" in the program
Blues Clues. I checked in with Ms. Khan's third grade students across the hall; they
informed me that it's a PBS program. One third grade girl told me that it was a show on

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Channel 13 and the boy always wrote in his notepad. The third graders were excited (and
me too) that home, with talk of TV, came into school in such a school literacy way. The
third graders were proud that they were a source of knowledge for me; they seemed
surprised that they knew about this show and that a teacher did not.
Calvin did not put his notepad away while clearing his desk for the test. He did not
seem to be able to stop. He put the notebook down inside his deskby the desk's
openingbut his pencil was still bobbing as he continued to write covertly. Concerned
that he was not focusing on the preparations for the assessment, I asked for the notebook,
which he gently offered. "I don't want you to be distracted during the test," I told him. I
assured him that I was just keeping it safe at the science table up front.
The notepad is a 214 x 4 inch, lined, spiral, blue-covered notebook. It was opened to
a page. The top said: NOTE TO SELF (spelled: sefa). The main character on the show
wrote such notes all the time. Calvin was writing about the test and other things that had
occurred already that morning. Later he explained to me that the character, Ned, always
wrote himself notes about what was happening. For Calvin, this practice provided a way
to respond to his learning and his life.
Summary of Calvin's Resources
Calvin was chosen as a focal student because of the verbal and written connections
he made to many of the topics we were reading and discussing in class. I noticed early in
the year that Calvin made his own bridge between his home learning and his school
learning; as evidenced from conversations with his mom and his dad, his connections
were being noticed and admired on both ends of his bridgehome and school.
Calvin was encouraged to 'be a child' by his family. He sang songs with his
favorite children's television show and played with his SpongeBob (television character)
action figures, as well as writing in his notebook like the Blues Clues (television
program) host who keeps track of important clues or learning. Calvin brought these

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practices into the classroom with him, sharing with and among his classmates. He also
brought the shared Discourse of rap music, which he and his sisters share.
Some of Calvin's social practices were noticed as resources in school, such as his
practice of sharing stories with his dad and his family's (particularly his mom's) social
practice of mom as involved school parent. In his family, a shared Discourse was that
school was important. One rallying cry from his mom was "give me education." The
expectations were clear to the children in the family. It was through Calvin's resources of
family stories (literacy practice), "mother's expectations" (Discourse of school), and his
uptake of popular culture via television and music (community resources) that strong
connections between school and home, inclusive of community, were evidenced.

Tali's Resources
Tali lived with his mother, Jess, in an apartment "up on the hill," which around
school meant that they literally lived up a steep hill behind the school that led to another
neighborhood outside the city housing units that surround our school. Tali rode the
yellow school bus to school, as it was available to students who were coming to our
school under the No Child Left Behind initiative, which provides parents choice
regarding their children's school. Tali's mom did the work and found a school she
thought would be better for her son. Extended family members were living in the city, but
no one was lived locally until the end of the school year. At the year's end, one of Jess's
sisters was recovering from a health matter, and she moved in with them. At first, Tali
was having difficulty adjusting, as he was asked to give up his room to accommodate her.
His mom ended up sleeping on the couch, and Tali returned to his room. She tried to ease
the adjustment difficulties that Tali had to the new living arrangements, which lasted the
last two months of the school year. However, it was noted that his aunt helped look after
him when his mother started working as a clerk at a store.

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Experiential Resources from Mom
In our second individual meeting, Jess and I sat at the back rectangular table for our
conversation. I was not yet comfortable recording conversations, as this was prior to our
first collaborative meeting, and we were still developing a sense of mutual trust. From my
notes, I detailed some of the facts she shared. She spoke of her mother, who died at 42.
Jess was in her early 20s at the time. She lived in her mother's spacious apartment for a
while after her death. Jess had already felt the burden of being a mother to her younger
siblings due to her own mother's illness. She had been in no rush to enter motherhood.
She talked about a great job she had had downtown working for a Japanese bank.
Post 9-11, the bank packed up and retreated, leaving many people, including Jess, without
a job. She spoke lovingly of her experience working for that bank; numbers were not her
passion, but the job was fun. Jess talked about trips; travel was an important aspect of her
talk about that job. The money she made enabled her to take a regular trip to "the
islands," the Caribbean. Her stories flowed as she discussed this position. She knew the
expectations of the job and had no trouble meeting them. This experience left her with
knowledge of the business world, not all of it positive, and with knowledge of travel to
the larger world, outside the immediate neighborhood, which she shared with her son.
Jess talked also about her own experiences in school. She remembered that there
was a girl who would not leave her alone until she fought her. "She wouldn't quit 'til I
fought her," she informed me. Jess experienced the value of being able to stand up for
herself. Then she spoke about being a part of the "library squad" because she loved to
read those magazines. It was not popular to participate in such a group, but she enjoyed it.
Jess conveyed, "Learning takes you so many places. You can't tell me you're bored...,"
which began to speak to her outlook of learning for her child. Furthermore, Jess made it
clear which perspective her expectations took, saying, "When you come from poverty ...
move away from the gloom and doom ... push yourself...." She continued speaking about
her own beginnings: "We were poor but we had ... [the necessities and then some]."

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Expectations for herself and her son were being clarified, and there were to be no
excuses.
Expectations clarified. The conversation in our first collaborative meeting turned to
standards and expectations for children. Jess spoke quickly and assuredly about her
criteria. "I've got my own standards." Her emphasis was on the word ownpushing that
some lesser standards or expectations would not be sufficient.
Tali's writing was one place that his mother's expectations were made explicit and
became proactive in school. In the following exchange, Tali and I had a conversation that
was focused around his writer's notebook and began with questions about a piece of
writing.
Mollie:

What are you thinking?

Tali:

I think it's(softly) horrible.

Mollie:

It's horrible? Why?

Tali:

Cuz it's, it's sloppy. I wrotetoo fast.

Mollie:

OK. You wrote fast on this page.

Tali:

Hm-m

Mollie:

Looks like you had a lot to say though.

Tali:

I know (whispered).

I mentioned that I noticed that some of his homework had been written really neatly.
Then I pointed out a very neat piece of writing in his writer's notebook, which is
completed solely at school, and asked if it was his work. He nodded yes. I teased him,
saying, "That was YOUR writing, really?" feigning surprise. Tali quietly admitted to
writing neatly.
Tali:

M-hm

Mollie:

You're not making that up? (teasing)

Tali:

(shakes his head) No [inaudible]

Mollie:

You can really write like this?

Tali:

Yes (softly!)

Mollie:

So what was the difference between you writing at home and the
stories you're doing in school sometimes?

Tali:

Ah! (like he saw a snake ... not loud but surprised)

Mollie:

That's a tough question, right?

Tali:

Yeah. Hmm. Sometimes I be neat and sometimes be sloppy.

Mollie:

OKI don't even think this is your sloppy, sloppy writing. This
looks like you had a story idea and you were writing fastyou
know like sometimes, I feel

Tali:

Yeah I know (interrupting which he did often when he was

excited) that's why [inaudible] ... my mother cuz I miss this and
that when I was going fast.

Mollie:

Going fast, trying to get it all down. So when you're doing this at
home, you're just taking a lot more time.

Tali:

Yeah.

I went on to suggest that perhaps Tali should go to a quieter place to create his final draft
of a piece, even suggesting another classroom to remove distractions. He assured me that
he did not need to leave the classroom and that he could indeed create these neater, more
readable texts, which did play out in his later works. In this conversation, I tried to evoke
his mom in the classroom because she had stated her expectations before Tali and me,
and Tali clearly understood them. Although he did not always work toward those
expectations when working on his own, Tali was influenced by these multiple resources
from his mother.
When Jess arrived for our first individual conversation, she was not pleased with
the condition of Tali's desk. She repeated, "Oh, no! No," as she pulled stray papers from
his desk and flipped through his notebooks, examining his writing and work. This phrase
was not shouted, only emphasized. Repeating "Oh, no! No," Jess made it clear to the
teacher and to Tali that the condition of the work, the books, and the desk was not

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"acceptable" (her word). That meeting was the beginning of a turn-around for Tali and his
efforts to complete classroom assignments; when I reminded him of his mother's
expectations, Tali rose to that level. The connections made between his mom and me
through the study seemed to affect Tali's efforts in school, as noted in my fieldnotes on
March 8, 2007.
On that day, the class was working in Math Steps (math workbook). I was checking
homework at the round table in the writing center, calling students table by table. Tali
was the last person at Table Four. I complimented him on his neat writing. His work and
his writing showed time and effort. I noticed that Tali's homework and schoolwork had
changed a lot since his mom's visit when she "excavated" his desk and his notebooks,
exploring the actual work he accomplished. He smiled at the compliment that his work
was getting better. Also, I wrote a note in H-book (homework notebook) to go home to
his mom, giving a similar message about the improvement in Tali's work and asking for a
meeting. Jess came Monday after school for a meeting; at the end of our meeting, she
expressed that she believed Tali was in trouble. She spoke that it was refreshing to have a
meeting about the work and not the behaviors. Jess's comments spoke to the relationships
between teachers and family members. She was relieved to speak about progress versus
negative behaviors. Part of the success of this meeting was the positive focus. And Tali
enjoyed the positive attention for the improvements in his handwriting and his work.
Also, during the March 8, 2007 meeting with Jess, Tali demonstrated his ability to
read and digest chapter books, recognizing that they were Just-Right for him. I asked him
which chapter books he had been reading.
Tali:

I read those (pointing to chapter book shelf).

Mollie:

Which ones?

Tali goes to book shelf and brings back Amazon and Titantic from the Magic
Tree House Series. Tali retells and amazes me with his details and
recall/comprehension. When I asked questions, Tali thoughtfully responded
to each question. (Stop and think strategy was evident.)

Tali was retelling the Magic Tree House book about the Titantic from his Series Study.
He had been reading in class and at home. Here are some of the notes I took from his
retelling:
The dog was under a spell. And Morganhe hadMorgan he wanted Jack
to buy the things he needed ... he gets gifts on the boat. Then Morgan was on
the boathe said (to Morgan) Hurray because the water. He got the dog off
the spell. (He spoke about five things or gifts that Jackand Anniehad to
find.)
Mollie:

It took 5 things.

Tali spoke about the adventure of finding the things Morgan required.
Mollie:

Where did you read theseat school or at home?

Tali:

At home.

Mollie:

With who?

Tali:

Mom.

Mollie:

Where?

Tali:

At the table.

Mollie:

The table where?

Tali: (after some talk) The table where we eat.

I asked him to read to her [his mom]. He was FLUENT until "disappeared."
Tali:

It's got hard words.

[Tali spoke patiently and proudly of the story. He didn't have a third or
fourth grade understanding of this chapter book- BUT he's showing a
growing understanding of longer texts. And in this case, he's showing a
strong effort to push himself to harder and longer texts(HURRAY!)]
Some of this reading reflected Tali's improving abilities with longer texts. His mother's
actions, and even expectations, had effects. Jess was reading with Tali at home; she told
me that she read aloud to him and also encouraged him to read to her. Tali got the

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message that these longer, "harder" books (which were the distinctions that the students
used to refer to these books) were for him, too.
In the preceding conversation with Tali, I had two purposes. First, I wanted to
determine whether the Magic Tree House books were "Just-Right" books for Tali,
wondering if they were on his reading level. It appeared that he comprehended the
storyline, even though some of the text was still difficult to express. Second, when I heard
him respond to the story, I was trying to gather information about the context in which he
had read the book because it seemed to be representing a positive and successful reading
experience for Tali. I was seeking ways to help him have similar reading experiences
during school literacy instructional time, by recognizing the invaluable nature of this time
spent talking with a child. I could have spent the same amount of time (or more) trying to
guess at what his actions meant but it was (and is) important to take the time to know
from the child's perspective, as best as the child is able to articulate it, providing me with
deeper understandings of the child and more ideas regarding educating children.
Godfather and Friends
In our second individual meeting, Jess reported that Tali went to Brooklyn to visit
his godfather. His godfather often hosted Tali for weekend visits, providing Jess with, as
she mentioned, breaks from her role as single parent. His godfather was interactive with
Tali, providing some enriching experiences. One day he picked Tali up at school and took
him to a major league baseball game. Tali had been excited all day, telling everyone and
anyone that would listen about his plans and about his godfather, a source of pride. Jess
mentioned that he was very verbally expressive after these visits. She said that he had "so
much to say."
Visits with his godfather provided a measure of extended family interaction for
Tali. His godfather presented Tali with multiple experiences that impacted him in class.
Two new friends that he met through his visits with his godfather influenced Tali's

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behavior and his writing positively, as reflected in Tali's understandings of friendship and
the written pieces we wrote about games that they played on his trips to visit these
friends. As his mother implied, Tali was being exposed to some of the larger world Jess
herself experienced while working downtown.
Sense of Fun and School Play
In class and in our individual conversations, Tali demonstrated a sense of humor
and a sense of play. His mom said that all he wanted to do was play. But play came
positively into Tali's learning. He developed ways of acceptable "school play."
One day during our literacy session in the middle of our poetry unit of study,
students were expected to partner up and share poetry books with their partners. The
students had chosen their poetry partners themselves. The process went like this: students
stood as a class, made eye contact with a potential partner. If the person was returning
their look, they partnered up and so on, until the class all had partners. I helped at the tail
end to ensure everyone was partnered. All partnerships were successful. I was impressed
with the students' abilities in this processthe students were quick, thoughtful, and kind.
I wondered if it was the excitement toward poetry or their experiences at partnering that
made the process so easy. Tali and Chino were partnered; I was anxious about their
partnership, as both boys have a playful nature.
The expectation for this literacy session was for partners to explore and read from
poetry books that were dispersed at the tables. Tali and Chino were sitting up front on the
floor by Tali's desk. It took a long time for Tali to open his book. We heard "yo-yo-yo" as
Tali rapped from a poem, "Nathaniel's Rap" by Eloise Greenfield. There was lots of
laughter and silliness from their partnership. Even when I was staring at Tali, he was
concentrated on playful not poetry. I caught them at "school play" again and again.
"School play" was both connected and disconnected from school activities. In general,
they were a productive partnership and they had fun! From my fieldnotes from this

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literacy session on May, 1, 2007,1 recorded some of what I heard as I focused on this
partnership.
Chino:

I'm telling Ms. ... [Kruger]

Tali:

Alrightalright

(He could open the poetry book and read it. But didn't get right at it.)
I went to explore. Tali had his book in his mouthOK MY book, and took
out the top corner!
Chino:

He was looking for "the rap" (He had the right book but couldn't
negotiate it to find "Nathaniel's Rap," which I had read out of this
anthology by E. Greenfield! It was great to hear that Tali had
intentions of reading and had even chosen the book he had
purposefully. However, the rap he was seeking was on the third
pageso could he have been looking hard for it? And why didn't
they look together? No teamwork there? Or Tali on his own?)

I was glad I heard the frustration from this partnership, because with a tad of assistance in
finding the desired poem, they were off into exploration mode and spent the remaining
time reading and re-reading Nathaniel's Rap. "It's Nathaniel talking, Nathaniel B. free
and I'm talking about my philosophy" (Greenfield, 1993). Once he was enjoying the
work, he engaged more deeply. He was using his sense of fun and his sense of play, while
working with his poetry partner. This resource is further explored in the next chapter,
where I detail how the students' resources contribute to the opening of hybrid spaces in
the classroom's study of poetry.
Heelies. Toys, and Game as Inspiration. One aspect of the research process that was
pleasing to me was getting to know Tali more deeply. He was not a big talker. Yet, there
were moments when I noticed that he did want to be known. In one conversation, he
mentioned that it was hard being in a new school where the teachers did not know him.
And as I got to know Tali better, it was clear that popular culture was a big part of who he
was and how he defined himself. Tali connected to others through talk around Heelies,
toys, and games. (Note: Heelies are sneaker-like shoes that have retractable wheels in

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them that allow children to scoot from place to place. This was a distraction and safety
issue in our school.)
In our first informal conversation, Tali and I spoke in the school's library. Below, I
unpack a section of our conversation, which revealed much about Tali, including further
illustrating his sense of fun. We were talking about his writing as we explored his writer's
notebook together.
Mollie:

.. .It makes sense. Do you think there's anything more you could
add to that story ... you're thinking of writing something more.
What happens after the teacher takes your Heelies?

Tali:

Uhget punished?

Mollie:

What will you get in trouble? Do they hang you up by your

thumbnails?

Tali:

Noooo. (He crooned his answer.)

Mollie:

[cackles]

Tali:

That's true.

Mollie:

That's true (little laughappreciative of his teasing.) That's not

true. (Softlywith care.)

Tali

Alright, (negotiating?)

Mollie:

What happens when Ms. Kruger takes your Heelies?

Tali:

[inaudible]

Mollie:

Oh, that can happen. You're right. But you know by the way that
Mr. Wilson (Parent Coordinator and general wonder worker with
students) told me the other day that you asked him in the morning
to take the wheelies out so you wouldn't get in trouble during
school.

Tali:

Hm-hm. (positive)

Mollie:

That was so smart of you. You're getting to be smart about using

your Heelies in school, aren't you?

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Tali was very proud of his Heelies, which were popular among the children and rather
expensive. My policy was that children could wear Heelies to school if they did not ride
them and only walked in them as sneakers. Tali had some difficulties following the rules
for wearing the Heelies. Thus, in asking for Mr. Wilson's assistance in getting his wheels
out, so he would not be able to ride them, Tali showed knowledge of the rules but also the
ability to connect to other adults, an important social resource. Heelies also came up in
Tali's writing, as in one of his process writing drafts on "How to Ride Heelies."
As our individual conversation continued, Tali's love of toys inspired me as I tried
to encourage him prior to our poetry unit of study for writing to use his resources,
especially within the realm of popular culture. I started by saying, "We're about to start
writing about poetry, and I'm wondering if you think that it's going to be fun to write
poems in the writer's notebook." Tali was silent, thinking for a bit. I pushed his thinking,
asking if he thought it would be a hard, easy, or good challenge. Tali replied that it would
be hard. When he was asked why, he said, "Yeahcuz if you take a lot words from a
poem and then, I write it in my book, it'll be hard." At first I did not understand his
response. But Tali helped me understand. He said his hand would be tired; he did take
issue with large amounts of writing. I pointed out that not all poems are long ones.
Mollie:

Your hand might get tired. You're thinking of those long, long,
long poems. Did you know there could be really, short, short, short
poems?

Tali:

No.

Mollie:

It's true. You're gonna learn about ALL different kinds of poems.
What do you think you might want to write about? Toys?

Tali:

[inaudiblesoftly spoken list of toys]

Mollie:

What was the other one?

Tali:

Hotwheels.

Mollie:

Hotwheelsare those one of your favorite toys?

Tali:

(Tali nods) Un-hun (positive)

Mollie:

That's what's fun about poems, by the way. You can write about
all those things toys, Hotwheels, Heelies, Ninja Turtles (my voice
drops near a whisper), those are things I know you likeright?

(Tali smiles.)
Tali's aversion to writing became clearer through this exchange. At first, it seemed that
he thought the whole process sounded difficult. In the end, it was connected to his
difficulty with writinghandwriting and the forming of letters and words that was
addressed in his line, "Your hand, it might be tired." And once the talk turned to toys and
short poems, Tali was on board.
Games also pulled Tali into curricular issues. He spoke about games frequently in
our class sharing session, What's on Your Brain? He was connecting with other students,
who also shared this passion of play. As we continued our conversation, Tali talked about
the computer his mother uses at home to write her papers for college. I asked Tali if he
got to use the computer at home. He told me that he got to play games like Paintball and
playing cards. He told me that the computer was the same as the one in the classroom.
He knew better than I about the games that were available on the classroom
computer; Tali had become one of my computer techies (a small group of students who
were proficient in accessing the available programs and internet connections and then
helped other students). But it was not just the games he played that I learned about. Tali
was writing at home as well, in various forms.
Mollie:

What other things do you have saved on your computer?

Tali:

Games.

Mollie:

But other writings? Like you said about this list. What other kinds
of writing do you do on your computer?

Tali:

Games I want.

Mollie:

OKGotcha.

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Tali:

And toys ... it's three. It's four. The first one is when the games ...
no, it's five. The first one is about Spiderman.

Mollie:

That's cool. So you think you have these five different things that
are saved there. So what was the fifth one? Do you remember the
last one? Yeahcuz you were like wait there's five. What was the
fifth one?

Tali:

The fifth one was when I did stuff for the newspaper.

Mollie:

Like stuff for your own newspaper? What kind of stuff goes in
your newspaper?

Tali:

I don't know how to typeI just push all the buttons.

Mollie:

Cool like you're a newspaper guy on the

Tali:

Yeah. It looked like newspaper.

Mollie:

Aw, so it sets it up like

Tali:

It looks like newspaper to me.

Mollie:

Nice. Why? Why'd you save it?

Tali:

So I can write- so I can type in more stuff.

This portion about the newspaper caught me. It came out of talk about games, but writing,
in a school literacy type form, was happening for Tali at home, on his own terms, in his
own way. He was technologically savvy and using his resources for multiple purposes.
Mapping the World/Finding One's Path
All year I had strived to infuse map learning with our lessons. As we studied
various cultures, we used the globe to locate the country of the peoples. We used a map of
the United States and a map of the world to locate the places that were mentioned in our
readings, but superficially. Unfortunately, it was not until the end of the school year in
June that one of Tali's resources was discovered. It was during the extended day session
that took place prior to the school day, when we were examining subway maps in a very
hands-on way where each group of two had their own map to explore.

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Tali was KING of maps. He spoke about having them at home and that his mom
taught him how to read them. He was so excited. It was wonderful to see him on fire and
so successful at something so academic. "I have maps at homebuses ... trains...." Tali
demonstrated an ability at finding his way around the subway map. He found all the
airports, the sections of the city. He indicated his godfather's exit from the train. Tali also
knew the commuter train tracks and recalled the local river from a class trip. Tali was
recognized as a map reader. He enjoyed being the student who knew the answers about
maps. Using his enthusiasm, he helped other students find places and understand the map
key. His knowledge of the symbols and the directions was unmatched. I was surprised at
his aptitude and wished that I had discovered this talent and resource earlier in the year.
At the final collaborative meeting, I mentioned to his mother what I had finally
recognized about Tali as a map reader. She was aware of his ability, and she had been
encouraging him by bringing him train maps and bus maps.
Mollie:

Your son is the Map Man. (laughter from Jess) It is not funny. I
brought out the subway maps one day and he went insane for that.
And he said he's got bus maps at home.

Jess:

He got busI said: Tali, you planning leaving me soon. And you
didn't tell me.

Mollie:

He wants to know where it goes.

Jess:

He wants to get out of here. (Laughing)

Jess spoke about Tali wanting to get out of herebeyond the neighborhood. She was
suggesting that there was a better place for him. As she spoke, I heard some of her
expectations coming throughshe was suggesting something better is out there and
hoped her son might find it.

Summary of Tali's Resources

It was difficult for me to choose Tali as a focal student; I was concerned and
sometimes agitated because of his choices about behavior in the classroom. He often

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disrupted the learning in class from his disinterest or inability to be still. He was
frequently disengaged with the work that students were engaged with, though particularly
in literacy learning. Yet, upon closer look, I recognized resources I had not noticed
before. With individualized attention, Tali offered thoughtful verbal responses to his
learning, but he did not complete tasks written or arts projects independently. In this study
(and my teaching), I felt students who were disengaged should be a focus; this was part of
my premise, seeking ways to engage students who were outside the dominant model of
school. It became clear as the study progressed that Tali presented himself as a student
who was disengaged but responded to engagement strategies, such as capitalizing on his
resources. When the "right" topic or method of instruction occurred, he was an active
participant. When his engagement was captured, there were noticeable differences in his
learning.
However, an important facet of the study's family member involvement led me to
Tali's resources of time with his godfather (Discourses and social practices), map reading
(literacy practice), and humor and/or play (identity). The connection to Tali's mom, Jess,
had a serious effect on Tali's schoolwork. On one visit to the classroom for an individual
conversation, upon examining her son's desk and his notebooks, she began saying, "Oh,
no. Oh, no. This is NOT [how it is going to be]." She was not yelling but violently
proclaiming her displeasure with the incomplete assignments and the messy condition of
her son's handwriting. She raised the bar. After that visit, there was a marked difference
in Tali's efforts and his handwriting. Tali seemed to recognize his mother's expectations
and the power of the collaboration between his mom and me, our being in regular contact.
When Jess and I worked together, Tali had less room for disengagement.
His mom was central in his life. In our collaborative meetings, I got a sense of
some of her Discourses, such as a single mother and the oldest child who took on
parenting with her siblings. These affected Tali also. He and his mom shared a close
relationship (social resource) and a sense of humor (social practice). Initially, it was

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difficult for me to identify multiple resources for Tali. But as conversations with his mom
continued, I gained access to seeing and understanding resources such as the social
practices of map reading and utilizing computers. (Jess was working toward a degree and
regularly wrote papers on the computer at home.) Jess's input helped me see a more
developed view of Tali's resources.

