Abstract:
During 1997 a pilot study related to the acquisition of school literacies by a number of students in socio-economically disadvantaged primary schools was carried out in two city and one country school. The study was funded by DETE SA, and conducted by the Language and Literacy Research Centre at the University of South Australia. The study has since been funded as a three year project. This paper looks at some of the tentative conclusions made in relation to the literacy learning of 'Libby', a Year 3 student attending the country school. Data was gathered during Term 4 of 1997, it included fieldnotes and transcripts of Libby engaged in literacy tasks in the classroom on eight different occasions. Also gathered were her written products and assessment records at a system, school and classroom level. The specific focus of this paper is on Libby as a writer and researcher using multimedia texts and it considers a small number of the key findings. Given that this research is now a three year longitudinal study the paper concludes with some questions this pilot study suggested for the future research into Libby's, and 20 other students, literacy learning.