Literacy Identity
Much conversation has taken place recently about students building STEM identities and how these self-perceptions affect who is entering the STEM fields (Singer et al., 2020). The thinking is that if students can imagine themselves as a successful microbiologist, mechanical engineer, financial analysist or the like, that they will be more inclined to join the ranks of those professions. Therefore, if we support students in building positive self-perceptions in these science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, they are more likely to participate in needed (and lucrative) related occupations.
However, in my experience, there has been much less conversation about how students construct their literacy identities. Each time a student picks up a text or attempts to communicate their ideas through writing, they might form, confirm, or revise their self-perceptions about their abilities within literacy-based subjects. If their self-perceptions are not strong, the instruction they receive may not have the intended impact and students’ growth and development may be hindered. Thus, we must support students in building positive identities in literacy – and that begins with self-efficacy.
A Persistent Struggle
Before we help students form positive literacy identities, it is important to understand how students may have constructed their identities in the first place. It is a common expectation that students have mastered foundational skills by the end of third grade. However, research has found that students who have not met a decoding threshold by the end of third grade, who have gaps in their foundational knowledge, or who do not receive continued instruction on decoding more complex words, tend to comprehend less as they read more complex texts (Kockler & Sutherland, 2024). Additionally, NAEP results suggest that only about one-third of our 4th- and 8th-grade students are reading on grade level, and only 37% of 12th-grade students achieve proficient benchmarks (The Nation’s Report Card, 2020). In short, most of our students are not instructionally prepared for grade-level reading.
This is not a new problem. In fact, NAEP reading scores have remained relatively static for 50 years (The Nation’s Report Card, 2020). For decades, most American students have been performing below grade level expectations in literacy classrooms, and this is particularly true for minority populations. Through these struggles, students may have developed negative self-perceptions of themselves in literacy-based subjects.
This begs the question: how can we support students, even those who have negative self-perceptions, in building positive literacy identities? One answer is that we can support students in building self-efficacy.
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy is a person’s belief that they can succeed on a task (Bandura, 1997). Whether that task is tracking a theme or writing an expository paragraph, our students have perceived self-efficacy for the assignments presented to them. High self-efficacy leads to students applying effort, persevering through challenges, and setting challenging goals (Bandura, 1997; Schunk 1984; Carpenter & Clayton, 2014; Conley, 2017; Locke & Latham, 2002; Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). Low self-efficacy prevents students from setting challenging goals or persevering through challenges (Bandura, 1997).
What follows are some research-based strategies to support students in building self-efficacy and support their positive literacy identities:
Breaking It Down
Students are asked to do highly complex work in literacy courses, such as making and expertly defending claims about their reading. If we pause for a moment and consider this task, we see that a student would need to comprehend the text, form an opinion (likely through inference or critical thinking), gather evidence for support, analyze the relevancy and quantity of their evidence, and so on. This is to say nothing about the needed writing skills. There are myriad struggles the average student might have with this assignment.
So how do we build self-efficacy when we are asking students to do highly complex tasks and we have a breadth of abilities in our classrooms?
Educators can support students on complex tasks by breaking them down into manageable chunks on which students can be successful. Mastery experiences, or reflecting on past successes with a similar task, are the most powerful way to build self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). By breaking tasks down, we can create smaller tasks on which students can succeed. Research has shown that when tasks are scaffolded, it supports students in creating mastery experiences that increase motivation and confidence (Payne & Whitworth, 2022). For example, if students receive appropriate support to comprehend the text, they are more likely to feel confident that they can produce accurate thinking relative to the text. If they are then provided with support as needed to communicate their thinking, such as frames or graphic organizers, they are more likely to be able to demonstrate what they learned. Providing just-in-time scaffolds can lead to a string of small successes for students that support their overall success on complex tasks.
As educators, it is important to call students’ attention to their victories along the path, no matter how small – whatever represents overcoming a challenge for that student. As they see the successes start to accumulate, it will become easier for them to believe in a future in which they successfully accomplish the entire task.
Verbal Encouragement
Another research-based method to increase students’ self-efficacy is to provide them with verbal encouragement (Bandura, 1997; Hsu et al., 2021). This persuasion is most helpful when it comes from a trusted source and when it focuses on the progress a student has made, rather than their achievement (Bandura, 1997). This underscores the need to build trusting relationships with students who see their teacher as both a source of support and an advocate for their success. When verbal encouragement focuses on past achievement, some students, especially those who do not have high self-efficacy, may attribute their achievement with luck or some other force beyond their control.
Think about moments when you might notice a student takes a successful step on a task and swoop in for some verbal encouragement!
Show and Tell
While providing direct instruction to students, it is important to model thinking and writing for them. When students see modeling, they make judgments about how likely they are to be able to follow the model and successfully complete a similar task themselves (Bandura, 1997). By demonstrating thinking and the steps in a task to students, they get a better mental model for how to complete the task well, and they might just imagine themselves being able to do the task themselves.
This can be even more effective if peers model the task, especially if the peer is someone the student sees as being of similar ability (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). As you select students to model for others, consider how students perceive their peers. Select model students who have a grasp of the content but haven’t necessarily mastered the skill. Ask questions of the student model so they parse out their thinking for others and point out when the model perseveres to overcome challenges.
A Time for Change
Research on reading achievement has shown that the majority of American students have struggled in literacy for decades. It would be logical to assume that students in our classrooms who have had struggles with reading, writing, and speaking over the years have also developed negative self-perceptions in their ability to complete tasks in these domains. If we want our students to be successful, it is important that they have positive self-perceptions, which can be supported through self-efficacy. Let’s start focusing on our students’ literacy identities as being prerequisite to their success in the classroom.
References
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W.H. Freeman and Company.
Carpenter, D. M., & Clayton, G. (2014). Measuring the Relationship between Self-Efficacy and Math Performance among First-Generation College-Bound Middle School Students. Middle Grades Research Journal, 9(2), 109–125.
Conley, D. (2017). The new complexity of readiness for college and careers. In K. L. McClarty, K. D. Mattern, & M. N. Gaertner (Eds.), Preparing Students for College and Careers (p, 11-22). Routledge.
Hsu, H., Li, Y., Dugger, S., & Jones, J. (2021). Exploring the relationship between student-perceived faculty encouragement, self-efficacy, and intent to persist in engineering programs. European Journal of Engineering Education 45(5), 718-734. https://doi-org.srv-proxy1.library.tamu.edu/10.1080/03043797.2021.1889469
Kockler, R., & Sutherland, R. (2024, May 13). Hiding in plain sight: How complex decoding challenges can block comprehension for older readers. Edtrust. https://edtrust.org/blog/how-complex-decoding-challenges-can-block-comprehension-for-older-readers/
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.
The Nation’s Report Card. (2020). NAEP Report card: Reading. The Nation’s Report Card. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=8
Payne, M. S., & Whitworth, D. E. (2022). Increasing creative self-efficacy: Developing the confidence of biochemistry undergraduates to innovate. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 50(3), 296-306
Schunk, D. H. (1984). Self-efficacy perspective on achievement behavior. Educational Psychologist, 19, 48-58.
Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Motivation and social cognitive theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101832
Singer, A., Montgomery, G., & Schmoll, S. (2020) How to foster the formation of STEM identity: Studying diversity in an authentic learning environment. International Journal of STEM Education 7(57). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00254-z