Diamond's Resources
The fourth focal student was Diamond, a lively young girl who was currently living
with her brother in a foster care home. She had lived in four different foster care homes in
her life by age 8. Currently, her birth mother was taking parenting classes and anger
management classes as well, working toward getting her children back in her care. Her
foster mother did not participate fully throughout the study, although she made herself
available for telephone conversations, which were insightful. Denise did not attend the
collaborative meetings, but she was determined to have Diamond be one of the focal
students. She did not state her intention explicitly, but it was implied that she wanted
Diamond to have every added attention that was possible to enhance her schooling
experience.
Diamond's prior school experiences were inconsistent, according to her cumulative
records and attendance records. Her prior two teachers placed N and U (Needs
Improvement and Unsatisfactory) in many boxes on her records, like reading,
mathematics, and the social categories, too. I noticed this most at the end of the year
when I placed E and G in most boxes (Excellent and Good). There was a change that
occurred in Diamond's work habits and her abilities during this year. Much of the credit
belonged to Diamond and to her foster mother, Denise; some of this work was detailed
through the examination of Diamond's resources.

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Status: Foster Child
Diamond claimed her identity as a foster child. There was a lot of history behind
her experiences that came out as she became more comfortable in the classroom and
through the explorations that we encouraged in the later part of the school year due to this
research process. On May 15, 2007, the read-aloud after lunch was Always My Dad by
Sharon Wyeth, a story that details a child's experience of living separately from her father
but also getting to visit with him when he did show up. It documented the love of a child,
even for a parent that was not always present. When we finished reading the book, I asked
the students to turn and talk to their neighbor and speak about something the book left
them thinking about, wondering, or connecting to. Many students had responses
reminding them of their dads. Diamond spoke about her father: "I haven't seen him in a
long time." I revisited the part of the book where this father said "he was having trouble
getting his life together." Diamond did not soften much; her demands of her father are
high: "...he's out on the street," she shared, and she suggested that he chose this. To her
this sometimes suggested that he did not love her. This book stirred up a lot for this little
girl. I was reminded of the day Diamond cried in the morning, recalling how her father
hurt her mother. I noted in my reflective journal: "Seems to be the beginning of a lot for
her." Diamond was beginning to unpack and share out her experiences. I asked if she had
a good memory of her dad, like the girl in our book. Diamond shook her head NOher
eyes opened wide and tellingly.
Just after dismissal on the day we read aloud Always My Dad, Diamond found me.
She spoke of how her "cousin" was late again. This had been a source of continued
discomfort for her; she hated waiting around, unconnected, unaccompanied. Often she
sought me out. Diamond said, "You know she's NOT my cousin" (said as sentence, less
of a question). I said, "Yes, I know she's Denise's daughter and not your real cousin." I
continued speaking about how she was like a cousin because it was like family.
Sometimes kids call close family friends 'cousins'. Diamond did not react as if she was a

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close family friend. She even mentioned in this conversation that she did not want to go
home. Some days she was overwhelmed by the multitude of feelings that swirled through
her. The book, Always My Dad, brought up sad feelings for her. Outside, after school, she
starting talking about her mom and how her mom had to take "all her classes" to get her
back. She began getting super sad, tears came rolling, and she pulled her jacket over face.
I steered her inside by the windows in the lobby, where we sat closely together, Diamond
leaning against me. I was trying to talk through some of her painbut the words were
useless. Even I felt the HUGE HOLE in her heart! All of this thinking was impacting her
learning; in the next chapter on hybrid spaces, I detail more talk around foster care, as
Diamond brought this resource into the creation of a hybrid space.
Photographs and Letters
At the end of April, Diamond brought in a small picture of her mom and herself;
her mom's image was beautiful, looking very related to Diamond. Diamond was proud of
her mother, and she was using the photograph for remembering. This sharing was related
to Angel Child, Dragon Child, a story that told of a Vietnamese family awaiting their
mother's journey to join them in the United States. The main character, Ut, had a picture
of her mom that she kept safe in a matchbox where she could peek when she was missing
her, as Diamond did with her own photograph.
A second family photograph was brought to school. Diamond brought a large 8x11
copy of a photo of her brother and herself, which she pulled out of her backpack at the
morning session (fieldnotes, May 9, 2007). Her brother was sitting on her lap on a park
bench.
Mollie:

Where are you?

Diamond:It's my cousin's party.

Mollie:

Who took the picture?

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Diamond: My friend. [Not a lot of details from her. Not a lot of open
questions from the teacher either.]
Each of the photographs that Diamond brought to school to show was well cared for and
used as a device to keep people close.
Diamond also used letter writing to keep her family members close to her and to
communicate some of her thoughts and questions, sometimes just for herself. The
following letter from Diamond was written the day after Fathers' Day on the dry erase
boards that we use for word work and problem solving; on this day, the dry erase boards
were serving another purpose. Initially, I thought she was writing to her father, but it was
more Diamond's questioning to her mother. Her thinking and her writing went deeper.

She wrote:
Hello yesterday was
father day and that
is not right

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you can not stop

me from seeing my
father no no that is
a no no if I want
to see me father I do
I love him and he love me back.
I do not no
Why do my mom
Do not let me
See my father
This Friday
You have your new
boyfriend
Diamond did not explain the entire letter. But she continued to ask to use another board
as she added her thoughts to "paper." Some of the exercise seemed to be releasing the
ideas from her head; her father was not often referred to. But in these writings, we saw
not only Diamond's love for her father, who she clearly remembers, but there was also a
hint of hurt toward a new object of affection in her mother's life. Because Diamond
visited her mom one day a week for a few hours, she was not able to verbalize all her
thinking to her mom.
Determined for Success
When Diamond arrived in class, Denise, as Diamond referred to her foster mother,
greeted me outside after her first day in late September. Denise informed me that she
wanted Diamond to pass to the third grade. She was already talking with the people at the
agency to arrange for some tutoring for Diamond. Denise knew that she had repeated a
grade and did not want that to happen again. Her determination was infectious.
Denise had two children of her own who were in their teens and had attended our
school. She recalled some of their teachers, who I also knew. Denise had run a daycare
center from her home for a few years. She stopped when she took in Diamond and her
brother. She had an opinion of what a child should know to be prepared to enter school.

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Over the course of the year, it became clear to me that she also knew what was vital for
success in school, regarding homework and practice. I recorded these reflective thoughts
in my fieldnotes around these issues.
I noted her great memory even at the beginning of the year. Denise was
concerned for her grades- knew that Diamond was behind in her skills. I felt
that her memory was a great asset and it continues to prove true. Denise is an
asset too. She works hard to get Diamond ALL the support she can. In April
a note comes up requesting me to fill out form for IEP evaluation on this
child [This paperwork was based on past performance by Diamond in school
and the paperwork was just catching up to her fro her last school placement.]
I suspect that there were attendance issues prior. I'm grateful that Diamond
has a structured foster home. Though as proven by work to come Diamond is
struggling with the concept of being " a foster kid now". The tutors Denise
has gained for Diamond have added to her progress. (Tape 2- side B/
transcripts of chat with Diamond) (Fieldnotes, March 18, 2007)
One morning during the extended day session, we were working as a group (six
readers and me) on identifying the "hard words" from a text. It was our practice to
preview a text and list the words we did not yet know, taking time to use our multiple
strategies to figure out the words. I said, "We have to work on our teamwork," reminding
the children that we needed to work together. Diamond responded, "Teamworklike we
use in my home" (February 2, 2007; fieldnotes). Later she continued to tell me that
everyone at home worked together, with their own jobs to organize the household.
Cleaning was an important aspect of this process at home. They worked as a collaborative
group.
A pattern was established in the routine of her life with Denise. It was clear she
would be working together with Denise, and the expectation for passing to the third grade
was set. Her foster mother did not hesitate to give her assistance with her school work
and constantly reinforced the importance of completing the school work with her best
effort. Diamond picked up on Denise's work ethic and embodied it in the classroom, as
evidenced in the following conversation we shared, where Diamond made the talk around
her reading her own.

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Diamond: Sometimes Denise helps me too.
Mollie:

Good. Denise works really hard with you, doesn't she? Ms. Kruger
has admired that from the very beginning. She was likewe're
gonna get this girl on there. How do you think you're doing now
with your reading?

Diamond: I think I'm doing great.

Mollie:

Why?

Diamond: Because I think that I'm learning a lot of new strategies just to
figure out a lot of new words.
Mollie:

Sweet.

Diamond's talk was sophisticated around her reading strategies. The use of the word
"strategies" suggested a familiarity with the ideas provided in reading workshop minilessons. But Diamond exemplified usage of the strategies and developed understandings
of her own. I felt this was a result of Denise's influencethe resources Diamond
acquired from multiple experiences in this home full of resources. My admiration of
Denise's approach to Diamond's schooling was obvious in the preceding conversation.
From our first meeting, Denise spoke passionately about wanting Diamond to be
promoted to third grade. And I was impressed not just by the talk, but also by Denise's
actions. She created a Discourse of learning, emphasizing school learning at home to
impress upon Diamond her belief in the value of school. Denise contacted agency support
services to arrange tutoring for Diamond, as well. I watched and admired how hard
Denise worked for this child who was placed in her care. I built upon her value of school
in the classroom, connecting home and school expectations for Diamond.
During literacy, while we were working on reading, students were reading just-right
books from their book baggies. Diamond approached me, asking for a Post-it to record
the "hard words" for her. (The list of "hard words" could be revisited later, or she could
seek help from a classmate to figure out these words.) As soon as she got a three-inch

square Post-it, she began to write. About five minutes later, I stopped to see Diamonds
Post-it. She had listed:
Contest*
Meant*
Excitement*
(The * represented words she had decoded/figured out.)
The writing was purposeful for Diamond. She demonstrated how she figured out these
"hard words."
Mollie:

Oh, great. You've made a hard word list. And the stars? You
figured those out?

Diamond nods.
Mollie:
Diamond:

What's this one? (pointing to excitement)

e-kit-men (something off the sounds)

(I provided correct sounds segmentingex-cite-ment.)

Mollie:

What was exciting so he had some excitement?

Diamond told of the beginning when Henry saw the sign for the snowman
contest (She points to "contest" on her hard word list.)
Mollie:

Do you know this word? (pointing to "meant")

Diamond shakes her head NO.

Mollie:

What are the sounds? Remember to try different vowel sounds.

(Fieldnotes, March 26, 2007)

With work, she grasped the concept. Diamond continued working with this strategy for
hard words. Later she raised her hand. I walked to her side and bent down. Diamond
pointed to the word "basement" on her hard word list that now had a star next to it,
indicating that she had figured it out. She explained how "-ment" was the same as
"excitement." And to get the beginning part (base-), she tried the e sound, then the a
sound. (Rather sophisticated word work to try multiple vowel sound possibilities.) I

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reflected: how is this home? Diamond's home stresses school values/literacies. That was
a practice, and an understanding, which is not in every home.
Twenty minutes later, Diamond with her Post-it approached me as I was scribbling
fieldnotes. There were 13 hard words on her list. Three of them had a star representing
decoding. She had made strides in figuring out the hard words for herself. By the end of
the session, she had figured out more words. Diamond talked strategies and implemented
strategies, demonstrating school literacies out of home resources.
Organizing for Success. Diamond was receiving lessons at home about what it
might take to get ahead. Assistance from other sources was encouraged; tutors were
sought to assist through the foster care agency. If a tutor was not working out, Denise
contacted the agency and made new arrangements. Diamond often shared the details of
tutors' visits, keeping me informed of work at home.
Diamond: Ummthe first day my tutor came she was nice. She helped me
with my homework. She, she helped she told me how to spell stuff
... when I was reading [a magazine] she was telling me how to
blend ... and she was telling when the B and the R it sounds like br
and I was getting it (child spoke through LONG, LOUD school
bell ... undisturbed!!) too. Because when she asked me, she asked
me what is this work because it has a C and an R ... and I said, and
so there was a little word in it, so I said CR and then I found out
the little girl, word with the CR. And I add it with the CR ... and
then I . . .
Mollie:

So you kinda put the blend together with the rest of the sound and
it helped you figure out the whole word.

Diamond: Huh-uh.
Mollie:

Very nice and that you remembered her helping you with that
strategy. So you'll try to remember that too, like the next time you
come to a different word that has a different blend. You can still
do that.

Diamond: Just like, just like when I was working in the, in the classroom and
I saw the word somewhere. I looked at the word some and then,
and then I saw where. And then I found out somewhere.

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Diamond's sophisticated talk around strategies for figuring out hard words and her
understandings of the work with her tutors both seemed to come from her current home
and the guiding principles embraced there. Homework was also encouraged as a
connection to literacy and learning success, as noticed in this exchange between Diamond
and her poetry partner, Ashley. During our literacy session, the two girls were sitting at
the round table in the math center, sharing from some books of poems. Diamond read
aloud from a poem.
Mollie:

Why do you like that poem?

Diamond: It has numbers in it and I jump on the bed too ...

Ashley (reading from another anthology): "HW, Oh HW. I hate you, you
stink."
Diamond (reacted): You have to do homework. It's important. (Was this
because the teacher was there? Or the way HW is discussed at
home?)
(Fieldnotes, May 1, 2007)
Simple words, "You have to do homework. It's important," said so easily. But Diamond
had externalized her learning about school literacy in the form of homeworkit had a
valued place in the Discourse of her foster home. Although there are debates about the
"value" of homework for children, Diamond voiced an understanding that homework, as
it was practiced in our school and in her home, was important for her learning. Diamond
was learning that school was for her too, as witnessed in her turn-around from
U(nsatisfactory) to E(xcellent) marks on her cumulative records. Homework was valued
at home as a connection to her school learning, and the message was that homework and
school learning were vital for her.
Summary of Diamond's Resources
The class had 14 boys and 6 girls as I tried to decide on 4 focal students. I wanted
to focus on students who had some disconnect with school. Finding a girl was difficult

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because of the numbers and the fact that I could identify only two girls who had
difficulty, on some level, with the practices of school. Diamond arrived late in the school
year in October and came reading two levels below second grade expectations. She was
repeating second grade. (Upon further exploration, I discovered that her attendance in the
2005-2006 school year was inconsistent, due to disruptive family issues.) Diamond's
reading made her a candidate for this study; my concern was how busy her foster mother,
Denise, was with appointments for Diamond, Diamond's younger brother, and a third
child who was in her care, beside Denise's two older children. When Denise and I
discussed the study, she originally thought she could commit, but in February she told me
that it was not possible for her to attend the collaborative group. Both of us wanted
Diamond to remain a focal student, so we continued and used the telephone to augment
our discussions.
Diamond displayed a multitude of resources. Diamond's identity as a foster child
added to the landscape of our classroom. Through Diamond's sharing of what could be
considered an intimate detail, other students were able to interact and discuss some of
their own experiences as a foster child. Diamond had a forthright way of presenting her
resources. Diamond had resources from two family settings. In her letter to her father, she
wrote about her love for him; yet, there was evidence of a wounded feeling. Her family
had endured some difficult times. Her mom, who I was fortunate enough to meet in the
next school year as Diamond was preparing to rejoin her, was working to create a secure
setting for children again. In her foster family, Diamond adapted Discourses of school
that I hope she has been able to maintain. With Denise's stress (social practices) on
schoolwork, homework, and of organization toward work, Diamond m a d e dramatic

advances in her reading and her writing. Diamond found her voice and how to use it!

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Family Members: Vital Collaborators
Family members in collaboration had an impact on the results of this study, as
evidenced in the interactions between the family members and the teacher, as well as the
resulting findings regarding students' resources. The presence of many adults was felt in
this elementary classroom. Although family members were not physically in our
classroom every day, their words echoed, resounding in our work. Even though this study
was organized to study the resources that students bring to school and document the
hybrid spaces that were created in the classroom with those resources, a powerful
component of the study became the interactions with family members, which occurred for
the purpose of gaining insights into students' resources, or funds of knowledge.
Benefits of family literacy were detailed in the literature review recognizing that
resources come from home and community venues (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Taylor, 1983).
The family member interaction in this study was informative, being an important piece of
recognizing children's resources by authenticating family resources. But the family
member interaction became a vibrant network of its own, expanding beyond its original
intention in the research. Family members were resources for each other, to the teacher,
and to the entire collaborative group; examples of these dynamics follow in the next
section.
As I reviewed family member participation, I asked about their involvement in the
study. Family members responded overwhelmingly that they appreciated the opportunity
to be a part of an interactive community where they felt comfortable sharing their ideas
about learning as well as their experiences as parents of learners. Two responses from
family members highlighted the passion they felt about their role in the study. The first
response from Jess, who was originally hesitant to volunteer for the study, pointed to a
change of view about participation from clinical to positive.
Jess:

... Let me go first. You know how I felt in the beginning. I'm
notI was looking at things as study projects, like lab animals.

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But I think it's a positive because I get to hear what you have to
say and the other parents and with thatI embrace newit gives
me new ideas. It alerts me on how other people think and what
they're going through. So it's been a positive for me. It's been avery positive. And I share these thoughts with other parents and
friends. And Tali too.
At the end of the research, Jess saw the impact that communication between home and
school could have, as we get "new ideas" from each other. But it was beyond between
home and school, only the impact was among other family members. Jess's views of
school and communication with school were changing, which she, in turn, expressed to
others sharing the experience of the study.
The second response was from Jasira, who had a different initial reaction to the
study. She felt all family members in the class should be participating; she realized that
the communication would be powerful from the start. And she suggested that it was also
communication about activities in the classroom, providing a new way of seeing into the
classroom.
Jasira:

Basically, besidesI never thought of it as ... experiment. I never

thought of it like that. But I think it's a good thing because it gets
you involved with the other parents. And it's like goodbecause
you get to find out what's going on with your child. And it all goes
back to the kids. You get to see what's going on with your child,
what's going on in the class, it's like having a parent-teacher
conference at the same time. The only thing it can do is benefit
your kids.

These mothers recognized the impact of collaboration for the children, as well as the
positive energy that spread to adult relationships around schoolwith other family
members and teachers, too. All the family members agreed that participation was
beneficial to the children because of the communication that occurred. Jess pointed to the
importance of communicating about what was happening in school, educationally and
socially. She mentioned being able to talk with the teacher about what is happening,
getting another perspective than the one she gains from her child.

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Reay (1998) reminds us that "it is in the linguistic interaction that existing power
dynamics between mothers and teachers become most apparent. Everyday communication
between teachers and mothers is shaped by the differential social power that individuals
bring to their interactions" (p. 102). Teachers have the opportunity to open (or close) the
doors to these positive interactions with family members through their choices of
direction and conversation. As family members make decisions based on previous
interactions and feelings that affect the interactions between home and school, both of
these parties have the power to enhance communication and thus participation, which
also becomes an implication for teaching from this work.
In Jess's second individual conversation, she originally thought the purpose of our
conversation was to discuss negative behavioral issues with her child. She entered the
room guarded and focused on the impending conversation. She did not look around the
classroom. Her demeanor changed remarkably as the conversation continued; she realized
as we talked that this was not a conference regarding misbehavior but one of sharing
information while discussing Tali's educational progress thus far. Jess shared details of
her life that were informative, such as her experience working in lower Manhattan at a
Japanese bank prior to 9-11 and being released from that position in the aftermath of that
tragedy. Jess spoke about her life growing up with her mother, who fought illness for
years while aunts moved in at times to take charge of the day-to-day existence of the
family. She shared about how she was mother to her younger brothers and sisters and how
that connected to her decision to become a mother at an older age. In reflection, I noted:
"This relationship is coming so far, so fast. With just a little time ... and a lot of listening
and understanding on both parts. Her personal sharing today was SO helpful and

insightful." Through her sharing, I learned about her family history and job history, which
led to greater understanding of Tali and some of his actions in school. Both of us were
willing to bring listening and respect to our conversation, as well as a sharing of the social
power intrinsic in healthy family member and teacher discussions (Allen, 2007).

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Dynamics of Building Connections
In the preface to this dissertation, a mother shared her claim that raising a child in
this neighborhood was challenging because of the pull toward partying, drugs, and illegal
activities. The three family members who collaborated in this study agreed that "the
streets" surrounding our school and their homes were seductive, pulling children into
alternative, and negatively viewed, ways of living. The family members proclaimed that
they do not want "the streets" drawing their children into that culture; the reference to
"the streets" suggested a hard, drug-filled party existence, possibly short-lived, where
incarceration was a regular experience. Jasira told us in the final collaborative meeting,
"What I'm saying is it's going to get bad before it gets better. And I don't want my son to
get caught up in the badbefore it gets better." In order to keep children away from "the
streets" or a violent, possibly self-destructive, way of being, the family members
recognized that adults need to be involved in children's lives and learning. Although the
streets can be seductive, the family members in this study made it clear that adult
intervention can make a difference (Allen, 2007). Their stories and references show that it
was helpful to them as they were growing up and that they believe adult intervention
makes a difference for their children, too.
The family members participated with the hope that a connection or partnership
between home and school would be productive and helpful for their children. Gonzalez
et al. (2005) observed, "As the teacher validates the household experience as one from
which rich resources or funds of knowledge can be extracted, parents themselves come to
authenticate their skills as worthy of pedagogical notice" (p. 108). Family members
became increasingly involved and verbal as the various meetings of this study continued.
They realized their voices were being honored, as I listened and tried to learn from them
about their children. With this validation, the connections between home and school were
strengthened for the benefit of opening wider the spaces of learning in the classroom.

165

Through collaboration, participants were learning from each other, on various

levels. In reflection after one family member collaborative meeting, I wrote: "I don't get
the opportunity very often to explain myself/my pedagogy to parents" (Family Member
Collaborative Meeting, 4-30-07). Some of the differences around issues of the classroom
curriculum between family members and myself were breached through conversation; the
family members brought up questions they had about the curriculum and what their
children were learning in the classroom. I also got feedback on family members'
understandings of academic and social events in and out of the classroom. The
conversations that developed led to this extended learning for me as a teacher and
provided venues for the family members to develop their voices in the school context,
creating avenues for participation.
This collaborative work fostered home and school links and understandings.
Greenberg and Moll have adopted the term confianza, which means mutual trust as a vital
aspect in their work, which was an important facet of my study (Allen, 2007; Gonzalez
et al., 2005). The adults involved in this study established a partnership that embraced
trust built on respect. Messing (in Gonzalez et al., 2005) advocated that "building rapport
between home and school can be as simple as increasing communication" (p. 193). The
ideas of communication were not meant to be formal, but rather informal methods of
sharing ideas. Allen (2007) ruminated about family and school partnerships, pointing out
some simple truth to this dynamic. "Of all the many elaborate ways we as educators have
devised to 'get parents involved,' we may have overlooked one of the most important:
sitting down together and sharing our stories" (p. 22). The collaborative meetings,
although focused on students and their resources, ended up being times of sharing stories,
and it was by listening that I, as teacher and researcher, learned most.
It was not just hearing but absorbing and making use of the knowledge that was
given. I believe this kind of listening happened in both directions: from family member to
teacher and from teacher to family member.

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Summary of Chapter on Students' Resources
The purpose of this chapter was to provide rich depictions of students' resources as
witnessed by me, as researcher and teacher, in collaboration with family members. First, I
detailed the theory and practice that contributed to my understandings of students'
resources. Next I moved into four case studies, one on each of the focal students: Jayson,
Calvin, Tali, and Diamond. These descriptions of resources began to answer the first
research question, which asked about the social, cultural, and literacy resources the
African American students brought to their learning. By observing four children, the data
expanded in various directions due to the students' individuality, providing a broader
depiction of students' resources. The examples provided spoke to the myriad ways that
students' brought their resources into their school learning. Then I addressed the
sub-question, which queried about the interactions among the family members and me.
These meaning-filled exchanges enriched my understandings of students' resources. The
next chapter details some of the hybrid spaces created or opened in our classroom during
the 2006-2007 school year that were made available through the students' resources.

