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STRONG READERS’ BEGINNINGS: IDENTIFYING THE AGENCIES AND INDIVIDUALS WHO INFLUENCE READING LIVES Rachel A. Golland Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Rachel A. Golland All rights reserved ABSTRACT Strong Readers’ Beginnings: Identifying the Agencies and Individuals who Influence Reading Lives Rachel A. Golland While there exists substantial research on struggling and developmental readers, few research-practitioners have sought to examine the histories and circumstances that result in strong readers. This study drew upon the reading autobiographies of doctoral students in an English Education program at an Ivy League institution, in order to discover what can be learned from first-hand narrative accounts of their reading lives about the early literacy experiences, reading practices, family, community, school and cultural influences of a group of “strong” adult readers. Also examined for comparative and contrasting data are the reading lives of remedial and honors first-year college composition students at a 2-year community college. An understanding of how the environments, people, institutions, circumstances, and texts encountered in the literacy lives of the three different groups studied here can assist literacy educators in bridging theory with practice for the teaching of reading in early grades and for the teaching of college-level reading in first-year college writing classes. A central term and concept to help explain the trajectory of the reading lives of the populations studied here was Deborah Brandt’s (1998) theory of “sponsors of literacy.” Brandt’s terminology and the notion of sponsorship along with a sociocultural theoretical framework are used to interpret the reading autobiographies in this study. Methods employed were based on Connelly and Clandinin’s narrative inquiry approach, a methodology steeped in the richness of the storied lives of the participants. The three patterns that emerged in the strong readers’ memories were: (a) being read to in the home prior to school age; (b) dichotomous attitudes toward in-school and out-of- school reading, especially around the middle school years; and (c) evidence of firm productive habits of mind toward complex reading that extends into the higher education years. The early literacy sponsorship and productive habits of mind were less evidenced in the remedial population. The findings of certain common characteristics and practices in the backgrounds of strong readers, many of which were not present at the same level in the remedial readers, can help literacy educators and caregivers re-examine their role as literacy sponsors and offer approaches for how we might sponsor literacy differently to create strong readers at any stage of their education. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ xii Chapter I – DIDN’T YOUR MOM READ YOU GOODNIGHT MOON? INITIATING LIFELONG READERS ................................................................................................... 1 Prologue: Setting the Scene: Falling in Love With Books at an Early Age .................... 1 The House That Became a Home: Can Literature Feed the Soul? ...................... 2 How I Came to the Study ..................................................................................... 3 Nurturing Lifelong Readers: Do Habits of Mind Start in the Home? .................. 5 Representing Strong Readers in Research: What Can We Learn From What Works? .................................................................................................. 6 Questions That Drive This Research ............................................................................... 8 The Social and Cultural Influences of Literacy Events and Sponsors on Learning: A Theoretical Perspective ........................................................................................... 9 Preview of Chapters to Come .......................................................................................... 10 Chapter II – SOCIAL AND CULTURAL TENETS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .............................................. 13 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 13 Brief Overview of Sociocultural Theory in Literacy Research ....................................... 14 Establishing a Niche to the Study of “Strong” Readers ................................................... 16 Part 1—Sociocultural Theory: Zopeds, Literacy Events, Literacy Practices, and Situated Literacies ....................................................................................................... 19 i Chapter II (continued) Reading Autobiographies as Artifacts for Sociocultural Study ........................... 19 Literacy narratives in research .................................................................... 20 Sociocultural learning theories ................................................................... 26 Mediated learning, Zopeds, and learning potential ..................................... 26 The literacy event, family, and community literacy ................................... 28 Family literacy: Predictors of long-term habits of mind? ........................... 31 Literacy practice: Social and cultural underpinnings .................................. 32 Communities of practice ............................................................................. 33 Situated literacies: Creating meaning through contexts.............................. 34 Funds of knowledge: A window into the home literacies of students ........ 35 Literacy sponsorship: Relationships among agency, apprenticeship, and acquisition ....................................................................................... 37 Part 2—The Teaching of Reading and the Role of Reading in the Composition Classroom ................................................................................................................... 39 Empowering Student Readers: Embracing 21st Century Literacies in the Classroom ........................................................................................................ 39 Discourse in the Literature Classroom: Student-Driver Dialogue ....................... 43 Critical Literacy and Habits of Mind: Exploring the Link Between Early Literacy Experiences and Reader Mindsets .................................................... 45 Collaborative Literacy Sponsorship: Reading Apprenticeship, Communities of Practice (or Uncontaining the Container) ................................................... 47 ii Chapter II (continued) The Role of Teaching Reading: Promoting a Place for Literature at the College Level .................................................................................................. 49 Toward a Democratic Pedagogy of Textual Interpretation .................................. 50 One Size (and One Test or Text) Does Not Fit All .............................................. 52 Why Read? And Why Literature?........................................................................ 55 Concluding Thoughts ....................................................................................................... 56 Chapter III – METHODOLOGY, RESEARCH DESIGN .......................................................... 58 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 59 Autobiographies of Life as a Reader: Layered Stories and Rich Resources ................... 61 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 61 Defining Narrative Inquiry .............................................................................................. 61 Putting on a New Coat: Transitioning From English Educator and Administrator to Research Practitioner .............................................................................................. 65 Methods of Data Collection ............................................................................................. 68 Research Subjects and Sites ................................................................................. 69 Participant selection .................................................................................... 69 Participants .................................................................................................. 70 More specific demographics by population ................................................ 70 Study 1 ................................................................................................... 70 Study 2 ................................................................................................... 71 Study 3 ................................................................................................... 71 iii Chapter III (continued) Description of the Instrument .............................................................................