The Interdependence of Social Awareness and Literacy Instruction

The Interdependence of Social Awareness and Literacy InstructionAuthor(s): Alison Lobron and Robert SelmanSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 60, No. 6 (Mar., 2007), pp. 528-537Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204500 .

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ALISON LOBRON ROBERT SELMAN

The interdependence of social

awareness and literacy instruction

Discussions of stories containing strong

social issues can help students to develop

and explore their own beliefs about issues

such as racism, prejudice, and social justice.

Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like

shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and

they both love to swim. But there's one important way

they're different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964 that means John Henry isn't

allowed to do everything his best friend is. (Wiles, 2001)

The book Freedom Summer (Wiles, 2001) has received several children's literature awards.

Like many other quality picture books about

challenging social issues, Freedom Summer pro vides excellent opportunities for teachers to pro

mote the literacy skills and social awareness of their

students. By "literacy skills," we refer to the com

plex process of reading and comprehending text. In

particular, some of the key literacy skills of interest

to us are building vocabulary, background knowl

edge, and comprehension skills in oral contexts. By "social awareness," we are referring to the knowl

edge children have that allows them to understand

and relate successfully to other people, both people like themselves and those who are from different

backgrounds. Some of the key skills involved in the

social awareness domain are negotiating with oth

ers, resolving conflicts, expressing one's point of

view, and listening to the perspectives of others. As

educators and researchers in the fields of literacy and social awareness, we believe that is it essential

for schools to help foster students' social aware

ness in addition to traditional academic skills. It is

our belief that through discussions about books like

Freedom Summer, students will have the opportuni

ty to learn about issues such as racism, prejudice, and social justice.

Our work focuses on finding the best methods

for supporting students as they struggle to make

meaning, both of literature and the social contexts

from which the stories were born. How can we cap italize on the natural curiosity that is generated by these books? Is there a way to capture a child's

sympathy for a character and transform it into a

greater awareness ofthat character's social setting? In order to reach that point, we must first under

stand how children interpret these books on their

own. Our research focuses on ways to assess stu

dents' comprehension of social issues and themes

in books. How do children of different ages (and from different backgrounds) understand issues of

tolerance and prejudice in the children's literature

they are reading in school? We hope this article will

shed light on both the importance of this work as

well as the challenges it presents.

Why Freedom Summet? There are thousands of high-quality children's

books about social issues that would lend them

selves to this type of work. What is special about

Freedom Summer! We selected this book for sever

al reasons. First, we wanted a book that would ap

peal to children of many ages. In order to read this

book independently, a child would need to be on a

high third-grade or average fourth-grade independ ent reading level. However, Freedom Summer

works well as a read aloud for children in first

through fifth grade. It is a challenging read-aloud

for younger children, but it serves the purpose of

exposing these students to sophisticated vocabulary

528 ? 2007 International Reading Association (pp. 528-537) doi:10.1598/RT.60.6.3



and sentence structures. Although grammatically less demanding for a fourth- or fifth-grade student, for older students the challenge is interpreting the

social issues in the story. In addition, we like

Freedom Summer because it can be understood on

several thematic levels. On one level, most children

can relate to this book because it is about friend

ship. On another level, Freedom Summer addresses

social topics such as prejudice, discrimination, and

racial tension, handling them in a gentle, thoughtful manner. In order to deeply understand the friend

ship between Joe, a white boy, and John Henry, a

black boy, one must recognize the impact of the so

cial context on the relationship between the two

boys. Joe and John Henry lived in the southern

United States in the 1960s, when most white peo

ple routinely discriminated against black people. And yet, despite these societal attitudes, a friend

ship flourishes between the boys. Deborah Wiles brilliantly captures the moment

that Joe, the white character, begins to discover the

severe prejudice and hatred that has been there all

along, just beyond his conscious awareness. At the

most dramatic point of the book, the boys witness

workers filling a pool with tar in order to resist the

court-ordered desegregation of the facility. Joe sud

denly realizes how segregation has limited his

friend John Henry's life:

My head starts to pop with new ideas. I want to go to the Dairy Dip with John Henry, sit down and share root beer floats. I want us to go to the picture show, buy popcorn, and watch the movie together. I want to see this town with John Henry's eyes.

