“You Oughta Have My Life!”: The Story of Jamie, A Resistant Writer

This article offers ways to understand how a fifth‐grade resistant writer positioned himself socially and academically within classroom writing practices and how these positions influenced literacy learning. Classroom writing practices enabled the student to explore the possibilities of who he was as he determined what types of learning were socially available to him. The student's voice is heard to describe how he was using writing in creative ways to position himself. He engaged in positional writing practices to create spaces for himself to influence and to examine his and others' positions. Effective instructional approaches and implications for teaching are discussed.