ABSTRACT
Four 8th grade English teachers in a middle school in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley joined me several years ago in what seemed at that time a simple question with both theoretical and practical implications: What would it take to arrange for every student to become an engaged reader? The answer to that question centered largely on revamping the collection of reading materials available to students, from a limited variety of whole-class novel sets to a vast selection of edgy contemporary young adult fiction and giving students full control over selecting and responding to what they read. Little did we know what those choices and experiences would reveal about students’ personal lives and their capacities for using literacy to understand themselves and the world that extended far beyond their small town. In particular, we came to question our assumptions about the cultural reputation of this region of the country versus the complex, varied identities of the students living in it.