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Chapter V
HYBRID SPACES IN THE CLASSROOM

The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy,
(bell hooks, 1994)
The previous chapter described the four focal students' resources as evidenced in
the data of this study, detailing how they became known and what impact they had had on
the child or the class as a whole. The students in this study were not empty vessels
awaiting enlightenment; they came with knowledge and other resources that were vital to
their engagement and learning. With the first step of recognizing and appreciating
students' resources begun, the next step for this study was to find ways to utilize the
students' resources in the spaces of the classroom for literacy learning (school literacies).
Siegel (2006) stated that students' "knowledge is considerable, if teachers can recognize
it [students' knowledge] in all its cultural forms, and use it as a resource for curriculum
and teaching" (p. 74). So, the endeavor developed into ascertaining how to incorporate
the students' resources into the work of this second grade classroom in curricular and
social forms. Thus, Chapter V will address the second research question:
What hybrid spaces are created in the formal classroom to recognize and
build on the students' resources as learning tools?
(A) How do these spaces come to be, and how are they configured?
(B) What occurs within them?
Using this question and the two sub-questions as a guide, the purpose of this chapter was
to document what hybrid spaces were created in the classroom utilizing students'

resources, which were explored in Chapter IV. Students' resources were identified as
possible tools for learning, recognizing the positive, building characteristic of a tool.
Within this chapter, I attempted to detail how some of the many spaces that occurred in
the classroom came to be, where they started from or who initiated them. Continuing the
thought from the first sub-question, I struggled to identify how the spaces were
configured: how were the spaces set up or designed, or arranged with consideration to the
multiple resources, inclusive of knowledges and Discourses; who initiated the space
within the classroom; and what went into the space, being aware that the creation occurs
with specific purposes and within multiple contexts? The second sub-question examined
what happened within the spaces; these spaces were not three-dimensional places but
layered space that was considered both product and process of social dynamic relations
(Leander & Sheehy, 2004).

Hybrid Spaces Defined and a Road Map of the Chapter

Students brought their own social, cultural, and literacy resources into the formal
setting of school, based heavily on the resources their families and communities imparted
to them. Out of these resources, hybrid spaces were built from the students (and my)
resources; we brought our social constructions into the classroom. The hybrid spaces of
school have been referred to as border zones (Rosaldo, 1993) and third spaces (Soja,
1996), as presented in the Literature Review of this dissertation. In these hybrid spaces,
multifaceted components such as class, race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and/or
politics come into play. These spaces were not easily measured by a yardstick or scale;
they become complex in the blending of a multitude of interacting components, such as
students' resources, including knowledges and Discourses. Moje et al. (2004)
documented three related variations on the definition of hybrid space, based on much of
the theory referenced above. The first variation suggested that the created space acts as a

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bridge between school and home resources. The second variation of defining hybrid space
referred to border crossing where a third space opened to different discourse
communities, recognizing that multiple Discourses were influencing the space. The last
variation held that cultural, social, and epistemological change as competing resources
challenges and reshapes the school and the home resources. The concept of third space
has been evolving. My usage of the term "hybrid space" took up these three
understandings and spoke to the multiple factors and possibilities that work upon a space.
These spaces were not easily definable so that all the resources were succinctly identified
and categorized. Yet the hybridity of the spaces became understood, as multiple
resources, inclusive of students' knowledges and Discourses (i.e., culture, identity) were
recognized within the spaces.
In this chapter, I describe some of the hybrid spaces that were noted throughout this
study, as created by the students and by the teacher, presenting examples of various forms
the hybrid spaces took within this classroom. The chapter begins with the recounting of
my process in exploring hybrid spaces in the classroom, including some overall findings
regarding hybrid space from my data analysis, to give the reader framework as they
continue into the section of examples. Then I move to a section that provides a look at a
few of the hybrid spaces that occurred in the classroom in three areas: read alouds,
writing workshop, and what I refer to as expanded literacy sessions. The chapter ends
with a summary of this chapter on hybrid spaces.

Exploring Hybrid Spaces

In an effort to organize my thoughts and reflections on hybrid spaces, I began
exploring the intersections and the unions within the data I had recorded. First, I explored
with the following questions in mind: Which hybrid spaces were initiated by students,
and/or which were initiated by me, the teacher? Second, it became clear that some of the

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hybrid spaces were planned into the curriculum and learning of the daily life of the
classroom and that some spaces burst forth and others gently seeped unplanned into our
school experiences.
Figure 2 represents some of my initial noticing on hybrid spaces in the classroom
and developed as my understandings expanded; it helped me organize my thoughts
around hybrid spaces, as they were experienced in our classroom, particularly during
literacy learning. The lines dividing this chart are porous, penetrable, as there was ebb
and flow among the categories included here; the spaces were not limited to one category.
For example, Writing Workshop was mentioned in two sections because of the varieties
of ways spaces were revealed using this conveyance.
Figure 2
Hybrid Spaces

Hybrid Spaces
Initiated by
Teachers

Planned

Read Alouds
Shared Reading
Writing Workshop
Reading Workshop

Initiated by
Students

Writing Workshsop (&

Beyond)
Reading Workshop
History Club
Read Alouds

WOYB (What's On Your

Brain?)

Unplanned

WOYB
Open Conversations

Open Conversations
Hallway
Line Up
Transition
The Arts/ Dance & Art Studio

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Initially, I began writing this chapter with the thought that there would be four
sections, providing an example that represented each category on this chart. However, as I
worked to detail these examples, I noticed that there were many overlapping pieces
among the quadrants. There were hybrid spaces planned by the teacher that were picked
up, in unplanned ways, by the students. Or there were spaces that were planned by
students that had unplanned student involvement, which strengthened those spaces in our
classroom. This mingling and blending of involvement was enhancing the hybrid spaces,
in many cases opening them wider to more participants and/or to greater understanding.
Yet, these interactions made it difficult to speak about the spaces in a uniform way by
discrete category.
Thus, to document the hybrid spaces created in our classroom, this chapter includes
three sections that provide examples of hybrid spaces. The three sections of this chapter
are read alouds, writing, and expanded literacy sessions, as these were three places in the
school day from which hybrid spaces easily poured forth. Within these three sections,
various examples of hybrid spaces have been detailed, and the intersections and unions
among the four quadrant categories are analyzed. In this section, at least one example
from each quadrant category from the hybrid spaces chart is included: Teacher-Planned
Hybrid Spaces, Student-Planned Hybrid Spaces, Student-Unplanned Hybrid Spaces, and
Teacher-Unplanned Hybrid Spaces.
For each space, I attempted to document who was involved, what resources (in
their multiple forms) led into the creation of that hybrid space, the setting (when and
where), why the space was valued (or not), and how the space affected the curriculum
and/or the learning in the classroom, being mindful of spaces that would welcome
children's multiple resources into the learning process.

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Read Alouds: One Possible Intersection
Early in the research on spaces, in the second phase of the research, read alouds
were recognized as an instructional period where students' resources were recognized. In
this section, I detail how students' resources came into students' school literacy practices.
Teacher-planned read aloud sessions occurred at the carpet in the rear of our classroom.
Students sat, and when there was legroom, the students sprawled in comfortable
positions. I frequently sat in the presenter's chair, a large wooden chair located beside an
easel near the windows where the children moved closely in front of me. But the children
loved when I joined them on the rug, which allowed them to get really close to the
illustrations. Some books, predominantly shorter fiction texts, were read straight through,
encouraging a particular learning strategy (e.g., make a mental movie), or so that students
could absorb the flow of the words or the story. But most texts were read with brief
pauses to allow for questioning (done in various directions: student: teacher, teacher:
student, student: student, and even when a visiting teacher was in the classroom, teacher:
teacher) and promoting conversations.
Read alouds were encouraged throughout the school day in various disciplines and
for various purposes (Calkins, 2001; Harvey & Goudvis, 2000); read alouds offered an
opportunity for entry into the opening or creating of hybrid spaces. Read alouds provided
a place where fiction and non-fiction danced among the topics of our known and
unknown experiences. The intersection of students' resources and school literacy learning
was easily encouraged in this regular classroom event. Although I embraced the thought
that read alouds should be incorporated throughout the school day and I brought
children's literature into multiple content areas, I also set the time after lunch as our daily
session labeled "read aloud," to ensure that we honored time to enjoy texts. We also
utilized talk to express ideas generated by the texts. Although read aloud sessions were
often teacher-planned spaces, students had a lot of input into the development of read

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aloud as a hybrid space, finding opportunities to broaden, extend, and even begin spaces,
as detailed in the following examples.
At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, I wrote:
This year's class comes alive for the read aloud. And if given a centimeter
for conversation they take five kilometers. But the comments they say
connect (in most cases) to the story ... Text-Self and Text-World
connections FLY around the carpet area. Eventually, I have to say, "I'm
sorry; it's time to move on. We've got too much to do today." Then I
continued: But I do believe [note- my judgment] that I have allowed more
time for kids' talkbecause it's rich and pushes us to consider text (and life
in general). (September 27, 2007, Researcher's Notebook)
I noticed in the fall that we were reading only one or two books during these daily read
aloud sessions. The year before, I had time to read two or three books daily during this
time period after lunch, which could last from 20 to 30 minutes on average. Though, this
year, there were sessions that extended beyond a half hour due to student (and teacher)
engagement in conversation. Time for read alouds was extended, as talk became a vital
part of the process of sharing texts. It was often in these conversations that students'
resources became more recognized. In the read aloud practice and accompanying talk,
students' resources were presented by students and utilized to create a space.
This class pressed for time to discuss, unpack, question, predict, and connect to the
texts that we shared through conversation, both as a whole and in small groups. Some
conversations were shared as a class, but this group of students understood and utilized
the "turn-and-talk" strategy that encouraged two (or three) individuals to tell their
thoughts to each other. This strategy, encouraged through the professional development
and the workshop model, is popular with me because it encourages students to put their
thoughts into words in a low-risk environment while reinforcing that the teacher does not
have to hear your thoughts to validate them.
Read aloud was a space for students to bring themselves in through these
conversations and make connections as described by Harvey and Goudvis (2000), who

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categorized three types of connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. The

intersection of students' resources and school literacy learning was not only in the
opportunity to respond verbally and personally to texts during the read aloud, but the
choice of literature was also an important aspect of this constantly opening hybrid space.
Thus, the choice of read aloud text was purposeful and prudent. Some texts were
chosen for their connections to curricular topics (e.g., Pumpkins by Gail Gibbons or In
My Mama's Kitchen by Gerdine Nolan). Other texts were chosen for themes, which
addressed issues for us as a class or individuals within the group (e.g., Mine by Leo
Lionni). And, of course, some texts were chosen simply for pure enjoyment value (e.g.,
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie). Although many varieties of children's literature were chosen
for the read alouds, I focused on the students in my classroom; therefore, there were many
books with African American characters, experiences, and perspectives, as African
American students were the majority in my classroom. There were other cultures
represented in my classroom, as well as other types of literature read and celebrated
throughout the school year (see Appendix G for examples).
The read aloud was a regularly occurring classroom literacy practice. It enabled me
to observe my students and recognize some of their multiple resources with the reliance
on talk and connections between text and self, text and text, and text and world. Within
this read aloud practice, I noticed the potential for hybrid spaces in the classroom because
students shared about their family practices (inclusive of cultural resources), social
practices (with classmates and friends), and other resources. In my researcher's notebook
at the end of March 2007,1 wrote, "I purposefully set up read alouds that ALLOW for
more kids talk ... a new dog, a trip to Chucky Cheese ... these TRIGGER
REACTIONS!!! THE SPACE BURSTS OPEN." The spaces burst open because students
were ready, willing, and able to share their stories, their knowing in the environment that
was structured to value their resources, their lives. A variety of students' resources
became documented through this practice, such as family stories (home literacy

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practices), Discourses from families, nuclear and extended, and social practices involving
popular culture. The next part of this chapter details three examples of hybrid space that
occurred within the read aloud practice, one from each of the following three categories:
Teacher-Selected Read Alouds, Books from Home, and Student Seized Read Alouds.
Teacher-Selected Read Alouds. This first example of a hybrid space occurred
during the read aloud event revolving around the teacher-selected text, Sweet Clara and
the Freedom Quilt, which was employed for curricular and cultural connections. This
book was utilized within a social studies unit that threaded through January and February,
taking us back in time from Civil Rights, where the investigation began, to the era of
Slavery in the United States, and then on to life in Africa of long ago (and today); this
study coincided with our school's honoring of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and our
celebration of Black History Month in February. The book followed the journey of Clara,
a young girl and slave in the 1800s in the United States, from field hand, to house worker,
to quilt sewer, and to freedom.
On February 11, 2007, the class gathered at the carpet after lunch for the read aloud
of Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. Once everyone got settled in their self-selected
places, I initiated a KWL [Know-Want to Know-Learned chart] on slavery. P.S. 1955
(our school) emphasized Black History Month in February. Our class's curriculum took
up the study of the Civil Rights Movement, focusing on King, Parks, and the multitude of
civil rights heroes who risked much for change. This unit of study was begun in January
and addressed questions such as: Why did we, as a country, need that movement? What
were the challenges of the times? This led backwards to a study of slavery, which was
followed by an examination of Africa as one of the seven continents. This examination

was a continuing connection to our cultural studies this year but also recognized Africa as
one source of slaves for the United States.
As students generated ideas of what they knew about slavery, Calvin raised his
hand and said, "Some of us have ancestorsgreat-great-grandparents who were

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PROBABLY slaves." I was struck by his understanding of generations and the passage of
time and remarked, "What makes you say this?" He explained, "My dad and I were
talking about slavery." As discussed in Chapter IV, Calvin and his father regularly shared
family stories, but it became obvious that they discussed other events that expand outside
immediate family history.
This book was a teacher-selected text, drawing on the historical resources of some
of the African American students in our class. This book on slavery was not just for
African American students, as the themes of determination and bravery spoke to
everybody, regardless of our cultural identities. Taking up the definition of hybrid space
as a rich zone of collaboration with multiple resources contributing to its formation, it
was the blending and mingling of the multiple resources acting within the classroom that
created the hybrid space through the shared reading and discussing of this book, as we
continued our conversation about slavery. Building on Calvin's comment about ancestors
who endured slavery, I spoke about slavery as something that not only happened to Black
people and as a reality that not only happened in the past. I spoke about my early
ancestors in Ireland who may have endured slavery and of the Jewish experience of
slavery, which some of the students related to hearing of Egyptians and slaves, connecting
to Bible stories. Students were disturbed to discover that slavery practices continued in
places throughout our world. This read aloud of Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
provided an opportunity to honor and celebrate the culture and history of a majority of
students in our classroom, as well as creating a shared space where multiple
understandings of the concept of slavery were explored through and within our multiple
resources, such as Calvin's family story-telling practice, my knowledge of slavery as a

world issue, and students' Biblical or spiritual literacies.

In February, Calvin remarked, "You've got a lot of books of slavery and Black
history." Although I have a multicultural collection of books, we were reading many
books with African American characters during this time period. I found myself

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wondering what my book collection would look like if I were teaching in Chinatown
instead of a predominantly African American community. Many literature choices were
made taking into account the cultures, family structures, favorite activities, and other
resources of the students. My book collection had variety across genres and cultures, but
the collection focused around issues and characters that reflected the students in my class.
Books From Home as Read Alouds. Not all the books for read aloud were teacherselected, but most were. Students sometimes suggested books they had at home, asking if
they could bring them in for read aloud. My response was usually that they could bring
them in and we would see if we had time to share them. My expectations for read alouds
were that the texts would be rich stories and/or add purpose to our learning. There have
been some student-selected texts. One example was when The Smoky Night by Eve
Bunting came in with a student, which led to an involved conversation about our city
neighborhood and people's differences. Although I recognized that specific books were
special to children, I did not balance the read aloud decision making between teacher and
students. Some students brought books that they shared only with a partner. Others went
unread, often based on the availability of time and the content of the suggested literature;
the decisions were still made by me, hopefully thoughtfully.
Jayson brought a copy of a book from home as his suggestion for read aloud. When
he mentioned that his grandmother got it for him, I realized that this book held special
meaning for him, as his grandmother is dear to him. Jayson's persistence also had
something to do with the opening of a space through a student-selected read aloud; he
reminded me three times throughout the day. The fieldnotes from that day (June 18th)
documented the read aloud:
Jayson's read-aloud: Honey Baby, Sugar Child (a book his grandmother
bought for him)
(Jayson brought this book he received from his grandmother on Thursday
the day of the Botanical Garden trip. But I wasn't able to make time trip-wise

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to get to "seeing" it [previewing the book], let alone sharing it with the class.
Jayson didn't give up on me. He brought it back and we found time!)
Tali and Diamond leaning in to hear.
Jermaine: It sounds like a poem
Donald: Poetic
Diamond:It's repeating
Christy: [My mother] used to say I was the sweetest baby on earth.
Calvin:

Did that happen to you when you were a baby?

Jayson:

Yes.

Alejandro: Does it still happen to you?

Jayson:

Yes.

Alejandro: ...she always wants to squeeze me (regarding his mom).

Time was found to share Jayson's suggested text, and the students' responses to the text
(e.g., "poetic," "I was the sweetest baby...") demonstrated that it was a rich text for
expressing our personal experiences with adult family figures. Conversations like these
opened up spaces where children spoke about familial resources and made friendship
connections through shared experiences. Since there were many books I wanted to share
with my students based on my teaching experiences and study, it was not always easy for
me to give up control over the choice. But when I read Jayson's touching story of love, I
knew it had a lot to offer the children in language and content. An excerpt from Honey
Baby Sugar Child follows:
Honey Baby
Sugar Child,
Lord Knows
I love you so.
I wanna
Squeeze ya,

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Kiss ya,
Till the sugar's gone.
Child, I wanna
Eat you up.
I wanna
Hold ya,
Rock ya,
Swing you in my arms.
You make me wanna
Dance and sing...
The caring message, the rhyming and repetitive pattern, and the shared connection
to family members who care for us made Honey Baby Sugar Child a hit with the class and
with me. Although I was often hesitant to read books from home, as I am determined to
have the read alouds be meaningful exemplars of children's literature, this book reminded
me to remain open to and explore the possibilities of books children selected. This was a
hybrid space that was opened by one student, which in turn involved other students, who
then were enabled to share their family resources via connections to social relationships
that were brought forward in their thinking and benefited other students. Some children
related to the grandmother's message in this book; other children were reminded of aunts
who greeted them in similar ways during family visits. Although it was an unplanned
(teacher) space, Jayson had planned this hybrid space, knowing that he wanted to share
this text with his classmates. I surmised that this book brought Jayson enjoyment because
of the language as he recognized the poetic scheme, but also the message of the book
affected him. He smiled and laughed as we shared the text, but he also watched the
reactions of his classmates, which were similar to his. When Calvin and Alejandro asked
Jayson questions such as "Did that happen to you when you were a baby?" and "Does it
still happen to you?" Jayson, the entertainer, maintained their interest, mostly with body
language, shaking his head up and head vigorously, as he briefly stated, "Yes." Some
other students shared their personal experiences with family members' loving and

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language; the reaction tended to be that image of the grown-up pinching and shaking a
little one's cheeks.
Social resources were not the only resources that were enacted in this hybrid event.
Students spoke to school literacies as well with their understandings of poetic language.
Jermaine, who said, "It sounds like a poem," Donald, who said, "Poetic," and Diamond,
who said, "It's repeating" in response to the story, demonstrated the knowledge they
already possessed about poetry, which was the class's next writing unit. This read aloud
text provided an unplanned (by me) introduction to poetry, mixing the multiple resources
of our class, inclusive of home and school resources.
Read Alouds Seized by Students. Some read alouds were teacher-planned,
purposeful connections to our personal, social, and cultural selves; yet, it was the
unplanned student responses that opened wider the hybrid spaces, merging home and
school. One recurring lesson throughout the year was that we were not all the same, but
the things that make us different make us special. Difference was conceived as good,
something to be celebrated. The book, Angel Child, Dragon Child, offered a personal
connection to one student in the class who was Vietnamese on his father's side, but I have
shared this story with many other classes because of the storyline about missing one's
mother and about people from places outside our community. The little girl in the story
had come to the United States with her father and her siblings. But her mother was not
able to come with them. The girl had a special way of remembering her mother by
keeping her picture in a matchbox, where the lid opened and closed. I saw this story open
up a space for more students than I realized or hoped.
In the story, Ut, the main character, was a little girl from Vietnam who came to the
United States with her father and some siblings. She carried a matchbox that contained
her mother's photograph to remember her mom. Diamond raised her hand and said, "I
have a connection." Then she leaned toward me and dropped her voice to a whisper as
she said, "On my last visit my mom gave me a picture of her. So I wouldn't miss her so

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much." Her last comment was directed at me. It seemed she did not want to share "the
visit" [with her mother through child services] out loud with the class. I wondered if she
knew how students might respond. I was unsure of how other students would react to her
story of the visit. Another student asked, "What?" seeking clarity about Diamond's
connection. This student did not have a shared understanding of being away from a
parent, as Diamond and Ut (the character) did.
I rephrased Diamond's comment quicklyand even dropped some of the meaning
directly relating to her personal experiences. "She said a picture helps us remember
someone we may be missing." I felt I was protecting Diamond, as I was unsure if she
wanted to share about her visit with the students. Yet, I also shut down an opportunity for
Diamond to express some of her feelings about being away from her mother and being in
foster care. I interpreted Diamond's quiet comment using my own Discourses to rework
what she was saying through my filtering. That experience was a huge part of who she
isa child missing her mother! Later in another setting, Diamond created a space (or
two) for her resources within the classroom, which I describe in the next section.
Samuel, a biracial studentVietnamese and Latinowas a focus as I planned this
read aloud. As the reading began, he was quiet and shy; he did not seem to want to draw
attention to himself or his family background. Perhaps he was feeling outside the
"regular," or different (in a negative perception), regarding his racial identity. I was
concerned that he may have felt singled out versus celebrated. But when Jayson took up
the excitement of kite flying, which was mentioned in the story, and, further, thought up a
research opportunity involving Samuel's father, Samuel himself sat up taller and
participated more fully in the literacy event, as evidenced in a new, taller seated position.
It seemed that what was different was celebrated and deemed not strange, but special.
However, it was Diamond's revealing response, making a connection to Ut because
of the photograph,that caught me unaware. She had shown me a photograph of her
mother; I knew that she had a practice similar to the character, Ut, who kept her mother

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close using a picture inside a small matchbox. When Diamond shared the knowledge that
she used a picture to remember her mother publicly, albeit quietly, I realized that she was
comfortable enough in class to share this personal moment with me. The classroom must
have felt secure to her as a place that welcomed her multiple resources. Diamond's
resource of family was playing strongly with her connection to the story and the character,
Ut, and thus, her school literacy practices regarding comprehension and meaning making.
She knew this story; it was hers. Though at this writing, Diamond continued awaiting
news if her mother would be able to regain custody of her and her brother, waiting like Ut
did for her mother to come join the family. This represented an opening of spaces around
family and foster family that was pushed further open in the classroom, which will be
documented later in this chapter with the telling of Diamond's foster care story.
In this section, there were three examples of how the classroom practice of read
alouds opened space for students' resources within this literacy practice. First, as a
teacher who recognized the importance of culturally responsive teaching, I chose
literature for these events that reflected my students on some level, opening, or perhaps
provoking, a space in some cases. The second example demonstrates how students also
brought text and talk to an event, creating and enriching a space of their own. The final
example provided a look at the way spaces went beyond the direction that was intended,
as students brought their resources into the spaces. It was not possible to be aware of all
the resources of each student, so something new was always coming into the experience.
Writing: The Workshop Way into Students' Resources
Although writing workshop was regularly a teacher-planned curricular component,
students also controlled the creation or extension of hybrid spaces throughout writing
workshop. Students had some control through choosing to participate in writing or not
and through their decision making regarding their writing topics. Thus, writing workshop
is a space planned by the teacher and by the students.

