CRITICAL DIALOGUE: A LITERACY CURRICULUM FOR STUDENTS AT RISK IN THE MIDDLE GRADES

Abstract

After identifying students at risk in the middle grades and describing these students’ assets for developing literacy, we provide direction for changing the literacy curriculum for these students using Critical Dialogue Instruction (CDI). A detailed example of this innovative instructional method is provided. The need for teachers, as models of literacy and higher order thought, to strengthen their relationships with students at risk is discussed.

In the middle grades, reading and writing are educational tools students must use to interact with text and teachers to express or clarify their ideas and feelings. Thus, students’ growth in literacy depends on their learning to apply a wide range of intrapersonal knowledge to varied extrapersonal reading and writing assignments (Gentile & McMillan, 1990). When they fail to derive, interpret, and construct meaning through literacy instruction, their skills lapse, they cannot function as students, and they are at grave risk of dropping or being pushed out of school (Ralph, 1988).

Whereas other agencies have identified specific roles for professionals working with students at risk in the middle school, education has yet to define a clear role for classroom teachers in the development of their literacy. In this article, we present an innovative instructional approach called Critical Dialogue Instruction (CDI) that is based on at‐risk students’ background knowledge and experiences. The approach uses a triangular curriculum of excerpts from literature, audio / videotapes, and expository text to alter the way these students are taught to read and write in the middle grades. It emphasizes the development of the language and higher order thinking skills students need to succeed with content‐area assignments. Before introducing the reader to CDI, we briefly identify students likely to be at risk in the middle grades and describe these students’ assets for developing literacy.