This study examined the literacy profiles of students from diverse home‐language backgrounds and tracked those profiles from grade 6 to grade 10. The authors also investigated the predictive relations of students’ immigration background, gender, and participation in two instructional programs. The results from latent class and latent transition analyses suggest that grade 6 literacy profiles are strong predictors of literacy profiles in grade 10. Students from diverse home‐language backgrounds and those who had immigrated to Canada tended to have strong literacy profiles and positive trajectories. The analyses also indicate that students who used very little or no English at home, even those who had a strong literacy skill profile in grade 6, may benefit from additional literacy support in high school. In terms of instructional programming variables, participation in an English as a Second Language program was associated with little change in students’ literacy profiles over time, and career‐oriented streaming showed a strong negative impact on literacy skill development. In terms of language‐in‐education policy and practice, the findings support the idea that, generally speaking, students from multilingual home‐language environments retain strong literacy profiles between elementary and high school. The findings also emphasize the importance of quality instructional programming.

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This study investigated the extent to which students’ questioning ability is associated with their literacy abilities, attitudes, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text they read. We further examined these relationships by the type of text they read to generate questions. Fifth- and sixth-grade students ( N = 89) were asked to generate three questions after reading two different types of text. The students also completed reading comprehension and writing tests, as well as a questionnaire about their attitude toward literacy, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that the quality of student-generated questions was predicted by reading comprehension ability, a positive attitude toward writing, and perceived level of understanding of the text, with strong effects related to text genre. We explore the implications of these findings on current pedagogy and assessment practices in literacy education and suggest areas for further research.

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