Listening to Freedom Summer, some children

share the same flash of insight that Joe experiences in the story. For them, listening to the story is like

hearing a symphony that changes from a major key to minor in a single chord. In one moment, they are enjoying a light-hearted story about two boys

who like to swim together during their summer va

cation. In the next moment, their world is turned

upside down. Just as Joe recognizes the prejudice that he had previously overlooked, students sud

denly become aware of all of the author's subtle

hints about discrimination. Their awareness is al

tered, and they hear the rest of the story with a new

sensitivity. But other children do not experience this shift. What might account for this variation? To

what extent do age, gender, experience, sophisti

cation, teaching technique, or some combination

influence a child's social awareness?

The challenge of reading comprehension

While the idea of promoting social awareness

through storytelling and children's literature is not

new, there has been little systematic research to dis cover what meaning children take away from sto

ries with complex, subtle, and even controversial

themes. While still in its infancy, our research is be

ginning to uncover the beliefs that children hold about some of these social issues, as well as how

those beliefs are mediated through discussions of

books like Freedom Summer.

We are discovering the challenges elementary

grade students face making sense of a complex book like Freedom Summer. In order to both com

prehend the plot and extract deeper meaning, stu

dents need support. At first, we thought that

inexperience with the historical context would be

the predominant barrier to students' comprehen sion of the story. However, something as small as

an unfamiliar vocabulary word can derail their

comprehension. Over the course of our research and practice,

we have had the opportunity to read books like Freedom Summer aloud with many students. While

each read-aloud is different, the common thread is

that students do not comprehend this book, or any other, just by listening to the words and thinking about it on their own. A deep understanding re

quires discussion of the plot and reflection on the

social context of the story, both with adults and

peers. We hope the following examples will illus

trate the delicacy of comprehension and the im

portant steps teachers can take to support

understanding of social texts.

The interplay between literacy and social awareness in comprehension

To illustrate this interplay between literacy skills and social awareness skills, we walk you

through a portion of a reading of Freedom Summer.

The following text is the transcript of Alison, the lead author of this article, reading Freedom Summer

The interdependence of social awareness and literacy instruction 529



to Alleah (pseudonym), a fourth-grade student at a

public school in Dorchester, Massachusetts. This in

terview took place as part of the data collection for

our study.

Interspersed with Alison and Alleah's dialogue are many comments that highlight the support

Alison provides in the form of building literacy skills or building social awareness. We also high

light the evidence of comprehension that Alison

gathers from conversing with Alleah. We also note

whether Alleah's literacy awareness or social

awareness (or both) lead to her understanding of

the text. Asking a student questions, or paying care

ful attention to the questions the student poses, tells

the teacher if the student understands the text or if

she needs additional support. The literacy-oriented comments are mostly

based on the practice-oriented work of Fountas and

Pinnell (2001). Fountas and Pinnell are leaders in

the field of comprehensive literacy instruction.

Their emphasis on the skills and strategies involved

in the process of comprehension resonates with our

theories about creating meaning from text.

The focus on social awareness has two aspects. Most apparent is the emphasis on what social

knowledge the students extract from the text. How

do students learn about social issues as universal

as friendship? How do they gain an understanding of historical information as specific as civil rights and desegregation? The second emphasis is on the

social awareness the students bring to their under

standing of the text. This includes not only their

prior knowledge but also the level of their under

standing of relationships. How do students apply their developing capacity to coordinate points of

view with the points of view, or social perspectives, of other people or groups? This core capacity to co

ordinate perspectives develops with age, can vary with situations, and is challenging to assess. The

source for the social awareness-oriented comments

found in Table 1 is the second author's practice

based, but theoretically oriented book, The

Promotion of Social Awareness: Powerful Lessons

From the Partnership of Developmental Theory and Classroom Practice (Selman, 2003).

