Balance in the making: Learning to read in an ethnically diverse first-grade classroom.

The study explored what diverse 1st-grade children can learn about reading within a year-long balanced approach to emergent reading instruction. The study took place in a 1st-grade classroom where one of the coauthors was the teacher, and there were 20 children from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. A researcher participant observer visited the classroom. Data were analyzed using the constant-comparison method. Conclusions were that, first, the children were constructing a balanced view of reading: (a) They began to learn about local knowledge about reading, (b) they began to construct global knowledge about reading, (c) they developed a desire to read and a responsive stance to reading, and (d) significant generative moments signaled the children's movement toward more mature reading abilities. Second, a balanced program can be used successfully in a diverse 1st-grade classroom.