Article Annotation: Reimagining Our Inexperienced Adolescent Readers: From Struggling, Striving, Marginalized, and Reluctant to Thriving

Greenleaf, C. & Hinchman, K. (2009).  Reimagining Our Inexperienced Adolescent Readers: From Struggling, Striving, Marginalized, and Reluctant to Thriving. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53(1).  pp. 4-13.

I like to imagine myself employed in a position of literacy expertise in a school someday.  Whether I am a classroom teacher of one specific grade, or a school or district literacy coach of many grades, I found this article inspiring as it provides insight into what it really looks like to effectively create and sustain comprehensive programs that address all students’ literacy needs.

A critical piece of literacy development involves encouraging students to transform identities they may have constructed as "struggling" or "reluctant" into new identities as more capable readers and learners. "As stuents explore and experiment with possible selves, teachers can encourage them to try on new reader identities, expanding their visions of who they are, and who they can become" (Greenleaf and Hinchman, 2009).

Reading specialist Cindy Ryan has authentically developed such a program for the students of her school that her students are enrolled in because of low reading test scores or teacher recommendation. The purpose of her classes is not only to foster young people’s development of reading comprehension strategies, but also to build their confidence in using these strategies—even when texts may be very difficult to read.

Through a specific case example, the article demonstrates ways in which Ms. Ryan listens to her students in group discussions.  She then initiates whole class discussions, to make the knowledge and strategic resources she observed in small-group work available to the entire class.  In essence, she masks mini-lessons as dialogue designed to solve problems that have emerged in common, and to make connections between historical texts they are analyzing and relevant events and her students' lives. "Rather than shielding students from the hard work of academic literacy until they demonstrate the capability to comprehend such texts on their own, actually engaging them in academic reading, with expert teacher support and a collaborative learning environment, is seen as the most important way to build young people’s capability" (p.10).

Key features of her teaching included the following (p. 11):

·      High academic challenge coupled with explicit support calibrated to aid young people’s development of generalized strategies and discipline- specific insights.

·      Asset-oriented teaching that began with youth’s existing cultural, linguistic, and experiential resources through emphasizing student choice and interest-driven reading of a wide array of texts.

·      An inquiry-oriented learning environment that positioned students as active collaborators investigating their own learning, personal responsibility, and construction of identities as self-sufficient learners.

This article brought to light that the fundamental purpose of literacy intervention for all students is to get students to a place where they see themselves as thriving readers.  Everyone deserves the right to expert instruction that treats them as capable and competent, and that helps them to use existing competencies to develop the knowledge, dispositions, and strategies needed for academic and life success.