Clearly, Alleah's comprehension of the story Freedom Summer (see Table 1) was mediated by her literal understanding of the plot as well as her

awareness of the social context of the South of the

1960s. Alison provided support for Alleah's com

prehension, by relying on both literacy strategies

(e.g., summarizing the plot) as well as providing

support in understanding the social context (e.g.,

elaborating and giving information about the cul

tural context). Alison made use of Alleah's ques tions and comments as a guide to whether or not

Alleah understood the text.

Alternate interpretations How do other children interpret the same

event? We've had the opportunity to ask of many children the same question that Alison asked of

Alleah: "Why do you think the townspeople filled the pool with tar?" There is wide variation among the responses. For the purpose of this article, we

have selected a few responses that represent a

"low," "medium," and "high" level of awareness

of the social issues at play in the story.

Many children, like Alleah, find this event con

fusing. Some responses from children with a "low"

level of awareness were, "Maybe because someone

asked John Henry's brother to fill it up so no one

won't trip in the pool" and "Because it was an old

pool and it had to be fixed. Because if the kid was

swimming he will get hurt." Clearly, these respons es are based solely on the children's background

knowledge. When have they seen work crews cov

ering a surface with asphalt? Perhaps when city workers filled in a pothole in their neighborhood. Or, when the blacktop at school was resurfaced.

Perhaps when they asked a parent or teacher to ex

plain the purpose of this construction, that adult

told them that the area needed to be fixed so that

people wouldn't trip and hurt themselves.

Background knowledge can be very helpful in

providing a lens through which text can be inter

preted. However, once the background knowledge has been activated, the next step is to return to the

story and use information from the text to further

interpret the event. These children skipped this

step; they did not incorporate the historically rele

vant social issues from Freedom Summer into their

thinking about the work crew.

Some children went a step beyond this low lev

el of awareness, but still fell short of expressing a

fully developed understanding of the event. Some

"medium" level responses to the question, "Why do you think the townspeople filled the pool with

530 The Reading Teacher Vol. 60, No. 6 March 2007



TABLE 1 Freedom Summer excerpt read-aloud

[A law has just passed mandating desegregation. Joe and John Henry arrive at the county pool, excited to swim in the

pool together for the first time. They are disappointed to find county dump trucks filling the pool with tar.]

County dump trucks are here. They grind and back up to the empty pool. Workers rake steaming asphalt into the hole where sparkling clean water used to be. One of them is John Henry's big brother, Will Rogers. We start to call to

him, "What happened?" but he sees us first and points back on down the road-it means "Git on home!" But our feet feel stuck, we can't budge. So we hunker in the tall weeds and watch all morning until the pool is filled

with hot, spongy tar. Ssss! Some steam rises in the air. Workers tie planks to their shoes and stomp on the blacktop to make it smooth. Will Rogers heaves his shovel into the back of an empty truck and climbs up with the other workers. His face is like a storm cloud, and I know this job has made him angry. "Let's go!" a boss man shouts, and the trucks rumble-slam down the road.

Alison: Why do you think the townspeople filled the

pool with tar? It seemed like a weird thing to do. Alleah: What is tar? Alison: Tar is.... Have you ever seen trucks out paving a

road? (Yeah.) Tar is what you use to pave a road. So they pulled up with these trucks, and

they went to the swimming pool, and they filled the whole pool up with tar...with black, sticky tar. Why do you think the townspeople filled the

pool with tar?

Gathering evidence of comprehension-literacy: By ask

ing Alison to define the word "tar," Alleah demonstrat ed that she is monitoring her own comprehension. She realized that the text didn't make sense to her, and she is asking for clarification.

