The goal of this study is to examine classroom practices of an urban high school composition class in order to understand why Asian English language learners are failing a district writing exam. Through an ethnographic framework, it explores the processes behind how literacy is defined and enacted in a writing classroom. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how these practices, guided by assessment, shape students' writing experiences and identity. Taking a critical perspective, the study also examines the political and ideological structures that operate within the school and the school district, focusing on their impact on classroom instruction.; Findings indicate that the teaching of writing had both academic and social consequences. The focal students experienced writing through the school's rigid composition writing curriculum, which was based on the district's narrow assessment of writing. As a result, students largely associated writing with the acquisition of discrete skills and competencies that the school district and hence, composition class valued and promoted. Many students failed to reach the district's rigid standards and thus graduate from high school. At the institutional level, teachers' assumptions about English language usage, ideas about race, and school reform priorities, also impacted language instruction at the school and furthered some students' difficulties with writing. Ultimately, students internalized messages that they were "failures," which impacted their identity as students, writers, and members of family communities.; This study extends the understanding of the link between literacy and identity, as one that is socially constructed. That is, identity is not an individual construct, it is simultaneously shaped by literacy practices and the language of schooling. Furthermore, it calls for attention to writing as a holistic experience and a communicative tool, rather than as simply the act of producing texts that conform to institutional standards.
展开▼
