| Working from a sociocultural perspective, this qualitative study examined English Learners' (ELs) access to school writing practices and, in particular, how peer talk made writing meaningful. Over an academic year, field notes were collected from two fourth and two fifth grade classrooms in a Title I northern California K--5 public school. Student writing samples and student assessments (standardized language test scores, CELDT scores, and district writing assessments) were collected from the seven focal students. Interviews with students, teachers and administrators situated the study in a larger context of the students' community and the school site. The study focused on peer talk as a tool in classroom writing events, and how talk facilitated ELs' engagement in these events.;The data analysis yielded three major findings. First, the larger context of the district and the school shaped ELs' access to the writing practices through the mandated implementation of a standards-based program. The administrators believed the ELs needed a quantifiable skills based curriculum to hold both teachers and students accountable. The site administrator funded the program believing that if the students spoke more English, they would be more academically successful. Second, the teachers' shared practices in enacting the mandated curriculum assigned the ELs to a remedial status. The teachers' discourse in the remedial groups followed the typical recitation structure and did not challenge them beyond a skills level. When the IRE did lapse, the discourse created an unintentional space for the teacher and students' engagement in learning. Finally, the peer talk in the official and unofficial classrooms spaces made writing meaningful and allowed the students' talk to serve different functions: Helping, Seeking Acknowledgement, Playing Teacher, Coming to Understand, and Knowing What I Want. The children used talk to assume different roles that affected their interactions with one another. The students' talk and interaction added a dimension to the constructed view of them as remedial and low status students.;Children spontaneously created learning spaces while they talked with peers, and allowed students to respond to peers in a variety of ways. The variety of roles the students adopted allowed more complex interactions while mitigating the low status of being remedial students. Further, the peer talk reflected their lives outside of school. By designing spaces for children to interact while writing and fostering children's understanding of writing practices, teachers may promote dialogue that bridges school discourse and multiple home linguistic and cultural resources. In this way, children can claim agency in their writing. |