Alleah: Alison:

Alleah: Alison:

I don't know. Can you see what they're doing here? Do you see what they're sitting on? (Yeah.) They're sit

ting on the diving board? (Yeah.) And there used to be water in the pool. But what's in there now? Tar.

Yes, tar. So can they go swimming? (No.) No. Remember they wanted to go swimming so

badly? But then they got to the pool, and it was filled up with tar.

Scaffolding comprehension-literacy: Illustrations pro vide a rich source of information from which a reader can construct meaning. Alison uses the illustrations to

help Alleah revise her interpretation of the text.

Alleah: (Pointing at illustration of the pool.) Was that the pond?

Gathering evidence of comprehension-literacy: Alleah's

question indicated that she struggled to reconcile her initial interpretation of the text with information ob tained from looking at the picture.

Alison: No. (She turns back to illustration of the pond.) They used to swim in the pond. Here they are

swimming in the pond. But they really wanted to swim in the pool. But the old law said that only white people could swim in the pool. But then, do

you remember what they found out on this page? Alleah: That black people and white people can stay to

gether. Alison: That's right. They found out they can go to lunch

counters together, they can use the same bath rooms, they can go to drinking fountains togeth er.... And they can go to the swimming pool together. So why do you think Joe and John

Henry were so excited about that new law?

Scaffolding comprehension-literacy: Readers need to summarize as they read-to put together bits of impor tant information that will help them understand the plot as it unfolds. By summarizing key points in the story, Alison helps Alleah connect important events.

(continued)




TABLE 1 Freedom Summer excerpt read-aloud (continued)

Alleah: Because he can go to the pond with his friend. Not only white people could go. But then, when

they went there it was filled with tar. Alison: Look how excited they are. They're racing to

the pool. And they got there, and they found

people were doing this weird thing. They were

filling it with tar. Now look at them, sitting there, and they're looking at that tar that used to be a swimming pool.

Gathering evidence of comprehension-literacy and social awareness: Summarizing appears to have been a

helpful strategy. This time, Alleah successfully synthe sizes the events in the story with her knowledge of the social context of the story.

We sit on the diving board and stare at the tops of the silver ladders sticking up from the tar. Joe's heart beats hard in his chest. John Henry's voice shakes. "White folks don't want colored folks in their pool," says John Henry. "You're

wrong, John Henry," I say, but I know he's right.

Alison: Why do you think Joe says, "You're wrong, John Henry?" even though he knows John

Henry is right?

Alleah: 'Cause he was a slave, I think. Alison: That's a good guess. He wasn't a slave, but

there was a law....

Gathering evidence of comprehension-literacy and social awareness: To make an accurate inference, Alleah would need to draw on her knowledge of the social context, as well as her awareness of the friend

ship between the two boys. She is not able to synthe size all of this information yet.

Alleah: Wait a second.... Isn't that like Rose? Alison: Rosa Parks? Alleah: Yeah, Rosa Parks. Was she born? Was she

there? Alison: Excellent guestion. Rosa Parks lived around this

time. What did she do? Alleah: She was on the bus, and a white man told her to

get up, but she didn't want to, because she was real tired. So they called the police and then, she was arrested.

Alison: Exactly. And that was because there was a law that said that black people couldn't sit in the same place on the bus....

Alleah: They had to sit in the back. Alison: Right, just like there were laws that said black

people couldn't use the same swimming pool. And so the laws changed, but not everybody agreed with the laws. And that's why they did

things like fill the pool with tar. Let me ask you just a couple more guestions.

Gathering evidence of comprehension-social aware ness: Alleah is tapping into her fund of "world knowl edge." She is knowledgeable about the social norms that influenced Rosa Parks. She can use that informa tion as a reference to understand this story.

"Let's go back to Fiddler's Creek,'" Joe says, 1 didn't want to swim in this old pool, anyway.'"

