Constructing access to literacy development through effective instructional models

This ethnographic study examined the instructional practices of literacy development during Language Arts instruction. A sociocultural perspective was used to inform the study of instructional practices of literacy development in a third-grade public elementary school. The study occurred over a full academic school year (1999--2000) in a third-grade classroom. An over time co-teaching arrangement helped to characterize the teachers' developing basis for the classroom instructional curriculum, program principles, and assessment program. The research questions were posed from a sociocultural perspective and were centered on how access to student literacy development is facilitated by self-assessment forms.; Data collection consisted of participant observation fieldnotes, audio and video recordings, interviews, student work artifacts; and used orienting perspectives of opportunities to and for learning and consequential progression. Interactional ethnography and discourse analysis were used over time and interactively to analyze the data; and made visible sociocultural interactions, patterns of a classroom life, and how conversation and interaction embed students' self-evaluation of work process and learning.; The study made visible a rich array of approaches to literacy development used across the entire curriculum and how alternative forms of self-assessment were used and valued in the everyday practices of this classroom over time, not limited to the portion of the day formally identified as Language Arts instructional time, as a means of co-constructing potential and particular opportunities for literacy development. Teaching and learning was maximized in the co-construction and take-up of opportunities for learning where class members engaged in reflection and feedback. The study found that by combining teaching and learning methods of the traditional and inquiry-driven instructional approaches an overall richer literacy program was made accessible for all students.; Study of instructional, literacy, self-assessment, and interactional communication issues is significant so that we may better understand how access to literacy development of English Language Learners and all students is mediated.