Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dong R
Dong R
By
RONGRONG DONG
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2018
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© 2018 Rongrong Dong
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To my beloved families and friends
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Dr. Danling Fu for being such a great mentor to me. She is always
supporting and encouraging me academically and emotionally. She is the one who
brings the joy in reading and writing back to me again. I will never forget how much I
enjoyed her classes and how she helped me construct my writer’s identity step by
I also thank Dr. Elizabeth Bondy, who teaches me to look at the world with a
critical perspective and be aware of my own identity “bubbles”. I thank Dr. Angela
Kohnen for being a great supervisor to me. I really appreciate her for preparing me
well teaching one of the undergraduate courses in the program. I send my sincere
gratitude to Dr. Ying Xiao, who gives me great support and comfort during my
I thank my families and friends for their support and understanding during my
parents, who love me so much and are always there for me. I would like to thank my
friends in both U.S. and China. Han, Min, Hao, Xiaoqian, He, Ying, Chen, Buyi,
Xuezi, and Rui. They all give me great comfort in my writing this dissertation. They
Lastly, I would like to thank my participant teacher and his school. I really
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... 4
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ 10
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 12
5
Trustworthiness ........................................................................................... 69
Chapter Summary ........................................................................................ 70
6
Searching for External Funding ........................................................... 134
Collaboration with Scholars and Educators Beyond the School ................ 135
Inviting Authors as Guest Speakers to School .................................... 135
Collaborating with Educators Beyond School ...................................... 136
Chapter Summary ...................................................................................... 137
APPENDIX
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LIST OF TABLES
Table page
3-1 Overview of Data Collection Time ........................................................... 61
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page
3-1 Initial Codes Sample................................................................................ 66
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Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By
Rongrong Dong
August 2018
Chair: Danling Fu
Major: Curriculum and Instruction
Chinese language arts teacher’s effort in nurturing life-long readers and writers
under the test-driven culture in China’s society. This study looks closely at this
exemplary teacher’s everyday literacy practices in and out of his classroom, focuses
on his ways of creating authentic reading and writing spaces for his students beyond
test preparation, listening to his words about how he achieves his goals in teaching
This study adopts the lens of social constructivism. It offers the researcher a
view toward the participant’s teaching practices in nurturing life-long readers and
writers. The research procedures involve data collection through observation of the
teacher, his students and colleagues, as well as class artifacts and students’ writing
samples. The collected data are analyzed using thematic analysis. Major themes
Research findings show the participant teacher in the study engages students
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his literate life, connecting real life to literacy learning and building a school wide
literate life for students. Under the severe testing pressure in China society, he also
collaborates with other CLA faculty, reaches out to school administrators and
educators beyond campus to gain every potential teaching resource for students.
The findings indicate exemplary teachers are not only equipped with
knowledge in their teaching career. These knowledges are the inner strengths
behind their exemplary practices under the high-stakes testing culture in today’s
world. This study calls for teachers to examine and reflect on their own teachers’
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Before I met Mr. C, I didn’t read books, I didn’t write for myself.
I read textbooks and wrote for tests. After I met him, I read dozens
of books in a year. I wrote my heart out. I even published my own
book before I graduated from high school. He is my mentor for sure
(Interview with student, 6.12.2015).
teacher’s class from 10th to 11th grade and graduated from high school in the
summer of 2015. That was also the summer I first walked into my participant
Language Art (CLA). In this nearly one-hour interview, this student shared with me
how Mr. C, my participant teacher in this case study, turned him from a reluctant
His words brought back my own high school reading and writing memories in
before high school years and regarded myself as a writer since I was 8 years old.
But high-stakes testing in high school crushed my passion for reading and writing.
Like majority of high school students in China, I was trained into a test-taking robot.
This student’s words also brought me back to some English language arts
find students moaned in pain the minute they were informed the writing task of the
doctoral program, I also listened to many of their own reading and writing stories.
Very few of them shared happy memories of in-class reading and writing during their
adolescent years. Moreover, as they were placed into their practicum classrooms,
these pre-service teachers found many ELA teachers’ practices were dominated by
high-stakes testing. Consequently, there were many reluctant readers and writers in
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their practicum classrooms. Those memories flashed back to me as I interviewed
this student that summer in 2015. I kept wondering what CLA/ELA teachers can do
to bring the reading/writing joy back to students under today’s high-stakes testing
pressures.
teacher, who kept fighting for students and to provide meaningful reading and writing
finally became the impetus for this case study, in which I explored “How an
exemplary teacher nurtures student into becoming lifelong readers and writers in a
high-stakes testing environment.” I want to dig deep to explore what makes this
teacher exemplary, his specific teaching engagement and endeavors, as well as the
based society. Such literacy does not simply involve reading words, but the capacity
to “write about, talk about and extract meanings from knowledge and experience in
all the ways that school, work, and day-to-day life demand in the twenty-first century”
(Langer, 2000, p.6). Slater (2004) further argues that highly developed literacy
should be the educational goal of teaching all students to think, read and write
critically. To meet the needs of highly developed literacy in today’s world, adolescent
grade four, have made the critical transition between “learning to read and reading to
learn” (Chall, 2000, p.99), meaning there is a great need to engage adolescent
students with complex ideas and information to complete their developmental needs
as they mature from children into young adults. As Ippolite, Steele, & Samson (2008)
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state, to engage adolescent students to read and write, “literacy instruction must
capture their minds and speak to the questions they have about the world as they
contemplate their place within it” (p.2). Therefore, literacy instruction should include
authentic reading and writing practices for adolescent students. Authentic reading
and writing tasks acknowledge students’ need and desire to read and write in the
students. As a result, students who are immersed into the authentic literacy learning
are equipped with the capability to put their knowledge and skills in use when they
adolescent students, however, are squeezed out by test preparation under the high-
testing, as a part of policy design that attaches test scores to promotion, high school
tenure decisions (Au, 2007) has dramatically changed teachers’ way of teaching
reading and writing (Harman, 2000). Many teachers report teaching to the test has
stifled their teaching ability and creativity as they have to use a formulated approach
to literacy instruction (Jones & Egley, 2004). Testing pressure is affecting the quality
of their instruction and their professional beliefs about reading and writing (Hoffman,
Assaf, & Paris, 2001). Some teachers have to depart from what they know to be an
effective way of teaching authentic literacy in order to prepare their students for the
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Consequently, teachers are torn between what they believe to be the effective
experiences and what testing protocols demand (Assaf, 2006). In other words, even
when teachers are aware of what authentic reading and writing instruction and
activities they should provide for adolescent students to develop high literacy ability,
the pressure from high-stakes testing often dominates their choice to use published
test preparation materials to teach reading and writing. According to Langer (2001),
literate context, and a focus on creating in students a passion for reading and writing.
But when the urgent need in language arts class becomes preparing students to
pass the test, many teachers are turning a blind eye or becoming less responsive to
students’ literacy needs, thus creating an “instructional climate that renders too many
teachers and students invisible” (Elish-Piper, Matthews, & Risko, 2013, p.7). A
“teaching to the test” instructional climate detaches students’ literacy learning from
their personal lives and makes it challenging for students to develop positive
attitudes and interests toward reading and writing. Intrinsic motivation for reading
and writing disappears. Therefore, high-stakes testing distorts the nature of literacy
teaching and learning, as well as hinders the educational goal of achieving highly
In today’s world, American educators are not alone when they compromise
educational issue. England has a national curriculum which serves as basis for tests.
At the end of upper secondary school, students’ test scores determine which
universities they can be enrolled in and what specialties they can be assigned to.
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system and access to elite academic programs. During 10 years of heavily tracked
Finland, even though students don’t need to take test to finish high school, if they
want to get admitted to universities, they are also required to take the high-stakes
Turkey might be the ones who experience “some of world’s worst exam anxiety”
(Simsek & Yildirim, 2004, p.155) due to the low (about 20%) college acceptance
In the global education platform, China has the longest history with high-stake
tests and the most test-obsessed culture. Among adolescent students around world,
skills. In the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), students from
Shanghai excelled in reading, science and mathematics and topped the program for
three times (Ravitch, 2014). However, their excellence in taking tests is the reflection
of a severe test-driven culture in China. The culture of high-stakes testing has been
historically rooted in China’s society for centuries, the testing fever is burning through
the whole 1-12 educational system and even the whole society. While teachers in
U.S. are complaining about their shrinking teaching autonomy, Chinese teachers
have never had any choice in what and how to teach. Following a test-driven
language arts teachers, like teachers of other subjects, in China are required to
prepare classes based on the nationally designed textbooks. At the end of each
semester, students must take the district wide high-stakes test, which covers most of
the content in the textbook. This means if teachers choose not to teach textbook
content but self-selected reading materials instead, it is very likely their students will
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fail the test. If so, there is no chance teachers can shrug off the blame. Additionally,
since nobody dares to fail the “once for a life time” high-stakes college entrance
exam, some high school teachers in China start to prepare students for this critical
Parental anxieties also play a big role in bringing about the further
deterioration of the situation. Many parents sign their kids for test-prep programs
outside of school, hoping the extra cramming for tests will give their kids an edge in
the competitions. Parents also hold teachers accountable for students’ test scores. If
a teacher prepares students well for tests, no matter what teaching practices he/she
these facts, it seems inevitable that “teaching to test” in literacy classrooms prevails.
literacy curriculum, there are some exemplary ELA teachers who are trying to “teach
against the grain” (Cochran-Smith, 1991) and “teach in the cracks” (Bomer, 2005).
They fight hard to create and maintain reflective and critical perspectives on their
own literacy teaching values as well as the policies that affect their classrooms. They
also try their best to stay true to themselves, to trust their professional knowledge
and literacy teaching beliefs. Thus, they are pushing back the pressure of high-
stakes testing, even though they need to be prepared at every moment to defend
their teaching decisions (Bomer, 2005). Some have found ways to work against the
where they express their passion and love of literacy and nurture students to
These cases resonate with Allington (2002), who argues that good and
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approaches, or any “proven programs”. In other words, their expertise matters.
These exemplary teachers accept their professional accountability for students’ test
scores while insisting on the autonomy to act on their expertise. They have
internalized the idea that “teachers must act in an imperfect world. To postpone
action until the knowledge and technique makers establish the educational
new ways to teach reading and writing in and out of the classroom, try out different
ideas, look for alternative ways to infuse innovative methods in their literacy
instruction. These exemplary teachers influence the lives of their students in long-
lasting and significant ways, thus making reading and writing blossom in the rest of
students’ lives.
But to acquire and develop the qualities and dispositions these exemplary
teachers possess requires long term effort. Teacher education programs in both the
U.S. and China are trying to equip pre-service teachers with effective teaching skills
and knowledge. Yet many pre-service and new in-service teachers complain what
they learned about teaching theories in higher education do not actually match their
teaching practices in class (Sadler, 2006; Rashidi & Moghadam, 2015; Salteh,
2015), especially when high-stakes testing is dictating their pedagogic practices (Puk
& Harnes, 1999). In today’s high-stakes testing culture, professional knowledge and
teaching skills are not enough to achieve effective authentic literacy instruction. In
teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher” (p.10). Therefore, if
teachers want to stay true to themselves in rather than becoming chained by high-
stakes testing, they need to discover “heart, wisdom, and passion” in themselves as
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process and may take a career long journey, because “the self is not something
action” those exemplary teachers make as they gain the courage to “teach against
the grain” through their teaching career. Moreover, we need to understand the inner
strengths behind their “choice of action”. To achieve that, we need to examine not
only exemplary teachers’ professional knowledge and their teaching skills, but also
other qualities they possess that make them standout in the test-driven teaching and
learning contexts.
authentic reading and writing to students (Assaf, 2006; Jones & Egley, 2004;
encourage teachers to explore alternative ways to teach beyond tests and to raise
students’ literacy level as required for the 21st century global world. One way to
achieve this goal is to draw on the experiences of exemplary teachers. Try to get to
know their ways of teaching and being and to try to understand their beliefs and the
inner strength that sustain their efforts when dealing with difficult and risk-taking
Chinese language arts teacher’s effort in nurturing life-long readers and writers
under the test-driven culture in China. More specifically, this case study looks closely
at this exemplary teacher’s everyday literacy practices in and out of his classroom,
focuses on his ways of creating authentic reading and writing spaces for his students
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beyond test preparation, listens to his words about how he achieves his goals in
teaching “in the cracks.” As the researcher, I was also curious about the inner
strengths behind his “choice of action.” Therefore, this study also examines the
testing.
studies in U.S. during my doctoral program. I had observed ELA teachers’ practices,
listened to their concerns and complaints about how high-stakes testing negatively
impacted upon their teaching and students’ learning. Their worries about shrinking
teaching autonomy and the rigid curriculum made me think of their counterparts in
testing pressure and the lost joy in reading and writing. However, it never occurred to
context. I wondered if there were any teachers who not only prepared students well
for tests but also cultivated and maintained student interest in reading and writing.
This curiosity led me to want to find a teacher like this in China, a society I knew to
First, I chose China as the research context for a case study because I
was already familiar with the epidemic “test fever” in China. I understood the testing
culture that had been rooted in China society for centuries. I suspected that on a
global platform teachers and students in China might suffer the most severe
pressure from the high-stakes tests. The sociocultural context that placed great
value on high-stakes testing made it a good case for this study. Second, teachers,
especially high school teachers in China have very limited teaching autonomy under
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a rigid curriculum framework. The mandated textbook teaching makes it very difficult
for teachers to create their own curriculum in the class. Therefore, if there were such
reading and writing teachers out there, their experiences should provide some
insights for teachers in U.S. or other places around the world where high stakes tests
my participant teacher’s classroom for two weeks during the summer in 2015. I was
first surprised and soon attracted by the vitality in his CLA class. I was very
They were willing to make their voices heard. I was also impressed that his students
were so motivated to read and write, not for tests, but for their own joy. Moreover,
informed the school where he worked was well-known for a school-wide literacy
learning culture in Jiangsu Province. This literacy culture was built by the joint efforts
of my participant teacher and his colleagues. My pilot study there became the
Research Questions
This case study focuses on one main research question and two sub-
1. How does this exemplary teacher engage students in meaningful reading and
writing in his classroom instruction?
2. How does this exemplary teacher work with his colleagues to create school
wide literate culture and experience for students?
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Significance of the Study
2004; Simsek & Yildirim, 2004). As the case in U.S., under the Common Core State
Standard, high-stakes testing pressures teachers and students and keeps them on
edge. More and more educators have cried out about the threat of the new wave of
high-stakes Common Core tests (Karp, 2013), and how the CCSS text examples fit
into the trend of using benchmarks to drive reading and writing instruction (Peel,
Teachers of English in 2014, English language arts teachers and students feel the
negative effects of high-stakes testing with special force because literacy is always
whole of Chinese society shares the belief that “test score is prior to everything.”
This extreme, widely held social valuing of testing has created a severe test-driven
culture that zaps the vitality from teaching and learning. When teaching reading aims
impossible for students to interact with authentic reading and writing, let alone
would be if they were to meet a language arts teacher who doesn’t confine their
reading and writing teaching to test but joins the world of his or her personal literacy
and students in the fabric of life via instruction, so that students could learn to weave
a literate world for themselves (Palmer, 1998). When we find such exemplary
practices and their interaction with others in and out of the class, listen to their
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teaching beliefs, and to analyze their dispositions. We should try our best to explore
the inner strength they have developed during their teaching career that support their
“teaching against the grain.” While there are many studies on exemplary teachers in
U.S. (Langer, Applebee, 1987; Collinson, 1999; Allington, et.al, 2002), there are very
few empirical studies on 1-12 school exemplary teaching in China and even fewer
depicting how in-practice teachers struggle to engage students in reading and writing
I believe this study will contribute to the field of adolescent literacy instruction
and to teacher education programs in both U.S. and China. First by showing how
one exemplary teacher “teaches against grain” and engages students in authentic
reading and writing despite the test-driven culture, the current study responds to a
time that could be devoted to authentic reading and writing, and so learning passion
and academic risk-taking are curtailed (Miller & Higgins, 2008). By demonstrating an
exemplary CLA teacher’s efforts in creating a positive and rich literate environment
and nurturing his students into becoming life-long readers and writers, the current
study also aims to argue it is possible for teachers to help students build passion for
reading and writing while training their literacy skills and strategies (Malikow, 2006)
Connelly and Clandinin (1998) suggest, “the more we understand ourselves and can
articulate reasons why we are what we are, do what we do, and are headed where
we have chosen, the more meaningful our curriculum will be” (p.11). Teachers need
to understand themselves, they need time and space to reflect on their evolving
teaching beliefs, their classroom teaching practices, and their ways of being.
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Because, in essence, teachers teach who they are (Palmer, 1998). It is hoped this
study could encourage more teachers to look deeply into their own teaching
practices and the underlying literacy teaching beliefs and philosophies that shape
their practices in the classroom under the current high-stakes testing pressures.
Through reflection, they can gain strengthen to fight for their teaching autonomy and
engage in teaching practices they believe to be best for students and their life-long
literacy development.
This case study is composed of seven chapters. In the first chapter, I present
environment, discuss the purpose and significance of the case study. In the second
chapter, I present the theoretical framework of the study, review the literature related
and studies on exemplary teachers. Chapter three provides the methodology for this
case study. Information about my participant teacher, the research site, data
collection and data analysis procedures are also included in this chapter. In chapter
four, I present China’s testing culture and a general high school teaching context in
China, followed by my participant teacher’s working context. Chapter five unveils the
story of why my participant teacher was able to engage students in meaningful in-
class reading and writing even though he faced the same textbook teaching load and
the monthly testing pressures as his colleagues across China. Chapter six depicts
in the school. In the final chapter, I discuss findings and the implications of the study.
During my six months visit to my participant teacher’s school plus my time for
the pilot study, I kept thinking what a significant and positive influence this exemplary
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teacher brought to students’ lives, and how lucky those students were as they met
their mentor in adolescent years while most others like them drowned themselves
with testing worksheets. They enjoyed reading and writing and built their own literate
lives under the guidance of a great teacher despite high pressure for constant testing
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The path of literature related to this case study will be discussed in this
addressed as the theoretical framework of the study. Under this framework, literature
literature about literacy instruction under high-stakes testing. The line of inquiry into
repetition (Kroll & LaBosky, 1996). One needs to consider the information presented
teachers teach beyond the standards and focus on students themselves (Adams,
2006).
Dewey (1938) criticizes the “traditional school” for its static approach to
teaching and learning and argues that because knowledge and information are
handed down from the past in traditional education, students are trained to be docile,
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receptive and obedient to both textbooks and their teachers. In such a learning
questions about how such knowledge was constructed in the past or what changes it
will bring about in the future. This explains why students are often bored in traditional
classrooms.
Rejecting the repetitive, rote learning mode of the traditional school, social
constructivists value the learners themselves more than their performance. As Easen
& Bolden (2005) argue, since learning occurs in students’ minds, behavior is not a
learning through actions within a given socio-cultural context (Porter, 2000). Dewey
(1938) argues that teachers also need to be acquainted with “the conditions of the
their interactions with the surroundings as well as other people around them.
activities such as interaction and collaboration (Gredler, 1997; Prawat & Floden,
2000). Many social constructivists, such as Brown (1989), Ackerman and Dykman
principles and facts by themselves. Ernest (1995) states that the essence of the
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learning environment is experimental and dialogical, within which knowledge is
contexts, are mediated by language and other symbol systems, and can be best
rooted in social sources, and should be examined through genetic analysis (Wertsch,
1991). In other words, the Vygotskian social constructivism approach highlights the
situations.
the concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). That term stands for “the
problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”
(p.86). The ZPD addresses the transition from interpersonal plane to the
intrapersonal plane. Turuk (2008) states that ZPD is jointly determined by the
students’ level of development and the form of instruction involved, therefore, there
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is a complex interrelationship where instruction and development coexist. As the
competencies that are within the learners’ potential range, one of the significant
Students are neither deprived of their own voices in learning nor totally left on their
own. Under the scaffolding of the teacher and peers, students are moving toward
Kozulin, Gindis, Ageyev, & Miller (2003) explain that students’ higher mental
processes are dependent on the mediating agents when they are interacting within
the settings. While symbolic tools also serve as mediators and play a significant role
“symbols may remain useless unless their meaning as cognitive tools is properly
mediated to the child” (Kozulin, 2003, p.24). Unlike Piagetian behavioral assertion
with skills and knowledge, social constructivism approach gives credit to teachers, as
more knowledgeable others, since they enhance students’ learning by selecting and
role of the teacher by contributing the ideas of “scaffolding” (Ninio & Bruner, 1978;
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Vygotskian sociocultural theory, Bruner (1996) acknowledges the important role
teacher plays in the class, but he also argues that other interactions in the classroom
teacher does not play that role as a monopoly, that learners “scaffold” for
each other as well. . . we also want learners to gain good judgement, to
become self-reliant, to work well with each other. And such
competencies do not flourish under a one-way “transmission” regimen
(p.20).
for reducing teachers’ authority in the class, but to encourage teachers to share the
responsibilities with students. He states, “If you treat people, young kids included, as
responsible, contributing parties to the group, as having a job to do, they will grow
into it --- some better than others, obviously, but all benefit” (p.77). In short, from the
students’ cognitive development and their knowledge constructions (Dorn, 1996). For
exchanges, even the casual ones between teachers and students, that create many
step further when he says, “no educational reform can get off the ground without an
adult actively and honestly participating --- a teacher willing and prepared to give and
share aid, to comfort and to scaffold” (p.84). He urges that teachers be included
when shaping educational change because they are the ultimate change agents in
education.
