Cynthia J. Lewis - Literary practices as social acts: power, status and cultural norms in the classroom

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Power, Status and Cultural Norms in the Classroom

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Literary Practices as Social Acts

Power, Status and Cultural Norms in the Classroom

Cynthia Lewis
Associate Professor
Language, Literacy and Culture
University of Iowa

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lewis, Cynthia (Cynthia J.)
Literary practices as social acts : power status and cultural norms in
the classroom / Cynthia Lewis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3677-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8058-3678-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. LiteratureStudy and teaching (Elementary)Social
aspectsUnited StatesCase studies. 2. Reading (Elementary)
Social aspectsUnited StatesCase studies. I. Title.
LB1575.5.U5 L49 2001
372.64'044dc21 00-067770
CIP

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For my parents, Rose and Max Lewis,
my first and best teachers

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To understand the ways that the literary culture of a classroom is created within the interwoven social contexts of classroom and community, I conducted a year-long ethnographic study in a fifth-sixth-grade classroom in 19931994. This book follows five students as they read and responded to literature during key events with their teacher and classmates. In telling this story, I focus on four classroom practices involving literature: read-aloud, peer-led literature discussions, teacher-led literature discussions, and independent reading. The reader will see how these practices were shaped by discourses and rituals within the classroom and by social codes and dominant cultural norms beyond the classroom. Given the widespread adoption of literature-based reading programs in elementary classrooms nationwide, this in-depth look at what it means to read and discuss literature in one upper elementary classroom has important implications for classroom practice and future research.