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As a teacher, I have embraced the workshop model for teaching writing because
concepts such as authorship, ownership, and partnership, sanctioned in writing workshop
pedagogy, provided opportunities for students' choices and voices to enter into the
classroom. Calkins (1994) explained, "As human beings we write to communicate, plan,
petition, remember, announce, list, imagine ... but above all, we write to hold our lives in
our hands and to make something of them" (p. 8). Although the possibilities for these
hybrid spaces were initially planned by me, the spaces became more dynamic when the
students assumed the planning of their writing. Students' resources became present in
these sessions through their verbal and written sharing of their lives within the writing
workshop, leading to the opening of other hybrid spaces that bridged the entities of
multiple homes and school. Students chose their topics for writingthough wrapped
within the confines of a genre or unit of study. A few genre studies in particular lent
themselves to the potential of hybrid spaces, such as personal narrative, process writing
("How-to"), non-fiction, and poetry. Within these genres, students' social, cultural, and
literacy resources flowed in and out of the classroom space. As students drew upon home
resources, inclusive of home literacies, for the implementation of school literacies (Taylor
& Dorsey-Gaines, 1988), they sometimes created a hybrid space that melded home and
school. Two writing genres studies, in particular, supplied rich examples of how students'
resources created hybrid spaces within the classroom writing workshop: personal
narrative and poetry; within the classroom, the students and I wove hybrid spaces in
planned and unplanned ways, as the following examples support.
Personal Narrative: The Children's Stories. Early in the school year, we studied the
genre of personal narrative, stories from the children's lives. Although this was a space
that I felt I had planned, it was dependent upon the students whether they wanted to "take
it up" or not as a space in which they explored and recontextualized their own lives.
Dyson (2003) defined recontextualization as "borrowing and revoicing this materialin
school contexts, children reorganize and rearticulate their resources and, in the process,

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they may differentiate and expand their knowledge about symbolic systems, social
practices, and the ideologically complex world" (p. 15). Dyson referred to "this material"
as children's social scenes, cultural material, and textual practices. The words
"borrowing" and "revoicing" spoke to the mingling of new and old conceptions or
understandings, creating a new hybrid space and a wider body of knowledge as well in
these new understandings.
Within the established curriculum of studying personal narratives, students were
provided with an opportunity to bring their own lives and, thus, experiences and resources
into school. Recalling the importance of honoring students' experiences (Mcintosh, 1989;
Nieto, 2003; Willis, 1995) and remaining open to differences that could arise (Jones,
2004) were necessary facets to my teaching to enable students to recontextualize their
multiple resources within school spaces, such as writers' workshop. Dyson (2003)
explicated the circumstance, reminding "teachers in diverse setting, [that her] project's
implications underscore the importance of elementary school teachers' traditional
sensitivity to children, not just as students, but as people with intertwined lives as friends,
peers, and community members, in a culturally and socially complex world" (p. 171). By
recognizing students' resources or not, a teacher could open or close a possible space.
Thus, teacher and students both held power throughout these writing units of study,
although admittedly, not equal power.
Tali relied on some of his family resources (e.g., mom's mobility/mapping
resource) in his personal narrative called "Toystore." One day Tali and I were looking
through his writer's notebook; we found an example of a time he chose to construct a
space for himself, his resources within his writing. He demonstrated his usage of his real-

life experience, going to the toy store, in our informal conversation.

Mollie:

Looks like you had a lot to say though.

Tali:

I know, (whispered with awe and agreement)

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Mollie:

Is it something that really happened or is it something you made

up?

Tali:

No. No, it really happened.

Mollie:

Did she really take you to the toy store?

Tali:

Yeah (soft, yet excited).

Mollie:

Awesome, um. I just- sometimes when you write a story you write
just a little bit. When you wrote this story you had a lot to say. Do
you think there's any reason as to why?

Tali:

Ahcuz things I like and [inaudible on the tape]

Mollie:

A lot of different things happened? (I restated what I heard Tali

saying.)

Tali:

M-hmm. (He confirmed my understanding.)

(T-TY1, April 17, 2007)

Tali was enthusiastic as we discussed this story. "No, it really happened," he replied with
pride, as it was his story. Tali mentioned that the story was based on things he liked, and
it was easy to write because a lot of different things happened. He had a lot to document,
which was not always the case when it came to his written stories, not for lack of activity
or experience, but usually lack of motivation for writing. The seed idea he began in his
writer's notebook turned into the piece he chose to revise and edit for his final, published
piece in our personal narrative unit of writing. Although sometimes Tali wrote just a few
ideas, this story was stretched to include many details of the real-life trip with his mother.
His first published piece of the school year looked like this:

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Toystore
When I went to the toystore
it was yesterday and
my mom take the
bus then when It got off the bus. Then
I saw the toystore
then I saw the
truck inside the
toystore. We
wlak into the
toystore and the
car was the truck,
a Humer, and taxi
and I wanted the
truck. So my mom
said lets go home
and she payed for the truk.

Although Tali's example on the surface was a common experience within a Writing
Workshop classroom, there were a few outstanding aspects in regard to this research on
hybrid spaces. First, Tali was not easily engaged with writing long pieces; he often wrote
a sentence or two in his writer's notebook. But when Tali wrote this personal narrative,
he independently pushed his writing because of the many experiences his mother
provided, recalling the mapping resources and experiential resources that were detailed in
Tali's section on resources. His mother informed me in one individual conversation that
Tali and she studied the city bus map together; when he wrote about a bus trip, I was not
surprised to see him provide many words such as "bus," "taxi," and "Humer" as he
traveled about the city. As he mentioned in our conversation (above), "a lot of different
things happened" in this trip with his mom, so he had a lot to report and, thus, write; he
was connected to this piece of writing unlike many others. His experiences with his
mother added to and enhanced his school literacy practices in writing.
Another aspect of interest was the reminder that hybrid spaces were occurring
regularly in the classroom, even within Writer's Workshop. Hybrid spaces occurred

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regardless of whether or not a teacher was documenting and/or encouraging the space.
Students have brought their resources constantly to classrooms, though the resources were
not always recognized within school settings. Hybrid spaces were occurring at various
levels according to the depth of the experience and the willingness of teachers and
students to open and expose them.
POETRY: "My mom's a poet." This example detailed how a teacher-planned
curriculum space within writing poetry, as per the poetry curriculum, which emphasized
exposure to various poetic forms as well as poetry experiences (i.e., readings,
responding), was enhanced by a student's resources, leading to recognized hybrid spaces.
The student did not plan this space but did prompt it, a further example of the blurring of
the dividing lines on the hybrid spaces chart. In a transition from a read aloud of Langston
Hughes's poetry to preparation period (a contractual one period per day in our city for
classroom teachers to prepare lessons), as I was walking away from the carpet (the site of
most read alouds) and the prep teacher who taught the class for one period was assuming
the class, Jayson threw out the comment, "My mom is a poet." This was one small line,
delivered by Jayson, that almost disappeared. "My mom's a poet." And,
uncharacteristically, he did not offer more on the subject. His comment was not
responded to at that time. Later, when the class was lining up for lunch, I asked: "What
did you mean your mom's a poet?" Jayson elaborated that she has written poems, even
one about him.
His minimalist comment was followed up with questions, asking him what he
meant. And it led to a guest speaker. Jayson's mom came in and presented to the students
on the writing of poetry. In reflection, I asked myself, "Why did I stop to revisit that brief

comment?" So much happened at these transitional times in the school day, when we
moved from one action into the next, especially if there was a lull or a movement
involved, as these times allowed room for talk. This brief sentence caught my attention
because I was aware of Jayson's mom's penchant for words, and I wondered what her

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poetry might be. Knowledge of Jayson's funds of knowledge helped me to recognize this
brief statement as an important one.
One of Jayson's family resources, a poetry writing mom, who he invited into our
classroom, impacted the entire class when his mother came in to share her experiences as
a poet. I was able to find time and create a space for this poetry visit because I heard the
student's resource and made available a connection between home and school. However,
Jayson initiated this hybrid space between his home and his classroom with his comment,
"My mom's a poet." This was a joint action!
When I approached Jasira to speak with the class, she readily accepted. On the
agreed day, she arrived, and the class convened at the carpet in our library, with Jasira in
our presenter's chair. I noticed that Jayson sat right at his mother's feet. All the children
turned toward Jasira as she began speaking in a soft, tranquil voice. Jasira and I had not
discussed her presentation prior to her visit; we had informally talked about the topic:
where she got her ideas for writing and how she undertook her craft. After listening to her
a short time, I realized that our concepts of poetry writing were interconnected.
The work of the poet Georgia Heard (1987) has inspired me as I teach the writing
of poetry to my students. Heard mentions that some teachers introduce poetry in stifling
ways that affect students' understanding (and enjoyment) of poetry (i.e., getting caught up
in rhyme schemes and/or forced into particular poetic forms). My understandings,
developed over time, reflect that poetry should be a freeing expression for the poet and a
way of playing with words in an unstructured genre (that provides some choices for
structure, if desired) to convey one's thoughts, ideas, dreams, and/or feelings. Upon
hearing Jasira speak, I was surprised at the level our concepts of poetry and poetry writing

were similar. Here is an excerpt from her introductory comments. She said:
Here is an excerpt from her introductory comments. She said:
OK, first thing first. When you're writing poetry you could write about
anything you want to write about. Anything- no matter what it is. Even if it

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seems silly you can write about it. Poetry is- it comes from your heart. You
can write about your feelings. Anythingyou can write about what you like.
You can write about what somebody else like. You can write about your pet.
You can write about a friend, mom, dad, anything you want to write about.
You can write about colors. Anything. Just when you're writing, you write
from your heart. (Transcript: T-poetvisit, May 6,2007)
Jasira's comments about poetry coming "from your heart" and "write about anything you
want to write about" echoed my belief that children have a lot to say. The writing
workshop (Calkins, 1994; Graves, 1994) in our classroom provided a forum for the
students to voice their understandings within a setting that attempted to be validating,
comprehensive, transformative, and empowering (Gay, 2000). Jasira spoke for about
15 minutes. The students sat quietly; most faces were directed at her. (Occasionally, a
student needed to be reminded that we had a guest and to refocus their attention toward
her.) The students remained enthralled by the poet's visit, listening as Jasira concluded:
As long as it come from your heart and you have a vision. Once you start
writing and it just comes out. Don't even have to think really. You just write.
And when you just write, it'll fit together. Or you can change things around.
Or you can leave it how it is. It all depends on how you want it to be.
Nobody can tell you that your poetry is wrong. Nobody can tell you that it
doesn't look right because it's about you. Your poetry is always about you.
It's about nobody else. Nobody can tell you that that's not right. Nobody can
tell you it's bad. Cuz there's nothing you can really write that's bad. It's all
about how you feelpoetry is an expression of self.
Points of intersection between Jasira's thoughts and my own came out in her comments
regarding the process, such as "You just write," suggesting that the students should not be
slowed down by conventions (e.g., spelling). Too often students were discouraged
because their spelling was not conventional; many great ideas were lost because students
did not just write to record their ideas. Jasira also emphasized author's choice, which
spoke to student empowerment. "Nobody can tell you that that's not right," she heralded.
Students in my classroom often heard that they were the decision makers regarding their
work, emphasizing that the children have to take up choices about their writing such as

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the topic and how to revise their work. Through this presentation, these ideas were
reinforced from another source beside the teacher.
When Jasira finished sharing her thoughts on writing poetry, the children began an
interactive period where they asked questions and spoke about their ideas of writing
poetry. Jasira encouraged them to ask any question; the students even asked questions
about her personal life, which she answered and continued to push their thinking to
poetry. When the question and answer time was finished, the students went to their tables
to record any poetry thoughts or ideas they had. I asked Jasira if she had some time to
move around the room and chat with the poets. She joyfully accepted the invitation; thus,
there were two adults circling about the room conferencing with the children.
As the children were eager to hear Jasira's poems, one response to her presentation
in our classroom was a follow-up mini-lesson where the students got to hear and discuss a
poem she wrote in middle school. Although her current poems were more for an adult
audience with more mature themes, she sent this earlier piece in for us to study:
A SMALL VOICE IN A BIG WORLD
I tried to yell but no one heard me
I yelled louder but my voice
Got lower and lower.
I cried, I screamed,
I yelled and yelled
But, it didn't matter.
It's hard to be a small voice in a big world.

One student, Maya, used Jasira's poem as a mentor text. A mentor text is a piece of
writing from another author to be used as a model for one's own piece of writing; using
mentored texts was a strategy demonstrated throughout the writing units, where
specifically chosen pieces of text were explored as teaching models. In this case, Maya
self-selected this mentor text. With Jasira's poem as mentor text, she produced the
following poem for our class anthology:

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A- Small-thing-in-a-big-thing
I started to make something big
But no one saw me
I tried to make something really, really
Big
But no one
Ever saw me.
I started to make noises
Like screaming
Crying
And yelling and
Finally someone heard me
And saw.
Maya

Moll and Greenberg (1990) referred to these interactions with family members in
schools as creating zones of possibilities, creating "multiple paths, between classrooms
and households" (p. 320). These researchers suggested that this kind of work begins by
examining the funds of knowledge, the social sharing of knowledge, which in this case
was done after Jayson called attention to his mom's role as poet, and inviting the family
members into school to share their resources with the whole class. Maya's work was
scaffolded by Jasira's visit and her talk with the class, as well the poem she left with us.
Because of the poet's visit, household concepts and classroom contexts merged to
develop innovative literacy practices, which built on the strengths of students' funds of
knowledge and the underpinning resources of those funds of knowledge.
Another visible benefit was Jayson's enthusiasm from the experience of having his
mother visit as the poetry expert, which transferred to other areas of his learning in the
classroom. When we were creating multiplication fact booklets, Jayson proudly displayed
his cover decorated with the words: "Ms. Kruger's Class, Home of Great Poetry."

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Jayson's Booklet Cover

Poetry held many facets of engagement for the students. The impact of Jasira's visit was
felt afterwards as we continued our poetry writing, as evidenced by Maya's poem,
"Small-thing-in-a-big-thing," where she appropriated Jasira's style. Jasira's visit
impacted the students because of her demeanor with the children, her passionate talk with
them, and her listening fully to their ideas.
Poetry Partnerships: Sharing Resources. Again, our study of poetry was a teacherplanned space that encouraged students to appropriate space in a variety of ways. Yet,
students picked up the planning of various aspects, including topics, form, and
performance, stretching a teacher-planned space into a student-planned space. The
following example demonstrated how lessons of partnerships and accountable talk, both
examples of workshop strategies (Calkins, 1994, 2001; City of New York Department of
Education, 2003), provided opportunities for more students' resources to become part of
the learning in school. Partnerships were a teaching strategy that was used in multiple
ways. Students were partnered by choice in our classroom for the writing workshop. (In

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reading workshop, the teacher chose the partnerships, more according to reading levels.)
In writing, the students got to choose the person based on who they believed they could
work with well and from whom they could gain some insights. Accountable talk was a
strategy that explicitly taught children how talk was purposeful and that they (the
students) were held accountable for meaningful discussions, often providing examples to
make this idea explicit, recognizing and teaching the value of communication. Both
partnerships and accountable talk provided opportunities for students to share from their
resources because of the social nature of partnerships and the connections to their lives
and learning in the talk.
On May 18, 2007, as a writing mini-lesson on reading and performing poetry was
finished, partners quickly dispersed to their self-chosen spots to read, talk about, and
practice for performing some poetry. Tali and Chino went to share the presenter's chair in
the class library. The issue of two boys and one chair was not a problem, as they shared
easily, quickly engaging with the poems in their writer's notebooks. Strains of the
Chicken Noodle Soup song, a current, popular song, could be heard; Tali and Chino were
singing in rhythm. After a few minutes, Tali and Chino moved to the carpet on the floor.
Chino was drumming a beat. Tali was sprawled out with a huge smile on his face. Chino
was into a deep beatBOOM BOOMreverberating like a BASS holding the tempo.
These two students came alive with the opportunities to infuse their lives, their thinking
into their learning.
After walking around to other groups and checking out their progress with
performance, I returned to the work of Tali and Chino on the library carpet. Tali acted out
putting a CD (compact disc for music) in a CD player. He and Chino were playing DJ as

they explored with their poetry; they were engaged. Tali had props for their game: a small
round, plastic disc and a money sign "toy." They moved into performance. They informed
me that their ideas were inspired from a game for PlayStation, a game system. I knew
nothing about PlayStation culture, and they were seeped in it. Later I heard, "We're gonna

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do this tomorrow," suggesting it was tun and they were engaged with this poetry
experience.
These writers working together in a partnership were pulling on multiple resources
from home but recontextualizing their resources for a new literacy space in school. The
partners talked around music; a CD (compact disc) and the money sign prop representing
Rap culture, a social resource popular within the community that surrounds the school,
were pulled into their performance of their own poetry. The partners were performing
their own music video, acting as DJs (disc jockeys who were responsible for mixing the
music). Their talk revolved around practicing their performance and planning what to do
next; together they were accountable for their talk and their performance.
Also, the video games played on PlayStation, a game system and rap music,
impacted this partnership as they adapted a poem that ran along the bottom of the screen
on one of the games to be the poem for their performance piece. Later, Tali attempted to
record his written version of the poem in his writer's notebook. Tali appeared to be the
lead poet of this performance poem, although Chino was very much involved. The
partners fed off each other's ideas and actions as they practiced their performance piece,
building on each other's ideas. The writing workshop space was malleable to
accommodating children's resources in a productive bridging of home and school
literacies.
Personal Narratives: Continuing Outside the Workshop. Not all the story writing
occurred during writer's workshop, especially as students developed confidence to
express themselves through this medium. Another example of a student that built on the,
initially, teacher-planned space of writing for her resources was Diamond, in her writing

around her experience in the foster care system that occurred outside the writers'
workshop. Diamond wrote a story in her writer's notebook, which she showed to me; I
asked her to edit it for capitals and periods, accepting it as a valid story that needed more
attention from the writer. I did not spend much time speaking with her on the content

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because I was not sure what exactly I wanted to say to respond to her powerful story. I
was proud of her ability to "verbalize" (in writing) this personal story, but I did not want
to over-respond and make her feel self-conscious about her topic. Thus, to limit my
response, I said little, yet listened and encouraged much about her writing.
She did not get a chance to edit that day. However, the next day she started editing
her story about becoming a foster child. Diamond finished editing her story and chose to
copy it over, making an extremely neat version, reflecting her pride in the story, as well as
her desire to share it with other people.
Reflecting at lunchtime one day, I re-read Diamond's story. I went across the hall to
Tanya Toussaint's classroom; Ms. Toussaint was another third grade teacher who
regularly helped me in my understandings of my teaching and my research through
informal conversations. I shared Diamond's writing and asked Ms. Toussaint, "Is it good
enough that kids bring it in?" ["it" refers to their multitude of resources]. She quickly
replied, "No." We concluded that more action was required. Students' resources needed
to be not only recognized but utilized in classrooms, whether the spaces were initiated by
the teacher or by the students. One suggestion that came from this conversation was that
the responses of teachers and classmates to students' resources were significant as well. It
was not enough that Diamond wrote the story and brought it into school; it was the way it
would be taken up, acknowledged in the classroom, that made the act even more
powerful. This reflective moment with a colleague clarified the necessity of taking up
Diamond's resources, in particular her identity of being a foster child, in the classroom by
responding to the resources that she (and other students) brought in, through an opening
of space. It was not enough that students brought their multiple resources to the
classroom; those resources needed to be honored and utilized in some fashion, with some
regularity within the classroom. In my reflections to the fieldnotes, I wrote, "Note: It's
ALL always coming in. It's a question of whether it's picked up on and then what???"
Diamond had a chance to voice her thoughts, which she also raised in a "foster kid" poem

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that she wrote. I asked Diamond whether she wanted to share her story with anyone and,
if yes, in what fashion.
Diamond indicated that she would like to share her foster care story with
Leyla Khan. Ms. Khan was a third grade teacher, directly across the hall from our
classroom, that had worked with Diamond's foster mother in the previous year; she had
helped me communally welcome Diamond into our school. I asked Diamond if I could
listen as she read the story although I had already read it. Then I asked her if she knew
why I might want to hear her read it out loud. Diamond said, "You want to hear HOW I
read it?"
Diamond had been impressed by the Fifth and Sixth Grade Poetry Champions, the
winners of our school's Poetry Slam. These students fed her knowledge of the power of
performance and expression of words. The first place poet read her poem about her
parents' divorce, painstakingly detailing her feelings at this difficult, personal change in
her life. The poet's feelings were exposed for all listening to hear. Diamond gained
strength seeing the power of the communicated word at the Poetry Slam, and particularly
from the prize-winning poet who exposed her personal resources through expression with
words.
To share her story, which she formerly referred to as her "secret," Diamond first
began by inviting me to read the story. I was honored and pleased that Diamond brought
this story to me. It signaled to me that she felt safe in the caring (Nieto, 2003) and
culturally responsive (Gay,2000) environment that had been established in the classroom.
Then moved to reading it aloud to Ms. Khan (a neighboring third grade teacher who had
developed a rapport with Diamond), who listened and responded enthusiastically to the

power of Diamond's words.

After she shared with the two of us, Diamond became more knowledgeable about
the force of her writing and its effect on an audience. Her confidence grew, and she asked
if she could share the story with the entire class. I was the one who showed lack of

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courage, being fearful that the class might not be ready to be sensitive to her story. As an
adult experienced in the interactions of children, I knew there was much at stake, as
children can be harsh with each other about personal experiences, though they could be
supportive, too. I wanted to find a way to gauge the students' reaction prior to Diamond
reading her foster care story. I asked Diamond to wait a day or two and consider if she
was positive that she was prepared to read her story aloud to the class. Time did not
persuade Diamond otherwise. In fact, she seemed to become more confident as the time
passed. She was prepared to share her foster care story.
The next day to prepare (and gauge) the class for Diamond's story (which was
shared on the following day), I planned a read aloud using the book, Our Grade Aunt by
Jacqueline Woodson. Woodson's book detailed two siblings' experiences in foster care.
They were left alone at home without their mother, were taken away by a children's
services worker who came to their door, and journeyed to their unfamiliar aunt's house
where they were to stay. Although Woodson crafted a sensitive story that brought forth
many of the character's feelings, I was concerned that Woodson's story may upset some
students who were either unaware of foster care realities or had experiences within them.
I tried to focus the class with the recognition that life has a multitude of experiences (i.e.,
good, bad, happy, sad). I wanted the students to experience the story as real and as lifelike but not as tramatic. The following was an excerpt from my introduction to the real
aloud of the book:
Mollie:

There's some good stuff [that occurs in this story] but there's some
sad stuff. But I agree that it's good because it's kind of like our
own lives. And so when we look at this book, I want us to look at
the characters in this story, particularly the little girl and the little
boy. We can look to make connections to our own lives or to
people we knowYes, Diamond?

Diamond: The other day when we was getting ready for our poetry slam
when we was getting ready to slam, Ms. Kruger showed me the
book and I was looking through it, it reminds me of my own life.

Mollie:

This book is reminding you, Diamond, cool, of your own life. She
is making connections. We can talk about that definitely as we go
through [the book].

(Transcript, T-RAGracieAunt, 5-31-07)

As we began to read this book, four other students identified themselves as children who
knew the foster care system first-hand. I knew that Kahilil was living with a foster mom
in the beginning of the school year and that during the year he was reunited with his birth
mom. But I was unaware of this history for the three other students who shared this
experience, as I planned this read aloud, to build some background about Diamond's
experience for the rest of the class. The children who had experienced foster care
provided the background information for their classmates, without apprehension. I read
from the text: ".. .foster care. It's when you live with somebody who's not your mama...."
Mollie:

Who's ever heard that term "foster care" before?

Kahilil:

I been in foster care before.

Mollie:

You've been in foster care. [Re-stating.]

Tywana: Me too.
Mollie:

You toolook at that [said looking at Diamond].