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Literacy Research Under Social Constructivism
as the social construction of success and failure in learning to read and write in
school context (Au, 1998). Wertsch (1985) argues that because social constructivism
motivational and emotional dimensions of literacy (Oldfarther & Dahl, 1994) as well
as cognitive and strategic ones (Kucan & Beck, 1997; Ambe, 2007). Moll (1990)
further states that because social constructivism adopts a holistic picture on learning,
students in authentic literacy activities rather than training them with separate literacy
skills.
“significant others” (Carter & Jones, 1994) in students’ learning, teachers, peers and
family members are also included as the focus in studies of literacy acquisition
(Tudge, 1992; Neuman, Caperelli & Cara, 1998). Miller (2003)’s research is on a
the “zone” for the mutual assistance for students’ thinking and talking literature. In
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There are also studies on writing instruction guided by Vygotskian
sociocultural approach. Everson (1991) states that many modern times writing
theories, such as internal dialogue, composing over time, the social dynamic aspects
“solving the problem” and “writing it down” are analyzed with the perspective of
researchers use Vygotsky’s ZPD to develop students’ writing capabilities. This body
of research focus on social interactions occurring during talking with teachers and
peers. For example, Sperling (1990) argues students are more apt to benefit from
the interaction with teachers when teachers lessen their roles as authorities and
invite students to initiate teacher-student interactions in the class. Using higher level
advance student writing and interest, especially for beginning writers as they barely
have knowledge of writing process (Greene & Smith, 1999). Talking to peers in class
enables students to aid each other. They are able to gain writing ideas, organize
structures of the paper and design syntactic arrangement (Preus, 1999; Dyson,
should be structured by teachers, otherwise the class could descend into chaos and
Social constructivism provides this case study with its theoretical framework
by defining the nature of learning and the role of teachers in the school. As this
framework also situates teaching and learning under sociocultural setting, it lends
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further provide insights into effective literacy instruction in classrooms, as these
studies advocate for authentic literacy teaching and learning in school context.
meanings in real life (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, & Tower, 2006). As Edelsky (1986)
texts. Besides, they also need to apply predicting and confirming strategies in
students to use meaningful and functional oral and written language in their literacy
and authentic writing means different types of writers’ workshops, neither of these
Duke et. al (2006) address the fact that “authentic literacy” is a pedagogical concept
and authentic literacy teaching is the opposite to “school-only” reading and writing
authentic literacy as reading and writing of real-life texts for real-life purposes in a
literacy learning classroom. For example, reading recipes to prepare for a food dish,
or writing greeting cards to friends or families (p.3). These researchers also argue
that the term authentic literacy must always be followed by the term instruction,
because “the definition of authentic literacy only applies to the type of reading and
writing that occurs within classrooms and within instruction that is ultimately focused
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Authentic literacy instruction might be one of the solutions to many literacy
intergenerational literacy program with immigrant and refugee families. Their results
show that both parents and children in the study had significant growth in literacy
levels.
There are similar studies on how authentic literacy instruction can help
Jacobson and Soler (2002) report that adult learners in programs with more
authentic literacy activities read and wrote more in their out-of-school lives. These
adult learners also read and wrote more complex texts by themselves. The longer
they stayed in programs with authentic literacy activities, the more likely they were to
become life-long readers and writers. In a similar vein, Purcell-Gates and Duke
(2004) indicate that teachers who include more authentic literacy activities in their
instruction have more students who achieve growth in comprehension and writing.
reading and writing. For one thing, when learners are engaged in reading and writing
real-life texts for real-life reasons, they are usually highly motivated and engaged
respond to the questions they have about the world they live in (Ippolite, Steele &
Samson, 2008); Second, when students read and write with real-life purposes in
school, they are well-prepared to put such literacy skills in future situations. For
example, Duke, et. al (2006) invite 26 second and third grade teachers to make
authentic reading and writing an integral part of their science instruction. They
provide students with science information books such as books on snakes, the
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weather, force, etc. They also include science museum brochures as part of the real-
life readings for students. At the end of the second year, the researchers conclude
Students in the projects organize a school camp, pay a visit to state basketballer,
participate an Olympics Day sports event, attend a school play and compose school
newsletters. With the support of parents and teachers, students learn how to book
accommodations and transportation, calculate costs, time and distance, and prepare
letters and consent forms for parents. The researchers argue that these authentic
tasks make a shift in the nature and position of literacy in the curriculum, through
which students gain “autonomy, control and ownership of their use of literacy” (p.7).
Even though the studies above all focus on the contribution of authentic
consider the difficulties teachers might confront when implementing such practices in
teachers’ perception of good teaching and their actual teaching practices in class
(Assaf, 2006; Bulgar, 2012; Peel, 2014). In this line of study, literacy teachers report
they struggle between their intentions to engage students in authentic literacy and
35
the fear of students’ failure in high-stakes tests. For example, Assaf (2006) portrays
under a newly wave of high-stakes testing: she is “torn between what these students
need to do in order to succeed as real readers and what they need to do to pass the
test” (p.162). As a result, “her reading instruction changed from rich and authentic
discussions about books to a quiet, often subdued atmosphere of silent reading and
transforming struggling writers into proficient test-takers. Because the writing teacher
knows well her teaching is just preparing students to meet the demands of the
writing assessment rather than using writing as a tool to help them explore their own
present experience, she still needs “some fast, efficient instructional approaches”,
Luna and Turner (2001) interview high school ELA teachers in Massachusetts
test. Interviewed teachers report they spend more time on literary terms because
they count as a major part in the test. Other significant topics such as discussions
about a particular author or novel, along with in-depth exploration, students’ creativity
ELA teachers not only dramatically change their ways of teaching reading and
writing, but also begin to question their own professional experiences and
knowledge. A great number of teachers are wrestling with a conflict between their
own beliefs, values, personal philosophy about teaching and a need to adopt a more
traditional way of training students to pass the test (Bulgar, 2012). Teachers feel they
have lost the voice and ownership of their teaching, and that they no longer have
36
time to reflect, respond, renew, or even relax in their teaching career (McCracken &
McCracken, 2001).
the studies in U.S. Yu (1998) argues that standardized testing has pushed Chinese
literacy instruction to a dead end. Under the huge pressure from high-stakes testing,
Chinese language arts (CLA) teachers have no choice in their daily practices but to
teach to the test. They are chained to the high-stakes tests (Zhou, 1999). As
teachers are so busily preparing students for standardized tests, they seldom have
time to think back about their literacy teaching beliefs or put their beliefs into
practices. Xiao (2010) concludes his study of secondary literacy instruction by stating
that students’ test scores have become the most important criteria for effective
literacy teaching in China. CLA teachers’ actual teaching beliefs and values are
teach only to the test seems inevitable in today’s high-stakes testing era, yet “each
teacher will have to arrive at his/her own decision on how to cope” with such
pressure (Madaus, 1988, p.44). Some studies indicate there are some
writing instruction in their classrooms under high-stakes testing (Atwell, 1998; Noden
& Vacca, 1994). In Elish-Piper, et. al (2013), researchers report that three ELA
teachers find different ways to support their students to become visible, evident and
different approaches to create authentic literacy for their students, all three teachers
share one underlying value. All three treasure their students’ needs in class above all
else and so, they situate students as active participants in their own literacy learning.
37
Similarly, in a cross-case study, Sturtevant and Linek (2010) report the perspectives
of nine content area outstanding teachers’ literacy practices in their instruction. Their
findings show that outstanding teachers have strong beliefs about meeting students’
needs and the value of interpersonal relationships. They all are life-long learners.
words, practicing teachers provide insiders’ view in their literacy practices. For
that literacy teachers should teach beyond fake writing---the kinds of writing students
will never do once they leave school. This idea is underscored by the belief that
“tests come and go, but attitudes about writing can be lifelong” (p. 93), so teachers
need to ignore the mandated discourse until they have a chance to help students
warm up to writing.
There are very few empirical studies about teachers in China that focus on
some studies (Liu, 2016; Ma & Lai, 2011; Dong, 2016) address the qualities
Recognizing the significant role of teachers and their expertise, many studies
depict the qualities of exemplary teachers (Allington, Johnson, & Day, 2002;
Allington, 2002; Parris & Block, 2007; Shulman, 1986). Allington, et.al (2002)
and interviewing these exemplary teachers, he highlights five aspects that standout
in exemplary teachers’ practices. First, he notices the nature of talk in the classroom.
38
Both teacher and students talk in a respectful, supportive and productive ways.
Conversation is a way for teachers to know about their students, a way to engage
students in discussions, and a way to admit their personal limits, mistakes and
interests. Second, these exemplary teachers never get satisfied using single-source
curriculum materials. All of them make efforts to fill students’ day with reading and
writing beyond textbooks. Third, these teachers seldom lecture in front of students
but prefer to work alongside or among students. They focus on engaging students in
they cultivate a strong literacy emphasis and extend students’ reading and writing
across the curriculum. Last, these exemplary teachers evaluate students more on
teachers in early childhood education, K-12, special education, higher education and
on-line learning. The researcher aim to find a central theme and patterns in
exemplary practices that were universal across all contexts. In the study, he
concludes,
including:
1. Educational values, beliefs and philosophies that support teaching for all to learn;
4. Facilitating learning;
39
5. Learner-centered active engagement by providing a range of techniques and
authentic learning opportunities to meet the needs, interests and styles of all
learners;
participants, studies in this line (Roehrig, Bohn, Turner, & Pressley, 2008; Feiman-
Nemser, 2001) most present these exemplary teachers’ teaching practices but not
teachers per se and investigate the qualities these teachers demonstrate in their
career, Collinson, Killeavy and Stephenson (1998) study exemplary teachers from
England, Ireland and U.S. This study aims to find out exemplary teachers’
qualitative data show that exemplary teachers view respect as a fundamental factor
for students’ best learning and a prerequisite for effective teaching. These exemplary
teachers care about their students, they work hard to know their students. They
structure their classes in a way that encourages oral and written dialogue with
students. Additionally, all teachers in the study are reported to “consciously work to
helpful critique” (p.21). There are other studies focusing on an ethic of care
teacher. For example, a genuine concern for students (Van Schaack &Glick, 1982),
40
consider human interactions rewarding (Baker & Stevenson, 1986), and love seeing
have a desire for continuous renewal. Her study is aimed inquiring into exemplary
teachers’ personal and professional renewal throughout their careers. She finds a
pattern of qualities that appear in many exemplary teachers: they share a disposition
their working environment, and the community; and, they have a deep belief that as
exemplary teacher studies. The researcher argues there are some experienced
struggling to alter curriculum, raise questions about common practices, and resist
competency at widely practiced teaching and assessment, but at the same time are
also battling to develop and use alternative practices in the class. Even though they
don’t personally care about standard measures of learning, they need to prove their
students are progressing according to such measures. They sometimes wrestle with
their own doubts but are still courageous enough to take risks by practicing what
they believe about teaching and learning. Most importantly, “they have to understand
and work both within and around the culture of teaching and the politics of schooling
at their particular schools and within their larger school systems and communities”
(p.285).
41
The qualities of exemplary teachers reflected in that study also resonate with
that teaching is indeed within political systems, and they need to collaborate with
and facets of the current educational issues. Through interactions with other adult
professionals, exemplary teachers receive both support and criticism to help them
teachers that plays vital role in achieving effective teaching, yet it is the most
and reflection. Ways of thinking and ways of being are also part of teachers’
Sternberg and Horvath (1995) argue that expert teachers need knowledge of
the social and political context in which teaching occur. Specifically, expert teachers
knowledge in particular social and organizational contexts and know effective ways
level” (p.11). This kind of tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1967) allows exemplary teachers
42
characterizes this tacit knowledge as “political awareness.” In her view, it is a part of
the interpersonal knowledge that exemplary teachers possesses. She also refers
others, honesty and trust, respect, tolerance of different perspectives and setting
professional activities at the school, community or state level as they tend to regard
educators and researchers. So “rather than taking a passive role, they get involved
committees---any role that allows them to voice their opinion” (Collinson, 1994,
p.131) to achieve their goal of teaching their students in the best possible ways they
can find.
However, even though there are a great number of studies that focus on the
interactions between teachers and students (Van Tartwijk & Wubbels, 1998; den
Brok, Levy, Brekelman & Wubbels, 2005), and the collaborations among colleagues
(Alterator & Deed, 2013; Sandholtz, 2000; Kaufman & Brooks, 1996), literature about
resources for improving their teaching and later students learning are not abundant.
43
to collaborations among teacher colleagues. There is a need for further studies on
how teachers reach out to potential resources with political awareness under testing
pressures.
Rex and Nelson (2004) examine the “professional identities” of two high
school English teachers. “Professional identities” are defined in the study as a blend
“life history” perspective approach has been adopted as the framework by several
studies seeking to understand the evolution of teachers’ intrapersonal skills and draw
connections to current observed and reported practices (Drake, Spillane & Hufferd-
Ackles, 2001; Muchmore, 2001). These researchers believe that a systematic life-
construct, maintain, evaluate and change their teaching beliefs, values, and
use of literacy as a lifetime experience. Muchmore (2001) studies the life history of a
high school language arts teacher. He uses narratives to describe the teacher’s
personal and educational literacy experiences. That study revealed that the teacher’s
beliefs about literacy stemmed from her personal experiences and from her career-
long observations of the children, rather than directly from formal theories of literacy.
Gomez (2009) inquiries into the connection between teachers’ personal literate lives
and their professional teaching practices. The researcher argues that teachers’
44
knowledge and beliefs about literacy --- their “literate identities” (Gomez, 2005), as
well as their values and dispositions toward literacy are likely to shape how they
create a context for becoming literate and connect to literacy teaching in the
classroom. This study shows that exemplary teachers are not only aware of the
importance of technical knowledge or how to teach but are also aware of the
One limitation of the study, as the researcher states, is the lack of classroom
picture of how these teachers translate their literacy beliefs into practices in the class
can be presented.
“intrapersonal knowledge” in English language context, but there are several studies
on teachers’ self-knowledge development (Yin, 2012; Bao, 2014) and the core
2012).
Oakar, & Hurt, 2002; Pressley, Allington, Wharton-McDonald, Block, & Morrow,
teachers. For example, Beers (2000) concludes that exemplary literacy teachers not
only understand how to implement successful instruction, but also know what to do
and when to do it in the class. Carbonaro and Gamoran (2002) state that exemplary
literacy teachers prefer to use intellectually challenging and widely varied reading
and writing activities in class. Applebee, Langer, Nystrand and Gamoran (2003)
argue that these teachers hold high expectations for themselves and their students.
45
Parris and Block (2007) run a survey with 38 exemplary literacy teachers and
identify several domains of their teaching expertise. First, in the domain of teaching
pedagogy, these teachers aim to develop students into independent learners. Thus,
they encourage students to apply critical thinking skills, ask questions in class,
participate in decision making, and take ownership of their work. Second, they
understand how to address diverse needs in class. To meet the changing needs of
their students, they revise their curriculum to make it relevant to students’ lives.
Third, as for personal characteristics, these teachers themselves are readers and
writers. They collaborate with peers to create new learning opportunities for
students. They are not afraid of taking risks and are creative in many aspects. In
discussions in class. They also create many chances for students to write and share
cultivating the literary development of African American students. The teacher in the
study enacts a border-crossing curriculum for her students. She also makes
transparent the strategies and skills good readers use by demonstrating during
whole class mini lessons and individual conferences with her students.
Block and Mangieri (2009) state one of the dominant teaching roles and
“leader.” They argue since adolescents have developed maturity and a relatively
be their students’ trusted leader, hero and champion for their literacy success”
(p.70). These two researchers also list qualities presented by these secondary
reading/writing teachers:
46
1) Build confidence by gently guiding;
2) Cherish students’ every attempt to read;
3) “Hold student’s hand” to encourage new forays into more advanced literacy
skills;
4) Demonstrate the thoughts and steps necessary to reach high levels of
success;
5) Manage and navigate the gulf between learning to read and reading to learn;
6) Coach diverse abilities simultaneously during the same lesson;
7) Adapt large amounts of knowledge into learnable chunks (p.70).
the change, thoughts and actions leading students to become readers and writers for
a life time.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, social constructivism laid a firm theoretical ground for this
present case study. When I set foot on my research site, I had already been
equipped with the framework for teaching and learning and the role of teachers with
a social constructivist perspective. I was also aware I needed to pay attention to the
influence of the social and cultural context. As the researcher of this study, I was
under high-stakes testing and the qualities of exemplary teachers. While the
literature in these three fields set the path for the present study, they also showed
me some research gaps that this study might fill. For instance, upon reviewing
depict how exemplary teachers apply these two aspects of knowledge to nurture life-
identified an urgent need to reach to exemplary 1-12 school teachers and get to
know their expertise as well as their teachers’ knowledge under China’s test-driven
47
context. In the next chapter, I will discuss the research design that emerged for this
case study.
48
CHAPTER 3
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH DESIGN
research design. I will then discuss the case study as the methodology for the study.
I will present my researcher subjectivity and my pilot study findings in this chapter,
his working school. Data collection and analysis procedures will be presented as
well. Finally, I will address the ethical issues and trustworthiness of the study.
participant being studied and conduct the study in the field, usually a school or a
individual views, the researchers are expected to lessen the distance between
themselves and the participants in the research (Guba & Lincoln, 1988). As the
from the participants, it is also assumed that the researchers need to collaborate,
spend time in field with participants, and become “insiders” within the research field.
therefore, findings are due to the interaction between the researcher and the
49
understanding of how ideas and attitudes are developed over time within a social,
framework that individuals seek to understand their world and develop their
constructivism assumes that theory and practice do not develop in a vacuum but are
shaped by the dominant cultural assumptions (Martin, 1994). Thus, for the present
students into becoming life-long readers and writers under the high-stakes testing
be exposed as well (Myers, 1996). It is believed that by deconstructing the social and
for the “constraints in the system”. In the present study, the CLA teacher’s ways of
teaching and ways of being are not simply imprinted on him but are formed through
interactions with others and through historical and cultural norms that operate in his
basis for the current study, it also forms the researcher’s perceptions in locating the
research procedures.
