Critical lessons from the transactional perspective on early literacy research

Abstract

This article is a synthesis of early literacy research organized according to critical lessons that delineate our shared knowledge base that we name a ‘transactional perspective on early literacy development.’ The critical lessons are grouped into three sets to present the continuum of methodological stances that interpretive researchers take as they design and carry out early literacy studies. This synthesis is particularly timely now – as children and teachers in classrooms around the world struggle to maintain control over literacy learning and teaching within narrow governmental agendas and mandates. Given current governmental agendas (i.e. No Child Left Behind in the USA, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK, among many), it is critical to remember that we share a robust theory, a transactional view of early literacy development that explains how young children come to be literate members of society.

Interactive Read Alouds: Teachers and Students Constructing Knowledge and Literacy Together

“…A transactional approach to reading means that the social and cultural context of literacy is central to how and why students learn and that meaning occurs through transactions between the text, reader, and social context (Whitmore et al 2004). The transactional nature of the interactive read aloud provides opportunities to develop complex thinking and learning as students make meaning together and contribute to the literacy knowledge of the classroom (Copenhaver-Johnson et al 2009;Sipe 2008).…”

From “What Did I Write?” to “Is this Right?”: Intention, Convention, and Accountability in Early Literacy

“…(Whitmore, Goodman, Martens, & Owocki, 2004). Becca discovered that curriculum materials that overwhelmed children with attention to correctness and convention reduced their natural inclination to experiment with text, resulting in careful texts that adhered to the framing of the assignment while children"s voices disappear and their writing shrivels (Martens, 1996).…”

Early adopters: Playing new literacies and pretending new technologies in print-centric classrooms

“…A long history of early literacy research (Whitmore, Goodman, Martens, & Owocki, 2004) shows that young children's transactions with text, whether with electronic screens, product packaging, published books, or marks penciled on paper, involve practices that are semiotic, multimodal, and social (Kress, 1997(Kress, , 2003Rowe, 2008;Siegel, 2006). Early research conducted by Jerome Harste, Carolyn Burke, and Virginia Woodward (1984) interpreted preschoolers' mark-making and approximations of print through a semiotic lens, finding meaningful intent in children's inventive production of signs with multimodal symbol systems.…”