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44 Heather A. Horst, Becky Herr-Stephenson, and Laura RobinsonFigure 1.1Michelle looking around online. Photo by Lisa Tripp, 2006.understand, she writes down the word and asks her teachers at school forhelp. Some of her recent favorite books include Thoroughbred: A Horse CalledWonder, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and Harry Potter, which took herabout three months to read.Rose helps Michelle with reading and doing homework to the extent thatshe can, but she speaks limited English and studied up to only the eighthgrade in her native El Salvador. This makes providing homework help difficult.Rose bought a computer and pays for high-speed Internet, all to helpMichelle complete school assignments. At the same time, Rose worries alot about Michelle visiting websites such as MySpace, where she fears herdaughter might get in to trouble, talk to strangers, or be the target of sexualpredators. She also worries that Michelle will waste time playing online gamesinstead of doing her homework. As a result, the computer is kept in the livingroom, where Rose can keep an eye on what Michelle is doing and, if Rose hasto leave the house, she often takes the modem with her to keep Michellefrom going online unsupervised. Sometimes when Rose is not looking,Michelle sneaks online to one of her favorite sites. When she gets caught, sheyells back at her mom, “I’m not doing anything wrong!”Several of Michelle’s friends have MySpace pages, and Michelle has one too.From Michelle’s perspective, the site is fun because it allows her another way