Qualitative case study is adopted as the methodology for the present study.
study is considered in line with the methodological views held by Stake (1995) and
50
a more specific way, a case is like an integrated system with boundary and working
parts. In a similar vein, Merriam (2009) regards “case” as “a thing, a single entity, a
unit around which there are boundaries” (p.27). A case can be a person, an
present case study, the “case” is one high school Chinese language arts teacher,
and the boundary or the context of the case is the prevailing high-stakes testing
of a case. As Olson (1982) states the particularistic nature of case study: “It can
examine a specific instance but illuminate a general problem; it may or may not be
influenced by the author’s bias” (In Marriam, 1998, p.30). To understand the case
under specific context (Stake, 1995), case study is often described as an approach
that draws together holistic, empirical, interpretive and emphatic research methods in
a bricoleur design. In this vein, according to Denzin and Lincoln (2013), the
in the study depend on what is available in the research settings. Merriam (2009)
since case study requires a rich, thick description of the phenomenon under study
51
personal interaction with the case. In other words, the case lies in a relationship
way that invites the readers to join in the interaction and in case discovery (Stake,
1995). With this perspective, narrative stories, vignettes are also necessary in the
case study. Since the collaboration between the researcher and the participants is
close in the case study, this collaboration enables the participants to tell their own
stories (Crabtree & Miller, 1999). The narrative lens allows me as a researcher to go
their personal thinking, actions, and reactions (Bruner, 1986), it could be seen as a
portal through which a person enters the world and by which their experience of the
world is interpreted and made personally meaningful (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988).
stories, I get to know the way he makes sense of his lived experiences and how he
not only the voice and perspectives of the participants under study should be
presented, but also the relevant groups of the participants and how the participants
interact with them should be recorded. This requirement ensures the triangulation of
the qualitative study. Stake (1995) states triangulation is used to ensure the
sources (Yin, 1984) is one way to achieve triangulation. In this case study, I collect
evidences from archival records (artifacts and documents collected at the research
site), interviews, direct observation (class visit field notes) and participant
observation (school-wide literacy activity field notes). Even though this study adopts
52
multiple methods to get an in-depth examination of the case, I do understand
(Flick, 2002, p.227) as “objective reality can never be captured” (Denzin & Lincoln,
2013, p.9).
but it also has some limitations. For example, as Guba and Lincoln (1981) warn their
readers, the findings of a case study “tend to masquerade as a whole when in fact
they are but a part --- a slice of life” (p.377). Furthermore, they also suggest readers
and authors of the case studies to be aware of their biases that may affect the final
Subjectivity Statement
any given study. He further argues researchers’ personal qualities “have the capacity
to filter, skew, shape, block, transform, construe, and misconstrue what transpires
from the outset of a research project to its culmination in a written statement” (p,17).
As the researcher of this case study, I am a Chinese, born and raised in a southeast
educational resources. More than hundred colleges are in the province and its
environment from the time I was in elementary school. I remember that even in 5 th
grade, we were tested every week and prepared for the middle school entrance
exam a year later. Our test scores were posted in the hallway windows, and open to
53
inspection to everyone in the school. Bad-looking test scores meant shame and
school. Ms. Wang, my first CLA teacher, taught me the entire six years in elementary
school and brought reading and writing to my life. She introduced us a variety of
children’s books and young adolescents’ literature, she built a small library in the
convinced me I was a writer. I still remember how she read my writing in front of the
newspapers for publications. Under her guidance, my writer identity was constructed
and grew. By the end of elementary school, I had read hundreds of books and
published a dozen essays and poems in local newspapers and journals. I had huge
passion for reading and writing at that time. I even dreamed to be a professional
This passion was maintained intact during my three years in middle school.
The testing pressure became worse, but I was still able to find time for personal
reading and writing. However, I began to realize my CLA teachers (I had two CLA
teachers in different grades) didn’t care about what I read or wrote in my spare time.
What they cared about was if I memorized all the assigned paragraphs that would
appear in the next CLA subject test, or if I grasped all the literacy skills they lectured
about in class. One of them even questioned me about why I read that much
because she regarded my extra reading was irrelevant to tests. My high school years
changed me from a confident writer to a timid one. I was told by my high school CLA
teacher to follow the template in the writing test. It didn’t make sense to me as I
54
didn’t understand why everyone had to write in a similar voice using a similar format.
I refused to follow the template in the writing test. As a result, I received low score for
my writing. My CLA teacher at the time told me she didn’t care about whether or not I
told my personal stories in the writing. She stated that as long as I “hit the template
format” I could pass the writing test. I surrendered. I began to write soullessly,
without my own voice. At the same time, the pressures from National College
Entrance Exam (NCEE) took away my personal reading time as well. Like every high
school kid, I spent more than 10 hours every day preparing for the “biggest exam” in
familiar with either literacy education or pedagogical theories in U.S. For example,
listening to teachers and taking notes in my seat. When I was placed in some ELA
classrooms in U.S. for observations, I was initially surprised to see students learned
from each other in class/group discussions, and that teachers could act only as
professional literature also surprised me. I had never been given that much time in
doctoral program, I gradually understood the values of such class structure and
instruction. I was well prepared in the program with a literacy educator and
55
My personal reading/writing experience during.my 1-12 school years
I personally interacted with many CLA teachers when I was a student, this
background might have also narrowed my views of what good CLA teachers might
do. Additionally, I brought an “outsider” lens from western education context back
into a place I was familiar with. As my mindset on effective literacy education was
as well. I kept reflecting on the dual identity within me as a researcher during the
Pilot Study
2015. The main purpose of this pilot study was to familiarize myself to my participant
exemplary practices in CLA instruction. I stayed in his class for two weeks before
students’ summer vacation. During those two weeks, I observed his in-class
practices, had two informal interviews with him, one informal interview with several
students in his class, and one informal interview with one of his previous students. I
also collected student work, test papers, and writing samples with my participant
teacher’s permission. I got access to the website of the school, studied its culture
and examined some archival records of the school-wide literacy projects held by the
CLA faculties.
prepared students well for high-stakes tests --- his class average CLA final exam
relationship with students. The interactions he had with students in class engaged
56
them well in the learning. Thirdly, other than being a teacher to students, my
participant teacher also acted as the reading/writing model for them. My interviews
with students implied their passion for reading and writing increased after they met
Mr. C. These initial findings further triggered my curiosity about this exemplary CLA
teacher. I wondered why his students were so engaged in his class and why and
how they developed interest in reading and writing under the severe testing
teacher’s in-class practices, including the way he connected with students and the
way he demonstrated his reader/writer identities. My pilot study also suggested there
was a rich literacy culture in the school. At least two school-wide literacy projects
were held within each semester. This finding led me to question why and how such
literacy culture was built in this school. I wanted to know what role my participant
was exploring the “field.” Informal interviews provided me more spaces to invite my
questions were built upon the knowledge I gained from those “casual talks” during
the pilot study. I also built rapport with my participant teacher and some of his CLA
colleagues in the school. This rapport laid the foundation for the trust between me
The path that led me to my participant teacher in this case study started with
the research interest I developed during my study in U.S. I took a writing instruction
seminar the second year in my program. I was not only provided with a full picture of
K-12 literacy education in U.S, my own passion for writing was rekindled in that
57
course. During the seminar, I was assigned to several ELA classrooms in an
experimental K-12 school, where I got the opportunity to observe ELA teachers’ in-
class literacy practices. I was informed during my weekly visits that almost every
ELA teacher was concerned about the coming state reading/writing test. They felt it
learning. Their words immediately rang the bell for me as I grew up under a severe
test-driven teaching and learning environment. I couldn’t help but thinking about my
own reading/writing teachers back in China. Were they also torn by this “test vs.
interest” dilemma in teaching? How did they confront this dilemma? I also wondered
if there would be an exemplary CLA teacher who was able to balance testing with
As Stake (1995) argues, given the purpose of the study, the first criterion of
case selection should be “to maximize what we can learn” (p.4) from a case.
Considering of the purpose of this case study, two aspects became clear to me as I
Chinese students and teachers might suffer from the worst high-stakes testing
culture that was dominated by standardized test created the maximized space for my
China’s literacy instruction at the time. Before I met my participant teacher for the
58
pilot study, I had already heard about his exemplary practices in CLA teaching field.
With more than 30 years teaching experience, Mr. C is seen as one of the most
training programs all around the country. He travels a great deal to give lectures and
collaborates with educators and researchers in the literacy education field. His
2002, Mr. C was honored as an “expert teacher” in Jiangsu Province, the highest
honor a 1-12 school teacher can receive. These criteria make Mr. C an excellent
pressure.
Research Site
The school my participant teacher works for is a public high school located in
the capital city of a southeast province in China. Founded in 1955, Shisan high
school was the first high school built by the provincial government. In 1960, it was
Department in China. In 2000, the school was entitled as the National Model High
School in the country. By the year of 2016, the school had 175 teachers and staff, 39
classes devoted to college education and 7 classes oriented for further study
overseas.
As for the students’ population, around 2000 students were enrolled in Shisan
high school during the 2016-2017 school year. Since students in China are tested
59
into their local high schools, their entrance exam score is the exclusive factor
demographic status in China’s schools varies from middle-class to working class and
generally represents the socio-demographic population in the local city. Shisan high
school’s population aligns with this. Students are ages 16-18, more than 90% of the
students are admitted from the local middle school, the rest are from the middle
schools in the nearby cities (Shisan high school website, 2016). Like most of high
population racially and ethnically. Thus, the school has no official data demonstrating
Data Collection
collected. Observational field notes were taken during the class visits and school-
with the participant teacher, his colleagues as well as his students. Sample NCEE
language arts test papers were retrieved online and from my participant teacher.
Artifacts from the participant teacher’s class were also collected. Original fieldnotes,
site photos and sample interview questions are presented in the appendixes at the
Data collection procedures. The data collection process for this case study
lasted about 6 months from December 2016 to June 2017 (one month for winter
vacation, no school). During these six months, I visited my participant teacher’s class
from Monday to Friday as Chinese language arts class is a daily compulsory course
in China. I usually stayed in his class in the morning when he taught, during which I
60
I followed Mr. C to his office when he finished the class. I spent another 40-60
minutes with him in the office, either I member-checked with him about the fieldnotes
I took the day before, or I held unstructured interviews with him about his teaching
finished my daily data collection after conversations with my participant teacher in his
school-wide literacy projects, one academic conference, and one book club project
and took observational notes, had interviews and collected artifacts in the process.
Field Observations
easier for me to capture descriptive details in my native language. When I left his
teacher the next day in his office time (See Appendix A for original handwriting
61
participant teacher, I also took various photos in his classroom during different
participant teacher and his colleagues. I attended almost every teacher meeting in
the preparation stage and took field notes in the meetings. I followed my participant
teacher through the literacy activities, tape recorded some of his conversations with
colleagues, administrators and students, then translated and transcribed them into
field notes as well. In total, I had 200 pages of double-spaced typed observational
fieldnotes.
Interviews
translated and transcribed them, then brought them back to my participant teacher
for member check the day after the interview. I adopted the semi-structured
interviews rather than formulated ones with my participant teacher because I aimed
to invite him to share his unique experience and stories in teaching with me (Stake,
into English, I had 150 pages interview transcriptions (See Appendix C for original
listed in Appendix E.
and colleagues. The unstructured interviews were audio-taped, partly translated and
62
transcribed as well. These unstructured interviews were referred as “casual
about my participant teacher. I didn’t specifically time these casual talks, but each of
Archival Data
The archival data I collected from the research site included students’
Chinese language arts subject monthly test papers, their weekly journals and writing
samples, students’ textbooks, and readings for literacy projects. Posters made by
teacher also shared his reader/writer’s notebooks, his personal online blog entries
and reflective journals with me. These data sources helped me take a deeper look at
both my participant teacher’s reader/writer identity and his teacher identity, as well
Table 3-2. below presents my data collection categories and the questions
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Data Analysis
analysis happens the minute the researcher sets foot in the field. As Kamler (2001)
looking and not-looking” (p.11). Researchers need to reflect on who they are, what
their cultural backgrounds are, their lived experiences and the inevitable biases they
potentially possess, as well as how their own identities influence their interpretation
simmer through the whole research design and report. Thus, as the researcher, I
kept reflecting on my own position as well as biases even before I entered the field. I
also kept my reflexivity alive during the whole data analysis process.
Thematic analysis was applied in this case study. According to Braun and
Clarke (2006), thematic analysis is often used to identify, analyze and report patterns
within data in qualitative research. More specifically, thematic analysis organized and
described the data set in rich detail and interpreted various aspects of the research
topic (Boyatzis, 1998). Since the present study adopted social constructivist
paradigm, thematic analysis of the data in this study also sought to theorize the
socio-cultural context which enabled the narrative accounts that the participant under
study provided.
My first step of was to read all the data sets I had collected. The data sets
included observational fieldnotes, interviews and archival records retrieved from the
site. By immersing myself in the data sets, I gained a sense of the depth and breadth
of the data content. And through the “repeated reading” (Braun & Clarke, 2006;
Bazeley, 2013), my initial searching for patterns had already began. Also, at this
64
the essential nature of the data. This experience was explained by Lapadat and
sharp, sunlit moments of clarity or insight” (p.74), thus I kept a research memo
(Appendix F) with me during my data analysis. Every time I read through my data
sets, I wrote my interpretations in the memo. This writing activity not only helped me
narrow down the themes that later emerged from data, but also kept me reflective.
For the next stage, initial codes were generated from the data sets. Boyztzis
(1998) frames the coding process as the most basic element of information that can
be assessed during data analysis. Initial coding helped me keep track of the data I
collected, as well as facilitated the generation of more questions based on the initial
codes. At this stage, multiple codes surfaced, and some codes overlapped. For
“independent reading and thinking” in literacy learning in the interview shown below.
meanings from the texts along with students” and “regard himself as a reader”. He
(Figure 3-1). As initial coding process involved constant comparison of different data
sets for common codes, I then compared the above initial codes I generated from my
observational fieldnotes.
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Figure 3-1. Initial Codes Sample
With a more analytic view, my next move was to put these open codes into
manner during my initial coding stage, patterns and regularities had emerged
through my repetitive data reading. For example, initial codes of “regard himself as a
process to students”, “share books with students” appeared repetitively in all kinds of
data sets, thus I was able to put them under the category of “model and share
literate life”. I also indexed the data source to back up my categories (Table 3-3). At
this stage, my participant teacher was involved in the coding process. As I shared
interpretations of the data with my participant and ensured the member checking
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Table 3-3. Data Coding Category Sample
Category/Cluster Initial Codes Data Source
For the next stage, I finalized the categories into main themes and sub-
themes. The final themes at this stage answered my research questions directly. For
example, under the main theme of “creating a safe learning environment for
“celebrating students’ works” were listed. All together these themes contributed to
meaningful reading and writing. Before I reported these themes, I also made a
conceptual map including the themes related to my research questions (Figure 3-2).
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Engage Students in Meaningful Reading & Writing
Teaching beliefs:
Best literacy learning Theme1: Creating safe learning environment
occurs in a safe and
trusting
environment;
There shoud be a
great rapport Sub-theme 1:
between teachers bonding with students Data sources:
and students;
There should be 1. Interviews;
support among
Sub-theme 2:
students. building class community 2. Observational
notes;
Sub-theme 3: 3. Personal online
Intrapersonal
celebrating students' work blog website
Interpersonal
Knowledge
Ethical issues
Considering the ethical issues in the qualitative study, the basic notion in the
study is that the participant teacher has personal feelings, values, needs during the
research, and all the names are pseudonyms to protect the privacy of the
conducted in private, all interviewees’ names were removed from the resulting
transcriptions.
teacher to inform his students and their parents my presence in the classroom
(Appendix G). I ensured that there were no objections from students or their parents.
Students’ facial identities in the photos I took during were removed to protect their
68
Trustworthiness
4 Negative case analysis --- conscious search for negative cases and
unconfirmed evidence
5 Clarification of researcher bias--- reflection upon you own subjectivity and how
you will use and monitor your research
7 Rich, thick description --- writing that allows the reader to enter the research
context
8 External audit --- an outside person examines the research process and
product through “auditing” your data sets (p.201-203).
Even though there are so many criteria for trustworthiness in qualitative study,
it is not necessary to use all of them in the research process (Glesne, 2011). As the
researcher, I did engage myself in the research site for six months. Because of the
observe his teaching practices in the test-driven context and attend two school-wide
able to see long-term lesson plans and consecutive practices in the classroom.
study. Data sets were drawn from my participant teacher’s in-class teaching
and socializations, as well as faculty meetings etc. I used multiple data collection
69
methods, including observations, formal and informal interviews, and collection of
archival data.
my own strength and limitations of being an “insider” into a culture I was familiar with.
During the data collection and analysis process, I also kept a reflective research
memo to remind myself of the biases I might have as an “insider.” I kept reminding
myself I carried this identity with me during this study, and that my interpretations of
further discussion. I also brought transcribed interviews to him to double check his
him.
Chapter Summary
for this case study. I discussed how this conceptual framework contributed to my
pilot study in the participant teacher’s classroom, findings which laid the foundation
for the current study in many ways. This chapter also provided information on the
selection of my participant teacher and research site and the ethical issues related to
them.
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I gave detailed data collection and analysis procedures and the multiple
methods used to collect data from multiple sources as well as the stages the data
analysis went through in order to arrive at this report. Finally, examined the
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CHAPTER 4
TEACHING CONTEXT, CLA CLASS, AND THE CRITERIA FOR EXEMPLARY
TEACHERS
There are many criteria to define exemplary teaching here (In China),
but students’ test scores always come first. Your students’ good-looking
test scores bring you into the realm of good teachers, then you are visible
(to meet other criteria). Otherwise, you might end up being a ‘creative’
or ‘dedicated’ teacher, but nobody acknowledges you as exemplary.
(Interview, 12.12. 2016)
Mr. C’s words in the interview above revealed a fact about teaching in China’s
high schools: Both student performance and teacher practice are primarily defined
by test scores. In other words, whether being able to get students ready for tests is a
significant quality of exemplary teachers. To define Mr. C’s exemplary teaching and
understand his efforts in nurturing life-long readers and writers in the school, this
chapter first presents a brief introduction of China’s long history with the test-
depiction of Mr. C’s working environment, what he was expected to teach in CLA
class and the high pressure caused by monthly tests. This chapter also provides the
China dominates the academic lives of teachers and students to an extreme degree.
A belief in taking exams for the sake of upper mobility is deeply rooted in China’s
culture. The ritual of standardized testing can be traced back since 7th century AD,
when Keju, the historical civil service examination, was designed to select the most
literate people for positions in the imperial bureaucracy. During Tang dynasty (618-
907), Keju was further developed and served as the only way for ordinary Chinese to
join the elite until it was abolished in 1905. Therefore, for about 1300 years, Keju
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was considered as the pursuit of a lifetime for millions of aspiring citizens.
Examinees were tested in 3-year cycles. Those who scored well were selected to
positions and would also be rewarded financially. Passing the Keju was the symbol
of prestige, power and fame. It is considered as the honor to one’s entire family and
ancestry (Suen & Yu, 2007). The content of Keju had a very rigid focus on Confucian
philosophy and history, the “Four Books and Five Classics.” They were also required
to write official documents and address national policy issues. All the essays they
Examinees were required to strictly follow the rules of Baguwen or they failed the
test. Keju, the very first large-scale high-stakes test, drove the education system of
the Chinese Empire. Because it was seen as meritocratic, Keju was adopted in other
East Asian nations, such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. As Zhao (2014) pointed
out, Keju shaped East Asia’s most fundamental and enduring educational values.
Keju caused long-lasting chronic problems (Suen & Yu, 2007). For example,
examinees were not given to express their real constructive thoughts and views on
current political issues. Instead they memorized, by rote, model essays in the hope
of demonstrating good writing. Model essays from previous exams were purchased
Examinees focused on test-taking skills and surface features of the test. There were
Baguwen style. But the most severe problem of Keju might be the “talent cleansing.”
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Since Confucian classics were the only philosophies that mattered in Keju other
excellent and creative minds were not valued in Keju system and were excluded
from the bureaucracy (Zhao, 2009). For centuries, Keju was utilized by what became
a very gerontocratic system to reward obedience, conformity, respect for order, and
homogeneous thinking (Zhao, 2014) and it planted the seeds for valuing
standardized test in China’s culture. Even though Keju died more than a century ago,
its soul still hovers in China society today and serves as the foundation for the
“Test fever” is still burning throughout the entire 1-12 education system in
modern China and at the peak of this fever is the “Gaokao”, or National College
Entrance Exam (NCEE) which is taken by the students in their last year (12 th grade)
of high school. NCEE was introduced in China in the 1950s and continued to be
regarded as the most equitable way to determine eligibility for college admission until
1966 when the Cultural Revolution crushed the whole education system in China.