(Transcript, T-RAGracieAunt, 5-31-07)

Conversations were opened by the children, especially Diamond. Time was allocated by
me, the teacher. This event of Diamond creating this space was a prime example of how
students pried open spaces for themselves. In my reflections, I noted: "This read-aloud
has already been going on for over twenty-five minutes, It is an interactive read aloud so I
knew going in that the time would be filled with children's thoughts as well as written
text!!! [I was not disappointed.]" Diamond had shared what she had been referring to as
her "secret" about being a foster child with some of her classmates. She reported that she
"told Tywana too. And Jayson." I replied, "It's nice to have a chance to share that with
people. So there are some people in this class who know about foster care first-hand." It

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was important to make it clear that other children have had a similar event in their lives;
Diamond was not alone in her experiences. These similar points of reference about the
foster care system eased my concerns regarding Diamond sharing her foster care story
with the class, which she did the next day. This was her text:

[A.C.S. = Administration of Children's Services]

Diamond demonstrated her belief that she had a story to tell; she had a voice.
Diamond crafted this story outside the writer's workshop. She had developed a habit of
writing when larger life issues were weighing heavily upon her as a method of response
and reflection. Another example of a time that Diamond used writing for response and
reflection was when she wrote the letter to her father, which was shown in photographs in
Chapter IV. In that case, she wrote three white boards full of words expressing her

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feelings of missing her father but trying to understand why he was not around. Diamond's
words gave her power, even in powerless situations that she did not control.
This piece of writing was not a part of the writing unit curriculum for the month of
May. As a class, we were completing our poems and preparing for our class's poetry
slam. The school's poetry slam for grades 3-6 had already occurred. Diamond was
inspired by the poetry slam winner's ability to share a difficult piece of her life story and
make her own space for incorporating her resources into her school learning in her self
created hybrid space.
Ultimately, Diamond read her foster care story aloud to the class, with positive
responses from her classmates, as well as further sharing of foster care experiences and
connections. Through this entire process, she included her classmates and teacher in her
exploration. This was a strong example of how a space, initially planned by the teacher,
was taken up by a student, who opened the space further, making it her own, truly
recreating classroom space for herself and others. Diamond changed or rearranged the
space for herself and for her classmates, as she provided the space for them to access,
consider, and share their resources.
Expanded Literacy Sessions: Beyond Formal Curriculum
Prior, we have seen examples of students' taking up the teacher-planned curriculum
and making it more their ownblending home and school resources within their school
learning. This third section has three examples of hybrid spaces initiated, created, and/or
supported by students: first an example of how students generated a space for their
curricular interests; second a space initiated by a student and venerated by classmates; and
a third space that, though begun by the teacher, was supported and fueled by students.
Seeking hybrid spaces was a major focus of my research, so I was cultivating the
classroom environment and the curriculum to create room for hybrid spaces that
welcomed students' multiple resources. This section detailed specifically some of the

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hybrid spaces that were student-generated; the following examples of hybrid spaces were
outside the formal literacy curriculum, planned by the teacher.
The History Club: A Student-generated Space. The History Club was an example
of a hybrid space initiated by students; it was student-planned with an element of teacher
input. Alejandro and Kahilil started the History Club. It began with a proposal. Alejandro
was the voice; he approached me to inquire about studying war, somewhere in our school
day. Alejandro mentioned that he wanted to learn about Hitler and war. As an advocate of
non-violence, I balked a bit and asked Alejandro why he wanted to study war. He
informed me that he wanted to know more about it. How did it happen? What was it like?
What do soldiers do? These questions demonstrated forethought. I was taken aback
somewhat, as war can be gruesome; I was concerned about the illustrations and the
authenticity of the information on death and killing, remembering the impact of seeing
piles of emancipated people as I studies World War II in high school. Despite my balk to
facilitate a study of war, I recognized that war has had an impact on the history of
humankind and currently continued to impact our lives. Also I recognized that this topic
of war was enthralling to a number of students in the class, including Kahilil. Although
he was quiet, Kahilil was clearly a big thinker and planner, as noted in the celebratory
dance the two founding members performed together when I suggested we would seek a
way to study this topic of interest, though I realized that it may have to be outside our
regular studies. The two boys got me thinking about possibilities of time and content
areas where they might be able to learn about this topic that so fascinated them, but there
did not seem to be a natural fit.
One day, in the school's library on my preparation period, I explored the books

available on war in the non-fiction/ history section; I checked out a few books and took
them to the classroom. Originally, I told Alejandro and Kahilil that they could look at
them in those moments when they had completed their current assignment. However, that
did not work well, as that time (and space) never opened enough to provide ample

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exploration. After the books sat for a few days, I suggested that the boys come up at
lunchtime to study the library books. When the word spread around the classroom, it
became clear that there were more interested parties: both boys and girls. I introduced the
idea of lunchtime meetings, and we took the names of potential members. The History
Club was born.
Although I created the time for the History Club during lunchtime and in the space
of our classroom, the children provided the desire, and thus the energy, for this hybrid
space, where they brought their interests that were not explored elsewhere in the formal
curriculum of our classroom. I was not a participating member except for my part in
library research for books, though in later meetings the children took that up. In one of
our bi-monthly library visits, I showed the History Club members where I had found the
initial set of books, and then I left them alone to discover their own books. Alejandro
came to show me WWII, the follow-up to the book on the World War I book that I had
brought to the group. Another student brought over The Revolutionary War, a book that
had much print as well as detailed pictures and diagrams; the student commented that the
book showed war "back in the day," a common phrase in our school community referring
to historical events. This led to comparisons of war and instruments of war (i.e., weapons,
uniforms) by era in the next History Club meeting. Students were choosing the literature
for History Club with enthusiasm and direction.
Twelve students signed up for History Club. Small groups were formed by the
students, as the total number was unwieldy for in-depth interaction and research. A group
of three girls chose to study something else historical. After a conversation, they decided
to study Rosa Parks and Civil Rights activists. During the History Club meetings, I

meandered among the small groups that were formed by the students, curious abouth their
findings. During one lunchtime meeting, Jayson said, "It would take us infinity years to
learn everything." The students were beginning to understand that there was a multitude

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of knowledge out there. And they were practicing how to uncover, record, and share out
the information that interested them.
History Club members were encouraged to explore library books for answers to
their queries. Initially, the members read through the books together; this action was not
necessarily reading every word and comprehending the full written text, as many of the
books were not written at the students' level of reading. However, in their groups, the
members used strategies such as reading headings and examining pictures to gain insights
into the topic. After a few meetings, I challenged them to find a way to record some of the
data they were learning as they researched. The posters the groups created reflected the
graphic organizers we had been studying and using in class. Throughout the day and,
particularly, during History Club, I employed terms like "data" and "research," and the
students used them, too. In our classroom, science and social studies were referred to as
the research block, where we learned about our world by doing research. This hybrid
space reflected elements of school learning and home learning.
As each group worked to finish a poster of their findings, we set a date to share out
with the class. It was an informal share, where each group, over a two-day period, got to
detail their findings to the class; information was well received as students in the
audience asked questions, pushing the thinking even farther. Although this work
resembled a social studies report, which it was, the feeling was different, as the students
assigned the work. They drove the assessment, and their classmates graded the
assignment with their attention and interest.
Tongue Twister Mania. Another example of a space created explicitly by a student,
and taken up by other students, was our experience of Tongue Twister Mania. Due to an
earlier issue with stuttering, Jasira introduced Jayson to tongue twisters. His mom was
full of language resources for him, due to her own interest in words and their usage. In
our second family member collaborative meeting, the family members/moms were
talking about their children and their speech; their ability to share a verbal story was the

prompting of this conversation, which the family members initiated. Jayson's mom was
talking about how he talks and talks and talks. Here is how tongue twisters came into
Jayson's resource library.
T:

Is that where the tongue twisters came in?

Jasira:

Yeah. I used to always correct his words. Even now, if you say a
word and you don't say it probably he will correct you.

Jess:

Yeaha lot of children will do that.

Jasira:

because I do thatI used to do that to him a lot because he used to

stutter.

Jess: OK.
Jasira:

He talks so much and so fast that he got out of it on his own. And
he'll, he'll talk on the toilet and he'll talkmind you most of the
time it's just me and him in the house and if you listen to my door,
if you never come inside my house and just stand outside and
listen to my door,

(Laughter from the listeners.)

Jasira:

you'llyou'll think he was crazy. Cuz he be in there d-d-d-d-d

(imitating talk). He be in his room, talking. And I'm like who are
you talking to too? Myself. At first I thought

Jess:

That's something that needs to be corrected (talking as if to finish

Jasira's thought)

Jasira and Mollie: No

Jasira:

I talked to the doctors. I asked the doctors about that. He used to

have imaginary friends and all that. I asked the doctors.

[Lots of voices and thoughts were heard at one time.]

SO Jasira had reached out for information about her son's stuttering. Tongue
twisters, then, found their way into the classroom. But many students became part of this
literacy practice and the sharing of it.
In an individual family member conversation with Jasira, she raised the topic of
tongue twisters. I should not have been surprised, given the already established language

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resources revolving around words; however, I had not heard tongue twisters mentioned
recently by elementary teachers, let alone family members. Jayson, who was present for
this conversation with his mother, wanted to share tongue twisters with the class. So the
next day, Jayson asked throughout the school day, "Is it time now?" He remembered ALL
dayhe pushed the space! He reminded me of the tongue twisters I could not do
yesterday, having me practice "Unique New York" five times fast, which led to our
shared hysterics, as I was not able to do it. He asked first thing in the morning and two
other times before lunch if was time to share the tongue twisters. I told him, "After lunch
with our read aloud."
After lunch, however, we had art studio (a 45-minute art session in the school's art
studio); he was concerned and asked, "When?" I ensured Jayson we would get to it. After
art, we returned to finish Mr. Putter and Tabby and the Lollypup for our read aloud,
which the other students were eating up. When we finished the story, Jayson came to the
front of the group to explain the premise of tongue twisters. He stood tall and looked at
his classmates seated on the carpet. He jumped into explaining Unique New York. I
challenged him to tell the class what a tongue twister was. He explained how you have to
try to say it three times fast. He demonstrated the tongue twister: Unique New York,
again (10 timesas fast as he could). Then we encouraged the class to try it (softly) to
themselves. I called on four volunteers to demonstrate their efforts. The students were
enthusiastic for this fun activity.
Students continued practicing as they lined up to go home at the end of the school
day. The next morning one girl came up to show, verbally, how she had practiced. She
was fairly successful but not completely. I mentioned, "Keep practicing." Jayson shared

his home literacy practice; later I learned from Jasira that it was a purposeful word game
to address some stuttering that Jayson had done. Jayson and I worked out a proposal that
a tongue twister could be learned each week.

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I agreed with Jayson's proposal but did not realize how much the children would
take up the idea. One afternoon, Calvin asked to borrow the tongue twister book and
returned it the next day with a suggested tongue twister of the week. Diamond
enthusiastically requested to take home and read the book for a night. The tongue twister
list continued to grow, but it was not the teacher who added the new tongue twisters.
Children came with the new ideas, and that is how the list grew; it was their enthusiasm
that kept tongue twisters in our learning. It is true that tongue twisters ebbed and flowed,
in and out of the end of the year learning, but they remained a facet of the classroom
learning. The student-generated list of tongue twisters included:
Unique New York
Elegant Elephant
Higgledy Pigglety
WOYB: What's On Your Brain? WOYB fit into each of the categories of the
original hybrid spaces chart, seen at the beginning of this chapter, because it reflected all
four categories: teacher-planned, student-planned, teacher-unplanned, and studentunplanned spaces, demonstrating the permeable nature of hybrid spaces. WOYB was
planned by the teacher to try to learn more about students and students' resources. In the
midst of the second cycle of documenting hybrid spaces (see Methodology), I was
concerned that I was not learning enough about my students' resources. Taking up on a
suggestion from my university advisor, I found Vasquez's (2005) work and adapted her
What's on My Brain? activity for my class.
At the start of each week, we gathered in a circle around the carpet in our library. A
cushy, red apple puppet was passed around the circle; students who had an idea to share
would speak as everyone listened. Children who chose not to speak during a session
would simply pass the puppet to the next child. Children could share one story, memory,
thought, or idea that was on their brain. When this sharing began, the children were a

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little hesitant to share out in this setting. But as we continued the ritual, students became
more comfortable and confident. WOYB became the students' space.
Although this circle sharing was, initially, planned by the teacher, the students
brought this space to life. They made WOYB their own. "This negotiation involves
constantly listening to what children are talking about, their passions, and their interests
and using these to build curriculum" (Vasquez, 2005, p. 85). WOYB encouraged children
to bring in their resources and provided an opportunity for me to hear new student
resources and consider new curricular options.
The students began to plan what they were going to share with the group. There
were unplanned moments as well, as students made connections to other students'
sharing, which changed the space. I was surprised by the fact that, although I began this
process, there were many unplanned spaces that were opened, building on one small
comment of one child. The flexibility of the space from "What's On Your Brain?"
mystified and amazed me. Student topics went from personal to global issues. Kahilil
shared, "Well, today my mother gets her check." He detailed for the class how he hoped it
would be spent. Chino brought up the topic of smoking. "I told my dad to stop smoking,"
Chino said. Kahilil responded, "I hear if you smoke a lot, you get cancer." Voices broke
out in response to this global issue, as they had also to the personal one. Students were
making multiple connections.
Although WOYB was becoming a student-planned space, as teacher I was learning
much about the children as individuals and as a group. One example of learning
holistically about the class came from an individual's sharing, in this case, Calvin's
sharing about his computer usage.

Calvin:

For my birthdaywe're going to go to a (weather chart) ... we

were looking up all these things ... and we saw there will be a
place where you ... you had to do this for about fifty feet....

Mollie:

Computerwho else has gone on the computer and looked at stuff

like this?

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(Show of handsmore than half the class.)
Calvin:

And after that....

(April 29,2007; WOYB)

Calvin continued to tell more about the birthday trip, not allowing his turn to be
interrupted for long, though he was receptive to the information about other computer
users. With a brief interruption, I gained wider insight to the literacy practices, the
resources of the students.
I knew WOYB was becoming a part of the class culture when children came to
school Monday morning reminding me: "Don't forget it's MondayWhat's On Your
Brain!" This session was a rich verbal sharing opportunity, with possibilities for children
to share of their multiple resources that made WOYB distinct. Topics included such ideas
as baby sisters, video games, scary movies, cell phones, dogs, songs, foster care, and
future aspirations. The form of sharing was encouraged to be broad, such as stories,
thoughts, ideas, and wonderings; it was not necessarily concrete happenings that were
shared. Responses to events, large and small, were also encouraged. Popular culture was
not forbidden in this space, as it frequently can be in a classroom space. Students were
encouraged to bring in their multiple resources, inclusive of popular culture.
One way I found to help students share more was by furnishing time. Time was
everything: it depended how many children wanted to talk, how long they wanted to talk,
and what happened when we interacted to each other's stories. I often told the children we
could do this all day and then pointed out that the day's agenda was full so we needed to
progress. One day I provided extra time for WOYB because of ALL the interruptions by
classmates, sharing their connections. Since I wanted the students to have a chance to
share the ideas others inspired in them, I set up the conclusion of one WOYB session like
this:
Mollie:

OK, very quickly I want you in your brain to think of 'the

connects' you made to what other people said, because I heard
there were a lot of them.... I'll give you three minutes to tell

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somebody right near you what somebody else made you think
about.
(T-WOYB, 4-29-07)
There was an understanding that this time was limitedand sacred. I made an effort at
being flexible regarding the structure and timing of this sharing session. The students
responded to this invitation to share their connections in small groups; the opportunity to
share seemed to release some of the tension that was building, as students were anxious to
share their thinking about other students' comments.
In a later WOYB session, I asked the students why they liked WOYB:
Mollie:

What's On Your Brain this morning iswhy do you guys like

What's On My Brain so much?? Because you're always reminding
meWhat's On My Brain! What's On My Brain! (laughter)
Kahililwhy do you like What's On My Brain so much?

Kahilil:

Because we always get to talk about all the things we did.

Sparkle: I like What's On Your Brain because it's funny and we get to use
that apple.
Mollie:

It's fun to have that puppet.

Sparkle: And it's fun to tell things that you did.

Mollie:

Nicemm, sending out good thoughts, I like that.

Donald: I like when we like get to knowwe learn what they doing in their
life.
Mollie:

So we learn about each other that waywhat they're doing in their

lifeyou guys have such good thoughts. Jayson?

Jayson:

I like WOYB because some things is funny. And I like funny stuff.

Mollie:

So sometimes the author's purpose is to be entertaining and make

people laugh. And it works OKoooyou had another thought?

Jayson:

Because when people talk they're sharing something that's

happening.

Mollie:

OK real life stuff in their life.

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Alejandro: Why I like WOYBbecause you can learn about each other and
get to know each other more....
Mollie:

And why might that be good for us?

Alejandro: Because we can start getting along with each other.

Mollie:

Help us get along with each other. I like that. Calvin?

Calvin:

You get to share thoughts that we haven't shared out before. Like
Samuel shared out his games, like Eddy, like I had it. It was the
same thing.

Mollie:

So we get to make connections to what other people are talking

about... Jermaine do you have something too....

Jermaine: We get to know about people much better and what they are doing.
Mollie:

You know what Ms. Kruger's liking about WOYB, I like the way
that we're learning how to share in a thoughtful way, kind of like
thinking about how to tell a story. And I think that's a really
important thing as a person, not just as a student but as a person
that it's really good to know how to start and when to stop and
listen to somebody else. So I think there are a lot of talking lessons
we get out of it too.

'What's On Your Brain?' represented a truly hybrid space in our classroom, as so many
resources came into the mix. It was the verbal start of many writing pieces, and often,
students gained ideas from the sharing of other students. It was, as the students pointed
out, a place for us to get to know each other more deeply, which could possibly lead to
everyone "getting along with each other," as Alejandro noted. It was also a teaching time
like when I said, "So sometimes the author's purpose is to be entertaining and make
people laugh." WOYB provided a stage for students' resources to enter the classroom.

Chapter Summary

Within this chapter, I documented examples of the hybrid spaces that were opened
in this second grade classroom. The chapter began with a section defining hybrid spaces,
as beyond third space theory because of the spaces' complexities. Often there were

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multiple individuals with multiple resources involved in the creation of a space; a number
of exterior factors influenced the space. There were examples of spaces that students
initiated and ones that I initiated. Some of the spaces were planned, and others were
unplanned.
The chapter was divided into three sections: read alouds, writing, and expanded
literacy sessions, with examples given to highlight each. It was within these three
constructs that hybrid spaces were noticed easily during literacy learning. This chapter
addressed the second research question, which asked: What were the spaces that were
opened to recognize and build on students' resources? The chapter detailed the spaces,
recognizing students' social, cultural, and literacy resources that contributed to the spaces.
Examples were provided that show how the spaces came to be, who initiated the spaces,
and what occurred within them.

Chapter VI
DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS REGARDING
STUDENTS' RESOURCES AND HYBRID SPACES IN THE CLASSROOM

Twenty years of teaching in a city rich with various peoples has fueled this
research, which sought understanding of students' social, cultural, and literacy resources,
as well as ways that those resources could enhance classroom learning. By inviting
students' resources into the learning, teachers provide a connection to children's lived
lives. "These social connections help teachers and students to develop their awareness of
how they can use the everyday to understand classroom content and use classroom
activities to understand social reality" (Moll & Greenberg, 1990, p. 346). This action
research project was conducted to explore students' resources, to contribute to a deeper
understanding of what those resources are, and to explain how I, as the teacher, could
enhance the learning within the classroom through the cultivation of hybrid spaces. The
exploration of four focal students' resources was the work of Chapter IV of this
dissertation. Within Chapter V, I documented some of the hybrid spaces in the classroom
that were opened or created by students and/or by me in the classroom, building upon
students' resources, which consisted of their multiple knowledge bases and Discourses.
In this concluding chapter, I return to the research questions that steered this
research and attempt to pull together what I have learned. First, I discuss students'
resources and then hybrid spaces, synthesizing the findings regarding these topics as laid
out in Chapters IV and V, respectively. Then I address the findings that rose from the

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research and the experience of the research, including a permeable curriculum and family
member collaboration that proved significant in this work. Finally, I discuss implications
for practice, and future research will be specified, followed by a brief reflection of the
research process, a critique of the study, and a few concluding thoughts.

Discussion of Students' Resources

This research was a two-part endeavor. The first phase of this study occurred as I
documented students' resources. Then, after a few months, the study progressed into the
second phase, where I recorded hybrid spaces that occurred in the classroom and that
reflected students' resources. I observed students' social, cultural, and literacy resources,
looking for hybrid spaces that opened from that research within literacy learning. This
research viewed literacy as a social activity (Barton, 1994) and took up multiple
dimensions of literacy, including cultural, linguistic, historical, and power dimensions.
My understandings of literacy stretched toward critical literacy concepts where the
objective was to make learning personal and connect to the students' lives.
My position as a White teacher in a predominantly Black community motivated me
to formalize this study from the informal teacher observations I had been making in the
classroom. Using my observations of students bringing students' resources into school
learning, I wanted to find ways purposefully of creating and/or opening hybrid spaces that
welcomed students' resources into school literacy learning. I explored students' multiple
resources using a broad definition of resources (further discussed later in this section).
Teacher-research methodologies guided me in my observations and reflections,
attempting to identify students' multiple resources. Action research methodologies
inspired me as I attempted to create change in my classroom by opening hybrid spaces
where students' resources would be welcomed and utilized in the classroom.

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The case studies in Chapter IV documented a wide range of resources. Each child
had varying, individual resources, based on the data. Yet, there were similarities in
children's resources (i.e., social resources, popular culture). The case studies were
arranged in three sections: family resources (often social practices and Discourses),
individual resources (usually identities), and community resources (such as popular
culture). Also throughout each case study, social practices, literacy practices, and
identities were identified as they influenced the resource being discussed, because these
constructs inter-related on many levels. At times it was difficult to "name" the resource,
as there were multiple aspects to the one resource.
In Chapter V, I described hybrid spaces that were opened or created in the three
areas of literacy learning: read alouds, writing, and "less structured literacy learning" (a
title created for less formal literacy sessions). My goal was to detail some of the multiple
resources I had witnessed in my class and provide insight to how students' resources
could be utilized within the literacy learning throughout the school day through the
creating or opening of hybrid spaces. While trying to document the hybrid spaces, I
continued to identify students' resources, remaining open to the expanding understanding
of what served as resources to learning.
Funds of Knowledge and Discourses: Merging to a Fuller Definition (and Understanding)
of Students' Resources
The work of this study came from experiences of reading the work of Luis Moll
and his colleagues (i.e., Amanti, Gonzalez, Greenberg); these researchers recognized that
families impart vast funds of knowledge that surround the learner with various
understandings. Within their work, these researchers examined closely how families

could become more of a source for learning by pulling family knowledges into school
learning via classrooms and extracurricular activities (i.e., after-school programs). The
term funds of knowledge spoke to the multiplicity of the knowledges and the ability to
"bank" these funds for profitable use, particularly in school learning. Moll and colleagues

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explored how educators could pick up on students' surrounding funds of knowledge and
utilize these knowledges to enhance learners' experiences with school learning.
Following the path that Moll et al. established, I set out, informally at first (as I had begun
to research students' resources in this manner prior to this organized research study), to
seek spaces in school learning where students' knowledges could be welcomed. I was
noticing there were more resources students brought that went beyond the examples I had
read about in the work of Moll and his colleagues.
James Gee's writings on Discourse also addressed how school could be more
beneficial to learners by picking up on students' Discourses with a capital D, which refers
to Discourses as more than just language in usage such as conversations. Gee (1996)
defined Discourse as "ways of being in the world" (p. 127) and continued, "A Discourse
is a sort of identity kit which comes complete with the appropriate costume and
instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular social role
that others will recognize" (p. 127). Gee's theory stretched my understandings of
resources to recognize that it was not just families' funds of knowledge that impacted
students in the classroom, but also how students took up those funds through their
Discourses, such as social practices and identities, which were acquired from their
families and community. I explored and documented how Discourses were impacted by
these surrounding, sometimes embracing, funds, leaving an impression on students and
their learning. One key premise that came to my study of Gee's work was the recognition
of the students' multiple identities viewed as a resource for children's learning. From our
Discourses, our identity kits, we talk, listen, read, write, act, interact, believe, value, and
use tools and objects "to display and recognize a particular social activity" (p. 128). These

Discourses are acquired through our lived lives. I focused on Gee's work as it spoke to
what social practices and identities the individual brought to their school learning from
home.