Alison: Why did he say, "I didn't want to swim in the pool?" Alleah: Because black people can't go in there, only white people can.




tar?" were, "The pool was filled with tar because

the pool owner probably didn't want black and

white people to swim together," and "The pool was

filled with tar because John Henry's brother did not

want John Henry hanging out with Joe." These

children seem to be aware of the racial tensions that

underlie all of the events in Freedom Summer.

However, they do not demonstrate in their respons es that they understand it is the white people who

are discriminating against the blacks by shutting down this public facility.

Despite the complex nature of the discrimina

tion, there are some students who are able to draw

sophisticated and accurate inferences as to why the

townspeople choose this course of action. Some

"high" level responses to this question were, "The

pool was filled with tar because John Henry's brother worked for a white man and the white man

didn't want blacks and whites to swim together," and "The pool was filled with tar because white

people did not want black and white people to swim together." Not only do these children demon

strate the awareness that the decision to close the

pool is motivated by prejudice, but also they are

able to accurately identify the white people as the

source of the discrimination.

Supporting students at multiple levels in the classroom

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is providing instructional support to children in the

same classroom who are functioning on very dif

ferent levels. This challenge is particularly appar ent in the work of supporting children's social

awareness and literacy development. While the

above examples were drawn from a wide sample of children of different ages, it is not uncommon to

meet with a group of students in the same classroom

whose levels of awareness vary widely. How can a

teacher meet the needs of these diverse learners?

It is very important to keep in mind that chil

dren's social awareness is not static. As evidenced

by the interview with Alleah, children's awareness

of the social issues in the text evolve through con

versation. Teachers can scaffold children's aware

ness just by talking them through the text, clearing

up misconceptions by defining words, and high

lighting important events in the story.

Even when understood, social awareness is of

ten difficult to express. Classmates can also sup

port one another. Allowing children to share their

thinking with a partner prior to having a class dis

cussion is an effective instructional tool. It has been

our experience that children who exhibit a lower

level of social awareness, when paired with a high er level classmate, will tend to gravitate toward the

more sophisticated viewpoint. As for the "high awareness" students, the opportunity to explain their thinking to a partner helps them to sharpen and

clarify their ideas.

Finally, it is important to remember that one

strength of a book such as Freedom Summer is that

it can be understood and appreciated on multiple levels. Some students will be able to grapple with

the complicated themes of prejudice and discrimi

nation. These themes may be beyond the awareness

of other students in the same class. It is still possi ble for these "low social awareness" students to

benefit from a discussion about loyalty between

two friends who are from different backgrounds.

Literature for students of different ages

As stated previously, Freedom Summer would

be appropriate independent reading material for an

above-average third-grade or average fourth-grade student. This makes it an excellent choice as a read

aloud for a third- or fourth-grade class. The vocab

ulary and syntax of the book are within their grasp and the story provides a rich plot line, emotional

central conflict, and interesting characters for stu

dents to debate and discuss.

Freedom Summer would certainly be appropri ate for younger students, depending on the teacher's

objective. While the topics of racial tension and dis

crimination are appropriate themes to study with

older children, friendship between two people who

are different is a more developmentally appropriate theme for younger children. This theme is present in

Freedom Summer, but there are many other books, written especially for younger children, that address

this theme in a more accessible manner.

One of our favorites for children in first or sec

ond grade is Stellaluna by Janell Cannon (1993). Stellaluna tells the story of a baby bat who becomes

separated from her mother and is taken in by a fam




ily of birds. After an initial period of uncertainty, Stellaluna adapts to the strange customs of her new

bird family. The central theme of the story is en

capsulated by an innocent question posed by Stellaluna to her bird siblings: "How can we be so

different, but feel so much alike?" For younger chil

dren, this question can be the springboard into a

meaningful discussion about respecting and appre

ciating differences.