After 10 years havoc created by the Cultural Revolution in 1976 the NCEE was
reinstated and college/university education was revitalized. The goal of the NCEE is
to select “youths for higher education who are morally trustworthy, academically well-
prepared, and physically healthy, based on quota and test scores” (National
Education Examinations Authority, 2003). In practice, the exams only select students
have been revised several times since 1980s, the latest reform is the “3+X” which
was adopted in most provinces in 2016. Three common areas are required for all the
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Since NCEE is offered only once a year (usually at June 7th, 8th and 9th)
failed, students need to wait for another year to retake the test. A college diploma is
seen as the basic ticket to secure a decent job, but with enormous number of
examinees each year only a relatively small portion of students can be admitted to
college, especially in the first-tier universities (Wang, 2006). Under the pressure of
this extremely high-stakes test, students, parents and society in general hold
teachers and schools accountable for students’ performance. Therefore, high school
teachers are risking their career if a low number of students pass the NCEE and they
images and delays their promotion (Yu & Suen, 2005). This career-at-risk stimulus
explains why the majority of Chinese high school teachers tend to train students into
the “drill machine” even at the beginning of high school (10th grade), they believe that
The side effects of the NCEE on both teaching and learning are severe. For
students, learning becomes more like a burden than a personal desire. Their skills in
taking the test are enhanced by the endless drills while their curiosities toward the
lack of interest in reading and writing. For teachers, test-centered curriculum also
suffocates their creativity in teaching and deviates them from their own knowledge of
effective teaching. In the long run, test-based teaching degrades teachers’ teaching
skills (Madaus & Russell, 2011), prevents them expanding and strengthening their
own knowledge reservoir, and blinds them to the individual needs of the students.
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merely on the delivery and reception of information and knowledge. This single
China no matter how many educational reforms are issued by policy makers.
Students spend at least 10 hours a day reviewing and preparing for the test. In some
county high schools, students often get up at 5:00 a.m. and spend the whole day
studying for test until midnight (Ross & Wang, 2014). Teachers, voluntarily or
reluctantly, adapt to the test-driven mechanism because students’ test scores are
directly tied to rewards and punishment in their schools and districts. They are
expected to make class instruction serve the NCEE, either by designing the whole
lesson in line with NCEE or by inserting NCEE questions into their daily instruction
possible (Zhao, Mu & Lu, 2016). Under the pressure of NCEE, many teachers
become stressed out and suffer from nervous breakdowns, some teachers even
also causes test-prep companies into bloom. Larmer (2014) refers these test-prep
around clock for the NCEE in China. As Zhang (2013) points out, the “cram schools”,
or the private supplementary tutoring test-prep companies are more and more
prevalent in China, especially in urban areas. High school students in China rarely
have weekends. They are attending these test-prep companies after the formal
education in their schools. Parents are generally supporting their children to go to the
cram schools and willingly spend money on this extra education. As one parent cried
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out, the “Gaokao (NCEE) race really begins at birth” (Larmer, 2014). parents dare
not to risk their children falling behind for opting out cram schools. As a result, these
The whole Chinese society seems to hold its breath during June 7th, 8th, and
9th each year for the sake of the students who take NCEE that year. Areas around
the exam sites are marked as the quiet zones. Construction sites are limited, and
traffic noise is lowered or muted by the local governments. Taxi drivers and police
voluntarily transport examinees to the exam sites on the street. Parents and teachers
stand in front of the exam sites’ school gates waiting for the examinees to finish the
test. The NCEE is not only a challenge for students, but a battle for examinee’s
China’s high-stakes test fever will not easily cool down in the near future,
because the whole of Chinese society intrinsically accepts the value of the test which
is rooted deeply in Chinese culture. Under this extremely rigid testing and a national
words, teachers in China are confronted with a testing system that might be the most
public elementary (1st grade-6th grade) and junior middle (7th grade- 9th grade)
need to go through a very competitive admission process to get into high school.
Unlike their American counterparts, students in China are required to test into their
preferred high schools. Most students confront high school entrance exam pressure
as soon as they finish elementary education, even though the exam is scheduled at
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the end of junior middle school (9th grade). This one-time test score is the exclusive
factor in determining which local high school students attend. Local high schools are
ranked in the city by the Municipal Education Bureau based on the school’s annual
college admission percentage and school facilities. High school rank commands its
admission score, the better reputation it enjoys, the higher admission score it
requires.
From 10th grade to 12th grade the major goal is to get students ready for the
college entrance exam. In most public high schools in China, there are about 10
classes for each grade, and around 50 students in each class. The daily curriculum
starts with a whole class “Choral Reading” session at 7:30 in the morning, the
content of assigned texts is either Chinese or English. Then, five different subject
classes are scheduled between 7:55-12:10: 40 minutes for each class and 10-15
minutes recessions in between. After the lunch break, the rest of subjects are
scheduled from 13:45-17:00 in the afternoon. Students usually have a quick dinner
either in cafeteria or the nearby food stands, then return to classes to continue the
such busy school schedule, students averagely spend at least 12 hours at school
Even though students have a fully packed schedule with different subjects,
they don’t travel to different classrooms, instead they stay in the same classroom
during multiple lessons as teacher rotate. Subject teachers usually move to higher
grade along with students. This system gives teachers the advantage of knowing
students better. They are able to set long-term learning goals for students through
the entire high school experience. But, it also sets high teaching standard for
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teachers as they need to progress along with students’ learning capacities and
department system. In Chinese high schools, the same subject teachers from the
same grade share a big office, the office is assigned as a teaching section for the
subject. Teachers in the same office need to regularly schedule meetings, make
lesson plans, make monthly test papers, and grade test papers together. The grade
office system acts as a double-edged sword. On one hand it is a great way to build
rapport among subject teachers; they learn from each other and have a space and
time to reflect on their teaching practices, all of which are extremely beneficial to
teachers especially for the new ones. On the other hand, all teachers have to follow
the same teaching schedule, extra teaching space hardly exist in such teaching
environment.
For most high schools in China, the monthly test is a tradition. Therefore,
every four weeks, students take a test in all subjects. A city-wide mid-term exam and
monthly each semester. These tests aim to examine and evaluate students’ learning
development across a certain period of time. As the National College Entrance Exam
(NCEE) approaches, 12th graders take a test every week. High school teachers and
students spend great amount of time preparing and reviewing the tests. With so
many tests in a school year, it is not hard to imagine why teaching and learning are
test-dominated.
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C’s Working Environment
Provence, China. Laid at the foot of the ancient city walls, ShiSan high school is
surrounded by the city lake and embraced by hundreds of towering old trees. The
campus enjoys a combined beauty from ancient Chinese heritage and contemporary
design. It is famed as one of the most beautiful school campuses in the city. ShiSan
High School ranks as a four-star high school (the highest classification by The
Regarded as a top 10 high school in the city, ShiSan high school sets a high
According to the high school admission report issued by the JiangSu Educational
Bureau in 2016, the average high school admission score was 587 (700 in total
score), yet the basic admission score for ShiSan high school reached 622 (JiangSu
Educational Bureau, 2016), almost 40 points above the average. It also maintains
good record for sending students into top-notched colleges. For example, in 2016
563 students in 12th grade took the NCEE, 548 of them reached or exceeded the
average college admission passing score cut-off line (Nanjing ShiSan High School
Website, 2016). In other words, the college admission rate of ShiSan high school
was around 97.34% last year, which in great extent enhanced its reputation as a
But, as a top school with a high education quality, ShiSan high school also
has an extended educational vision beyond preparing students for tests. Echoed with
its educational motto that let students “Learn widely, inquire earnestly”, ShiSan high
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curriculum activities in and out of school. The school has 15 students-led
despite their hectic daily study schedule. I am also impressed by students’ positive
attitude and appreciation towards their school, mostly for resources and information
the school provided them in their growth. Quoting one student’s words in the
interview, even though Shisan high school cannot shake off the test shackle, it is
trying its best to nurture students with a “generous and spacious heart” (Student
textbooks are distributed from 10th grade to 12th grade, theoretically, CLA teachers
are supposed to cover one textbook in one semester, yet the reality is much more
severe. According to my class observation and interviews with CLA teachers, most
of them choose to finish all new lessons in textbooks before their students enter 12 th
grade, because they believe 12th graders need a whole year to review and prepare
for NCEE. This choice means CLA teachers need to cover at least 3 textbooks each
school year. There are four thematic units in one textbook, each consists of four 10
to 15 pages texts united by a similar theme. The selected readings are mostly multi-
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The CLA class is scheduled for students every school day, but only in one 40-
minutes class. In a regular 40 minutes class, CLA teachers are constantly in a fear of
running out of class time. They are afraid they may not be able to finish the unit
before the next monthly test, or lag behind the teaching schedule made by the CLA
grade office. Teachers are haunted by this “time is up” nightmare because their
lesson plans are tightly related to the school monthly test, they must go over the
lessons and prepare students for the potential test questions within each lesson.
A writing lesson is theoretically arranged at the end of the unit, which is well
connected with the readings. However, the limited class time and the monthly test
pressure force CLA teachers to skip the writing session. It is an unspoken rule that
writing instruction in the textbook will not appear in the weekly teaching schedule,
because it is considered irrelevant to the writing test. High school CLA teachers
cannot afford to have students write in class. The limited class time is barely enough
for them to follow the teaching schedule. There is barely enough class time for
lesson review and no time for in-class independent reading and writing.
Teaching writing has always been elbowed to the corner in CLA teachers’
schedule. In high school, students are trained to pick up writing templates, mostly for
argumentative writing as it is the most common genre accepted in the writing test.
Students’ writing interests and their motivation to write are probably the last thing
teachers consider in the testing battle field. My personal high school experience in
China confirms that writing instruction rarely happens in regular class teaching
except after the tests or exams. In those rare time periods, writing instruction only
scenario, appreciates some students’ excellent writing samples. Students are taught
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efforts in writing are considered unnecessary or invalid. Ironically, even though
writing instruction is constantly absent from the teaching schedule, the writing
section in the test accounts for nearly half total score in the test (70/150). But, since
most students can reach the passing score line (40/70), CLA teachers don’t invest
much time on writing in class. The paradox is that students don’t write except write in
the test. They get punished by low grades in their writing but have no idea what good
writing is or how they can improve writing in their daily CLA class. These things are
Monthly Test
Students are required to complete the CLA test in 150 minutes. The test is
- provides students an excerpt of a classical Chinese essay and sets multiple choice
questions to see if students fully grasp classical Chinese phonetically and literally; 3)
Classical Chinese poetry appreciation analysis --- requires students to write a short
on classical Chinese essay or poetry --- asks students to fill the blanks of the
author, and asks students to analyze its theme, writing styles, its application of
literary tools; 6) Writing --- usually gives students a writing prompt, and asks them to
write no less than 800 words in either a narrative or an argumentative genre. The
testing format and its grading rubrics are parallel with the NCEE, so the monthly
tests are always regarded as the mock tests before the “final monster”.
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Monthly testing is considered as a periodic assessment of both students and
teachers. Students’ test scores are ranked by the grade office, and later grades are
posted in the hallway of the classroom building. High achievers celebrate their pretty
scores while the low-scored ones dodging the crowds, pretending the ranking poster
does not exist. Teachers are pressed by the score rank as well, even though no one
says anything out loud, they compare their class average scores with other classes,
and experience emotional ups or downs in accordance with those scores. Even
veteran teachers like C, cannot avoid this “emotional earthquake” after the test
The week before monthly test, CLA teachers gradually begin to lead students
into the lesson review process, checking to see that all students complete the
essays, go over the essential literary knowledge in each lesson and highlight
significant conventions that may appear in the test paper. After monthly test,
teachers usually spend one or two classes evaluating the test, commenting on
upon the writing section. The frequent tests rob a large amount of class time. As a
result, students do not read and write in meaningful ways. They don’t feel that
reading and writing taught in school are connected to their lives. Consequently,
In such a teaching context, there is no doubt that students’ test scores are the
priority and impact other criteria in defining good teaching practices in China. In C’s
words, keeping a good record of his students’ test scores is fundamental to make
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him successful to his colleagues, his school, students’ parents, and the teaching
community. In his memory, since the year he started to teach in Shisan high school,
the average CLA test scores of the classes he has taught has always been among
the top three in the grade. His students are constantly listed as the high-achievers in
teaching recognizable, they are not the only standard used to evaluate exemplary
criteria (Nanjing Government, 2018), there are at least five requirements that make
These five criteria are the qualities that make Mr. C. standout among other
CLA teachers. His committed passion to engage students in real-life reading and
writing other than test-preps; his continuous efforts to bring current events and
community resources into his classroom; and his dedication in building a school-wide
literate life, are among the activities that demonstrate those qualities and make him
stand out as an exemplary teacher in CLA teaching field, rather than just a good
teacher who prepares students well for tests. The data from my six months of
observation in his class revealed in detail the qualities described above, which I will
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CHAPTER 5
ENGAGING STUDENTS IN MEANDINGFUL READING AND WRITING
I know many teachers feel their teaching is over in this horrible context
and they are miserable. I feel the same, yet I love to turn my head and
see the lights, see the beauty in the pain. There will always be a nice
moment in the teaching. I notice it, and I keep going (Interview, 3.13.
2017).
it is very likely that they feel their teachers care for nothing but the test scores. Mr. C
worried that the fierce testing pressure had already hurt the relationship between
If we keep sending students the message that only test scores matter in
the school, we are driving them away from us. They don’t feel that their
stories, their personal identities are valued by their teachers. If students
don’t feel connected with us in the classroom, they don’t share who they
are with the class, how can we really know their strengths and
weaknesses as readers and writers? (Interview, 7.10.2015).
classroom, the teacher is the single authority who is responsible for spoon-feeding
students the “correct” interpretation of the texts and appropriate writing templates.
questions into the classroom. Interaction between teacher and students is simply
Teachers seldom make any intentional effort to get to know students or bond with
them.
voices as readers and writers. C was constantly bothered by the students’ “fake
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A student once told me she was trained by her 9th grade CLA teacher to
prepare “golden examples” in argumentative writing. I was confused,
had no idea what were “golden examples” in writing. It turned out many
students were told by their CLA teachers to memorize a few examples
that could ‘fit’ any writing topic. One girl crammed the biography of Steve
Jobs before writing test. She was then able to use his stories as
examples to cover writing topics such as “leadership”, “creativity”,
“challenge authority”, “modern hero” etc. no matter how farfetched it
sounded. That made no sense to me at all, but it explained why many
students’ writings sounded so similar in the test (Interview, 4.5.2017).
Such literacy instruction revealed another fact that many CLA teachers don’t
read and write enough themselves. Mr. C worried that teachers’ reading and writing
Mr. C also worried that if teachers didn’t try to bring real-life reading and
writing to students, the textbook-based and test-driven literacy teaching might isolate
students from society and the world they lived in. In the interview, he said:
If students read nothing but textbooks, write nothing but assigned test
topics, they can never grow into life-long readers and writers. Besides,
literacy is supposed to be a vehicle that engages students to read, write,
discuss and act on issues in our society. China’s society is on the edge
of rapid change, which brings about all kinds of social conflicts and
problems. We experience those conflicts and problems every day. It
would be extremely wrong if we keep silent about them in schools. That’s
why I feel it’s necessary to guide students to pay attention to the real-life
problems, teach them to think critically and independently. I think we
should try hard to let students understand literacy learning is not just for
tests, it connects them with the world they lived in (Interview, 4.20. 2017).
Mr. C’s concerns about the current test-oriented literacy teaching in China
reflected his core literacy teaching beliefs. He believes the best literacy learning
occurs in a safe and trusting environment, where there is great rapport between
teachers and students, as well as among the students who comprise the class
87
community. He believes a CLA teacher should be a reading and writing model for
students, a model who constantly shares their own reading and writing life with the
class. He believes students should be invited to bring their own stories, their own
voices to reading and writing and to construct meanings along with their teacher and
peers. He believes students’ lives matter in reading and writing practices and that
Like most high school teachers, Mr. C also confronted test pressure, limited
teaching time and restricted teaching autonomy in his class, yet driven by his literacy
teaching beliefs, he tried hard to manage time and space so that his students could
practices as ways that tapped into students’ desires to bring their real life into
learning, and connect them to the community, society, and the world they lived in
(Cao, 2012). Specifically, instead of simply extracting and recalling information from
the texts or simulating writing templates, C aimed to “guide students to construct new
meanings in the reading, writing and discussions, and infuse personal relevance,
However, under China’s educational context in which test score have become the
benchmark to both teaching and learning, it’s not hard to imagine the difficulties C
on test scores. Therefore, this finding chapter answers the research question: How
Four themes are presented in this chapter. Each theme reveals one aspect of
C’s in-class practice that engaged students to read and write meaningfully according
88
1 Create a safe learning environment;
2 Model and share his literate life as a reader and writer;
3 Engage students in meaningful reading and discussion;
4 Make reading/writing relevant to the real-world issues.
All together these four themes depict Mr. C’s efforts to teach in the cracks of
the top-down textbook-based CLA curriculum. While these four themes are threaded
together by C’s in-class practices that engaged students in meaningful reading and
writing called for inviting them to read critically, to write from heart, and, most
importantly, to make their own voices heard in class. However, when students don’t
feel safe and trusted enough in a learning environment, they might hold back their
voices. This is especially true for Chinese students, for most of whom are trained to
be compliant to teachers and authorities. From a young age they are shaped in
easy to change Chinese students’ mindset toward “looking for standard answers” in
reading and writing and convince them their individual ideas and experiences matter
in school. Engaging students in meaningful reading and writing requires a safe and
trusting learning environment, in which student concerns about being judged are
Compared to many traditional Chinese high school classes where the concept
of “respecting authority” was ingrained, Mr. C’s class was filled with the idea that
everyone’s voice was respected. His students were highly engaged in contributing
ideas in discussions, willing to share their reading and writing with peers, and were
not afraid to bring different opinions or take risks in learning something new. During
89
my first day’s visit, I was amazed by the courage C’s students showed in pointing out
To better explain the idiom, C wrote the Chinese characters on the board and
began to tell the story behind the idiom. This idiom contained one tricky Chinese
character that was easily confused with another Chinese character. C wrote the
A boy raised hand and said: “Mr. C, I don’t think you wrote the right character
on board”.
C turned to his writing and checked: “Well. . . ” he paused a second and said:
Another girl said: “I just looked it up in dictionary, it actually looks very similar
C said: “You are right, I wrote the wrong one”. He wiped out the wrong
Then he turned to his students and said: “Thank you for pointing it out, I
appreciate your effort in looking up dictionary. And, I am a bad mime, and please
11.28.2017).
environment Mr. C created for students. Students were courageous enough to speak
authoritarian culture, Mr. C’s humble behavior toward his students was out of the line
with the cultural practice in China. The fact that his students dared to cross this
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cultural “norm” had demonstrated the trust and bond Mr. C built with his students. In
the following narratives, I will present Mr. C’s efforts in establishing the safe learning
learning, better class behavior and greater academic achievement (Birch & Ladd,
1997; Daniels & Perry, 2003). By developing personal connections with their
environment and are more likely to grow into life-long learners (Curby, Rimm-
Kaufman, & Ponitz, 2009). Mr. C usually set the democratic tone in class at the
beginning of the semester by telling students they were welcome to bring different
perspectives in discussions. Rather than standing behind the podium lecturing Mr. C
positioned himself in the middle of his students, a spot where he could be more
responsive while building intimacy with the whole class. He stood beside students,
reading their faces and body language to see if they were engaged, inspired, or
on conversations with students in class and group discussions, picking up the sparks
texts or writing drafts and then building upon the strengths in them. Mr. C’s
interactive teaching approach gave him an edge to knowing his students better. His
students could also tell he cared about their independent thoughts in class.
Besides in-class practices, C also took the time and effort necessary to build
individual connections with students after class. During my visits to his office for our
interviews I constantly saw students drop by his office to have short conversations
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with him about books they recently read or personal writing they had been working
on. Mr. C made is clear that he was very glad to see students coming by. He listened
to them, wrote down the books students mentioned in his notebook, recommended a
few books or provided suggestions on their writings. In the interview, C shared with
With growing trust toward Mr. C, his students began to expose themselves, to
express their feelings about their lives as teenagers, and to take risks in the writing.
They began to see Mr. C as the first reader of their writing, someone with whom they
could share the happiness or sorrow in their lives. C recalled one time he was
I remember one time I was reading their weekly journal as usual, a pink
post-it note caught my attention. It said: ‘I have a big crush on someone,
I feel if I don’t write it out, my feelings are bursting out. But it’s private, I
only want you to read it. Please don’t share to other people, and please
keep this secret for me.’ I immediately was struck by the trust that kid
had for me. I read her writing, it was a beautiful piece of writing, so real,
so touching, so crystal. It was from the same kid who said writing was
just drudgery for her at the beginning of the semester! (Interview, 12.9.
2016).