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I have expanded my definition of resources to include knowledges (based on Moll

et al.'s funds of knowledge) and Discourses (based on Gee's concepts of social practices
and identity kits). Moll's work allowed me to examine the funds of knowledge that
surround children and impact them as learners in school settings. When examining his
work, I constantly wanted to expand how he and his colleagues unpacked possibilities of
how students' resources impacted children's learning, seeking deeper connections to how
children were using this knowledge in the classroom. Their focus on funds of knowledge
seemed confined for the multiple resources I was observing in my classroom each year.
Students' resources were not concentrated only on the familial resources that surround
children, those being the multiple funds of knowledge that families, extended families,
and community provided.
The children also brought their Discourses as resources into the classroom. This
was where Gee's concept of Discourses entered and expanded into my work. Gee also
recognized that family and community greatly influence the learner. However, the
concept of Discourses spoke more to the culmination of these interactions with family
and community members, as they were internalized, by the individual and, then,
presented in the classroom environment. These thoughts expanded my thinking around
resources to examine who the child became based on these interactions.
One example, detailed in Chapter IV, revolved around Calvin and his father.
Calvin's dad shared family stories as a regularly occurring family literacy practice. The
specific conversations were examples of the sharing of funds of knowledge, as Calvin
Senior spoke often of his experiences serving in the United States Navy. These
conversations also exemplified a literacy practice, as the conversations were regularly
occurring events. But over the course of their relationship and having these conversations
over and over again, Calvin Junior internalized a sense of who he was, evidenced in the
ways in which Calvin took up and/or connected to this fund of knowledge resource. He
had acquired ways of acting, talking, writing, believing, interacting (Gee, 1996) out of

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this practice, thus demonstrating a social identity, which he also brought into the
classroom. Both of these constructs, funds of knowledge and Discourses, merged to
create a fuller understanding of students' resources as I sought to identify and utilize
students' resources within school learning, focusing on literacy learning.
No Two Are the Same
The four case studies illustrated that no two children have the same resources, but
detailing four individual students' resources extended the ways of visioning and
re-visioning students' resources. While documenting the resources in our classroom, it
was not always easy or fast to recognize, detail, or write out the resources. Some students'
resources were harder than others to see, engage, or comprehend. For example, when I
first began structuring a resource chart for Tali, I only had two or three resources listed.
Initially, I did not have enough information or understanding to denote his multiple
resources. Then with time, reflection, and collaboration with his mom, his list of
resources grew. Finally, I had to edit his chart and choose the regularly occurring
resources that were noted in the data, such as fieldnotes, artifacts of his work, and
transcripts. This occurrence informed me that deep reflection and time were sometimes
necessary to recognize some resources due to various factors. Two examples of factors
were a student's reluctance to demonstrate some resources in school or a teacher's
inability to notice or see beyond the ordinary. Extending the analysis over time was an
important factor in understanding some resources, which was a helpful aspect of a yearlong methodology, enabling me to process what I was seeing throughout the school year.
Some resources were easy to see while I was watching and learning in the
classroom. Jayson's need for friends and friendship was noted early on because he
continuously raised the issue of friendship. Other resources were only documented as I
re-read my data and spent time working on the resource charts for each focal child or
engaged in conversation with family members. Diamond's chart was noticeably shorter at

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the start of the analysis process, and I felt part of the difference was due to the family
member contact. Family member connections made a difference. Her foster mother was
unable to participate in the collaborative sessions, which were a huge source of data for
me. Denise did speak with me in the individual sessions, but two of them occurred over
the telephone. Each time she was very informative, but a relationship was not easily
forged. Some teachers might not have thought of a foster mother as an important resource
"sharer," but Diamond's resources showed that Denise was. So although the time spent
was not as long chronologically, her foster mom came out as a significant contributor to
Diamond's resources and understanding Diamond's resources. Some students demanded
sensitivity because of particular situations; others demanded time to feel comfortable.
Within Broader Understandings: Remixing Resources
Using this broader understanding, resources came from families, but through other
social contexts, too. In the findings of students' resources chapter, variations of the
definition of resources presented themselves: social practices, Discourses, identities, and
popular culture, to name a few. Students enacted Discourses of family religion and
sisters' musical influences. They presented aspects of their identities as an only child or
foster child. Knowledge taken from their experiences of baseball games with a godfather
and visits to one's mom were also examples of resources. Sometimes the resource was a
social practice, such as map reading with Mom or playing with toy figures. This research
took up an extended definition of resources that continued to grow throughout the
research.
Particular categories of students' resources have been suggested in other studies
reviewed in the literature review and were also documented in this study. The categories
were not meant to be constraints that box in definitions of resources, but to act as guides
for exploring and understanding students' resources more deeply. So in this next section,
I outline a few of the categories that emerged from the data presented on students'

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resources. These categories should not limit thinking around resources. The hope is to
expand on what is recognized as a resource.
Social Practices. Students' social lives impacted their school literacies (Barton,
1994). Friendships, partnerships, and extended family relationships were regular topics
throughout this documentation of students' resources. Much of what I identified as
resources was social connections and relationships that children have established in their
homes and communities, as well as in the classroom and school setting. While detailing
the students' resources, social resources were presented first. Within this category of
social resources, there were resources from immediate family, extended family, and
friends or community. Jayson's mom, Jasira, shared a social practice with him around
questioning and knowing. She told me about her practice of encouraging Jayson to ask
anything that he wanted to know. If he was curious about something, she wanted to
provide the information. This was one way of avoiding misinformation from outside
"sources." What it fostered was knowledge that Jayson could ask questions and receive
honest answers. He never hesitated to ask questions in class.
Social practices were also documented from Calvin's tight-knit family. Each
member of the family worked to support the others in various ways. Both parents worked
to support the family, providing funds of knowledge type resources based on the socioeconomic workings of a family. Yet, the children were also responsible for work of their
own, as Camille, their mom, made her expectations (Discourse) of education very clear.
Her children were to strive for their learning.
Extended family resources were noticed with Jayson's grandfather, who shared his
entertainer self with Jayson; perhaps some modeling occurred there. His aunt showered
him with love, but also with high expectations. Diamond's extended family was her foster
family. Her foster mother took up Diamond's education and her progress with vigor;
Denise contacted me when Diamond first arrived. We had a number of conversations
early in the year about where Diamond was and where Denise wanted her to go.

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Diamond's foster family also supplied her with knowledge and experiences that enriched
her school learning through their support and strong examples. Multiple resources were
supplied to Diamond through Denise's Discourses of school and work. Tali also had
extended family resources: in his godfather who took him regularly for visits, sometimes
on adventures like to a major league ballpark in the city, and to play with friends who
lived outside the neighborhood. Social practices as resources were a majority of the data
in the case studies provided in Chapter IV. These social interactions gave many resources
to the students as learners in the classroom.
Examples of partnerships that enriched learning were present with all four focal
students. These students interacted well in partnerships that were encouraged to talk and
share their thoughts about school learning. Yet, in the data, two examples of friendship as
a resource were documented with Jayson and Tali. Jayson's friendship resources were
represented in his interactions with classmates but also in his writing. In our study of
process writing, Jayson wrote "How to Make a Friend," a topic, as suggested, he knew a
lot about. Tali's friendship resource was contributing to the space Chino and he created
during Writer's Workshop, where the boys took time to "play", as they worked together
on their poetry presentation. When Tali and Chino worked together, there were usually
smiles on both faces, and the friendship that was noted was attributed to school literacy
practices as well.
Students' Identities Acknowledged. Although many identities were not documented
in this data, some identities were recorded that impacted the child and his or her learning.
For example, Diamond's identity as a foster child impacted her learning not only in the
written story that she crafted diligently, but it also impacted her performance abilities, as

she shared out with the class in a relaxed manner. She was brave, proud, strong, loud.
There was no hesitation. And the response from her classmates was respectful; they sat
still, listened, and responded thoughtfully. Another identity that was repeatedly in the data
was Jayson's identity as a "bodybuilding-wrestler-architect." This is a multi-faceted

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identity. Yet, the aspect that was repeated was the kinetic piece. Jayson was an active
child who frequently struck bodybuilding poses that accentuated his (growing) muscles.
When I took photographs during our classroom poetry slam, Jayson's image was a blur,
as he was on the move. One aspect of Calvin's identity was labeled by the neighborhood
as "old man." Calvin appeared wise beyond his years, which was what earned him this
nickname. It was an identity that Calvin took up in the classroom through his
responsibility to his classwork. This also reflects various family Discourses around school
and work.
Authorizing Popular Culture. Popular culture was a strong resource that ran across
the focal students' experiences (Dyson, 2003). Popular culture came from music,
television, games, and products. Calvin's poetry writing, a school literacy practice, was
influenced by his social practice of visiting his sisters' room to listen to rap music on the
local station with them. Television cartoons were a common ground for many of the
children in the class; Naruto, seen on Cartoon Network, was Calvin's favorite program
and was also well-known among his classmates. This shared popular culture resource led
to conversation but also connections to literature and social studies. Games were regular
fodder for talk during "What's On Your Brain?," a weekly circle share. Boys in particular
documented their triumphs and defeats while playing with a friend or a classmate at
home. Dragonball Z was a popular game that we heard about regularly and that found its
way into writing; thus, it impacted at least two literacy practices: a verbal and a written
practice. Recalling the example in Chapter V, Jayson stretched his story about
Dragonball Z, employing his entertainer identity, thus his desire to work or please an
audience. His popular culture resource impacted his school literacy learning. Products

that were noted throughout the children's resources included Heelies, SpongeBob
Squarepants action figures, Hotwheels, and dinosaur toys. The children in this study
picked up popular culture and infused it into their writing, which was encouraged by my
approach to authorship through the Writer's Workshop (Calkins, 1994). For students in

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my class, the knowledge that their stories had value was reflected in their verbal sharing
in school as well. From the experience of Jayson's story of Dragonball Z, it was noted
that popular culture was a way of many students coming together around common
ground, in this case the game and television program, Dragonball Z. His classmates
responded to his story because of the shared understanding of the characters and the
typical actions of the storyline. Plus, there was a sense of something outside "the school"
stories that we usually share in the classroom. Embracing popular culture authorized the
use of students' resources within the classroom.
Literacy Practices Woven Throughout. Literacy practices interplayed within
students' resources in a multitude of ways. Literacy practices came from home. Family
literacy (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Taylor, 1983) resources were present throughout the
students' resources. Jayson and his mom's tongue twister mania came alive in the
classroom. Students picked up this age-old literacy practice enthusiastically because of
Jayson's introduction. (A tongue twister book had been present all year in our classroom.)
Literacy practices were a means of expression through writing in the classroom, in and
out of the Writing Workshop. Tali and Jayson improved their writing capacity by drawing
on their social resources and stretching their stories. Diamond used writing to manage her
understandings of major changes in her family structure, coping with her father being
missing from her life and her mother working to regain custody of her children.
Diamond's literacy practices were a source of empowerment for her, providing an outlet
for her wonderings. Her re-creation of her current role as foster child was empowering,
but she also empowered other students who had experienced similar foster care stories of
their own.

Unconventional Resources
Some resources I documented might be viewed as disruptive or distracting in a
school setting; these unconventional resources, beyond or outside what might be

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conceived as school expectations, might be overlooked, dismissed or "shut down" in a

more traditional classroom. If I had not been examining resources, I may have
reprimanded students' actions and missed some of these unconventional resources. One
example, school play, was demonstrated in Tali and Chino's poetry partnership, discussed
earlier in Chapter V. These partners were playing around during their poetry exploration;
they focused little on the poetry book they had to read, at first glance. By listening in to
their talk and watching them closely, I noticed that they were playing some but that they
were beginning to talk about poems and poetry performance. After providing them with
time to play a bit, they soon engaged in their poetry exploration. Moje et al. (2004)
referred to this resource as "messing around" but stated that it is "replete with social
purpose and literate practice: both of which are valuable in this learning situation" (p. 58).
The social practices pulled them into the expected school literacy practices.
Another example of an unconventional resource was Jayson's entertainer resource.
His mom was concerned that he was being a clown and disrupting class. Although there
were times when the boundaries between entertaining and clowning were blurred, overall,
this resource served Jayson well as he identified himself as a writer of material for the
purpose of entertainment. This entertainer resource brought Jayson more fully into the
classroom learning, connecting him with his classmates and with his school learning, as
in his sharing of the Dragonball Z stories. From the experience of Jayson's Dragonball Z
story, I noticed that popular culture was an avenue not only to identify students'
resources, but it also could be a resource in and of itself. Jayson's classmates responded
to his story because of the shared understanding of the characters and the typical actions
of the storyline. Plus, there was a sense of something outside "the school" stories that we

usually share in the classroom, extending our ideas of story. These unconventional
resources were resources for learning.

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Family Members' Expertise
Family members and extended family members worked in collaboration as
students' resources were documented. The impact of family members and family
resources was documented throughout Chapter IV. Calvin's experiences of sharing family
stories with his father provided him with many opportunities to connect his home life to
the learning he continued in school. Diamond's foster family also supplied her with
knowledge and experiences that enriched her school learning through their support and
examples, but also developing a new version of her Discourse of school. My response to
this noticing was that clearly the family involvement in the study influenced what I noted
as a resource. The stories and the sharing of family members highlighted family resources
for me. Admittedly, going into the research, family resources as expressed in the funds of
knowledge literature (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Moll et al., 1992) were the most familiar to
me, offering a second explanation for why these resources topped each student's resource
chart and were forefronted in the case studies. However, a fuller, richer portrayal of
students' resources resulted from family members' input and repeated practice at
identifying students' resources in the classroom.
"Resources as strengths" has become a more dominant vocabulary phrase for
educators, compared to deficit discourse. The distinction between a wealth model and a
deficit model of education was discussed in Chapter I. A deficit hypothesis or deficit
model presumes that children from non-dominant families are deficient in some way,
such as their language, thinking, and/or culture. Teachers who assume this deficit view
fail to see the positive contributions of students' resources upon their learning. Many
educators (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Gonzalez et al, 2005; Nieto, 2003; Willis, 1995) have
recognized the importance of students' resources as capital for learning. However, it is
one thing to know that students have multiple resources that can benefit school learning,
and it has become another to identify and utilize these resources in our classrooms.
Teachers who practice how to identify students' multiple resources realize that these

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resources are varying and different for each child, and each child's resources affect and
impact their school learning. Throughout this research, the more I delved into looking for
and identifying students' multiple resources, the easier it became. Because each child was
different, it was important to remain open to seeing and hearing. "But observation alone
is not enough. We have to understanding the significance of what we see, hear, and
touch" (Dewey, 1938, p. 68). Family members as experts made connections for me
regarding students' experiences and resources.
Breaking Isolation, Building Community. Isolation issues have been noticed for
some family members in our school. Remoteness is not at issue, but seclusion can be a
separating issue, even leading to feelings of loneliness. Families are not necessarily
connected to the community in which they live and where their children attend school,
leading to isolation. People are without connections and support in regard to the care of
their children. Extended family members are not always close by to assist with children.
So other arrangements are made for a child for those half-days. Some children stay home
so they do not have to go outside unsupervised. These examples speak to the isolated
nature of living in a large, urban area without close connections to family or community.
In our first individual meeting, Jess spoke with me about being new to the
neighborhood. This was part of the reason I invited her to join the focal group; her son fit
the criteria of a focal student, but being part of a small community at a new school could
be beneficial for a family member, especially one new to the area. It was also a positive
aspect for Jayson's mom, who had recently moved to the neighborhood. The moms saw
the collaborative meetings as an opportunity to connect to a large community, as
evidenced in their sharings around community resources at our meetings. One example

came from the third and final collaborative meeting when I asked the family members,
"What's a strength in the community for the boys?"
Camille: I don't know about you, but have you ever seen anything around
here?

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Jasira:

I just moved around here.

Camille: I've been here for four years.

Jess:

I hear a lot of boys' activities.

Jasira:

How much you gotta pay?

Jess:

Oh, it varies. It depends on what you want your child to take up

they got tutoring, they got

Mollie:

... Jackie Robinson ... they've got programs.

Camille: Yeah, I'm supposed to go sign Calvin up for soccer ... the 30th.
You can go to. It's only 25 dollars to fill out for the application.
There was a long pause, and Jasira said, "That's sad," responding to the fact that ideas did
not flow when asked about the positive aspects of the community. Jess moved the
conversation to her knowledge of groups for children like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and
the PAL (Police Athletic League). As we all added our knowledge on that subject, the
isolation seemed to break somewhat through the sharing of information. When asked
about their participation in the study, an overriding response was about the pulling
together of a community.
Regarding participation in this study, Jasira noted, "The only thing it can do is
benefit your kids." The family members recognized the impact of collaboration for the
children, as well as the positive energy to adult relationships around schoolwith other
family members and teachers, too. All the family members agreed that participation was
beneficial to the children because of the communication that occurred. Jess pointed to the
importance of communicating about what was happening in school, educationally and
socially. She mentioned being able to talk with the teacher about what was happening,
getting another perspective than the one she gained from her child.
It was not only the adults that could be isolated in the community around our
school. Camille expressed gratitude for the way the family members in the study were

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interacting but also for the interaction that was encouraged among the focal children; as
the family members spent time together, so did the focal students who played in the care
of cooperating teachers. There was a community feeling generated by the collaborative
component of the research; something positive came out of the interfacing.
Family Members Collaborating on Curriculum. In our meetings, family members
spoke to questions they had about the curriculum and what their children were learning in
the classroom. Family members gave feedback regarding school learning, as they viewed
it. In our first collaborative meeting, the family members and I moved to talk of
curriculum. There was a challenge to my choice of teaching slavery as experienced by
African Americans in the 1800s in the United States. Camille said, "You know that I love
you but..." as she challenged why a White woman was teaching about slavery. She was
unsure of the purpose of studying slavery. The three women were saying, "What's good
about it?" They, and I, were in agreement that it never should have happened. The
conversation went to what do we talk to children about and what do we not. Jess felt that
they should know about this history. Jasira kept pushing, "But what was good about it?"
Her point was not lost. Historical perspectives continued to hold huge importance for
children and adults! This reminds me of when I taught my second grade daughter about
the potato famine in Ireland's history, where thousands were left to die. Both events were
extremely intense issues, with death and poverty being leading topics. Yet, they were not
without merit in the fact that people survived to tell the tale and create a history out of
despair.
Some time after the meeting, I pondered over why I have the slavery unit. It has
been a part of the Black History cultural facet of our school. In the month of January, we

studied the Civil Rights movement. As a class, we were looking prior to the Civil Rights
era to the slave experience in the United States, and then we followed time back to the
continent of Africa, studying yesterday and today. These later two units of study occurred
during Black History Month as celebrated by our school, where Black History is a

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celebration of achievement and used as an example for success. We learned about events
of the era through read alouds such as The Freedom Quilt and Follow the Drinking
Gourd. These children's books depicted the methods through which some slaves gained
their freedom, showing the tenacity, bravery, and wisdom that were necessary to escape.
In class, the students and I had talked about how slavery is not just an African
American issue. The children learned that slavery persists in parts of our world today.
During our class discussions, one student asked, "Was there slavery in 1998?" which felt
so long ago to the child. When I replied that there was slavery in 1998, another student
asked: "Today?" I told them that, yes, today there are still places in the world where
slavery continues to exist. Their incredulous faces demonstrated their shock at the
answer.
After some more talk with the family members around the issue, Jasira mentioned
that she could see where the study of slavery might suggest that people struggled and
survived. Our multidimensional conversations were breaking the isolation of the
curriculum, extending the thinking beyond the classroom by sharing with family members
the intent, the methodology, and the content.

Discussion of Hybrid Spaces

The hybrid spaces opened and created in this classroom changed the look and feel
of the classroom by engaging children more deeply into their school learning through use
of the students' social, cultural, and literacy resources. By recognizing resources and
enhancing hybrid spaces, "this pedagogical approach [gave] students the opportunity not
simply to discover their hidden histories but to recover them" (Giroux, 1993, p. 118).
Creating a classroom that welcomed students' rich treasure trove of multiple resources
has been a strong goal of my teaching, following educators like Nieto (2003), who
proposed a more caring dynamic between teacher and student, and following theorists

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like Gay (2000), who urged culturally responsive teaching. Culturally responsive teaching
techniques that I incorporated into my teaching were validating (building on students'
prior experiences, seeking to validate or affirm their identities), comprehensive
(integrating the whole child, the intellectual, social emotional, and political aspects),
empowering (enabling students to see their potential as human beings and as learners),
and emancipatory (creating learning environments that carry students beyond the
traditional school setting, freeing them for deeper understandings). I prepared, cultivated,
and nurtured an environment that welcomed a broad range of resources, an environment
that was open to new and different ideas and the creation of hybrid spaces that took up
students' resources. I planned for the possibility of a hybrid space- to me I was planning
for the space. But I could not make it happen. However, as Wilson (2000) suggested these
hybrid spaces were occurring around us constantly. Teachers had not usually taken time
to attend to them, figure them out, and excavate them to see what was valuable or fun or
sad or worth something within those space. Classrooms had these spaces, and they could
be influential in multiple ways to children.
Throughout this study, I attempted to construct a permeable curriculum that
recognized students' resources and cultivated hybrid spaces. Students and family
members were collaborators. I planned toward a "permeable curriculum" (Dyson, 2005),
building on ideas that rose from students' resources and conversations around those
resources to bridge students' everyday experiences and academic experiences. There were
areas in the curriculum where students' resources were recognized already or could be
encouraged to build a hybrid space, connecting what children know with what they may
need to know in the larger world (Vasquez, 2005). In the following section, I review and
discuss the three literacy areas where hybrid spaces were recurring. This does not imply
that spaces were not opened elsewhere, but that these areas were regularly noticed and
developed as the study unfolded. The three areas where spaces were created or opened
were: read alouds, writing, and "expanded literacy sessions" (a term used to refer to the

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spaces that were beyond the formal curriculum but additive to the literacy learning of the
students).
Read Alouds
In this study, permeable curricular spaces were noticed in the read alouds that
utilized literature that celebrated the students' resources as well as met required reading
standards. For instance, the second state reading standard states that students study
various literature genres. My choice of various books within genres such as biographies,
non-fiction and personal narratives, reflected my students' multiple resources while
meeting this standard. The choice of literature was purposeful to reflect my students'
identities and histories, as well as comprehensive, addressing the intellectual, social,
emotional, and political aspects of the whole child (Gay, 2000).
While reflecting on this area, I asked: Did the space already exist? Children
brought their connections to their lives easily into the conversations around characters
and plots that occurred during our read alouds. The opportunity for the space already
existed for the students to enter, but a mindset, for students and me, was cultivated based
on the culturally responsive theories that supported this work (Gay, 2000; Nieto, 2003),
which call for classrooms to be places that welcome the whole child. Recalling
Ballenger's (2004) learning about students and their interactions with read aloud texts,
read alouds were planned to accommodate the talk that students were having: free form,
child-chosen, building on situated issues from their world. At the start of the year, I
planned three read alouds daily, but by the end of the year, because of students'
engagement and conversation around the books, we had two read alouds in the daily read
aloud sessions. The practice of extending time for talk during read alouds continued
throughout the year, strengthening the existing space.
Language in this read aloud setting was relaxed. There was code switching
awareness, as children sometimes reverted to phrases of African American Vernacular

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English. When students' language and culture were utilized, student learning was
positively affected (Au, 1993; Labov, 1972; Morrow, 1992; Willis, 1995). Sometimes a
child began talking and stopped to adjust his/her delivery to match school language.
Home languages in this setting were valued, though students sometimes corrected each
other. The conversations fluctuated from questioning for clarity to deeper connections to
ourselves, other texts, and our world (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). Once an opportunity
was provided for a safe environment where judgment was not forefronted, then listening,
questioning, and knowing each other occurred. Students responded with honest sharing
and devoted listening.
Read alouds were typically teacher-selected texts, based on my years of teaching
and my study of children's literature. Sometimes children brought books from home, but I
was very particular about what was used during the read aloud session. Texts chosen for
read aloud were exemplars in children's literature. I tried to provide a well-rounded
selection and remain open to sharing some texts that might not be my personal favorites.
When Jayson brought Honey Baby, Sugar Child and requested that it be read, I had to
preview the book, considering its value to our class. Perhaps I should have begun by
asking Jayson what the value of the book was. He was pleased to bring this book in, as it
was a gift from his grandmother. After reading through the book, I decided the poetic text
was a good start to immersion into our poetry unit. When reading the book with the class,
I learned that this book reminded many of the children of some family member who
called them a sweet nickname, too. Conversations flowed as we talked about the text and
the storyline. I was reminded not to be a strict children's literature critic, at least without
first exploring the book that was presented by a student.