Just as we believe that Freedom Summer is ap

propriate for younger students, depending on the

instructional objective, we also believe that

Freedom Summer can be a powerful instructional

tool for older students as well. The simple language and illustrations make the text accessible to chil

dren in grades 4 and 5, giving them the freedom to

explore the central concepts without struggling to

piece together the plot.

However, if the teacher's objective is to push children's literacy skills in addition to supporting their social awareness, then we highly recommend

chapter books such as Felita by Nicholasa Mohr

(1979). This novel, written on a fifth-grade level, de

picts Felita's struggles when her family moves from

a Puerto Rican neighborhood to a neighborhood that

is all white. The book provides many opportunities for students in the upper grades to discuss how Felita

handles her experiences of prejudice and discrimi

nation at the same time that she deals with concerns

all preteenagers have with friendship and inclusion.

The books mentioned previously are just a small

sample of the many socially themed children's books

appropriate for classroom use. There are a number

of organizations that provide excellent curriculum

and instruction in the integration of the domains of

social and literacy development. Making Meaning

(Developmental Studies Center, 2004), The Four Rs

(ESR Metro, 1999), and Voices Reading: Literacy to

Live By (Voices Reading, 2005), are just a few.

A closer look at literacy instruction:

Strategies for sustaining reading and strategies for extending meaning

There are two sets of strategies employed by readers when they encounter a new text (Fountas &

Pinnell, 2001). The first is strategies for sustaining

reading. When students encounter a new text, they need tools that will help them move through it,

word by word, sentence by sentence, decoding words and making meaning as they go. These

strategies are the tools students use for solving

tricky words and monitoring their comprehension. The other is strategies for extending meaning. Good readers comprehend a text beyond the literal

meaning of the words on the page. They are able

to connect the new information with information

they already know, and they are able to recognize the significance of what they read.

Alison used many strategies for sustaining

reading to help Alleah comprehend Freedom

Summer. She helped Alleah "monitor comprehen sion" by asking questions, answering questions, or

explaining important events. In addition, Alison en

couraged Alleah to use the illustrations as a source

of information for understanding the plot. Alison's uses of strategies for extending mean

ing helped Alleah to arrive at a deeper understand

ing of the book. One of the most comprehensive

strategies is helping students form connections to

a story. Students construct meaning from texts by

connecting the information to things they know

about. Alison encouraged Alleah to make text-to

self connections (e.g., by asking Alleah if she's

ever seen trucks paving a road). Alison encouraged Alleah to make text-to-world connections as well

(tapping into Alleah's knowledge about leaders in

the Civil Rights movement).

Alison drew upon several other strategies for

extending meaning: summarizing, synthesizing, and drawing inferences. These strategies were par

ticularly important in helping Alleah understand

the critical moment of the story when the workers

were filling the pool with tar. First, Alison summa

rized the important plot developments that led up to that moment. Next, Alison helped Alleah synthe size world knowledge (facts about desegregation)

with the event in the book (the townspeople filling the pool with tar) in order to generate a new un

derstanding. Finally, Alison encouraged Alleah to

read beyond the literal meaning of the text in or

der to infer the motivations behind the characters'

words and actions.




The foundations of social awareness: Perspective taking and perspective coordination

Strategies for extending meaning provide a

powerful bridge between literacy and social aware

ness because the social awareness emphasis is on

understanding the meaning the characters make of

their experiences. As part of our research protocol, Alison asks Alleah several theoretically driven "per

spectival" questions: Each of these questions asks

the reader to put him or herself in the character's

shoes. The questions we ask, both for purposes of re

search and practice, always include matters of inter

pretation, and in particular interpretations that allow

for, but do not require, a deeper level understanding of the way story characters need to take or coordi

nate perspectives in order to gain a deeper sense of

social awareness or self understanding. While reading and discussing Freedom

Summer, Alison worked with Alleah to help her ap

ply her perspective-taking and coordination capaci ties on several levels. For example, Alison asked