Apart from bonding with students personally, Mr. C also emphasized the idea
work was extremely important in literacy learning. Most of his 10th grade students,
however, were not familiar with peer collaboration from their previous educational
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Group work and discussion rarely happened in my learning experience
before I came to Mr. C’s class. I was not used to this learning format at
first, so I kept silent for the first few times in the group discussions
because I was afraid my ideas may sound too childish to my peers and
they may laugh at me (Interview with student, 3.4. 2017).
group work. Many years of “obeying to authority and standards” muted their voices
and made them self-doubted. To change this situation, Mr. C. set group work ethics
during collaborative activities. For example, respect was the most significant ethic
that he anchored in the class. On the front page of students’ readers’ notebook C
These five rules were mentioned many times during my visits to his class, and
C would also circulate among groups to facilitate student discussions and to make
sure they followed the rules. By the second half of the school year, his students were
apparently more comfortable in group discussions and more willing to share their
In this episode, the theme of the class was about “how to identify fake news in
daily reading”. Mr. C had previously assigned several short newspaper articles and
feature stories written by bloggers. All readings were about one controversial scholar
about this person. Chang, Qian, Zhu, Liu (pseudonym) were the discussants. Qian
Chang: Let’s see the second article. Basically, the author criticized Dr. Yang a
lot, but I’ve highlighted some paragraphs (showed his annotated notes
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to others) and looked into his so called “facts”. What I found is that the
author actually either exaggerated or twisted some of the facts. It
seems to me that he was very biased when writing this article.
He showed the details of his research on the “facts” in the group. Others were
Zhu: I had the same wonderings as you did when I read the second and
third article, because these two readings have so many conflicting
opinions. So at least one author lied, or he wasn’t objective enough on
the Dr. Yang issue.
Liu: I don’t think writings could be objective at all. Everyone is biased. Did
you guys notice the author of the third article is Dr. Yang’s friend? They
worked together in the same institute at one time. And it feels to me
that his writing swept aside Yang’s current controversy and only
focused on his contributions to our society. That’s not fair to readers
either.
Qian: I think we need to get back to talking about the “writing purpose” of
each article. I agree with Chang, but I also feel both articles were
biased. So, I guess if we could further analyze why these two authors
held such opinions and who their audiences were, it would be easier
for us to filter the misinformation in the readings (Class observational
field notes, 3.3.2017)
Using different grouping strategies also helped Mr. C build good vibes in the
teaching, Mr. C usually adopted “turn and talk” to group students. Since students sat
in pairs (referred as “desk-partner” in China), both of them could turn back and talk to
the other pair behind them. For extended reading and writing projects, students were
always provided choices: they can choose to group with their friends or to group with
people they had never worked before. Multiple grouping strategies guaranteed
students chances to work with different partners and built great rapport in the class.
Celebrating students’ readings and writings was another way Mr. C made his
class safe and trusting for students. He believed celebration helped his students
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recapture the joy and gain the confidence necessary to read and write meaningfully.
Many of our students today lost interest in reading and writing for a long
time, which is sad because our schools make them this way. They get
used to be criticized by teachers about their reading and writing
correctness, and their confidence as readers and writers is crushed
during the process. That’s why they refuse to read and write. They fear
of failure. To rebuild the joy and confidence in reading and writing, they
need to be constantly praised. Only in this kind of safe and supportive
environment, they can thrive into real readers and writers (Interview,
7.9.2015).
The daily five-minutes book talk routine was an example that Mr. C celebrated
students’ readings in class. He prioritized the beginning five minutes of his class for
students to recommend a book they had finished reading and wanted to share with
the class. In five minutes, the “on-duty” student brought the book and convinced the
class to read it. C even encouraged students to write brief book recommendation
letters and display these letters on the school’s bulletin board. This reading
the joy of sharing reading. Moreover, it sent students a message that reading was
writing day. He would spend time praising students’ choices on writing topics, their
courage in taking risks on genres they had never tried before, and the expression of
critical opinions in the writings. Students were invited to read aloud their writings if
they felt comfortable to share in front of the class or they could choose to share in
small groups and receive peer comments. One of the most impressive writings from
his students that C still remembered was a persuasive writing that challenged him.
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lesson on how to select perspectives in the writing. I remember I told
them to adopt a ‘bigger vision’ in their writings. But apparently, one
student didn’t agree with me at all. In his persuasive writing, he listed 5
reasons why “bigger vision” didn’t work for everyone and developed his
reasons with solid examples. Even though this student’s writing had
sophisticated structure, great word choice and critical thinking, his
writing style was too aggressive and might even have sounded a little bit
offensive to me as a teacher. Because you know, he almost denied
everything I taught in that 15 minutes. So, I hesitated for a while about
whether or not I wanted to celebrate it in class. But I did. I appreciated
his courage to disagree with me and praised his writing skills. It was a
very excellent piece of persuasive writing after all (Interview, 12.9.2016).
Mr. C felt a good teacher should have consistency in their practices, which
explained why even though he had a mixed feeling towards that student’s writing, he
still chose to celebrate it in the class. C did talk to that student after class about
improving the tone of the writing, but what mattered more to the student was that his
teacher was able to “see the brilliance” (Routman, 2005). Because this continuous
writing celebration, his students were highly motivated to write from heart. In the
collected students’ weekly journal samples, I saw them began to tell family stories---
one student wrote about his grandfather, who had rarely appeared in his family life
because of a serious gambling issue, making efforts to fit into the family again. I saw
students ponder social phenomena such as the notorious “jumping in line” culture in
industry. I saw students write about what they really like in their school lives. They
described their friends, their classmates, and their teachers in vivid language. They
wrote movie and book reviews. I saw students begin to question themselves. They
wrote happiness and the exciting moments. They wrote about their confusions and
wonderings. They also wrote about their sorrows, agonies, and sufferings. In other
words, his students began to relocate their own voices in the writing, which had been
missing for a long time since they were trained with test-based writing in 9th grade
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A safe and trusting learning environment was very critical to the engagement
their readers’/writers’ voices in the class. In his students’ eyes, Mr. C was never a
“distant authority figure” but someone who cared about them, as one student said:
The mutual respect and trust C created in his class assured students’
engagement in reading and writing, and the great rapport in the class community
further relieved their fear of making mistakes and being judged during group work.
The constant and consistent celebration of students’ readings and writings made
them stay engaged with their literacy practices and began to see themselves as
Palmer (1998) states in the Courage to Teach that “good teachers join self and
subject and students in the fabric of life” (p.11). Mr. C’s belief in demonstrating his
identity as a reader and writer to students resonated with Palmer’s statement. In the
I’ve taught CLA for more than thirty years, during these years I’ve tried
different approaches in my teaching practices. As my teaching
experiences accumulated, one thing became obvious to me: teaching
was never simply about techniques, strategies or skills, nor was it about
which textbooks or reading/writing programs I applied in class. It came
from my inner self. In other words, who I am matters to my students, my
identity and integrity are reflected in my teaching practices. I am not
simply teaching reading and writing to my students, I am also teaching
myself to them (Interview, 12.9. 2016).
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C’s belief in teaching himself to students landed into two major practices in
class: modeling as a reader/writer in front of students and sharing his literate life with
habits and skills, sharing his literate life with students touched a deeper level in the
learning or when he spotted students’ wobbling moments in reading and writing. For
reflective entries from his writer’s notebook on his personal online blog and then
shared one entry electronically in class. I translated and adapted his blog entry into
C: As you see, my writer’s notebook is not fancy at all. It’s messy, even got soup
stain on it. But it contains valuable writing materials to me. Basically, I
jot down everything. My teaching reflection, my writing inspiration, the
exhilarating or sad moments in my life. But see? (show one page to
students), I don’t drag on it, I jot down a few words or sentences to
remind myself my thoughts at the moment. (He flipped open one page
and showed it to his students). For example, one day I watched a talk
show on TV. People were talking about “Truth in Post Modern Society.”
The host and the guest said people in modern society lived in a biased
social media world. People posted the “truth” they believed and used
the media to exaggerate one side or the other of a story. Because it’s
human nature to “friend” with people who share values with us, we are
inclined to buy the “truth” they fed us. This talk show sounded
intriguing, so I examined my social media account, and found most of
my cyber friends were just like me, also from the educational area, high
school teachers. (Reading aloud his notes to students, he continued).
So here I wrote: We need to get access to multiple information sources
to ensure we don’t get stuck in a narrow small world created by people
like ourselves. (Stopped reading aloud to comment). Then, I reflected
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on myself and wrote in a more specific way. (Resumed reading aloud.).
As for myself, of course I am glad to have emotional support from my
teacher friends, but should I also talk to school leaders, policy-makers,
journalists, authors, people from other professions to have a full picture
in mind? I need to see my blind spots and listen to the stories from
other sides.
Student 1: I get your point that everything intrigues us can be mapped in my writer’s
notebook, but I am wondering how do you turn these notes into a piece
of writing?
Student 2: I am not sure if I can remember all those notes when I write, how do you
make sure you write with the appropriate examples from your
notebook?
C: I read my writer’s notebook, again and again. Reading and re-reading not only
help me refresh the memory of the notes, I also glean new writing
ideas from these notes. During my reading, I compare my notes,
categorize them within similar themes. A lot of my writings came from
reading my writer’s notebook. Try to regard it as the writing inspirations
for your weekly writing journal, when you get stuck in your writing, turn
to your writer’s notebook (Retrieved and adapted from C’s personal
online blog, link: http://blog.sina.com.cn/njcyj ).
of students, Mr. C demonstrated his writer identity to students. He showed them how
examples of his lived experiences and described his pre-writing stage to his
students. C’s modeling was more than teaching students how to keep a writer’s
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In teaching reading, C usually modeled his thinking process as a reader
When I prepare the class, I first read the text as a common reader, not
as a teacher. I keep notes of my confusions and wonderings. When I
read, I remind myself that if as an experienced reader I have questions,
then my students probably have the same one. But, my students may
not be able to explicitly articulate their confusion. That may later cause
misinterpretations of the reading. So, what I do is examine and reflect
upon my own thinking process as a reader, try to understand the steps
that guide me to the final interpretation, then demonstrate the process
through bite-sized questions to students (Interview, 1.4.2017).
A case in point was the way C. guided his students to understand the theme
of Whistling of Birds, a short essay written by D.H. Laurence. He recognized that the
theme of the essay was very challenging for 10th graders because the intricate
philosophical theme was wrapped in an obtrusive language, and the author used
(Before this conversation, Mr. C had already guided students closely read the
text and had several rounds of small discussions on literacy devices and their
C: Great! Now anyone want to have a try at the theme of the reading?
Student 1: I think the theme should be “life verses death”. It was obvious in the essay
that winter symbolized death and spring symbolized life.
C: That is correct. But if I were you, I probably would wonder, “life verses death” kind
of puts life on the opposite side of death, but is it? Think about the
change between winter to spring, and then spring to next winter. Is
there a clear line between life and death? That is the question I came
up with during my reading.
Student 2: So, you are saying just like seasons, life to death or death to life is a
cycle?
C: When I read the description of the whistling, I kept thinking that life is a cycle, or
more accurately, it is a process. We know everything in the world is
going to perish, human beings are no exceptions. So, next I wonder
what we live for? What makes life so special?
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Student 3: Your question rings the bell for me. There’s a Chinese idiom: ‘Placing
someone in the field of death and he will fight to live’. It’s just because
we know our days are numbered, we must make the best of it.
(C. wrote this concept on the whiteboard, and turn to students again)
C: In our culture, death is a taboo, we don’t talk about it. But philosophically
speaking, death is part of a life process, it is not the opposite of living,
but a reminder for us to live, and to celebrate living.
Student 4: I see. It also reminds me of the famous verses by the Indian poet
Rabindranath Tagore: ‘let life be beautiful like summer flowers and
death like autumn leaves., I think is shares the similar theme with this
essay.
C: That’s a great understanding. Now I want you to re-read the last five paragraphs,
and trace back how did the author further explain his understanding of
‘Being-toward-death’ in the essay (Classroom Observation Notes, 1.4.
2017).
little beyond 10th graders, Therefore, rather than bringing it straight to students, C
modeled his thinking process as a reader, decoding the theme of the essay step by
prior knowledge related to the theme were activated by C’s facilitated questions. The
students were able to connect “being-towards-death” to the Chinese idiom and the
well-known verses and arrive at understanding the intricate theme in this essay.
Sharing his own literate life as a reader with students was also a significant
part of C’s teaching. As Assaf (2003) indicates, teachers’ self-knowledge about their
avid reader and enthusiastic writer, Mr. C naturally woven his personal literate
identity into his teaching by sharing his reading and writing life with students.
Compared with modeling the processes of reading and writing, sharing is a much
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more personal way of exposing one’s inner self to the class. On one hand, sharing
further bridges the gap between teacher and students, creating a trustworthy and
equal atmosphere in the learning environment. On the other hand, sharing also
involves large significant self-revealing and reflection, which may put teachers in a
uncomfortable, but C chose to confront it and share it with class if he felt his
experience spoke to his students. For example, after talking to three self-identified
“reluctant writers” in class, he noticed their reluctance was not because of low
interest in writing but due to their low self-confidence. To construct students’ writing
confidence, C shared his “becoming a writer” moment with students at one Friday’s
writing class:
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daunted by writing. They suddenly realized their teacher used to experience the
similar writing crisis even when he had already become an achieved CLA teacher in
his forties. Many of them were inspired to practice writing together with him, as one
I read Mr. C’s online blog and I wished I could write half well as he did. I
thought he was a natural writer. I never thought people like him also
struggle when writing. But it’s good to know. It boosts my confidence to
write along with him. Maybe someday I will write as well as he does
(Interview with student, 1.13.2017).
book reviews, film reviews, travel notes, life stories and even poetry on his personal
blog. He shared his writing with students and talked about his writing process with
them. He radiated his joy in writing to students, but also exposed his pains and
struggles. He invited students to join him exploring their writing territories, and to try
to write in different genres. By sharing his own writing life with students, C provided a
model of how to build a writing life. Students learned to magnify their daily lives,
savor the triviality, and to pin their lives on papers as they gradually weave writing
As an avid reader who read at least 30 books every year and wrote annual
book reviews. Mr. C kept a record of his reading list that he shared with his students.
His reading range was very broad, including literature, history, philosophy, politics,
natural science. He was able to integrate his personal readings when his teaching in
class. For example, the 10th grade textbook selected an anti-war themed short
fiction. The story adopted a first person inner monologue from the perspective of a
German teenaged soldier who was seriously wounded and carried to a military
hospital for operation only to find the hospital used to be his middle school. In only
10 pages, the story infused readers with cruelty and satire of the war. Several weeks
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before teaching the fiction, C happened to read a book of German veterans’
narrative accounts which exposed how the Nazis brainwashed German teenagers.
He immediately decided to include the book in his teaching by conducting a book talk
with students and quoted veterans’ narrative accounts helping them understand the
background for the assigned fiction. Similar scenarios involving transmitting his
personal reading happened several times during my visit. C confirmed the tight
Reading is part of my life, like writing and teaching, it also defines who I
am. For the past ten years, I feel that I am becoming more alert to my
personal reading. It’s like my teaching nerve is subconsciously
monitoring my personal reading. Most of the time I read for fun, but even
during my fun reading, I always notice resources for my teaching. I don’t
necessarily use everything in my teaching, but I keep them in my
teaching reservoir and I keep looking back at what I have in the reservoir.
Then year after year, my teaching gets enriched (Interview, 3.12. 2017).
presented his “undivided self” to students (Palmer, 1998). His personality, work
ethics, beliefs and values were embedded in his demonstrations in class. His
teaching practices not only held a mirror to his teaching beliefs, but also his soul to
students.
cycle and the limited 40 minutes daily teaching schedule all together restricted CLA
“students cannot grow into readers and writers if only textbooks were provided in
to students in the monthly tests. However, he never taught textbook just for tests,
rather than simply lecturing about the content, he constructed time effectively for
students to have engaged reading and discussion experiences. Engaged time is the
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time that students fully attend to the materials and the tasks and make appropriate
responses to the teacher and their peers (Walker and Severson, 1992). When
students are engaged in learning they are more likely to achieve academically. In C’s
case, although he had the same textbook teaching load as many other CLA
teachers, his way of constructing time for engaged textbook reading and discussion
expectations for them and believed every one of them could become an active
Driven by this trust, C prepared them for engaged reading and discussion
before class, conducted mini lessons and class discussions during, and asked
students to keep reflective notes after class. Each phase was organically connected.
To make the most of class time for engaged reading and discussion, Mr. C
initiated a “pre-class reading routine” for his students at beginning of the semester.
He asked students to keep a reader’s notebook where they kept reading response
entries before class. He told me this pre-class reading routine was fundamental to
When students read the texts by themselves before class, they have
already ‘swallowed’ the story or information from the textbook and
developed initial understanding of the readings. Therefore, I am not the
single source of content provider in class anymore. This makes more
time available to guide them into whole-class discussion rather than
lecturing in class. Moreover, because they have already processed the
texts before class, they tend to actively participate in group discussions
and generate better interactions with peers in class(Interview,
12.13.2016).
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Yet motivating students to read before class was considered a common
barrier to many teachers. Mr. C’s solution to overcome that barrier was to provide
students explicit prompts for their pre-class reading. His prompts clearly connected
their independent reading experience with the later in-class expectations of the
reading discussions. For example, for reading short fiction in the textbook, C
interpretation of the texts, and also helped them to internalize good independent
reading habits. To make sure students had done the pre-class reading assignment,
C usually walked around classroom during recession before his class to check on
them with his instruction. Keeping reading responses was like a stretching warm-up
for students, their reading muscles had been activated before the intense exercises
launched conversations with them. In Mr. C’s words, “they are already there with me
Mr. C was fully aware that the traditional lecture-based class did not invite
students to voice their own opinions and the long lecture sessions drain students’
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and guided discussions encouraged students to become engaged in actively making
meanings from the texts along with C during the class. These techniques insured
that students were no longer passive information receivers but actual readers who
identities. He explained:
students’ needs, they were very relevant to students’ current reading stages and
aimed at providing them with better reading experiences in the future. To engage
students in the mini-lessons, C always set one clear and focused goal and let
students understand what was expected during the next 10-15 minutes. He would
introduce the specific topic or skill first, followed by modeling and providing examples
from the texts, then interacted with students through conversations about the
Background: Fate of Man, Chinese Language Arts (Yuen) (Ding, Yang, 2014,
p.29)
The short fiction was written by Soviet Union author Mikhail Sholokhov in
1956 based on a real story during World War Two. The main character, Andrey
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Socolow, was a truck driver who lived happily with his family until he was drafted to
the army when German attacked Soviet Russia. During the war Sokolov was
and ran from Nazis. Soon he found out his wife and daughters were killed in the
bombing and his son died on the last day of the war. The lonely man met a little boy,
Vanya, whose parents were both killed in the war. Soklov adopted the boy and gave
Mr. C introduced the learning goal for his mini lesson: Capture details that
C: Now, let’s take a close look at how the author described character’s feelings. Did
you notice that Soklov cried when he decided to adopt the boy?
(Students located the paragraph.) When I first read this paragraph, I
kept thinking about why he cried. My first response was he was too
excited to hold his tears back. Then I began to reflect on what he
experienced before he met Vanya, so I asked myself if there were any
other feelings that made him cry? I also thought about how he felt
sympathy for little Vanya since the little kid lost both parents. It
reminded him of his own children who died. So, I decided he actually
had mixed feelings. Excitement, sadness, and empathy all together
made him cry.
C continued.
C: Now let’s see how the author described Soklov’s crying in this scene. Because
our main character had mixed feelings, there were actually different
ways the author depicted his crying in the following paragraph.
C: When he decided to adopt Vanya, it says ‘I cannot hold my tears anymore’; then
Vanya responded with exciting kisses and screams, it says ‘my eyes
got misty again. I am shaking all over and couldn’t even hold the wheel
tight’. You see, these are the details the author used to present
Soklov’s feelings. Instead of saying again and again that ‘he was
crying’, the author exposed his excitement and sadness with actions
embedded in detail.
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For the next 8 minutes, C focused on another detail that presented main
character’s feelings, but instead of modeling, he interacted with students this time.
C: Anyone notice the verb the author used when Soklov told Vanya that he was his
missing father?
Student 1: It says ‘I bent over, and whispered to Vanya: do you know who I am?
’Whispered!’
C: That is one interpretation. Let’s think deeper, why do you think Vanya might get
scared?
