Teaching Reading and Writing Beyond High-stakes Testing

This book tells about an exemplary high school Chinese language arts teacher's effort in nurturing lifelong readers and writers under the test-driven culture in China's society. It looks closely at his everyday literacy practices, focuses on his ways of creating authentic reading and writing spaces for students beyond test preparation. With the lens of social constructivism, the case study reveals his efforts of creating safe learning environment, modeling his literate life, connecting real life with literacy learning, and building a school-wide literate life for students. Furthermore, he also collaborates with other Chinese language arts faculty and reaches out to school administrators and educators to gain any potential teaching resource for students. The findings indicate exemplary teachers are not only equipped with professional knowledge but also inter/intrapersonal knowledge and practical knowledge in their teaching career, which might be enlightening in today's high-stakes testing culture. The book will appeal to scholars of literacy education and teacher education, as well as pre-service and in-service teachers.

Rongrong Dong currently works as an English lecturer at Southern University of Science and Technology, China. Her research interest includes adolescent literacy study, teaching writing, and translanguaging in language learning. She recently published a journal article about her own translanguaging experience in writing doctoral dissertation as a bilinguage researcher. She also works with elementary and secondary literacy teachers in both U.S and China and conducts multiple case studies related to their teaching beliefs and practices.

List of Figures List of Tables 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Overview of Research Design 4. Teaching Context, CLA Class, and the Criteria for Exemplary Teachers 5. Engaging Students in Meaningful Reading and Writing 6. Creating A School-Wide Literate Life 7. Conclusion Appendix A: Original In-Class Fieldnotes Sample Appendix B: Typed Bilingual Fieldnotes Sample Appendix C: Original Interview Transcription Sample Appendix D: Translated Interview Transcription Sample Appendix E: Semi-Structured Sample Interview Questions Appendix F: Research Memo for Data Analysis Sampl Index