Alleah to think about the challenges the new world

order has on Joe and John Henry's friendship. On

one level, this question required Alleah to reflect on

each of the characters' perspectives. From John

Henry's point of view, it might be difficult to have a

friend who has access to more places and activities

than he does. Reciprocally, these same circum

stances might cause Joe to feel limited or uncom

fortable in his friendship with John Henry. While these perspectives are valid, Alleah

might also be able to reflect on a more abstract lev

el of perspective coordination. She might be able to

take into account the impact that societal attitudes

have on their friendship. She might be able to rec

ognize that the same racism and bigotry that influ

enced the townspeople to fill the pool with tar

might also affect the attitudes the boys have toward

each other. It is hard for the boys to be friends be

cause they live in a time and place where friend

ships between blacks and whites are discouraged. In response to the question, "Why is it diffi

cult for Joe and John Henry to be friends?" Alleah

replied, "'Cause white people and black people

usually don't be together. 'Cause it's separate." It's

difficult to judge from this response the degree to which Alleah is coordinating perspectives. Perhaps

she meant that because of segregation, white peo

ple and black people are never physically in the

same place. They each have their own pools and

their own ice cream parlors. Because they don't

spend time in the same locations, there is never an

opportunity to form friendships. While this is fac

tually correct, it is a limited level of understand

ing. On the other hand, there could be another

interpretation for her words "white people and

black people usually don't be together." Perhaps she is referring to the attitudes of white people and

black people, meaning that they don't usually choose to be together. In this case, she would be ap

plying a more interpretive level of understanding. With further probing and support, Alleah could be

brought up to that deeper level.

Overlap between literacy skills and social awareness skills

While usually thought of as two distinct fields, the worlds of literacy and social awareness are ac

tually closely linked. In some cases, the same skill

is practiced in both worlds, but called by different names. For example, during the reading of

Freedom Summer, Alison asked Alleah, "Why did

Joe say, T didn't want to swim in that old pool,

anyway?'" From a literacy standpoint, one would

argue that Alison wants Alleah to draw an inference

based on the text. From a social awareness point of view, one would say Alison wants Alleah to

demonstrate her knowledge of Joe's capacity to

take into consideration another's perspective, in

this case John Henry's, to answer the question.

They're both important skills to have.

However, whereas the literacy framework

helps us understand Alleah's response, "Because

black people can't go in there, only white people can," in terms of her capacity for inference, the so

cial awareness perspective asks us to consider the

degree to which Alleah expresses the way Joe's un

derstanding of John Henry's position influences his own thoughts and actions. It is true that the boys don't want to swim in a pool that's filled with tar, but some students never move beyond that "fact

based" comprehension of the question. Alleah,

however, understands the rule is not fair to John

Henry, which is a deeper level of analysis. Some

students in Alleah's class go even deeper. They ar




ticulate Joe's response as "care based." For exam

ple, "Joe did not want Joe Henry to feel bad." Joe is

concerned with John Henry's feelings, and in his

own way trying to be supportive. This is a deeper

interpretation of the text.

Finally, the role of conversation is pivotal for

both the development of literacy skills and social

awareness. A pianist's skills sharpen as her fingers become familiar with the landscape of the keyboard

through daily drills. So, too, a student's facility with

language improves through conversation. Oral lan

guage is a key component of any language arts cur

riculum. Providing opportunities to discuss the

social ideas presented in texts is one of the best ways to ensure students develop the ability to talk about

these issues. When children have the chance to think

deeply about what they are reading and then put then

thoughts into words, their understanding matures

profoundly. According to Calkins (2001), "We teach

children to think with and between texts by helping them say aloud, in conversations with us and with

others, the thoughts they will eventually be able to

develop without the interaction of conversation" (p.