WritingIn and Out of the Workshop

Another permeable space was in writing, as I detailed in Chapter V, where
students' resources flowed through children's written pieces from their personal

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narratives to their choices for their non-fiction studies, as well as through their poetry
writing and exploration. Writing often provided a space for students to make connections
to their lives, applying their multiple resources.
When students' resources were involved, engagement and enactment were up,
which led to increased stamina and, thus, writing. This was documented in the examples
of Tali's story, "Toystore," and Jayson's two-part story about Dragonball Z. Tali's social
and literacy practice of map reading was encouraged by his mother's use of the city buses
and trains to get all across the city to visit family and friends. One of those experiences of
traveling about the city ended (or began) at the toystore. Tali had a lot of details to
present, and he did not hesitate to get them down on paper that day. Jayson opened a
space for himself with writing in school and at home. He wrote a story about
Dragonball Z. I asked if he would like to read it to the class and suggested that if he
edited the story and added some details, we would make some time. It was bribery,
knowing Jayson's entertainer identity. He went home, reworked his piece, and returned to
present it first thing the next morning. Because of the response of the class (lots of
laughter, a sign of engagement), Jayson went home that night and wrote part 2, which was
also shared out. Opening spaces to students' resources in both of these examples led to
increased student involvement, especially as writing was challenging to both of these
focal students.
Also documented with writing, there was space for Jayson's funds of knowledge.
His mom was a poet, so Jasira came to visit the class and share her knowledge about
poetry writing. It was Jayson who alerted me to the fact that his mom was a poet, telling
us that she even wrote poems about him. Jasira's visit infused the class with confidence,
as she repeatedly informed them that nobody tells you what to write and write from the
heart. She empowered the students with her message that their ideas were central. She
also inspired a young poet who used a poem that Jasira shared with us as her mentor text.
I did not have any idea how rich the experience of Jasira's visit would be. The children

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talked about her comments throughout our poetry study. Her presence remained, perhaps
because she was new to our classroom, a woman from the neighborhood, a poet, or
Jayson's mom. It was clear she had an impact on the students as writers.
Expanded Literacy Sessions
Three expanded literacy sessions were documented in Chapter V: The History
Club, Tongue Twister Mania, and WOYB (What's on Your Brain?). These spaces were
outside a regularly scheduled literacy session. The first two spaces were opened by
students, and WOYB was begun by me as a way of gaining more information about my
students' resources. WOYB became a rich and beloved classroom practice that I have
continued in my teaching.
The History Club was initiated by two students who wanted to study war. They had
discussed the topic and approached me to find room for it in the curriculum. We had
completed our official unit on non-fiction, where the study of war would have found
credence in the curriculum. The boys were persistent and repeatedly followed upon their
query: Is there space? I did not see room within the official curriculum, so I suggested
that they could take up their study of war during lunch in our classroom. I did not offer
my assistance, only to help find books for them to learn from. They were thrilled. And
when other students heard about the "deal," they wanted to participate, too. The History
Club had over ten members. Some days they chose the History Club over recess outside.
During the lunch periods, the students examined the books that had been borrowed from
the library. I chose the first set, and some students chose the second set. The children used
the many features of non-fiction to assist them in their studies, and they prepared a
graphic organizer to record their findings. After their fourth session, the members of the
History Club presented their findings to their classmates using their graphic organizers.
Their classmates questioned them and learned with them. This child-initiated space was
not difficult to support, as the students were very focused on their research.

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The tongue twister example of a space represented how a student brought his home
literacy practices to school. As I mentioned, there was a tongue twister book in our
classroom all year. No one picked it up for a long time. But after Jayson introduced
tongue twisters, including some of his personal favorites, that book was sought after.
Students took the book home and found a new tongue twister. For a month or so, each
week we had a new tongue twister to try. This space was opened by Jayson, but the time
in the school day was allowed by me, as teacher. The idea of "time" as a crucial element
flows through these spaces and will be addressed in the next section on teaching
decisions.
WOYB (What's On Your Brain?) provided an example of a space where students'
resources were expressed and became available for creating more spaces within the
curriculum. The talk of this space was valuable on many levels. Yet, I did feel the
pressure of curricular mandates, on some level, as evidenced when I struggled to find an
explanation for implementing WOYB, which was not part of the school's curricular
program. But WOYB was time spent talking about our thoughts, ideas, and lives that
enriched students' connections to the learning. Also, State Standards have become more
reflective of the importance of speech/talk components. Therefore, time to talk was easily
"explained" as a strong piece of the curriculum. But it was permeable curriculum because
it allowed the children the opportunity to infuse themselves, their resources, into the
learning place. In students' conversations and revisiting each other's comments, they
were making community and an environment that welcomed students to made
connections to each other. This was a space for culling ideas, but it was also a space
where students' resources were welcomed and honored. In this space, students got to
know each other more deeply and to work with each other, building that necessary, safe
environment.

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Talk, Language, and Learning in Spaces

Ultimately, these spaces were enhanced by talk, language, and learning (Vygotsky,
1978). "Classroom conversations matter and are key to the development of language and
thinking" (Buhrow & Upczak Garcia, 2006, p. 35). These authors also drew on Vygotsky
in their discussion of talk in the classroom, recognizing that "speech plays an essential
role in the organization of higher psychological functions" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 23). Talk
led to processing, and it built upon and into students' learning.
Through the opening of spaces, students were provided the opportunities to build
on each other's resources and learning. Moll and Greenberg drew on Vygotsky's (1978)
concept of the zone of proximal development where "learning awakens a variety of
internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is
interacting with people in his [her] environment and in cooperation with his peers"
(p. 90). These spaces spoke to the cooperation students made as well as the openness of
the spaces for students' autonomy of expression. For example, the founding members of
the History Club worked together to create a space for their interests, based on their
resources. That space was then structured by them for their purposes.
Revisiting the Variations of Hybrid Space
Three variations of hybrid space were presented in Chapter V. A space could act as
a bridge between a child's home and school. The second variation of hybrid space
suggested a border crossing where another space opened, recognizing the two Discourses
that influenced that third space. The third variation spoke to cultural, social, and
epistemological change, as multiple resources challenge and reshape home and school
resources (Moje et al., 2004). These three variations were represented across the data on
hybrid spaces in this study. Examples of exploring space as a bridge between home and
school were: Jayson's book from his grandmother, Tali's story about the toy store, and
tongue twister mania. In these examples, students brought their home resources to school,
where school picked up on the resources, bridging into school literacy. Examples of the

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second variation, where home and school resources met, mingled, and changed, included:
the read aloud of Angel Child, Dragon Child and Tali and Chino's poetry partnership.
These examples demonstrated spaces where students' home and school resources came
together and mingled but were changed for multiple purposes, some of which included
school literacy learning. The third variation spoke to spaces that opened to multiple
resources, which were virtually exploded, challenging and re-shaping the resources. The
read aloud of Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt was an example of this variation of
space because of the multiple resources from each person and the mixing of different
people's resources in this shared space that challenged our thinking and our
understandings. My notions of resources were expanded through that experience by
Calvin's father's conversations with his son on difficult topics and by the numerous
students who demonstrated Biblical resources. Another exploding space occurred with
Diamond's foster care writing piece. Multiple resources came from the author but from
the listeners as well. When Diamond read her story to the class, children responded with
their resources, changing many perspectives. The spaces opened in this study invited
students' resources into the school literacy learning. One hope was that spaces would
positively impact this classroom of learners. In most cases, it was clear that hybrid spaces
opened for bridging, changing, and exploding the resources of home and school, directed
most of the time toward learning.

Challenges in This Teaching

This dissertation represents my work of seeking students' resources and opening
hybrid spaces to enhance learning. I began with that goal in mind. What has been
presented in this paper demonstrated how it happened, where it happened, and what I did
to be open to and encourage it to happen. The examples presented were chosen to show
how and where students' resources could create spaces, impacting their school learning.

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Students' resources were not always recognized. Spaces were not always opened,
for various reasons. The work was not always easy. The resources were neither always
identifiable nor always utilized. At times, the research was exhausting and challenging.
Real issues affected this urban classroom. Even with my efforts to create an engaging,
culturally responsive classroom, there were behaviors that distracted learners,
disengagement from students who opted out of the activities, and frustration from
students who on some level or another were not having their personal needs met. There
were hard days. There were difficulties, but they did not outweigh the necessity of doing
this work. The spaces that were opened made room for welcoming the whole child.
Making Decisions, as Teacher. A regular part of this research, but teaching too, was
making decisions about the usage of time. One day in the hallway, Calvin said to me,
"Can I tell you something?" Briskly, I replied, "No," as I rushed off with the class to our
next destination. As much as I wanted to make time for and hear the students' input, it
was NOT always possible to listen to the stories, the connections, the resources. When
the story gate opened it, was like a flood and difficult to shut. Though I do regret the
sharp NO that I returned to Calvin that day, an awareness occurred that not every resource
can be welcomed by the teacher, mostly referring to the multitude of resources and the
limited amount of time. The reality was that the teacher had a lot of power in this study,
controlling what resources were recognized.
Power in the Classroom. Power issues were enacted in the classroom. Power was
generative or degenerative (McLaren, 1988) at times, even with a classroom environment
designed to acknowledge power issues. Whose power counts? I recognized that power
must be shared in the classroom. When provided with more power, children became more

a part of the school experience. However, there were still many controls that I, as teacher,
had in the classroom space. Overall, planning was one of my teaching responsibilities;
how much students were invited into that process depended not only on my philosophy
but my energy and stress levels. There were also, as mentioned, curricular demands set

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upon me, as teacher. Time became a constraint, as there was limited time to accomplish
the yearly goals. This often pushed me to exert more authority. For example, I took up
control of read alouds. Over the last few years, though, I have tried to open that practice
to more student choice. I have gotten better at not saying, "No," to books from home
though I still review them closely, seeking each book's possible contributions.
Throughout the writing of this paper, I hesitated to use the word ALLOW. The
connotation was that I, as teacher, had to provide permission for students to bring in their
resources and create spaces. I hesitated to use this word but have to embrace the reality of
the classroom, as situated. I did allow extended time for read alouds; I did allow students
to talk throughout their writing process; I did allow students to create spaces outside the
official literacy sessions of our school day.
Students were decision makers, too. They made choices to participate, withdraw, or
remain on the edge. Students chose to extend themselves into this work, or not. Students
had limited power, still constructed by the traditional structures that exist in our
classroom, such as a mass curriculum and even school cultural understandings of the
roles of teacher and student.
Recognizing All Resources. Conversations with two members of an informal
teachers' circle at school informed my thinking about students' resources. The first
occurred during a common preparation period with Ms. Khan, a third grade teacher and
classroom neighbor; we spoke about the resources children bring to schoolas well as
the ideas, beliefs, or practices that come into a school situation that may not be relevant or
appropriate to that setting. Not every resource has a connection or positive contribution to
classroom learning. Regarding understanding and utilizing students' resources, Ms. Khan
said, "It cannot be ignored. It's who they are." These resources are a part of who the
students were and must be recognized in the classroom. To ignore them would be to
question or disregard who they are as people. In our conversation, we were trying to gain
perspective on the thoughts of our students. Ms. Khan imagined one student's thinking,

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"There's nothing wrong with me because my dad's in prison." She recognized early in her
teaching career that the way to establish caring relationships with students was through
allowing students to bring themselves, their experiences, and their multiple resources into
their school learning.
Another conversation with a second third grade teacher and neighbor, Ms.
Toussaint, offered a powerful point of consideration on this idea of students' realities and
the resources that come from these experiences. She said, "Kids carry shame for their
parents." At first, this seemed in opposition to our co-worker's idea, but it was not. It
brought out another aspect of the resources reflected in this paper and in classrooms
across the country, particularly unconventional ones. Students take various approaches to
the stories of their lives. This makes it difficult to learn about the realities of children's
lives, as the students have been conditioned by their family or, perhaps, by society to be
quiet about issues that go outside the perceived norm (Jones, 2004; Skinner, 2006). A
question becomes: What is appropriate to bring to the classroom? Students have struggled
with determining what they should share and what they should not.

Summary of the Findings

Jayson, Calvin, Tali, and Diamond each brought their own multiple resources into
the classroom inclusive of funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) and Discourses (Gee,
1996). There were similarities in the focal students' documented resources. A
predominant category was social practices, which encompassed resources influenced by
their family members, extended family members, and friends (Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines,
1988; Compton-Lilly, 2003). Each focal child brought their identities into the research;
some aspects of the students' identities were noted in the data as resources. Then I
documented the way that larger community influences acted as a resource. This aspect
was frequently explored through popular culture (Dyson, 2001a, 2001b, 2003; Norton,

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2005; Skinner, 2006). By exploring students' social, cultural, and literacy practices, I was
able to recognize and identify a number of the resources these four focal students brought
into school.
Family member collaboration was a key component of this study, seeking links
between home and school (Heath, 1983; Paradore et al., 1994; Handel, 1999) and
building on families strengthens (Brenner et al., 2003; Compton-Lilly, 2003). Family
members gave their time, but recognizing in advance that collaboration between home
and school would have positive effects on their child. The community that evolved out of
our family member meetings supported the members of the collaborative in multiple ways
through a death in the family, to a friendship, and through parenting concerns. Although
this component was organized to understand students' resources more fully, which it did
accomplish, this group became a community of support for each other, as well as for the
children.
While exploring students' resources, hybrid spaces (Moje, 2004) that were opened
or created from these resources were documented. The research was planned to explore
literacy learning in the classroom through the scheme of 'resources building spaces'.
Three literacy areas had regularly occurring spaces or opportunities for children to bring
in their resources, creating hybrid spaces that were multifaceted. During read alouds,
writing sessions, and "expanding literacy sessions" (which were usually outside the
official, school literacy curriculum), hybrid spaces were regularly occurring. One reason
hybrid spaces occurred in these places was because each allowed for conversation
wherein students made multiple connections and had opportunities to express multiple
resources in a variety of ways. These literacy areas also encouraged partnerships and
small group engagement, which provided opportunities to observe students' resources,
again building on talk.
The hybrid spaces that were opened supplied students with a way into deeper
engagement with school literacy learning. Two examples came from Chapter IV. Jayson's

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entertainer identity resource enabled him to have some performance time before an
audience (the class) and gave him impetus to push his writing, a school literacy
expectation. Another example was from Tali's use of play during the poetry partner
performances. Play may have been perceived as a distraction to school learning but was
the hook to encourage Tali to engage more deeply with words in a school literacy fashion.
By recognizing students' multiple resources and attempting to open up the possibilities of
hybrid spaces in the classroom children's lived lives influenced the curriculum and
teaching in the classroom as well as the learning. This had an impact on students'
understandings of what it meant to "do school."

Implications for Practice and Research

The following section discusses some of the implications of this study. First, I
detail the implications for practice, as practitioners have the potential to take up this work
in the learning environments in which they work. Then I explore the implications for
future research.
Implications for Practice
Out of this study, engagement or fun in learning is embraced for the classroom
environment, shared power in decision making in the classroom is noted, and the teacher
becomes viewed as an agent of change. A key to this work is the importance of pulling
children into the learning process, as experienced in a school setting. One study on
hybridity that I leaned upon was Gutierrez et al. (1999) where the researchers explored
student engagement in an after-school computer program, focusing on language and
literacy, finding that a fun and playful environment made a difference for the learners.
However, this work should not only occur within after-school programs, but throughout
the school day.

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Engagement within the learning environment is important to motivation (Henry,

1996; Willis, 1995). I would venture to use the word "fun." School should be funin the
sense of engagement. School should link the learner to the learning. Learning as fun was
a lesson my father taught me, one of my own Discourses around education. Some adults
prefer the word "rigor" to "fun" when discussing the classroom. I believe that we can
encourage both. Throughout this study, students engaged more deeply when they felt
themselves a part of the planning and learning process. This was strongly noted with the
History Club, where students took up the decision making and planning of their studies,
using their resources to strengthen academic learning.
Doing the work that this resources model necessitates impacts teacher practice
(Henry, 1996; Lewison, Seely Flint, Van Sluys, & Henkin; 2002), as it necessitates an
extended manner of knowing one's students and of planning curriculum. "Teachers must
take an inquiry stance when engaging the everyday as critical literacies curriculum"
(Dixon Taylor, 2006, p. 277). Through inquiry, teachers learn from their students as much
as teach them. Through our involvement with getting to know students' resources, there
is a shift in the practice of teaching away from rote and reductionism to a broadening that
encompasses our students' resources, leading to a more permeable, welcoming classroom.
Teachers must begin looking to understand and use students' resources; in order to
improve our abilities to see and identify these resources, practice is necessary (Vasquez,
2005). Throughout this research, the more I delved into looking for and identifying
students' multiple resources, the easier it became. Because each child is different, it was
important to remain open to seeing and hearing. "But observation alone is not enough.
We have to understand the significance of what we see, hear, and touch" (Dewey, 1938,

p. 68) as researchers. Connections to the students' experiences and resources were made
through this study by connecting with family members. This practice enriched the
findings through family members' multiple perspectives.

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To begin, teachers could start small, choosing one way of making space for
students' resources, something obvious and easy to the individual. Read aloud and
writing lessons were two places that students' resources came into the learning without
difficulty. In read aloud, the learner was encouraged to make connections to text, self, and
world, bringing their experiences into the experience. In writing, particular genres of
writing encouraged these resource connections. Personal narrative invited the students'
experiences and thus resources directly, but a teacher can fully invite students' resources
or discourage students' experiences. Our non-fiction study allowed students to choose a
topic of interest to them for deeper study, demonstrating how our interests can be
explored through research; students loved their topics because they were connected to
them through experience and/or desire. As I became comfortable with this resource
model, the teaching stretched to create an environment that has a variety of ways to tap
students' resources.
Another implication of this work revolves around the relationships between family
members and teachers. By inviting family members into school learning in new ways, not
only was a community formed around the activities within the classroom, but also the
participants were involved in and out of school. How did my practices of relating to
family members change through this work? Parent-Teacher Conferences were a major
means of family interaction, as they took place three times throughout the school year.
Most Parent Teacher Conferences have a structure where the teacher does the talking and
family members listen. The format of my family conferences has changed over the years
that I have been engaging with the ideas reflected in this study. Originally, the
conferences were teacher directed and report card connected. The conversation would be

around the academic and social progression of the student. I would talk for much of the
conference and at the end I would ask the family members if they had any questions.
These conferences changed. Parent Teacher Conferences changed to replicate
similar conversations that occurred in the collaborative and individual meetings that

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occurred throughout this study. Now, the conferences are more grounded in conversations
rather than lecture. A large piece of learning for me has been the importance of listening.
I ask questions and listen to what family members have to teach me about the student,
often finding that family members can teacher me a thing or two. I still try to provide a
picture of the child as student in school though I have expanded my understandings of
what that image might be. I was recognizing more and more that family members were
the experts regarding the learners and that I had a lot to learn from them regarding how I
go about planning for my class. The implications for teachers became how do we listen to
family members to learn as much as we can to help us develop curriculum and teaching
that engages students with their lived lives.
Implications for Future Research
Four implications for continuing research were raised by this research. First, there
is a need for continued studies of students and their resources in varied settings. Second,
university connections with classroom teachers would provide enriched conversations
around students' resources and hybrid spaces. Third, other content areas beside literacy
need exploration into how students' resources impact those studies, too. Fourth, the
approach to the examination of data could have been varied to highlight particular
theoretical frames.
Does it matter that the students in this study were African American? Of course, to
the context of this study, it did. The children in this classroom were, in the majority,
African American. However, other examples of teaching across difference need to be
explored. This study is one example of teacher research that seeks to record the learning
of one teacher, a White woman teaching African American students. But more studies
that explore other experiences of teaching across differences would add to the body of
knowledge that is growing. More teachers need to take up the exercise of seeking
understanding of their students' resources. Teachers working in classrooms that reflect

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students' funds of knowledge, resources, or Discourses could impact theory and practice
by documenting how the negotiation is taken up in various classroom environments. This
would provide further groundwork for other teachers who want to take up this work.
Making connections between urban teachers and teachers' colleges to further these
kinds of studies was explored in the work of Gonzalez et al. (2005), providing examples
of university academics working with school teachers and teachers who are preparing to
teach in urban schools. In these works, the teachers were exploring how to learn about
their students, and academics were observing teachers to see where it happened and how
it was enacted. Studies that further examine where teachers let children into the process
of identifying and utilizing resources would also expand our understandings of this work.
Hybrid spaces were obvious in particular areas of the learning. A few of the spaces
where permeable curriculum opened for students' resources were: read alouds, writing,
and the extra places the students and I developed, such as What's On Your Brain? and the
History Club. Another facet of exploration would be to see how students' resources come
through in math, science, reading, and social studies. I had already come to know that
students' resources were already present in these spaces, but to find intentional utilization
of the resources and bring them forth, to document them and share them, would add to the
body of knowledge regarding resources and hybrid spaces.
Another implication to future research comes from the approach to the data
collection and analysis. I could have taken a variety of approaches to this research. One
reason I set out to do this study was that I saw some children who were not making
connections to school learning, in the more traditional classroom in which I used to teach.
Those classrooms do not have enough "give" or spaces for children and their resources.
Part of my purpose throughout this study has been to find ways to engage children more
deeply in school learning, by making connections and bringing themselves (their
resources) into the space of school as well as into school learning. This research would
have been different if I had taken up a different approach.

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One example of another approach could have been borrowed from Jones and
Clarke (2007) who critique the practice of using the reading comprehension strategy of
making connections (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). These authors state, "The practice of
complicating connection-making grounded in similarities across a self and a text is not
something that we believe will automatically lead to deep critical engagement, the
recognition of inequitable structures, or the action needed for social justice" (pp.11-12).
Jones and Clarke suggest that encouraging students to recognize and identify
disconnections is one way "students [can] be more engaged citizens as they think and talk
deeply about nuanced issues that are not common in their own worlds" (p. 111). This
thinking introduced a spectrum considering concepts around connection-making,
including the ways students may not make connections to texts. Jones and Clarke's work
would provide a method of examining practices in the classroom with a critical literacy
lens throughout the data analysis, versus just simply having that lens as the teacherresearcher designing the study (and the curricular work in the classroom). I hesitate at the
authors' definition of connections as representing similarities. A connection to me is a
linking or joining of two or more parts, things, or people- an association, where the
constructs are not considered the same, necessarily. Jones and Clarke spoke to seeking
entry points, which I believe is the purpose of connections. This work would have been
different if I had explored the spectrum of connections, inclusive of disconnections.

