Come Join the Literacy Club: One Chinese ESL Child's Literacy Experience in a 1st-Grade Classroom

Abstract

This study was part of an 18-month interpretive qualitative study that explored how six recently arrived Chinese-speaking children learned English as their second language from kindergarten to 1st grade. This case study, a follow-up of the children's 1st-grade year, details the strategies used by one Chinese ESL child as he became an active participant in the literacy events in his 1st-grade classroom. Attention will be paid to the focal child's participation in journal writing and in the writers' workshop. Initial difficulties faced by the child when participating in classroom literacy events in the beginning stages were attributed to: 1) the child's limited control of English; 2) the organization of classroom literacy events guided by a holistic, student-centered perspective; and 3) different approaches to literacy at home and school. However, due to the teacher's ability to involve parents, as well as to the different activities designed to make the classroom become a literacy community, all children, regardless of whether they were native English speakers or not, were active and successful participants in the literacy club.