Author: Catherine Compton-Lilly

October 2008, 29 pp.

Abstract: A case study of one child, Alicia, explores how children’s identities as readers are constructed over time as they move through school. Attention to time helps us see how students draw on ongoing, familial, and historical resources in ways that are both recursive and future-oriented as they construct themselves as readers over long periods of time.

As this case study reveals, Alicia’s literacy practices are situated within complex dimensions of race, schooling, and literacy learning. The paper draws on interviews with Alicia and her family spanning Grades 1–8. The paper considers counter-stories presented in these interviews alongside Alicia’s developing reading practices and identity construction. The paper explores how life experiences, family stories and literacy practices, and larger historical accounts contribute to a student’s sense of reading identity.

Keywords: reading, identity, time, race

Read the full working paper: Learning to Read Across Time: Negotiations and Affiliations of a Reader, Grades 1-8 (PDF)