Reflections on the Research Process

Teachers have encountered a number of obstacles that impinge on the
implementation of field research. Time constraints are often a cited difficulty (Gonzalez
et al., 2005) for why teachers do not have time to document and record data during the
active school day. This, coupled with curricular restraints, could have inhibited the work
of this study. Since I was working to document students' resources and the enacted hybrid

247

spaces for my doctoral dissertation, I was perhaps more flexible and persistent to work
around the constraints of time and curricula than a regular classroom teacher would be,
given all the work of being an elementary classroom teacher. One example of this
flexibility was the extension of time for the class read aloud. Read aloud was supposed to
be around 20 minutes. I purposefully extended our read aloud to incorporate the rich
conversations where students shared their resources in stories and connections, which
sometimes influenced the learning and always influenced the space. As I watched my
students take up the work themselves of listening and connecting, I realized that my job
of seeing resources became easier the more students were invited into the processes and
learning in the classroom.
There were stages of comfort in doing this work. At the beginning, I was unsure;
wondering: Is what I am seeing a resource? I often questioned my findings and sought a
colleague to discuss the possibilities with. In the middle of the study, I queried whether I
was seeing enough. This is the point where I added What's On Your Brain? to glean more
about each child, as I was concerned that I would not have enough data regarding
students' resources. Although it was noticed later that obtaining data would not be an
issue, WOYB became a class favorite because of the social practices, including getting to
know each other more deeply from our sharing. In the end, I realized that the whole
process counted as learning about resources in its ebb and flow, in stages of comfort and
discomfort.
Although it was sometimes hard to keep up the energy for a full-year study, in the
end, I am grateful for my advisor's insistence to develop a year-long study. Having a
school year allowed me time and opportunity throughout the phases to examine and
tighten my methodology and my approach to the research. Having a few months at the
beginning of the year to watch for focal students also gave me the chance to work on my
definitions of resources, which, of course, grew throughout the study. Also, there was a
point in March when the family member component was going strong but was interrupted

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by life events (a death in one family and a new job in another), which jolted our meeting
schedule. Thankfully, all the family members were committed to getting back together for
our collaborative meetings. Because of the year-long nature of the study, there was no
press (or stress) for time.
Finally, this study was conducted by a classroom teacher within the school day.
Projects involving students' resources were often relegated to after-school, special
groups, or summer programs (Gutierrez et al., 1999; Schultz & Hull, 2002). More work
like this occurring within classrooms would add a fuller picture. For instance, it would be
powerful to see how this research would be taken up by a cohort of teachers in the same
school. What would be the impact on students, especially over time? How would the
collaboration strengthen the permeability of the curriculum? This study demonstrated that
the work of welcoming students can be accomplished in classroom environments,
welcoming students' resources into school learning for the benefit of learning more
deeply about their world (Freire, 1973; Freire & Macedo, 1987).

Critique of the Study

Early in the formation of this study, I read a passage that suggested that a teacher's
first research project should never occur within her own classroom, due to the difficult
balancing of the roles of teacher and researcher. The role of teacher necessitated planning
activities for students' learning, with awareness of curricular demands and State
standards. This planning occurred on a long-term, weekly, and daily basis across the
various content areas: reading, word work, writing, math, social studies, and science. My
role as teacher demanded awareness of students' emotional, social, and educational
needs, as well as addressing these needs. The role of researcher, once the study was
planned, required observing, recording, and analyzing data, and readjusting this work as
the phases of the study cycled. The balance between the roles of teacher and researcher

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was at times a struggle. For example, I had to take some time for fieldnotes and not miss
the teachable moment. I attempted to remain focused on the educational issues for my
students while recognizing the resources and spaces that were occurring within the
learning, hoping not to miss an opportunity to become aware of something new. These
two roles vied for my time, and although each role enriched the other in various ways,
there were complexities to performing both roles at once.
For this reason, I wondered what this study would have looked like in another
classroom, outside of my own. The pressure to meet the demands of being a teacher
would not have been present, and perhaps I could have looked more deeply or
thoughtfully at students' resources as enacted in another classroom, without the
responsibilities of the role of teacher. As a researcher in another class, I would have been
able to concentrate on watching students with one focus, the research focus. Another
benefit from this position as researcher would have been the ability to use the classroom
teacher as another contributor in documenting students' resources and hybrid spaces. The
classroom teacher could provide her insights and discuss the data collaboratively, adding
another perspective and more understanding.
One aspect I would change in this study was being the only researcher. Like the
teachers and researchers who wrote The Funds of Knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2005), I
would establish a circle of people who were focusing on students' resources and hybrid
spaces. A group of classroom teachers and university academics with a background in the
funds of knowledge approach, Gee's Discourse, and/or critical literacy would have
provided more insights into students' resources and the resulting hybrid spaces. This
study was limited by the planning of one person. There was only one understanding of the

theory, one perception of what was occurring regarding resources and spaces, and one
interpretation of the data analysis. Moll and Greenberg's study and the book, The Funds
of Knowledge, are two examples of collaborative research projects. These examples
include planning teams that provided more voices in the planning stages and throughout

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the data analysis. A group of researchers with a similar focus could have built on each
other's findings, expanding the possibilities. Labeling and digesting students' resources
was complicated work; a cohort working together to balance and recognize the
possibilities could have added dimensions to the work detailed here.

Concluding Thoughts
The title of this dissertation denotes that there are multiple paths to literacy that are
taken up as students' multiple social, cultural, and literacy resources are embraced. Like a
map with many routes to the same destination, we must realize that children will not all
travel on the same path to their personal literacy destination. In the end, the work of
recognizing students' resources and opening and sustaining hybrid spaces is dependent on
how teachers, students, and family members take up the joint efforts of communicating
and create permeable and shared learning spaces. Three important facets of this type of
teaching suggest that, first, the learner must become aware of the power relations that
affect them in the classroom and in society; then, the teacher and student must be working
together toward collaborative pedagogies; and finally, students must have an opportunity
to use their own reality, their world, in their learning (McLaren, 1988). These ideas come
out of the critical literacy concepts detailed in the theoretical framework, but they also
come alive in classrooms, like this one, that seek to recognize, honor, and utilize
students' resources in their multiple forms.
In the end, what do I hope will come from this work? I do hope for change. Change
in classrooms: classrooms where children are more central to the curricular decisions.
Hope is radical. Sometimes, this work seems daunting. How will it be taken up in enough
classrooms, where more children can have this personalized engagement and
involvement? When discussing the prospects of this work, on a day that I questioned if it
mattered or could have an impact, a co-worker reminded me: "Your small ways become

251
big ways or even a whole way of..." teaching with awareness of students' resources and
hybrid spaces in the classroom. We just begin.

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Appendix A
Protocol for the Initial Interview with Individual Family Members
I explained to family members that the information that they share with me offered a
greater picture of the ways their child learns and what their child brings into their school
learning. I shared my hope to find ways to build connections between the learning
children do at home with the learning that they do in school. In understanding children
more deeply, I hoped to discover links between home and school learning.
I reviewed with each family member individually the components of the study,
especially in regards to the expectations of the focal children and their family members.
That is: the children were observed in class with fieldnotes taken and also audiotaping on
a regular basis. I followed up observations with questions to the child whenever a
question arises. There were to be three collaborative family member meetings where the
four focal students' family members were asked to join together with me for
conversations around the children's learning and things we are noticing as the research
continues. These meetings were opportunities for all of us to ask, discuss, and possibly
answer questions that arise for us. Also, I asked each family member to meet with me
individually, as experts, when the observations began, to help unpack the data.
For this initial interview, I was particularly interested in getting to know the family and
the ways that literacy impacted their lives through informal conversations. Having had
some talk around literacy and how we define it, I sought family members' ideas about
literacy usage. So some of the probing questions consisted of:
Tell me about your family. Who lives with you?
What do you notice your child doing at home?
What are some of your child's favorite activities?
What are some things your child is good at?
What kinds of things are your child expected to do at home?
(Explore responses relating to literacy.)
Further questions:
How do you see your child using language at home?
(Verbal, written, drawn, acted...)
Does your family have any regular and/or special activities you do?
(Seek elaboration on literacy related events.)
Is your family involved in any community activites?
Can you think of activities outside your home where your child uses words/talk in
interesting ways? (Stress that TALK is a valid component.)
Regarding school:
What are your thoughts on your child's school learning thus far?
What has been good about it? What has not been good?
What are your hopes for your child this year in school?

264
Appendix B
Themes for Collaborative Family Member Meetings

Three meetings with the four focal students' family members are planned. By
bringing together these family members and myself, as researcher, I hope to gain multiple
perspectives on the data that we uncover in family interviews and watch for patterns
across the experiences of participants. These thoughts on these collaborative meetings are
only sketched as it is my desire to keep these meetings flexible and open. Although I will
have some ideas for structuring these meetings, I want the family members to have a say
regarding the directions our discussions take.

First Collaborative Meeting- introduction of study Discussion around the purpose of school- resource discussion
What do you want your child to gain from school?
What knowledge and ways of interacting and learning do your children bring to
school? (Where do they come from? Who and what are children influenced by?
What should I be looking for in the classroom?)
Midpoint Meeting[Classroom examples and students' artifacts will be presented at this meeting.]
What do we see children doing? What do family members see and hear at
home? What do they hear about and see from school? What are we noticing
about how children learn in school? Are they able to bring in their resources?
Does this seem to be helpful?
What resources are noticed? What are we learning? Do we see any connections
between home and school?

265
Concluding Collaborative Meeting Repeating some questions from the midpoint meeting.
Have the students changed? How? Does home/school look the same/different?
Are there any home-school bridges coming to the forefront? What do family
members think of the ways that the students and the teacher have tried to make
space for the students' resources?
What are we learning? What are we noticing through our discussion and
research together? What does this type of learning do for children? The
classroom? The community?

266
Appendix C
Letter of Informed Consent for Focal Students

Dear

I am writing this letter to request your permission to include

in a research project that I am working on during this academic school year, 2006-2007.
There are a few reasons that I am doing this research study. First, I am going to try
to learn more about the social, cultural, and literacy resources that children bring with
them from home to school. I will watch the children in school and learn more about what
they do at home, with the help of a family member. With this help, I am going to study
how students' use their resources in the classroom toward school learning. Secondly, I am
watching for the spaces that are opened in the classroom for children to bring their
personal resources into their school learning.
This study begins in January and continues through June. I am requesting your
permission to have
participate in this study as one of four focal students. I
will observe focal students in their regular participation in the classroom. I plan to
audiotape observations in class and individual, follow-up conversations with focal
students. I want to collect copies of work your child creates, as it connects to my research.
The information collected in this research study will be used to complete my
doctoral dissertation at Teachers College, Columbia University. It is possible that the
information will be published in a professional journal or book, or presented at a
professional conference. Ultimately, the information gathered will inform me as a teacher
and help to better my craft- my teaching. Hopefully this will benefit all our children.
The participation of your child is voluntary; it is not a paid position. All
information that is collected through your joint participation will stay confidential. Names
of the people involved in this study will be changed to protect privacy. Audiotapes, which
will help me revisit some of our conversations, will be kept safely in my personal files. If
you need to, you can withdraw from the study at any time.
Please talk to me if you have any questions.
Thank you for your consideration, Mollie Welsh Kruger
I have reviewed this letter and consent to my child's participation.
Adult's Name
Child's Name
Signature
Date

Appendix D
Letter of Informed Consent for Adult Family Members' Participation
Dear

I am Mollie Welsh Kruger, your child's second grade teacher and a doctoral student at
Teachers College, Columbia University. I am writing this letter to request your
permission to include you in a research project that I am working on during this academic
school year, 2006-2007.
There are a few reasons that I am doing this research study. First, I am going to try
to learn more about the social, cultural, and literacy resources that children bring with
them to school from home. I will watch the children in school and learn more about what
they do at home through your help. I am going to study how students' use their resources
in the classroom toward school learning. Secondly, I am watching for the spaces that are
opened in the classroom for children to bring their home resources into their school
learning.
This study begins in January and continues through June. I have also asked for
your permission to observe, audiotape, and collect work from
in the
classroom. But I am also requesting your help in this project. Family members need to
commit to three collaborative meetings during the school year, at the beginning, in the
middle, and at the end of the study. Also, I intend to keep in close contact with family
members, as your input will greatly increase my understandings of the child's learning
that entails at least three informal conversations about your child and the resources your
child brings into school learning.
The information collected in this research study will be used to complete my
doctoral dissertation. It is possible that the information will be published in a professional
journal or book, or presented at a professional conference. Ultimately, the information
gathered will inform me as a teacher and help to better my craft- my teaching. Hopefully
this information will benefit many children.
The participation of you and your child is voluntary; it is not a paid position.
Names of the people involved in this study will be changed to protect privacy.
Audiotapes, which will help me revisit some of our conversations, will be kept in my
personal files. If you need to, you can withdraw from the study at any time.
Please talk to me if you have any questions.
Thank you for your consideration, Mollie Welsh Kruger
I have reviewed this letter and give consent for my participation.
Adult's Name
Child's Name
Signature

Date

268
Appendix E
Letter of Informed Consent for Non-Focal Students

Dear Family Member,

I am writing this letter to request your permission to include your child in a
research project that I am working on during this academic school year, 2006-2007.
There are a few reasons that I am doing this research study. First, I am going to try to
learn more about the social, cultural, and literacy resources that children bring with them
to school from home. I will watch the children in school to see what resources they are
using and how they use them. I am going to study how students' use their home
resources in the classroom toward school learning. Secondly, I am watching for the
spaces that are opened in the classroom for children to bring their home resources into
their school learning.
The children are being watched within our regular school day and during their
regular literacy learning. I am requesting your permission to observe, audiotape, and
collect work from your child in the classroom from January to June. The information
collected in this research study will be used to complete my doctoral dissertation at
Teachers College, Columbia University. It is possible that the information will be
published in a professional journal or book, or presented at a professional conference.
Ultimately, the information gathered will inform me as a teacher and help to better my
craft- my teaching. Hopefully this will benefit many children.
Names of the people involved in this study will be changed to protect privacy.
Audiotapes, which will help me revisit some of our conversations, will be kept in my
personal files. If you need to, you can withdraw from the study at any time.
Please talk to me if you have any questions.
Thank you for your consideration, Mollie Welsh Kruger

I have reviewed this letter and consent to participation for my child.

Adult's Name
Child's Name
Signature
Date

Appendix F
A "Start List" of Codes

While examining the multiple resources that children bring into their school learning,
some of the beginning codes may be:
MR for Multiple Resources
FR for family resources
SB for sibling resource
EX for extended family
C for community
CH for church
PC for popular culture resources
P for power issues
L for interesting language occurrences
SL for school literacy resources.

Regarding the hybrid spaces created in the classroom setting, the codes may begin with
SC for student created
TC for teacher created
O for organic

Appendix G
Class List
Table : Gender, ethnicity, and age related information of the second grade class
Roster: 20 students
Name

Ethnicity

Gender

Age Related Info.*

Maya

African American

Eliza

African American

Donald

African American

Christy

African American

Tomas

Hispanic

Alejandro

Hispanic

Francisco

Hispanic

Fabian

African American

Samuel

Vietnamese/Hispanic

Chino

Hispanic

Calvin

African American/Hispanic

Kahilil

African American

Derrick

Hispanic

Jayson

African American

Ashley

African American

Tali

African American

Sparkle

African American

Repeating 2nd grade

Tywana

African American

Repeating 2nd grade

Diamond

African American

Repeating 2nd grade

Jermaine

African American

* All children without comment on age were 7 years old.

Each boldfaced entry denotes a "focus child."
(Compton-Lilly, 2003)

Repeating 2nd grade

271
Appendix H
Funds of Knowledge: Seeking Clarifications
Here are some of the definitions offunds of knowledge as I found them in Funds of
Knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2005).
"As emphasized throughout this book, funds of knowledge are generated through the
social and labor history of families and communicated to others through the activities that
constitute household life, including the formation of social networks that are central to
any household's functioning within its particular environments." Page 18
"The funds of knowledge of a community are not a laundry list of immutable cultural
traits, but rather are historically contingent, emergent within relations of power, and not
necessarily equally distributed." Page 25
"Our position is that public schools often ignore the strategic and cultural resources,
which we have termed funds of knowledge, that households contain. " Page 47
"Significantly, nevertheless, funds of knowledge do become part of implicit operational
and cultural systems of daily life. Friends and kin often provide a safety net and
substantial aid in time of crisis...." Page 58
"The primary purpose of this work is to develop innovations in teaching that draw on the
knowledge and skills found in local households. Our claim is that by capitalizing on
household and other community resources, we can organize classroom instruction that far
exceeds in quality the rote-like instruction these children commonly encounter in schools
(see e.g., Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Moll & Diaz, 1987)" Page 71
"We use the term funds of knowledge to refer to these historically accumulated and
culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual
functioning and well-being (Greenberg, 1989; Tapia, 1991...)" Page 72
"It is precisely through information of these kinds of social activities that we identify
funds of knowledge that can be used in the classroom to help improve his academic
development." Page 80
"Although the term, funds of knowledge is not meant to replace the anthropological
concept of culture, it is more precise for our purposes because of its emphasis on strategic
knowledge and related activities essential in households' functioning, development, and
well-being." Page 85
"In this chapter, we described a very different type of household visit by teachers. These
research visits, for the express purpose of identifying and documenting knowledge that
exists in students' homes." Page 89

272
"Funds of knowledge refers to those historically developed and accumulated strategies
(skills, abilities, ideas, practices) or bodies of knowledge that are essential to a
household's functioning and well-being.. .A key finding from our research is that thee
funds of knowledge are abundant and diverse...." Page 92
"The theoretical concept of funds of knowledge provided a new perspective for the study
of households as dynamic settings with abundant social and intellectual resources."
Page 109
"Students' domains of knowledge evidenced in the homes about such subjects as farm
animals, pets, plants, and bicycles can be elaborated on and shared with others in school.
Parents' domains of knowledge, such as knowledge of household repairs, construction,
tile work, auto mechanics, and international trade can be developed into hands-on school
activities on measurement, money, mathematics, and electricity." Page 125
"...interests and talents of their parents and grandparents" Page 149 (Section on what
teachers can do to discover the funds of knowledge of their students' families)
"Initial analysis revealed through life experiences and accessible through family and
friends, income-producing activities, and connections with institutions such as schools
and churches." Page 234
"We have long been aware that a funds of knowledge analysis, depending as it does on
interviews with adults and participant observations in households, may inform us about
adults and their social worlds but not necessarily about their children." Page 278

273
Appendix I
Jayson's Resource Chart
Key Word

Summary Story/ies

Mom
*Open talk
*POET
* Faith

Jayson's Mom in
individual &
collaborative
conversations;
Jayson's questions
and comments in
class
Jayson's writing; talk
Role
with mom and with
model/playmate
Jayson
Mom/individual
Lots of play infused
in his storytelling
conversation.
Jayson interplay talk
Jayson's stories
Jayson's comments
written and spoken in
in class around
class; mom's talk on
friends, his striving
to get and keep; tears his desire for friends
and ease in making
over 'not having'
them
He likes to laugh and Observations which
led to talk with
hear others laugh
Jayson's Mom;
too- yet he's NOT
students reactions to
like a total class
him as an entertainer
clown?!?!
Flash; poising/sixObservations; talk
pack
with and his mom

Uncle

Cousins

Friends

Entertainer

Kinetic/
Movement

Popular
Culture

Access to Knowing

'I'll tell him

anything and he
knows it'/ her usage
of words/language

Dragonball Z story;
wrestling
(WWF);games

TM for teamwork
P for power
MR for multiple resources
FR for family resources

Writing; Jayson's talk

in class

RESOURCE CODES
PC for popular culture
R for religion
SL for school literacy

Resource
Code
FR
L
R
P

Literacy Practice
Attached
Conversations/TALK
Knowing contexts
Word play (Tongue
Twisters)

FR
EX
C
EX
L

Writing
Storytelling

C
F
P

Choosing words and

ways of
communicating
Negotiating
relationships

MR
FR
L
P
F
PC
C
F
P

Knowing audience
Appropriate word
choice
Performance skills

PC
C
F
L

Writing
Audience awareness
Performance reading

Conversations
Knowing contexts

Planning a dance;
Exercise connection to
his poem on exercise

F for friendship
L for language occurrences
EX for extended family
C for community

274
Appendix J
Calvin's Resource Chart
Key Word(s)
Tight Knit
Family

Summary
Story(ies)
Mom's past;
extended
family close

Dedication
Valued

Mom as
security
guard/Dad
with UPS

Mom's
expectations
and devotion

Mom speaks
her
expectations
for Calvin's
future; she
works nights
but still attends
trip and every
function at
school
Calvin's dad
served in the
Navy and
traveled
around the
world; he
shares stories
and artifacts
from this
experience
with his son,
purposefully to
impart
knowledge
about LIFE.

Navy/the
world &
Family legacy
through
Dad's stories

Access to
Knowing
Mom in
conversations;
Calvin in class
(writing and
speaking)
Parents sharing
in
conversations
early in the
year &
throughout the
study
Mom's talk;
teacher then
asking. I bring
up to her: How
do you do it?
(How couldn't
I seems to be
the response)

Resource
Code
FR
EX
R
TM

Calvin's cites
his dad's
stories
constantly in
class; mom
spoke in collab
and indiv. (I
questioned)
HW - list of
countries!

FR
C

FR
C

Literacy Practices Attached

-Social sharing/speaking

-Planning/scheduling
-Reading

FR

-Talk around shared

experiences
-Research about our class trips
online
(Emotional support-emotional
resource)

-talk
-listening
-connecting to other texts, self,
world
"I'm making a connection..."
Calvin;s refrain!!!

275

Key Word(s)
Old Man

Songs

SpongeBob;
toys

Summary
Story(ies)
This is a
culture in
itself. Calvin is
the good boy'wise beyond
his years'.

Mother's Day
"They sang to
me."
Calvin's
poems on rap;
singing with
his TV shows
Calvin talks
about playing
with the toys.
He makes them
talk. I said like
a playwrightchild enjoyed
the
comparison!

TM for teamwork
P for power
MR for multiple resources
FR for family resources

Resource
Access to
Code
Knowing
SL
All three moms
had comments
C
about this
child;
observations in
class; students'
responses to
him as well.
Mom afterCP
C
school; writer's
FR
notebook; mom
in individual
conversations.

Calvin's
individual
informal
conversations

RESOURCE CODES
PC for popular culture
R for religion
SL for school literacy

PC

Literacy Practices Attached

-asking 'deep' questions
-thinking through information

Lyrics
speaking/performance
'working words'

-Organizing stories
-Creating dialogue

F for friendship
L for language occurrences
EX for extended family
C for community

276
Appendix K
Tali's Resource Chart
Key Word
Mom's
work/school/home
experience

Mom's
expectations

godfather

dinosaurs

games

Maps

Summary
Story(ies)
Mom enjoyed
her experience
working for the
Japanese bank;
mom writing
papers for
school; mom
talks of family
"Oh, no. Oh, no",
as his mother
examined Tali's
notebooks in his
desk.
Mets game

Access to
Knowing
Jess spoke these
experiences of
hers which seem
to impact her
son,
purposefully; I
asked Tali about
mom's schooling
Mom in
meetings; Tali's
response

Tali talks about;

Mom informed
me too
-notebook
The books that
work for Tali- his -reading
non-fiction topic folder/log
WOYB,
talk of video
notebook
games (solo and
(writing song
with friends)
from one game)
Tali's on fire for AM session; talk
maps
with Jess

TM for teamwork
P for power
MR for multiple resources
FR for family resources

RESOURCE CODES
PC for popular culture
R for religion
SL for school literacy

Resource
Code
FR
SL
EX
C

FR
SL

Literacy Practices
Attached
Academic paper
writing (deadlines,
expectations)
Use of computer
Multiple lit. practices
from the work world
(and social practices
too)
Writing
Reading
Speaking

EX
C

Reading maps
Conversation

PC

Reading
Writing
-sharing ideas
-writing
-creating, crafting
stories...

PC
F
C
SL
C

-reading names

F for friendship
L for language occurrences
EX for extended family
C for community

277
Appendix L
Diamond's Resource Chart
Key Word
Foster kid

Photos & Letters

(as connected to her
mom & dad)

Denise

Organization/effort

Friendship

Summary
Story(ies)
Story writing and
sharing out

Access to
Knowing
All over her
writing
notebooks and
writing in
general; foster
mom's info
Missing her
Diamond's
parents and
writing and
keeping them
talk;
close; celebrating photographs
her brother (and
brought to
NOT)
school
Start to end- foster Conversations
with Denise;
mom determined
preparation of
for her success
child (HW,
materials)
Cleaning
Noticed in
observations;
stories/teamwork
Diamond talks
at home
about it
Girls at lunch
Observations

TM for teamwork
P for power
MR for multiple resources
FR for family resources

RESOURCE CODES
PC for popular culture
R for religion
SL for school literacy

Research
Codes
FR
C

FR

EX
C

Literacy Practices
-written word to
communicate an
idea, a personal
sharing/narrative

-Letter writing
-Verbal artifact
sharing
-Connections to
texts shared in
class
-Finding tutors
through foster
care system
-Detailing
homework

EX
MR
TM
TM
F

Speaking

F for friendship
L for language occurrences
EX for extended family
C for community