Student 3: I actually feel the same way. Soklov was trying to get Vanya ready for the
big news! The poor kid lost his family and was homeless for a long
time.
Student 4: I agree, and I also think he asked in a tentative way, like he wanted to
know if Vanya still remembered his father. ‘Whisper’ exposes Soklov’s
soft side, and also showed his love to the little orphan.
C: Excellent! I can tell you all developed great understanding of the characters.
For the last few minutes of this mini-lesson, C smoothly transitioned into the
upcoming group discussions.
C: Great, now you noticed the details in the writing. I want you to talk in small groups
about the applications of details in this paragraph and think about how
the details contributed to showing the characters’ feelings for the
readers.
Students exchanged notes in small groups and discussed the details they
noticed in the writing. C walked around between groups, conducted small talks with
The above mini-lesson showed Mr. C’s teaching pace, his strength in
interacting with students in class, and strong flow and smooth transitions between
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After Class: Reflective Notes and the Follow-Up
Students were asked to keep reflective notes in their readers’ notebook after
class. By comparing their initial reading response entries with in-class notes,
students highlighted a new vocabulary in the texts and reflected on their developing
understanding of the texts. Mr. C reviewed and graded students’ readers’ notebook
once a week, and he kept a good record of their reflections. If students’ after-class
appointment with the student. Students’ readers’ notebooks also became valuable
references for them to review lessons before monthly tests. Many of them confirmed
reviewing their readers’ notebooks was more effective than reviewing worksheets
Limited class time, textbook-based curriculum, and monthly test pressures all
seemed to work against students having an engaged reading and discussion time in
class. Yet Mr. C managed to create engaged learning time for his students. From the
narratives about his lesson cycle (before, during, after class) above, it was obvious
that he valued nurturing students into becoming independent readers with good
reading habits more than he valued preparing them for tests. Nevertheless, he also
class. In his words, a good teacher needed to “keep an eye on the test but should
the belief that meaningful literacy practices and good test scores actually went hand
in hand with each other, thus creating engaged reading and discussion time in class
that it just took time and patience for both teachers and students.
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Making Reading and Writing Relevant to the Real-World Issues
As students in Mr. C’s class were highly engaged in textbook reading and
discussions, they were trained to establish good reading and thinking habits.
Therefore, C didn’t need to spend a lot of time “chewing” on one textbook reading.
He was able to “squeeze” extra teaching time from the schedule and bring extended
earlier, C set the first five minutes class time for students to do the Book Talk,
encouraging them bring in their favorite books to class. He also scheduled Friday as
the writing day, a time that students could celebrate their weekly journal writings with
reading and writing projects into his literacy teaching at least 2-3 times within a
school year. These projects were designed to extend students’ vision and encourage
them to read, think and write critically and civically about the community, society and
world in which they live. Mr. C engaged students in the following real-world relevant
schools. Students are trained to write the five-paragraph essay based on writing
prompts. Without real-life audiences, however, it is hard for any student to write in a
sincere voice. Therefore, students’ writings are full of fake voices and imagined
examples. Mr. C felt that students struggled with persuasive essays because they
experienced a “lack of motivation.” He recognized that students felt the writing topics
were irrelevant to their lives and they didn’t have any urgent need to persuade
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anyone in particular. Thus, he made a major effort to bring real-life audiences into
At the time I visited C’s school construction sites were everywhere, but the
tubes, sand bags, and cement took up space om sidewalks and pedestrians had to
walk on the motorways. C’s school was right beside a construction site. Like other ill-
managed sites in the city, it caused terrible traffic problems for the teachers and
students who were commuting and put people in danger. Mr. C overheard students’
C announced the writing plan at Friday’s writing class. Students were excited
because they felt the writing was deeply connected to their lives. C made clear the
Student 1: Are we really sending letters to the mayor or is it just a writing practice?
C: We are sending the letter to the mayor. It is a real letter that will bring our appeal
to the government, not just writing practice. I want you to understand,
writing serves real functions in life, not only in school test.
Student 2: We’ve never done this before, what if we sound too childish and casual?
Is there any format we need to follow?
C: Yes, there is a specific letter format regards to writing to government officials, but
I don’t want you to worry about it right now. I want you to focus on what
you want to say to the mayor about the construction site beside our
school. What bothered you the most about the construction site? What
do you want to know about this construction site? What are some
improvements you want to see about the construction measures?
Think about these questions and write them down (Classroom
Observational Field Notes, 2.16.2017)
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With an urgent need to change the situation as well as a specific and real
audience in mind, Mr. C’s students wrote their heart out. They complained about the
construction site, argued why and how such chaotic construction site management
negatively influenced people’s lives, questioned the construction schedule and the
after their first draft. He focused on students’ weaknesses in the writing. Students
were also provided a one-page handout on government official letter writing format.
They were put into groups, and collaboratively completed the letter. Students voted
the most convincing group’s letter, signed it and sent it to the mayor’s office. In the
middle of April, Mr. C and students were surprised to find the nearby construction
site had been cleaned, the sidewalks were vacated, construction materials were
relocated. Students were excited to see their letter really brought the change. In my
interview with students, they told me that was the first time they realized writing could
connect them to the world and they were exhilarated by action rather than a grade in
Acknowledging students’ needs and desires for real-life reading and writing
while waking up their civic awareness requires teachers to be alert to the current
issues in society and stay critical and reflective in their thinking. For example, in early
March 2017, a wave of debates across the nation were fermenting on social media.
This debate was about a Nobel Laureate Scientist, Dr. Zhenning Yang, who at age of
94 decided to renounce his US citizenship and return to China. Some people saw
him as a pure opportunist who would gain much but contribute little to China due to
his old age. Others furiously defended him as patriot. Mr. C spotted the socially
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relevant teaching space in this heated debate. He recalled the moment when he
After the monthly test in March, Mr. C replaced Thursday regular class time
and Friday’s writing class with an integrated reading and writing project aimed at
reflected C’s belief that adolescents wanted to actively participate in the society they
lived in. C aimed to facilitate reading and writing for an authentic and meaningful
each for class discussion from newspapers and social media. These readings
presented different voices in China’s society and provided students with multiple
C divided the class into groups with 7-8 students in each, and posted 3
The richness of information and opinions from the readings hauled students
editorials, and blog articles. They not only provided students with different
information, viewpoints, discourse and vocabulary, but also provoked them with
questions about why the author held such opinions and what he/she tried to
communicate to the audience. With the guided questions, students sorted out and
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categorized different positions from the readings, and they gradually understood why
Dr. Yang was subjected to such disputes. For example, during their group’s
I heard about his story and his controversial marriage several times
before, mostly from my families and relatives at dinner table. But I never
really read intensively about his and I never get to know who he is, what
his accomplishments are, and I never thought deeply about why he has
been slandered in our society. I just followed the ill-comments people
throw at him without questioning (classroom field notes, second round
group discussion 1, 3.17).
highly debatable person and all kinds of controversies he caused. Students adopted
a critical lens towards the social media’s bullying a person in China’s society. The
reading and group discussions took 3 classes and followed by three writing
workshops. Students were asked to reflect on their group’s discussion process and
this integrated literacy project, C engaged his students in reading, discussing and
writing critically and civically on one spotlight social issue. Students gradually
understood from the project that Yang was not the only person who had been
brutally reproached on the internet in China and that people living in the new digital
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era are likely to be influenced by social media. They came to recognize that, as
responsible citizens, they should be equipped with the ability to evaluate information
Bringing socially-relevant reading and writing into CLA class was a consistent
effort Mr. made in his teaching career. His most well-known socially-relevant literacy
project was setting aside class time for 12th grade students to do the “speech on
news headlines”. In 2011, when Mr. taught 12th grade, he felt students were totally
isolated from the society. In his words, “they knew nothing about what happened in
the world they lived in” (Interview, 7.11.2016). Buried in worksheets, students shut
the door to society and made themselves the prisoners of tests. C felt his students
were suffocating under the huge pressure from the upcoming college entrance exam
and that it was urgent to let students breath “real-world air.” C recalled his first step
I went to the post office and subscribed newspapers and journals for my
students. They are 12th graders. Yes, they need to confront the big test
in their lives, but they have much more important things to accomplish in
their whole life other than the test. It is not right to marginalize those
adults-to-be from what is going on in our society for a whole year. I
brought the newspapers and journals into my class and said to them:
“No matter how busy you think you are, don’t forget to read the world
and embrace it.” (Interview, 7.11.2016).
For the entire school year, C set aside 10 minutes for students to take turns
delivering a speech at the beginning of each class. The topic depended on each
student’s newspaper and journal reading. In 5-8 minutes students were expected to
introduce the news to class and respond to it. Students wrote script draft a week ago
before their speech and met with C to revise the script during recessions. After each
their own opinions as well as to provide suggestions for the script revision. The
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“reading-writing-speaking-discussing-revising” cycle not only enhanced student civic
awareness during, but also gave them enough time and space to polish their writing.
Samples of students’ scripts proved C’s words. They wrote extensively and
intensively about the hot and urgent topics in society. Some students discussed
China’s politics and foreign policies. Some were focused on climate and environment
issues and exposed the potential causes of the climate disasters. Some penetrated
moral and ethical values in traditional Chinese culture and questioned if these values
still fit today’s society. Some examined and reflected on China’s test-oriented
education system and shared personal experiences to evaluate its validity in relation
to one’s growth. Through reading, writing and speaking, these teenagers began to
realize their identities as more than students. They were also global citizens who
became responsible for noticing, thinking, advocating, and acting upon the world. By
the end of the school year, C collected revised work from his students and sent it to
School should be a place that prepares students for the world, not a place that
segregates them from it. Mr. C’s purpose for bringing socially-relevant reading and
writing into class was to re-connect students to the world they lived in. He noticed
students’ needs to be heard by society, so he set real audiences and purposes for
students in their writing. He was aware of the latest social problems and was able to
present the problems in the form of reading and writing practices to students.
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Although he recognized the test pressure, he prioritized nurturing students to read
and write meaningfully rather than simply cramming them for tests. As he concluded:
Chapter Summary
As stated at the beginning of the chapter, the four themes discussed in this
chapter were connected and all together revealed one exemplary teacher’s quality
teaching under a test-pressed environment. Even though students’ test scores have
become decisive in the evaluation of one’s teaching practice, Mr. C valued students
belief drove his teaching practices and make him stand out from most of high school
teaching across the country drained students’ attention, Mr. C invited them to
develop their own understanding of the texts before class, engaged them with
interactive mini-lessons and group discussions during class, and designed a follow-
up checking system that monitored students’ learning after class. Not only did he
independent readers with great reading habits while making sure to cover the
The driving force behind such teaching practice was his deep trust towards
his students. He held high expectations for them, believed they had the potential to
become active learners, and he kept sending that message to students. This trust
was also the first step to build a safe and trusting environment where students felt
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secure enough to make their own voices in meaningful reading and writing. Under
seeking standard answers. Yet, in Mr. C’s class, he respected students’ independent
reading and voiced writing in class. The rapport he built in the class community
reader/writer identities during the process. Mr. C also drew himself closer to students
by modeling and sharing his reader and writer identities in class. is class. This was
meant to help them “see reading and writing are not easy even to an experienced
senior teacher” (Interview, 7.8.2016) and enhanced the level of security and trust.
Furthermore, Mr. C put great value on the real-world relevant reading and writing
because it connected students to their own lives and the world. His highly-effective
time management earned him extra time to integrate real-world relevant reading and
writing projects into class teaching. Since his students read more extensively and
intensively and wrote with more authentic voices than template-based formula, they
These exemplary teaching practices, however, were not “born” but evolved
over Mr. C’s thirty-year teaching career. The more time I invested observing and
interacting with him, the better I realized what a great life-long learner and reflective
person he was. Besides his avid reading and productive writing in different genres,
willing to take risks in teaching. Even though he encountered some challenges for
his experimental work, he was not afraid to push to the edge for the sake of his
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students. For example, he told me about the following episode which exposed Mr.
C’s strong interpersonal knowledge as an exemplary teacher, a critical quality for him
When I did the ‘Speech’ six years ago with my 12th graders, everybody
said I was crazy. I received complaints from some parents, and they even
threatened to file complaints with the principal. I understood they worried
the ‘Speech’ might rob too much time from test preparation, so I invited
them to my class, and let them see what excellent writers and speakers,
critical thinkers, and responsible citizens their children were growing to
be. The ‘Speech’ helped my students to collect many real-life examples
and cases, strengthened their argumentative skills, provided them
competing perspectives. When parents saw that, they were relieved.
One parent even invited local newspaper journalist to my classroom and
wrote a report about it. . . . (Interview, 5.11.2017).
Every time he tried something new in his class, Mr. C kept notes on each step
of his teaching as well as students’ reactions. He composed his notes into reports
and reflective journal articles afterwards. Mr. C’s accounts showed his flexibility
when confronted challenges. Instead of ignoring the criticism or fighting back directly,
Mr. C empathized with those parents and opened his classroom to them. He
convinced parents by presenting them students’ engaged learning in class and their
later improved writing test scores. In the following chapter, I will describe his
interpersonal knowledge and efforts to establish a school culture that valued reading
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CHAPTER 6
CREATING A SCHOOL-WIDE LITERATE LIFE
structure, in-class literacy teaching practices afford students only very limited reading
class time to engage students in meaningful literacy practices, Mr. C felt there was
inadequate reading and writing in the class. Based upon his experience, C believed
believed if students were provided regular chances to read, write and talk about their
literacy practices in a school context, they would be more likely to become motivated
to develop their identities as lifelong readers and writers. Therefore, for the past
explained:
basis:
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I think reading and writing celebration reinforces the message that
students’ independent reading and writing matter in this school. Not only
CLA faculty care about their progress as readers and writers, but the
whole school is aware of their efforts. The celebration also generates
conversations school-wide. People are talking about how great students
can read and write. These conversations are excellent motivations for
young readers and writers (Interview, 1.9.2017).
Book. Students picked one of their favorite books from their monthly independent
readings and proposed book reviews to their CLA teachers. Mr. C and the other CLA
faculty selected 10 book proposals every month, went back to students, had one-on-
one conferences with the students, and guided them to revise their reviews. The final
Favorite Book proposals and from his own reading lists. The newly purchased books
students, classes from the same grade could exchange books every two months.
Thus, the Book Cross Reading Project became an “add-on” to the school library from
which students could access newly published books as well as the books
recommended by their peers. This reading project created casual spaces for
students to talk about books as they were able to share reading across the classes.
Beyond that, every two weeks the CLA teachers recommended excellent
student writing for publication in the school literature journal and those pieces of
writing were displayed on the hallway bulletin board as well. This whole school
celebration of reading and writing extended students’ reading lists, cultivated reading
and writing interests and habits, and provided students opportunities to share and
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School-Wide Literacy Projects
To further weave a literate life in the school and guarantee new literacy
learning experiences for students in a year, Mr. C and his colleagues designed
literacy projects for each grade level. These projects at least one month apart.
10th graders and their parents were invited to a Poetry Night in the middle of
the fall semester. Students brought the poems they’d created to the night gathering
and read them aloud in front of the audience or expressed them in artistic ways. In
the spring semester, 10th graders celebrated a Drama Festival. Each class in 10th
grade was asked to write their own drama script and ed it out in the school theatre.
In less than 30 days, students wrote collaboratively, revised scripts in groups, and
11th graders were invited to sign up for Mr. C’s Evening Group of Classic
Reading, a book club where s books were together every Friday night. The students
read averagely 15 books and wrote book reviews accordingly across the school
year. During the spring semester, 11th graders participated in the Classical Chinese
12th graders were encouraged to collect their writing from throughout their
high school years to be considered for book publication by the CLA teaching
community. The accepted book proposals were reviewed and edited by the CLA
office and sent to the school publisher. After publication, Mr. C and his colleagues
organized a schoolwide Book Signing for the young authors. Students from other
grades were welcomed to have a face-to-face talk with their senior peers and
future.
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In addition to those regular projects, other schoolwide literacy projects were
organized. For example, in the April of 2017, a new literacy project called Reading
Week was introduced to students. In response to the annual World Reading Day
(April. 23rd), the Reading Week provided students with daily activities throughout an
entire week. Author Talks were given by published book authors who had been
invited to the school. The Reader, an activity where students read aloud their favorite
book chapters, took place. Book Signing Sessions by students who had published
their own books sold books on campus were scheduled during lunch break and long
various scenes were all recorded, printed out, and sent to faculty and students by the
veteran teacher in the school, Mr. C took the leading role and became a consistent
students; leading the CLA faculty; working with the school administrator; and looking
for resources beyond the school campus. Each of these reveals an aspect of Mr. C’s
approach to interacting with people around him and reveals his inner strengths in
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Mentoring Students into the School-Wide Literate Life
Mentoring students into the school-wide literate life was much more
challenging than Mr. C and his colleagues imagined. With daily high pressure of
testing and limited spare time, students preferred to invest their time in test
preparation instead of “extra” reading and writing. C’s efforts in creating school-wide
literacy projects were called into question by some students. Mr. C. recalled the time
When I first set Evening Groups of Classic Reading five years ago, only
4 students in the whole 11th grade signed up for this book club. At our
first meeting, only 3 of them showed up. When we began to talk about
the assigned book, only 1 student finished the reading. A week later, I
overheard students’ conversations during recession. They said ‘Mr.C
was too crazy to set up a book club, we barely have time for test-prep let
alone joining the book club and spending two hours every Friday night
after school. Even though I understood my students, I was still struck by
their words. They thought reading books was a waste of time. . . .
(Interview, 5.12.2017).
literacy projects caused Mr. C to feel an urgent need to change students’ mindset
and encourage them taste the joy of literacy learning. To achieve the goal, he
To invite more students to his book club, Mr. C brought the reading list and
sample books to each class in 11th grade during recessions, gave book talks and
had conversations with students. In his talks, C encouraged students to extend their
vision to their future development but not only on tests. He shared his stories with
books and told them how reading and writing changed his life. When recalled this
experience, C felt his own reader identity convinced students the value in reading:
I remember I shared my personal stories with them, told them how hard
it was for me as a teenager to get books to read because of the Cultural
Revolution. I told them how reading books helped me go over the bitter
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years in my adolescence. Some students who later joined the book club
told me that for the first time they didn’t see me as a teacher, but as a
reader who loved books so much and wanted to share the joy with them.
Two weeks after my book talks, I got 15 students in the book club. Still
not many, but I was confident there would be more students if they
enjoyed the books, and they would spread words in the grade (Interview,
5.13.2017).
Setting peer reading and writing models was another strategy Mr. C used to
lead more students to experience the school-wide literacy projects. In the first year of
the book club, C and his book club student members finished reading 15 books in
different genres and wrote book reviews accordingly. Once students completed a
book, C would invite them to either give a book talk or share reading experiences
during the whole school Monday morning gathering. He also encouraged book club
members to submitting their book reviews to school literature journals and shared
their writings with their peers. Mr. C considered peer modeling as a significant part in
opportunities to make their own decisions. They gradually turned from passive
participants into active decision-makers. One example was the annual Drama
Festival. After making several revisions of their collaboratively written plays, the
students themselves selected directors and actors for their play. They also
coordinated time for rehearsals, contacted theaters to rent costumes, and designed
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the stage settings. For many students, this might have been the first time they had a
say about their literacy practices in the school setting. One student director
Mr. C and other CLA teachers said they were our facilitators in this
project. We could ask for help anytime if needed, but we got to decide
what to play and how to play it. I was overwhelmed at first, as the director
I had tons of decisions to make. My team and I had meetings every day
at lunch break, every one of us were so involved in the rehearsals. We
produced our own play from scratch, if we had not been regarded as
decision-makers in the process, I don’t think we would have invested that
much time and energy in it (Interview with students, 6.15.2017).
diversified. Students received a message that grades are not the only way to define
For instance, during preparation for the stage performances, students were
asked to keep 100-200 words daily journal entries. They were also encouraged to
interview each other during rehearsals. All these writings were collected and edited
as the class journal for the Drama Festival. To assess students’ stage performance,
C invited teachers from drama schools, students from other grades and their parents
costumes and stage settings, the committee provided detailed evaluations after the
final assessment for the Drama Festival. The assessment became more than a
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teacher comment on the final performance. It became a reminder of every step taken
I really appreciate that Mr. C told us to keep daily journal entries. In three
weeks’ rehearsals, I recorded our efforts day by day. I wrote down
interesting stories, sad moments, our conflicts and resolutions. Now
when I open our class journal, those days pop in front of me. I think it will
be one of the most valuable memories from my high school years
(Interview with students, 6.15.2017).
reading and writing into students’ lives. As an experienced literacy teacher, Mr. C not
only demonstrated his own identity as a reader and invited them to find the joy of
writing, and art in those school-wide literacy projects. He mentored students to pay
attention to their own progresses. Students tasted the joy of literacy learning that had
been ripped away by high stakes testing for a long time and they realized their high
school lives were deeply enriched by participating the school-wide literacy projects.