226). By going through the process of articulating their thoughts, children develop the vocabulary nec

essary to discuss issues such as racism and social

justice. "Dialogue" is the analogy in the domain of

social awareness. It is crucial to the endeavor en

hancing perspective-taking skills. Teacher-student

and student-student conversation is key to explicat

ing the way people see the social world.

Final thoughts The field of literacy instruction has undergone

a revolution in the past 20 years. In the 1980s, the

emphasis in reading instruction was primarily on

teaching children to decode words and ascertain the

literal meaning of texts. In recent years, there has

been an important shift in the conceptualization of

reading (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). In the current

educational discourse, "reading" refers to "con

structing meaning from print." In today's classroom, teachers guide students not only in decoding and

making literal interpretations, but also in construct

ing meanings built on the students' knowledge of the

world, and on the student's personal experiences. The current conceptualization of the reading

process, and the teacher's role in this process, is far

more thorough than it was 20 years ago. However, we would submit that there is still a great distance to

travel and that the field of social awareness devel

opment has something important to contribute.

From a literacy perspective, the purpose of read

ing a book like Freedom Summer is to give students

an opportunity to practice all of the skills and strate

gies that will make them independent readers.

However, a book like Freedom Summer also has the

potential to enhance social awareness by creating an

opportunity for students to talk about racism, preju dice, and social justice. Through discussion, students

can expand their knowledge about how a social ill

such as racial discrimination can affect not only an

entire society, but individual friendships as well.

But, as we learned with our experience of the

children not knowing the meaning of the word tar, if

children's comprehension of the story is not sup

ported, they will find it difficult to get to a point where they can experience these conversations.

Likewise, there is a risk involved in reading Freedom

Summer and not supporting students' social under

standing of the story. After listening to and dis

cussing Freedom Summer, Alleah said that she

learned, "That white people and black people can

be in the same home, like when you adopt a baby. And they can be in the same pond, and water foun

tain, and be together instead of being separate." It is encouraging that Alleah feels she has

"learned" such a hopeful message from this book.

Early on in the reading and conversation with

Alison, Alleah's comprehension seemed limited

and a bit shallow. However, at other points in the

story, with Alison's help in scaffolding, Alleah ap

peared to have a deeper understanding of what we

take to be other important themes of the book. For

example, Alleah discussed the boys' desire to be

friends, in spite of what others might think of their

friendship. This hints at an understanding of the so

cial pressure that the boys faced. With more dis

cussion, Alleah might be able to say she learned

that one shouldn't allow society to dictate who we

are friends with. Or, she might be able to discuss

the courage required to stand up to unfair social

practices. These are the types of messages we hope that students will take away from this story. As ev

idenced by our work with Alleah, we believe that

with support and scaffolding, children can interpret the social messages of the books we read to them

and develop more sophisticated social awareness.




Note: The research described in this paper takes place within the context of a school-based so

cial development program that is supported by the

Third Millennium Foundation.

Lobron works for Newton Public Schools in Newton, Massachusetts. She can be contacted

at 15B Maple Terrace, Newton, MA 02458, USA. E-mail [email protected]. Selman

teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education-Human Development and

Psychology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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References

Calkins, L. (2001). The art of teaching reading. New York:

Longman.

Cannon, J. (1993). Stellaluna. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.

Developmental Studies Center. (2004). Child Development Project: A comprehensive school program. Oakland, CA: Author.

ESR Metro. (1999). The four Rs program (reading, writing, respect and resolution) New York: Author.

Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guiding readers and writ ers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre and con

tent literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work:

Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Mohr, N. (1979). Felita. New York: Dial.

Selman, R.L. (2003). The promotion of social awareness: Powerful lessons from the partnership of developmen tal theory and classroom practice. New York: Russell

Sage Foundation. Voices Reading. (2005). Columbus, OH: Zaner-Bloser.

Wiles, D. (2001). Freedom summer. New York: Atheneum Books.



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The Interdependence of Social Awareness and Literacy Instruction