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The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries
Open accessAbstract
In this article, Elizabeth Birr Moje, Melanie Overby, Nicole Tysvaer, and Karen Morris challenge some of the prevailing myths about adolescents and their choices related to reading. The reading practices of youth from one urban community are examined using mixed methods in an effort to define what, how often, and why adolescents choose to read. By focusing on what features of texts youth find motivating, the authors find that reading and writing frequently occur in a range of literacy contexts outside school. However, only reading novels on a regular basis outside of school is shown to have a positive relationship to academic achievement as measured by school grades. This article describes how adolescents read texts that are embedded in social networks, allowing them to build social capital. Conclusions are framed in terms of the mysteries that remain - namely, how to build on what motivates adolescents' literacy practices in order to both promote the building of their social selves and improve their academic outcomes.
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“In recently conducted surveys of adolescent literacy practices among youth in one large midwestern U.S. city, the average young person reported engaging in roughly nine different family and community activities outside of school each week, and reported reading books, websites, music lyrics, and magazines several times per week, in addition to the reading they did for school (Moje, Overby, Tysvaer,”
From Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change (2008) · cites this paper as Moje, Overby, Tysvaer, & Morris, 2008
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In the citing paper
“In recently conducted surveys of adolescent literacy practices among youth in one large midwestern U.S. city, the average young person reported engaging in roughly nine different family and community activities outside of school each week, and reported reading books, websites, music lyrics, and magazines several times per week, in addition to the reading they did for school (Moje, Overby, Tysvaer,”
From Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change (2008) · cites this paper as Moje, Overby, Tysvaer, & Morris, 2008
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“At the same time, my own work with young people in one urban community (Moje et al., 2008) suggests that youths' transfer of proficient skills from popular texts that interest them-and for which they have constructed extensive domain knowledge in practice-is compromised when they find themselves confronted with texts for which they have little sophisticated domain knowledge and for which they have”
From Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change (2008) · cites this paper as Moje et al., 2008
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References 46 · Cited by 374
Research works printed but not linked: 17
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- Gee, J. P. (2001, December). Reading in "new times." Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, San Antonio, TX.
- Ingalls, R. (2005). Taking a page from their books: Negotiating containment and resuscitating rhetoric in writing across academic and spoken-word genres. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
- Lee, C. D. (2005, December). Re-conceptualizing disciplinary literacies and the adolescent struggling reader: Placing culture at the forefront. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, Miami, FL.
- Lee, M. (2007). Promoting historical inquiry using secondary sources. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
- Leu, D. (2005, December). New literacies, reading research, and the challenges of change: A deictic perspective of our research worlds. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Miami, FL.
- Lewis, C., & Fabos, B. (2005). Instant messaging, literacies, and social identities. Reading Research Quarterly, 40, 470–501. · DOI
- McCaslin, M. M. (1990). Motivated literacy. In Literacy theory and research: Analysis from multiple paradigms. The thirty-ninth yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 35–50). Chicago: National Reading Conference.
- Moje, E. B. (2004). Powerful spaces: Tracing the out-of-school literacy spaces of Latino/a youth. In K. Leander & M. Sheehy (Eds.), Spatializing literacy research and practice (pp. 15–38). New York: Peter Lang.
- Moje, E. B., & Lewis, C. (2007). Examining opportunities to learn literacy: The role of critical sociocultural literacy research. In C. Lewis, P. Enciso, & E. B. Moje (Eds.), Identity, agency, and power: Reframing sociocultural research in literacy (pp. 15–48). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Moje, E. B., & Speyer, J. (in press). The reality of challenging texts in high school science and social studies: How teachers can mediate comprehension. In K. Hinchman & H. Thomas (Eds.), Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.
- New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 60–92. · DOI
- Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360–407. · DOI · Paper page
- VanDerPloeg, L. S., & Moje, E. B. (2004, December). Urban Youth Reading for "Real": Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Relationships, and Urban Experience. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, San Antonio, TX.
Metadata
- Authors
- BIRR MOJE, E., OVERBY, M., TYSVAER, N., & MORRIS, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- Harvard Educational Review
- Publisher
- Harvard Education Publishing Group
- Published
- 2008-04-01
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 107-154
- ISSN
- 0017-8055 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-5045
- PMC
- PMC2743424
- OpenAlex
- W2113053376
- Cited by
- 374
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 99.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Harvard Educational Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD046115)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Literacy and Educational Practices
- Social Sciences › Education › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- adolescent literacy, reading motivation, out-of-school literacy, novel, academic performance, social capital, social networks, youth reading, urban youth, social self
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.17763/haer.78.1.54468j6204x24157
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- BIRR MOJE, E., OVERBY, M., TYSVAER, N., & MORRIS, K. (2008). The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries. Harvard Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.78.1.54468j6204x24157