As a veteran teacher in Shisan high school, Mr. C also acted as the lead
teacher in the CLA teaching community. Creating a school-wide literate life needed
close collaboration and quality bonds among different grade-level teachers. With
decades of experience working through 10-12th grades, Mr. C had built great rapport
with other CLA teachers and established a collaborative culture in the community.
goal Mr. C set for the teaching community. Apart from their monthly meeting on
regular class teaching, C also scheduled “mini talks” during school-wide literacy
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projects. Teachers from different grade-levels sat together, shared ideas on the on-
and performance, and listened to other teachers’ concerns and challenges. These
mini talks usually took about 15-20 minutes during Wednesday and Friday’s lunch
break. Many teachers considered these 15-20 minutes as a chance to check if they
were on the right track guiding their students in the projects. They also considered it
mapped out various skills and networks that different teachers could offer in the
community. He then made the best use of them in the projects. For example, in one
lunch break mini-talk, a new teacher said she had studied music and art for many
years. C immediately asked if she could facilitate student costume-making and stage
soundtracks for the Drama Festival. The new teacher was very glad to do so and it
turned out she became the most popular teacher consultant among students. C felt it
was necessary to let both teachers and students see their own value in the literacy
Mr. C had developed a resource map of his colleague teachers’ skills and
networks. This map helped C orient and coordinate work for teachers based on their
personal strengths. During the Drama Festival, Miss W who received her BA as a
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broadcasting major was in charge of student host/hostess audition. Mr. H who once
worked in a publishing company facilitated students’ poster and brochure design. Mr.
guaranteed the success of the school-wide literacy projects. C stressed many times
that without the collaborative culture in the teaching community many wonderful
It is not hard to fetch fancy ideas, what’s difficult is the executive efforts
made by the whole CLA teacher community. We sit together, have
discussions on every detail of the project, take responsibilities, and
reflect the process through constant conversations. Our CLA teaching
community progressed alongside our students during these projects.
Our teachers also grew professionally in the process. The collaborative
culture we built allowed us to offer more opportunities for our students to
experience a literate school life (Interview, 6.12.2017).
teachers and guided them through the first few years professional development. As a
tradition in Shisan high school, new teachers were paired with experienced ones for
their first-year teaching. Therefore, an apprenticeship was formed between the “new”
and the “old.” C was the mentor for two new teachers. Besides observing Mr. C’ daily
in-class practices, these two teachers assisted him with the literacy projects. They
went through a complete yearly cycle of school-wide literacy projects under C’s
guidance. They realized their strengths and weaknesses as the new teachers and
enhanced their teacher identities in the process. One new teacher stated:
I have to say life here is super busy, but I enjoy it and I’ve learned so
much so far. As the lead teacher, Mr. C bonds us together. I never feel I
am alone in my teaching, I always know I can turn to my CLA teaching
community when I meet challenges in the classroom and in the literacy
projects. As my mentor teacher, Mr. C not only demonstrates his
teaching, he creates a sense of belonging for me as the new teacher in
the school. He spots my strengths and gets me involved in the school-
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wide literacy projects. He encourages me to think creatively in the mini
talks and values my voice even though I am not experienced at all
(Interview, 5.3.2017).
Because of the constant communication, different grade level teachers were able to
exchange ideas on the school-wide literacy projects. The mini-talks supported them
in updating students’ performances, provided them with feedback and allowed them
highlighted their personal strengths. Mr. C understood how to “put someone in the
right spot” (Interview, 6.12.2017) according to his/her talents. Thus, teachers were
assigned or volunteered to take on different aspects of the work and supported each
other in the projects. C’s leading role was reflected in his mentorship as well. He
invited new teachers to participate fully in constructing and facilitating the projects,
regarding them as the “new blood” in the teaching community. Under such
leadership, the CLA teaching community designed and organized a variety of school-
wide literacy projects for students and gradually achieved a school culture that
whole CLA teaching community great support in creating a literate life school-wide.
actively participate in the decision-making process in the school and made their
voices heard by the school administrators. From our interviews and my field
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ways he interacted with the principal, and how did he obtain the trust and support
from him.
As a teacher practitioner, Mr. C’s first step to gain support from school
administrators was to initiative the communication. Every time when he was inspired
with new ideas for school-wide literacy projects, C brought them at regular faculty
meetings. He felt it was important to inform the school administrators that CLA
faculty were always willing and committed to trying innovative projects and building a
After sharing the initial plans for a new project and receiving feedback from
principal within a few days. He then revised it based on principal’s suggestions. One
significant rule he kept in mind for building a trusting relationship with administrators
was to always keep them posted during the project via formal face-to-face meetings,
emails, and text messages as well as posts on social media platforms, All
communication was done with the purpose of getting and keeping the principal on
the same page with students and teachers in the project. As Mr. C explained:
If I were the principal, surely, I want to know the current status of the
project, if students enjoy it, and where it is heading. Administrators have
many other duties of concern, so I don’t think it’s fair to expect them to
follow up on every detail in the project. That’s why I always take the
initiative to report what is going on to my principal and keep him informed
of students’ achievement in the process. Besides, this communication
also creates space for the later discussions when we experience
challenges in the project. If the project doesn’t go smoothly as planned,
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my follow-up reports will become the references for solutions at next
faculty’s meeting (Interview, 5.12.2017).
administrators, he earned himself and the whole CLA teaching community trust from
the principal. The real-time feedback C sent during the literacy project not only kept
the principal informed of the progress students made and the challenges they
experienced, it also helped the principal visualize the value in creating a literate life
for students. When the administrators saw students’ smiley faces and their
engagement in the project, it spoke louder than words to them and let them know
that the investment was worthwhile. They developed faith in the teachers and were
project proposal with certain flexibility was also necessary to obtain administrators’
support for the school-wide literacy projects. As time and budget were two major
concerns the school administrators kept in mind, Mr. C detailed the agenda for the
project and made the budget transparent to the principal. For example, the Drama
Festival proposal included two detailed one-month time tables. One for CLA faculty
and the other for students. Everyone who participated in the project was clear about
their daily tasks and during the count down one month before their stage
performances. The two organized time tables created a concrete time line in the
project for the principal and shared the project vision with him. Thus the project
became tangible rather than simply a fancy idea in principal’s eyes. As for the
budget, C made a clear line-up items such as “costumes rental”, “stage settings”,
“publicity (posters)” and provided the principal a total of the cost. With a lucid
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proposal plan in hand, the project sounded promising and operable to the school
administrators.
“What can I do for the school and students?”, this was the question C kept
asking himself. One answer which continuously motivated him was the need to
explore multiple educational resources for Shisan high school. Around 2011, the
JiangSu provincial educational bureau planned to invest some pilot schools to set up
opportunity for Shisan high school to create its own CLA curriculum base, he went
straight to principal’s office, and shared his rough ideas for writing a funding proposal
I was very excited to learn about this funding opportunity and couldn’t
wait to talk to the principal. I said ‘we have already done so much to build
a school-wide literate life for students, and we are still coming up new
ideas for literacy projects every year. There is a great chance we can
become one of the pilot schools’. And I remember he (the principal) said:
‘Mr. C, I think we are ready to be the pilot school. You can come to me if
you need anything in your proposal writing. Go for it!’. So, I went for it
right after I walked out his office (Interview, .10.2017).
Mr. C spent two months selecting and organizing the data from previous
newspaper coverings, etc.) and evidence of his personal as well as other CLA
teachers’ in-class practices. With solid data and a thorough plan to build the future
CLA curriculum base, C’s proposal received six million RMB (about 1 million U.S.
dollars) from the provincial government. This funding source became the major
Mr. C said many times he was very lucky to have an open-minded and
supportive principal behind his back, but it was also obvious Mr. C himself took great
effort to earn the trust of the principal. His initiatives in communication, courage to
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share new ideas, expertise in project proposal writing, and dedication in building a
better school positioned himself as a great resource to administrative efforts and built
reading and writing life through diversified literacy projects. To ensure project
diversity, he reached out to scholars and educators beyond school and invited them
to participate in the literacy projects. During my visit to his school, I had observed his
engagement in collaborating with scholars and educators and heard him reflect on
those connections:
college professors, and educators. During the World Reading Week, Mr. C invited
two renowned book authors as the keynote speakers to the school. Mr. C prepared
the day eight weeks ahead. He wrote a list of authors and checked their availability
for mid-April. He, then, spent time discussing the theme and content of the lectures
with the available authors. Mr. C also asked the authors to provide a 150 - 200 words
lecture abstract along with their preferred personal photo and a short biography. This
information was printed on posters inviting students to the Author Talks. At the same
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time, books written by the two authors were introduced in the school library and were
made available for students to check out. C considered this eight weeks’ pre-lecture
I don’t want to throw my students directly into the lecture hall, and say
here it is, listen to the author and learn how to read books. Effective
lectures don’t work that way, at least not for high school students. I want
to build some understanding between the authors and my students
before the lectures They need to know about each other. So, during the
weeks before the lectures I equipped the authors with the knowledge of
the books my students had already read, the books they enjoyed, the
readings they felt were more challenging. In this way, the authors might
have a more detailed picture of their target audience. I also needed to
build heat for students before the lectures. The lecture posters and the
chance to read their books are great ways for students to obtain some
prior knowledge about the authors. If students have this first layer
acquaintance with the authors, it’s more likely they can develop active
interactions with the authors in the lectures (Interview, 7.14.2015).
Another way Mr. C brought a diverse lens into the school-wide literacy
significantly because “they could see his blind spots in the projects” thus providing
him a better vision and practices for the next project. C recalled once he was
This question also led Mr. C to ask students to keep daily journal entries
about the Drama Festival. Students recorded 100 to 200-word snapshots of their
experiences. This journal writing activity led to students’ voluntary class journal
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editing. They selected stories and compiled them into a hand-made book. Mr. C was
open to constructive suggestions and even critiques of his literacy practices from
other teachers and researchers. His humble attitude often won him more chances to
curious about the people who have a different opinion. . . I don’t mind
disagreement, as a matter of fact, I rather embrace it. I think I was born
that way, full of curiosity, always more curious about the world in other
people’s eyes. When they don’t agree with me, that means an
opportunity for us get to know each other better. I love to have
conversations with people… it a helps me get a clearer picture of my
own thoughts. That’s why I can always get new ideas on the school-wide
literacy projects, and that’s why I have worked with so many literacy
teachers and college-level researchers in literacy field (Interview,
4.13.2017).
Mr. C’s willingness to collaborate with educators beyond school helped the
school-wide literacy life evolve year after year. His initiated reaching out to different
people in the literacy field and brought his students more opportunities to interact
with book authors and have lectures from college professors. Mr. C himself was a
passionate learner. He grabbed every opportunity to learn and also wanted to bring
the joy in learning to students. His openness to suggestions and criticisms provided
Chapter Summary
This chapter presented Mr. C’s leading role in creating a literate life in his
school. Despite China’s current testing pressure and its strict curriculum framework
in which CLA teachers had very limited space to teach meaningful reading and
writing in the class Mr. C. found ways to nurture life-long readers and writers. Mr. C
had to “break the classroom walls and extend literacy practices school-wide”
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As an exemplary teacher in Shisan High School, Mr. C’s expertise and
passion in teaching were never limited in his own classroom. Along with his
students who had forgotten the joy in reading and writing. The teacher leadership
central position his school’s operation. His literacy beliefs and practices also
educational improvement. Their efforts were gradually recognized by more and more
school teachers, principals, parents, news press and TV programs in the nation.
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CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
The words above from Mr. C are well aligned with my observations of Mr. C’s
narrative accounts and literacy practices. I brought the research question: "How
under a severe testing culture?" to my research site. It was answered by Mr. C’s in-
class teaching practices and his efforts in building a school wide literate life in
While documenting Mr. C’s in-class and school wide literacy practices, I
discovered Mr. C’s “inner strengths”: his intrapersonal and interpersonal knowledge
(subject and pedagogy), these two types of knowledge appear to be the driving force
behind teachers’ “choice of actions” in their teaching career (Collinson, 1996). The
knowledge that teachers gain from personal experience and years of teaching, is
also very critical to support their “working within the system” (Garcia & O’Donnell-
Allen, 2015).
Even though exemplary teachers the world over share similar personal
specific culture and social system. Therefore, while part of my participant teacher’s
practices and his underlying dispositions may count as exemplary in both China and
U.S. educational contexts, some of his actions may sound more familiar and
accepted in western classrooms yet bear more value within non-western cultures. In
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knowledge and their practical knowledge, then I will analyze Mr. C’s exemplary
teacher in China could also be regarded an exemplary teacher within the context of
Intrapersonal Knowledge
two layers. The first one deals with a person’s characteristics or dispositions, which
are usually grounded in one’s daily actions; the second layer involves one’s ability to
reflect and introspect, or simply put, the ability to know himself/herself. Intrapersonal
knowledge represents individual ways of thinking and ways of being. Palmer (1998)
teaching should emerge from one’s introspection: “As I teach, I project the condition
of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together” (p.2).
Like many exemplary teachers, Mr. shared some work ethics and common
about students’ development as adolescents and as future citizens than their test
scores. He was dedicated to his teaching career and was able to connect his own
literate life with his teaching. Teaching had made its way into Mr. C’s being, thus he
was able to feel students’ complaints about noisy construction site and bring up a hot
debate on social media, as well as other news headlines as teaching materials in his
class. This disposition demonstrated with Palmer (1998)’s assertion about good
teachers: “Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to
weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects and their
students. So that students can learn to weave a world for themselves” (p.11).
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He ensured that both his instruction and school-wide literacy activities were
relevant to students’ interests and life experiences. Mr. C was open to new ideas and
to taking risks in his literacy teaching, which was very unusual among teachers in
China. He drew experience from his previous teaching but was never satisfied to
repeat himself from one lesson to another. Rather, he embraced the suggestions
and even criticisms from other educators, as well as feedback from his students. His
open-mindedness earned him more opportunities to find the strategies that benefited
students the most in class and school wide. Mr. C’s open-mindedness was largely
associated with his humbleness and the spirit of “striving to get better” as an
individual. Even though he had over thirty years of teaching experience, and had
good enough and was continued to look for spaces for personal growth in teaching
as well as in his own literate life. This eagerness for growth pumped his courage to
take the risks and overcome the adversities within his teaching context. The spirit of
“striving to get better” was ingrained in and shaped him into a life-long learner.
Reading, writing and learning had become part of his life and his identity. As he said
in the interview:
The narrative account above revealed the second layer of Mr. C’s
intrapersonal knowledge: his capacity to reflect and introspect upon his own
practices. Dewey (1910) concludes that one’s reflective thought was conscious and
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“thinking about what one is doing. It entails a process of contemplation with an
doing one’s best” (p.11). Reflection also allows teachers to deal with the uncertainty
and ambiguity in teaching (Schon, 1983), thus teachers who are willing to reflect are
also more willing to take risks in their teaching. Reflective teachers, as Akbari (2005)
argues, are able to come up with ideas to improve their performance and enhance
students’ learning through critically examining their practices and apply those ideas
to their teaching. When teachers constantly reflect on their own actions, to question
who they are and will become, their reflexivity is activated in the process
(Danielewicz, 2001). Giddens (1984) explains that reflexivity is “not merely self-
conscious but as the monitored character of the on-going flow of social life” (p.9).
Qually (1997) further states that it “involves a commitment to both attending to what
we believe and examining how we came to hold those beliefs while we are engaged
in trying to make sense of another” (p.5). In other words, reflexivity enables teachers
not only understand “what” to teach, but also “why” to teach. Therefore, they gain
Mr. C’s reflexivity was manifested in his “inner dialogue” with himself. The
understand his strengths and weakness as a teacher, and refined his teaching
beliefs. Mr. C’s “self-dialogue” took many forms. The most common one was through
reflective journal writing. Mr. C also wrote a teaching autobiography and reflected on
the “milestones” in his teaching career. His reflective narratives led him to a
administrators etc.) around him. Since the narratives were embedded in concrete
literacy teaching practices, his understanding of himself and others were not abstract
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but context- specific His autobiography showed that reflexivity gradually developed
through continuous “self-dialogue” over the course of his career. It was this dialogue
that enabled him to think in terms of “teaching himself to students”. His self-
knowledge was the solid source for his reading/writing modeling and literate life
demands empathy, honesty, trust, respect, good communication skills and a sense
believes that exemplary teachers put the same energy into building relationship with
others as they do to develop their teachings. The “others” include students and their
dealing with complex issues in their teaching. These exemplary teachers are realistic
and aware that they work within political systems (Sternberg & Horvath, 1995).
Mr. C’s interactions with students were about much more than just teaching
them literacy skills and content. He built relationships with students and modeled
how to live a literate life to them. He wanted to know about them and built
interests, their lives and perspectives, and was willing to embrace those in his
teaching practices. The connections and bonds he established with students brought
them closer to him, not only as their teacher, but their reading/writing model and the
person who taught them how to be life-long learners. His interactions changed their
mindsets regarding literacy learning under China’s severe testing culture. His way of
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building conversations with students in class fit the description of “dialogue” brought
sociopolitical realities:
Mr. C’s interactions with his colleagues in his school and the educational
exemplary teacher. His efforts in creating a school wide literate culture reflected
Mr. C’s collaboration with other CLA colleagues in his school manifested his
leadership and team spirit. Most of all, the school wide literacy teaching and learning
community they created together also resembled the idea of “open space” brought
classrooms but reaches a wider community of learning (Howey & Collinson, 1995).
convinced the school administrators the feasibility of literacy activities school wide.
The effective communication he developed with his principal led Mr. C to share
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concerns from his principal’s perspectives. For example, he made a clear budget for
each project and was working hard to seek for external funding for his school.
Mr. C’s interactions with colleagues and school administrators led them to
acknowledge his core literacy teaching values. He helped them see that, to him,
and administrators, continuously reinforced this significant belief school wide through
both words and actions. To a great extent, it gradually influenced the school culture,
and made Shisan high school nationally known for its high-quality CLA instruction.
As Sternberg and Horvath (1995) state, expert teachers must understand the
context. As a practicing teacher, Mr. C not only rooted himself in his classrooms, but
also made his voice heard by his colleagues, school administrators and educational
upon the youth of the nation and hoped educators and policy-makers would pay
attention to this national crisis. He advocated for meaningful literacy teaching and a
school wide literate life at the conferences and presented his school’s efforts to
achieve the goal. He constantly looked for opportunities to collaborate with other
resource for improving their teaching and students’ learning” (p.24). Mr. C never
confined his identity to that of a CLA teacher alone but regarded himself as a
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nurtured his professional life and brought additional educational resources to his
way of reconstructing the past and the intentions of the future to deal with the
exigencies of present situation” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, p.25). Clandinin (1985)
use the concept of teachers’ practical knowledge to explain the relationship between
one’s teaching theories and their actual practices in the classroom. She claims that
experiences. The constant reflections then lead them arrive at the stage of “flow” ---
the joy and fulfillment--- in teaching (Garcia & O’Donnell-Allen, 2015). Simply put,
(Clandinin, 1986, p.174). It guides teachers’ actions in practice (Lantz & Kass, 1987;
Verloop, 1992). In my case study, for example, when I interviewed Mr. C about his
pace and rhythm in teaching, he provided a narrative account that revealed practical
I don’t need to see the clock on the wall, I just know when to start, when
to change the topic, and when to stop. I have an internal clock inside me
(Interview, 4.25.2017).
as novice teachers do, but more often they tend to look back into what they believe
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and regard the difficulties as challenges that push them forward in their professional
lives.
