Classroom and intervention contexts: Constructing spaces to be a reader

Abstract

This paper examines the extent that the classroom and Reading Recovery contexts and associated teaching-learning activities formulated spaces that facilitated the recognition and enactment of one student's strategic reading abilities and the construction of his reader identity. The findings from a single-subject case study of Karl, a child who was receiving literacy support through Reading Recovery in conjunction with accessing the classroom literacy programme are examined. This single-subject case study was conducted as part of a larger study of Reading Recovery students' reading within both the classroom and Reading Recovery contexts. The original study arose in response to Reading Recovery and classroom teachers' expressed concerns that some children, who received additional literacy instruction in the one-to-one context of Reading Recovery, demonstrated disparate reading performance in the classroom compared with Reading Recovery. While these children appeared to be able to use reading strategies independently in the Reading Recovery context, they did not deploy them effectively within the classroom one. This study draws attention to the importance of analysis of social contexts, not just as a physical location but also as a space that constructs learning through interactions. This analysis of social spaces (classroom and Reading Recovery contexts) enables more comprehensive insights to be gained about the construction of reader identity and readers' strategic abilities.