Becoming Literate: Looking across Curricular Structures at Situated Identities

The United States is becoming more multilingual with globalization. Public schools continue to enroll increasing numbers of students who speak a language other than English. This adds to the rich diversity of classrooms while at the same time offers challenges for educators. This collaborative-ethnographic style research study investigates the ways in which identities are constructed for and by an English language learner (ELL) as she uses language at school. The author explores classroom reading events and the ways one ELL negotiates these events with her peers in an English dominant classroom. Results reveal the fluidity of identities across classroom curricular structures at school.