This research documents the use of a pedagogy called dramatic inquiry (Edmiston, 2011) and active, rehearsal room approaches to reading Shakespeare (Royal Shakespeare Company Toolkit, 2010) in one third grade classroom during the 2010-2011 school year. Simultaneously, this research describes reading events built around the skills-based models of reading instruction while it also documents the introduction of a new way of structuring reading events in the same classroom using multiple ways of knowing beyond verbal and abstract (e.g. dramatic play, somatic, kinesthetic, gestural, musical, etc.). The findings describe the key linkages between changes in reading instruction towards dramatic inquiry and the changes in ELLs access to academic literacy and expanded repertoires for meaning-making.
Critical social cultural theories of literacy education (Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007) and a performative view on social life (Goffman, 1959) and education (Alexander, Anderson, & Gallegos, 2005) informed this performance ethnography and case studies of ELLs. Multiple ethnographic data collection methods were used across the school year during both non-dramatic and dramatic practices including; field notes, researcher journal, video-coded data, student artifacts, ethnographically grounded assessments, focus groups, interviews and informal reflections with the teacher and focal students. Data analysis relied on grounded theory (Glaser & Straus, 1967) and was informed by a priori theories of drama, reading, and ELL literacy education. It employed data reduction methods through constant comparative charts, photo analysis of movement and embodied meaning, and visual data maps of related events and word knowledge.
Non-dramatic reading practices (e.g. reading group, word study) created a classroom culture of comparing reading skills. These practices were characterized by performances of knowing with inauthentic reading tasks, transmission teaching models, individual displays of fluency and of knowing words with little relationship to making-meaning. In contrast, the embodied ways of understanding through the cyclical and long-term nature of the dramatic inquiry reading events created a classroom reading culture of collaborative inquiry and risk-taking, where ELLs had consistent opportunities to engage in authentic reading comprehension tasks and to perform multimodal literacy understandings with the complex texts of Shakespeare.
The ELLs' long-term, cyclical participation in dramatic inquiry challenged them to re-read for deepening understanding and to be collaborative, generative and creative in making their higher order thinking visible. This collaborative inquiry supported the focal ELLs to take risks; to explore authentic questions and to become deeply fascinated with the intrigue, rhythm and rich figurative language of Shakespeare’s plays. In dramatic inquiry, ELLs had consistent opportunities to use their bodies as a valid, multimodal resource; to build a shared background knowledge and language; to gradually shape meanings of words; and to deepen vocabulary knowledge, fluency and comprehension of four Shakespeare plays. Within this playful and poetic space, the ELLs (and their teachers and classmates) built passionate relationships with the literary language and ethical questions offered by Shakespeare and they began to author different stories of themselves as readers. Findings from this research extends the scholarship in ELL literacy education by showing the significance of long-term collaborative inquiry with dramatic and multimodal forms of learning.