On reframing children's words: The perils, promises, and pleasures of writing children

Anne Haas Dyson gave the following talk at the 1999 NCTE Conference in Denv er upon receiving the Alan C. Purves Award, presented to the RTE article fr om the previous year's volume judged most likely to have an impact on the p ractice of others. In her talk Dyson revisited Coach Bombay's kids as well as children from prior studies to consider the importance of materials from popular culture in children's literate activities. In doing so she emphasi zed the dynamic ways in which children adapt symbols from popular culture f or their own social and academic purposes. Dyson argued for the need to vie w popular culture more respectfully, an argument that challenges ideologies that make value-laden distinctions between the elite and common culture.