The Classroom as a Literate Environment

... The Classroom as a Literate Environment by seecoo wu Introduction In her well-known book, In the Middle, Atwell gives an inspiring account of her quest to transform her classroom into a literate environment like that of her dining room table and her students into authentic readers and writers. This vision of the classroom as a literary community engaged in discourse about books has taken root in many classrooms across many grade levels, as well as in much of the literature on literacy instruction that has been published in the past fifteen years. A variety of successful programs aimed at creating such environments have been implemented and studied, including reading workshop (Atwell, 1987), the Book Club program (Raphael & McMahon, 1994), literature circles (Short & Pierce, 1990), conversational discussion groups (Wiencek & O?lahavan, 1995), and literature study groups (Eeds & Wells, 1989). In each of these programs, three basic goals for literacy instruction can be

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