Mr. C’s teaching beliefs grounded his practices. At the same time, his
practices were reshaping his beliefs. They both contributed to his practical
disposition. Mr. C’s reflective disposition enabled him to notice the “wobbling
moments” in his teaching. As Fecho (2011) states in his book, wobbles in the
teaching cause teachers to “stare and consider” as well as “nudge them toward
actions” (p.53). Mr. C’s reflective internal dialogue reconstructed the narratives of his
teaching experiences. Thus, his practical knowledge was enhanced through his own
both students and adults provided him various opportunities to receive feedback
about his teaching practices. Thus, he was able to see his image in other people’s
cracks of the top-down mandated curriculum under China’s test-pressed context. His
teaching beliefs were not “taught” to him directly from any textbooks or workshops
but were reinforced again and again by his class practices. Even though there were
many rough edges in his teaching context and those external forces might have led
him in a different direction, his beliefs were rooted in him and were not easy to alter
in incompatible ways. As Van Driel, Beijaard and Verloop (2000) conclude, teachers’
teachers’ concerns about their own teaching context” (p.142). This leads to my next
discussion based on the question, “Has my participant teacher also met the criteria
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A Cross Cultural Perspective on Exemplary Teachers
Chinese society, and its particular culture values certain qualities in a good
teacher. In a cross-cultural study, Jin and Cortazzi (1998) compare British and
Chinese students’ standards for good teachers. They find while British students care
more about teachers’ “teaching skills”, Chinese students characterize a good teacher
as the one who possess great knowledge and are able to answer all questions.
educational context. Teachers who are considered knowledgeable are called “expert
teachers” in China. The researchers then assert that because Chinese culture is
deeply rooted in Confucianism, Chinese students tend to see their teachers as the
authority figure in class. Consequently, they are supposed to be “right” all the time
and fully control the class because “making mistakes” is seen as “losing face” in front
of students.
As a teacher who taught CLA for over thirty years and enjoyed a rich literate
life, Mr. C was very knowledgeable in CLA discipline, but he broke the image of a
students. By doing this, he also broke the hierarchical relationship (Holmes, 2004)
between students and teachers. It turned out students thrived in reading and writing
under the democratic learning environment he built in the class. For many teachers
and students in U.S. educational context, such democratic behavior might seem
natural in classes since it is regarded as the foundation in U.S. social system. Some
construct meanings along with teachers might sound as common practices from
western educators’ perspective. Yet these practices are very rare in an educational
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context where teaching and learning are usually “fragmented, linear, competition-
attributes” (Sullo, 1999, p.17) among them, do share common traits in their practices
around the world. As Williams (2001) state, exemplary teachers are the ones who
never give up searching for innovative ways in their teaching and students’ learning.
They search ways to engage students’ interests as they want to create a learning
experience that provide students deeper and wider knowledge (Ayers, 1995).
Despite the specifics in his teaching under China’s culture influences, Mr. C’s in-
class and beyond-class literacy practices, driven by his deep believe in meaningful
more than half of them place “capacity to prepare students well for tests” as the
priority among exemplary teachers’ qualities. This survey echoes the exemplary
teacher criteria I presented in Chapter 4, which also place students’ test scores as
the gatekeeper for recognizing good teachers in China. The challenges Mr. C
were not only practical ones, such as limited teaching time or pressures from tests.
He also had to fight students’ negative and indifferent attitude towards reading and
writing. In this sense, he was fighting against the testing culture. Mr. C’s practice of
teaching context. Yet it requires strong teaching beliefs and considerable courage to
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study, exemplary teachers “managed to produce better achievement regardless of
knowledge. For instance, Rallis and Rossman (1995) argue that stellar teachers are
lifelong learners and they display undeniable passion for teaching. They are
curious and willing to take risks in their teaching. Collinson (1996) conclude that
exemplary teachers “understand that students need to learn more than subject
matter in order to be ready for life beyond the classroom” (p.10). Thus, they hold a
bigger vision towards their teaching and students’ learning and know how to build
relationships with others in their teaching career. In Waller (1965)’s words, they
understand “the important things that happen in school result from the interaction of
personalities” (p.1).
around the world. What impressed me the most was not his actual teaching skills
and practices, but the deep meaning behind his actions. Even though he taught in a
culture with a burning testing fever, a curriculum that almost squeezed out one’s
teaching autonomy Mr. C never let the test curriculum take over the control of his
practice but found ways to “work within the system” (Garcia & O’Donnell-Allen, 2015)
--- the ways that teachers “meet the mandates but doing on their own terms” in their
the change and reform. Most importantly, he was a passionate learner and even
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though he confronted the challenges in his teaching career, he enjoyed teaching and
helping his students become passionate learners as well. This depth of feeling as a
This is the core value of an exemplar teacher --- he enjoys his work.
in China are under huge pressures from the Chinese society. Their counterparts,
ELA teachers in U.S. are also concerned about their pressed teaching autonomy and
students’ lost joy in reading and writing within the test-driven curricula currently
dominate across of the nation of U.S. There are implications for teachers in both
countries as well as for policy makers and teacher-educators. There are also
implications for research in exemplary teachers’ studies. Even though there are
This study has several implications for teachers in both China and U.S, which
I listed as below.
work within the system might be a way they could maintain their literacy teaching
when teachers are asked to comply with the systematic constraints that contradict
with their beliefs, they should “pause and critically read the system, then determine
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how to intentionally proceed in ways that won’t require you (them) to compromise
your (their) principles” (p.9). Metaphorically, teachers needed to “meet the letter of
For most teachers in both China and U.S and, in many instances, globally, it
is not easy for individuals to fight against the mandated curriculum and the required
high-stakes tests. This is especially for the new teachers. Working within the system
focuses on teaching beyond the rules set by policy-makers. This is different from
Considering Mr. C’s alternative ways to achieve what he believed in literacy teaching
within China’s rigid education system, I think that knowing how to work within the
system might be a solution to the reading/writing teachers who feel their teaching
“involves shuttling back and forth between thinking and action” (p.12). Reflection is
also the inner teaching courage Palmer (1998) advocates for teachers, for it helps
teachers to understand their teaching beliefs, values and gain the self-knowledge.
He further states, “the more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more
become part of teachers’ daily or routine practice. Mr. C kept reflective journals
regarding his teaching. By doing this, he was always connected with his inner self
knowledge about what they may expect to encounter in their own classrooms and
lives of children they will teach” (Braun & Crumple, 2004, p.61).
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Reflective practices could also enhance teachers’ practical knowledge, which
it helps them theorize their actions. Most importantly, when teachers embrace the
triumphant moments or confront the shadows and limits in their teachings, they are
also becoming more conscious of their integrated selves. The rich self-knowledge, or
a strong sense of personal identity will eventually find its way into their teaching
students in literacy learning is through modeling reading and writing to them (Rief,
2014; Routman, 2005). Setting up good literacy models for students requires
teachers to build their own literate lives and become lifelong learners themselves. As
teachers should “allow their literate lives become public in their teaching” (p.20).
Teachers’ “literate identities” (Gomez, 2005), their personal sense of self as a literate
person, are deeply connected to how they create literacy learning environment for
students. In this case study, Mr. C enjoyed a rich personal literate life. He read
extensively and intensively, and naturally connected his literate life to his teaching
practices. His action resonated with Kaufman (2002), who exclaimes: “If I want my
According to Kaufman (2002), modeling should be “the act of living one’s life
under the gaze of another” (p.51). Therefore, one’s literate life becomes the lived life
in the eyes of students. It empowers teaching practices more than any conscious
transmission of the subject matter. When teachers become literate people, they also
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share dispositions of lifelong learners. As Graves (1990) argues: “Literate people
have a passion for asking questions, both big and small, a hunger for learning new
things and for making connection. In short, they have a particular stance toward the
Even though literacy teachers today are faced with severe testing pressures
and heavy workloads in their teaching, I do believe it is more than necessary for
them to reconnect themselves with the joy in reading and writing, to establish their
own literate lives, and model their literate identities in and beyond their classrooms to
students.
Collinson (1996) expresses her concern about teacher isolation from their
colleagues. Palmer (1998) also worries that academic culture in U.S. built barriers
between colleagues because of the potential competition and the “private nature” of
collaborate with each other and build their own teaching community in the school. As
adopt the idea of “open-classrooms”, any teacher can apply to visit an exemplary
teachers’ class. Teachers, especially novice teachers, are more likely to get access
to regular interactions with their colleagues do to this. In my case study, Mr. C and
his CLA colleagues were together in their commitment to a school wide literate life.
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They had regular meetings and lunch time mini-talks, thus they were able to “engage
Goddard & Moran, 2007, p.880). They not only built a school culture that celebrated
autonomy in the education system. They should make their voices heard by policy-
than being regarded as merely test-takers. As more and more teachers share their
teaching beliefs and voice their opinions in the system, I believe their joint efforts will
The findings of my case study suggested that meaningful reading and writing
mattered to students. Their reading and writing interests were triggered by the topics
that related to their real lives and the issues they cared about in society. Students
were also enlightened that reading/writing were not test-bounded tasks in school but
became real and functional in their lives in classroom. However, it is sad to see how
much effort was needed by my participant teacher and other exemplary teachers in
both China and U.S. to achieve their teaching beliefs under the test-driven and one-
size-fits-all curriculum (Allington, 2001). It is also sad to see even though teachers
are the ones who know students and their learning the best, they are often excluded
from educational policy making. Policy makers need to understand the importance of
which afford teachers more autonomy and students more time to read and write
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process would benefit teaching and learning at both school and district levels.
Additionally, policy-makers should also give teachers space to take risks and grow
while teaching, rather than use accountability measures to control and pressure
limited to professional or subject matter. Teacher training should not only focus on
teaching skills and strategies. Teacher education programs should prepare pre-
service teachers for the “messy reality of teaching” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009).
Our future teachers need to know classrooms are fulfilled with uncertainties and
ambiguities, their teaching is enriched not only by the theories they acquire from
as well as their practical knowledge. To get pre-service teachers ready for their
opportunities for pre-service and novice teachers to see what exemplary teachers
are like, or maybe even work with exemplary teachers in K-12 schools. Moreover, to
teaching communities, I think their interactions with peers and their mentor teachers
their interpersonal skills in teaching. Last but not the least, teacher educators should
work with teachers and school administrators to fight against the harmful system that
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Implications for Future Research
test-driven system. While the findings answered my initial research questions, this
what ways do teachers enhance their teacher identities throughout their teaching
careers? Do other exemplary teachers in the same Chinese teaching context share
sociocultural context, are there any specific differences in teaching practices when
exemplary teachers deal with test pressures? These questions need further research
related to exemplary teachers around the world. For example, to get broader
exemplary literacy teachers might be conducted in two or three different cultures and
social systems. Or, to get a deeper knowledge of exemplary teachers’ inner sources
for “teaching in the cracks” under high-stakes tests, the researcher could conduct a
case study of one or two exemplary teachers while adopting ethnographic lens and a
informed Mr. C totally devotes himself to his teaching. While his passion for teaching
makes him a successful teacher, he seldom has time for his family. His wife takes
see teaching as his life. As the researcher, I am wondering if all exemplary teachers
have to sacrifice that much of their lives in order to be exemplary. Is it possible for
any exemplary teacher to have a balanced life and also achieve exemplary practices
157
in their teaching career? I’d like to study those exemplary teachers, especially the
female teachers who have dominated our K-12 teaching field globally, to see how
suggest that they pay more attention to K-12 classroom teachers and students. They
need to understand how teachers really teach within the rigid textbook-bound
curriculum, listen to teaching beliefs and concerns, set foot in their classrooms and
work with individual teachers. Researchers also need to observe how and what
students really learn under such test-oriented environments, listen to what students
really care about in terms of reading and writing. I hope such studies could also
become the bridge between teachers and policy-makers and teacher educators and
This qualitative research was designed as one single case study. As Yin
(1994) stated, the findings in a case study cannot be used to draw general
my findings to other settings but felt it to be more urgent to look at my collected data
and analysis process, I do feel I could have reached further into my participant
into the data for his life history and his teacher identity construction was that the
158
focus of my current study was his teaching practices. I was more curious about what
did he do in and beyond class to nurture students into readers and writers.
Even though I argued in the implications that exemplary teachers share some
teachers presented in the study that may not fit the value in western culture. For
example, Mr. C spent almost all his time in teaching and learning. While this passion
burnout for teachers in U.S. Mr. C. didn’t have much time to live a relaxed personal
“insider-researcher” (Breen, 2007). I looked into a culture that I was born and raised
in. While this role provides me good understanding of the system and an intimacy
with my participants, the familiarity I bring with me towards the culture may also lead
though I tried hard to confront these biases and constantly reflected during the study,
Concluding Thoughts
China for 12 years. I experienced personally the pain of gradually losing joy in
159
reading and writing throughout my own junior and senior high school years. I still
remember what an energetic and creative young writer I was before 8 th grade, and
how my own passion for writing faded away by simulating writing templates for tests
after that.
When I met Mr. C and observed his teaching, I did wish I had been his
student in high school. I was at first impressed by his way of bringing meaningful
reading and writing to students, then I was touched by his strong beliefs, values,
faiths and courage in literacy teaching. His great intrapersonal and interpersonal
knowledge explained why he could achieve his literacy teaching beliefs with so
teacher sets a model for teachers who are torn between their beliefs in teaching and
education globally.
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APPENDIX A
ORIGINAL IN-CLASS FIELDNOTES SAMPLE
161
APPENDIX B
TYPED BILINGUAL FIELDNOTES SAMPLE
162
APPENDIX C
ORGINAL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION SAMPLE
163
APPENDIX D
TRANSLATED INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION SAMPLE
D: Teachers are too busy today, they seldom have time to reflect on their own
teaching practices. When did you realize reflection played an important role in your
teaching career? What did you do when you realized it?
C: From the time I decided to really devote myself in teaching. I decided to put my
life in my teaching, and I began to reflect and try to conclude after a while. But the
quality of my reflection keeps going up. In the early stage, I would write some simple
stuff, mostly just reflect my own teaching practices, it was not systematic and lacked
deeper thinking. But that was my growing phase as a teacher, and every teacher
need to be there and experience that. From 2000, I began to realize I need to
systematically organize my reflections on teaching. I developed self-consciousness
on teaching around that time. I think this idea was prompted by the process of
applying for superb teacher. I began to think about what I have, what I can tell other
teachers, my peers, my colleagues about my teaching? Others may feel that I had so
many stuffs at hand, everything looked so great. But no, I was very suspicious about
myself. What is my originality in teaching? What is my asset as a practicing teacher?
It is not a theory, I don’t think our practicing teachers are destined to build theories in
teaching. So, the problem became, how many classes I can share with my peers? I
need something tangible that I can have a discussion with others. I began to record
my own classes, my own teaching with cameras. I recorded 80 classes in total and
transcribed them into scripts. I categorized them into 40 writings.
C: I think you know about yourself matters the most in teaching. Teaching is teaching
yourself. Very few Chinese teachers realize that, because we don’t reflect. Reflection
is painful. Who reflects? People with a career ambition. But too many teachers think
teaching is just a profession, not their career. Another reason is that reflection to
Chinese is to deny selves. If you don’t have an inner drive, you just follow the
policies, follow the rules. You need authorities to prove your teaching. For me, I’ve
already known how to listen to myself, and I put my passion, love into my class.
Myself is becoming stronger and integrated. I teach my faith, good characteristics to
students, and Chinese language arts is just a medium, a vehicle
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APPENDIX E
SEMI-STRUCTURED SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
2. Can you tell me how do you reflect on your own teaching practices?
可以请您告诉我,您如何对自己的教学进行自省吗?
3. Would you like to share with me the most impressive story in your classroom?
您是否愿意和我分享在您的教室里发生的最为印象深刻的故事呢?
8. In the school-wide literacy projects, how did you persuade principal to invest
time and money?
你是如何说服校长对学校的语文项目投入时间金钱呢?
9. What you do think about the CLA teaching community in your school?
您如何看待您学校的语文教学组?
10. I notice you developed mentorship with newly-hired CLA teachers, how did
you build this mentorship?
我注意到您与新进教师建立了良好的师徒关系?您是如何建立这样的关系的
呢?
165
APPENDIX F
RESEARCH MEMO FOR DATA ANALYSIS SAMPLE
166
APPENDIX G
CONSENT FORM
同意书
亲爱的各位同学,
欢迎参与此项关于语文学习的个案研究。这项个案研究,意在调研一位高中特级语文
教师的语文教学,试图回答在中国考试文化重压的语境下,该教师如何培养学生对阅
读写作的兴趣。更为具体地说,这项个案研究将观察该语文教师课堂内外的语文教
学,重点观察他在考试文化语境下,为学生创建有效阅读写作所做的努力。作为研究
者,我将倾听他作为语文教师面临的困境,为摆脱困境所做的努力,以及他从教生涯
中所获得的经验,知识。这些都构成了即便在考试文化的语境下,他仍然能保留极具
个人特色语文教学的能力。
一旦你成为该项研究的一员,你的阅读以及作文可能会被我收集,作为研究数据的一
部分。在研究过程中,我也可能对你进行采访。但不用担心,作为研究参与者,你没
有任何风险。是否参与该项研究,完全出于你自愿。你随时可以退出该项研究,研究
者不会追究你的任何责任。
你的个人信息是完全保密的,这意味着研究者不会对任何人透露你的姓名,身份。我
会亲自收集分析研究你的写作范本,并向你保证在我阅读期间,无他人在场。所有收
集到的资料都会被妥善保管,只有研究者有访问权限。
非常感谢你的参与!
如你对该研究有疑问,可联系:
董蓉蓉,佛罗里达大学教育学院语言与读写教育项目博士生。电话:352-777--9499,
电邮:villus001@ufl.edu
傅丹灵,佛罗里达大学教育学院语言与读写教育项目教授。电话:352-273-4193,电
邮:danlingfu@coe.ufl.edu
关于你作为研究参与者的权利,可联系:
同意
我已阅读上述程序。我自愿参与该研究,并持有同意书复印件。
167
参与人(学生): 日期:
研究者: 日期:
Dear students,
You are welcomed to attend a case study of Chinese language class. This case
study intends to examine an exemplary high school Chinese language teacher’s
effort in stimulating students’ writing interests under the test-driven culture in China.
To be more exactly, this case study will take a close look at this exemplary teacher’s
everyday work inside and outside of the class, focusing on his efforts in creating
effective reading and writing environments for his students beyond test preparation.
As a researcher, I will listen to his frustration as a Chinese language teacher, his
efforts for overcoming those troubles and his experience and knowledge. All of these
are not easy for him. However, he can remain his special accent in Chinese
language teaching in a test-driven culture.
Once you join in the study, your reading and writing may be collected as part of the
research data. And I may also interview you sometimes during the study. But as a
participant, there is no need to be worried about the anticipated risks in the study.
Your participation in my study is completely voluntary. You are free to quit the study
at any time during the research, and there is no consequence that you need to
consider about.
Your personal information will be totally confidential. It means your name and identity
will not be revealed to others. I will examine the writing samples and assignments
and ensure that nobody will be by my side when I read them. All the data collected in
class will be safe with me.
Dr. Danling Fu, Ph.D. Professor in Language and Literacy Education, School of
Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Florida. Tel: 352-273-
4193, E-mail: danlingfu@coe.ufl.edu
To whom you may contact about your rights as a participant in the study:
168
University of Florida Institutional Review Board, P.O. Box112250, Gainesville, FL,
32611-2250; Phone: 352-392-0433; E-mail: irb2@ufl.edu
Agreement:
I have read the procedure described above. I voluntarily agree to participant in the
study, and I have received a copy of this form.
Participant(Student): Date:
169
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Rongrong Dong was born and raised in China. She received her master’s
year of 2013. While studying in the graduate school, she also worked as an English
language teacher in one of the biggest language institutions in China for three years.
She came to U.S. for her doctoral program in education at University of Florida in
2013.
Her research interest generally falls into three categories. First, she studies
secondary literacy teaching and learning, with a focus on ELA/CLA teachers’ reading
and writing instruction in class. Second, she has an interest in children’s literature
and young adult’s literature. Third, she also has great interest in Chinese language
teaching and Chinese contemporary literature. During her study in the doctoral
secondary ELA classrooms, where she observed and interviewed ELA teachers.
Conference. She also translated and edited on American scholar’s books during her
As for her teaching experience, she has served as a teaching assistant in her
doctoral program for three years. She has taught two undergraduate courses listed
as Children’s Literature and Language Arts for Diverse Learners. She also served as
a voluntary teacher in non-profit Chinese language school in Florida for two years.
186