STUDENT-STRUCTURED LITERACY: HUMANIZING AND RESPONSIVE NEEDS-BASED SMALL GROUPS IN FIRST GRADE

This practitioner-action research study explored the tension between structured literacy and culturally responsive pedagogies in first grade. It innovates ways these two frameworks could coexist in service of students who benefit least from white cultural and linguistic hegemony by decentering the teacher and adopting more creative and collaborative approaches. Practitioners can improve student literacy experiences and mastery outcomes through a self-assessment of their own enactments of white supremacy culture in the scope of explicit and systematic early literacy instruction based on the science of reading. Student-Structured Literacy is proposed as a culturally responsive framework for anti-racist practitioner action. An intervention to implement Student-Structured Literacy in needs-based small groups was undertaken in a first grade classroom. Findings demonstrated positive impacts on measures of student engagement, teacher wellbeing, and assessment outcomes in reading fluency. The post-pandemic schooling of students who are more diverse than ever before and the impending paradigm shift toward structured versus balanced literacy make innovation in this space what we owe children right now.