Disruptive Comprehension Instruction: Deconstructing, Resituating, and Rewriting Texts

Abstract

Literacy researchers operating from poststructuralist theoretical perspectives have too often talked past and against issues of concern to teachers and policy-makers (such as reading comprehension) rather than addressing them in productive ways. In response to this concern, the author uses poststructuralist sensibilities to critique and build on traditional approaches to reading comprehension. The author engages in processes of deconstruction, resituating, and rewriting to trouble and reimagine the instructional texts or storylines of comprehension strategy instruction, and draws on examples from her research to illustrate how teachers may engage students in these same processes in their classrooms.

Notes

I thank the Spencer Foundation for their support of the research from which illustrative examples are drawn.

1. All person and place names are pseudonyms.

2. Lewis, Enciso, and Moje (2007) argued that literacy practices are not only socially situated, but also fraught with issues of power and identity. Their critical approach to sociocultural theory aligns with poststructuralist interests.

3. Isabel taught a fourth grade bilingual class in a small Midwestern city. Examples were drawn from data collected during a study on multilingualism, multiliteracies, and teacher development, in which Isabel participated.