ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the social and cognitive organization of classroom life and, more specifically, of academic learning tasks. Its focus is on the general education classroom in the elementary school. The chapter considers how engagement of teachers and students in everyday routines and tasks constructs differing students as more or less “with it” or “out of it.” My assumption is that with it and out of it are social constructions, not simply individual traits of students. The question I want to address is, “What’s the it in relation to which a given student is constructed as out or with?” That question is the central focus of the chapter.
