Abstract of

Multiple Dimensions of Literacy and Conceptions of Readers: Toward a More Expansive View of Accountability

James S. Damico

This article considers what happened when a teacher posed the following question to her fifth graders during literature discussions: “Why might we read more than one story about a topic or a person?” As the students responded to this question across several weeks, they began to develop a more comprehensive conception of themselves as readers, moving from an understanding of what they “get” from texts toward an understanding of what they “do” with texts. As the students shifted to thinking about the work they do as readers, they began to see readers as puzzle solvers, text and genre investigators, and potential authors. The voices and ideas of this group of students and their teacher show how readers can develop language and literacy skills while they engage with rich content to create, debate, and revise meanings as well as reflect critically on those meanings.

Abstract from Damico, J.S. (2005, April). Multiple Dimensions of Literacy and Conceptions of Readers: Toward a More Expansive View of Accountability. The Reading Teacher, 58(7), 644–652. doi: 10.1598/RT.58.7.5