Teacher and Peer Roles in Scaffolding First Graders' Responses to Literature.

Literature response journals can help chil dren become actively involved, engaged readers. For upper elementary and mid dle school students, informal, self-directed writing about literature can be a tool for think ing and self-expression (Atwell, 1987; Hancock, 1992,1993a, 1993b; Simpson, 1986; Wollman-Bonilla, 1989, 1991). Writing re sponses encourages students to reflect on the texts they read in school and to value their own responses (Rosenblatt, 1938, 1978). But there has been little inquiry into primary grade chil dren's written responses to literature (see, how ever, Barone, 1990, 1992; Kelly, 1990; Wollman-Bonilla &Werchadlo, 1995). Three years ago, we (Barbara, a teacher researcher, and Julie, a college professor) in vestigated what would happen if Barbara asked first-grade students to write in literature response journals (Wollman-Bonilla & Werchadlo, 1995). We wondered if students could learn to write responses more reflective of deep thought, interpretive effort, or person al involvement than retellings of selected text events, which predominate in the few earlier studies of first graders (e.g., see Barone, 1992). Our focus in the 1995 study was on cate gorizing children's journal entries to describe the types of responses they wrote. We found that first graders used their response journals primarily to reflect upon texts, sharing their personal interpretations and their experiences and feeling as readers, as well as writing retellings of key events. But our initial explo ration also raised many questions. Perhaps the most important of these, with respect to class room practice, is how young children learn to write reflective, personal responses to litera ture. Simply giving children the opportunity to write in journals may not be sufficient. Al though we had not focused attention on how children learn, we recognized that the teacher and peers may play a key role in providing support, guidance, and challenge for children's growth as readers and writers. This article describes a second study, with a different class of first graders, and a focus on the teacher's and peers' roles in helping chil dren move beyond what they can already do independently. In particular, we explore two questions: 1. What is the role of teacher modeling, in struction, and feedback in encouraging reflec tion, personal interpretation, and elaboration in written responses?