Conversations in an 8th –Grade ELA Classroom: Spaces Where Young Adolescents Can Construct Identities

Abstract

The public discourse surrounding English Language Arts (ELA) education in the United States imitates the ongoing debate over state standards and high-stakes testing (Anagnostopoulos, 2003). Since the inception of No Child Left Behind and the subsequent integration of the Common Core State Standards, a paradigm shift toward accountability and the “quantifying of ability” (Beach, Campano, Edmiston & Borgmann, 2010, p. 8) has fostered “a remedial and deficit-based approach to teaching” (Beach, et. al., 2010, p. 8). This prescriptive approach prioritizes the “basic skills” of reading comprehension and technical writing composition and dissuades the integration of logical reasoning, critical thinking, creative expression, text synthesis, information analysis, posing and solving problems, communication, collaboration and reflection (Beach, et. al., 2010; Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Lehman, 2012). Lacking the opportunities to utilize these skills or explore in the ELA classroom, students experience teaching and learning devoid of meaning, empowerment and creativity, which has become associated with widespread student disengagement and superficial instructional practices (Alsup, 2010; Beach, et. al., 2010; Cunningham, 2001; Ivey & Johnston, 2013).
Considering the push to take constructive exploration out of ELA curricula in favor of technical skill building, it is necessary to question of what students are being deprived when they are denied the opportunity to engage in, and make meaning from, discursive literary work. The current study looks to an ELA classroom that has remained committed to authentic discourse and literary exploration for their potential benefits to young adolescents. Specifically, this study investigates the following research questions:

•  How do young adolescents talk about identity in conversations about literary texts in an 8th-grade ELA classroom?

• What discussion mechanisms do young adolescents use in conversations about identity in classroom conversations?