Pre-K Stories

Dana Frantz Bentley is a pre-K teacher at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of Everyday Artists. Mariana Souto-Manning is professor of education and director of the Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education Programs at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her books include Reading, Writing, and Talk and Multicultural Teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom.

” Pre-K Stories: Playing with Authorship and Integrating Curriculum in Early Childhood is a highly readable and insightful book that presents a lively exploration of the co-constructing process of an integrated, children-centered early literacy curriculum.”—Journal of Language and Literacy Education

• CONTENTSAcknowledgments ixIntroduction 1Storying the Pre-K East Classroom 3The Journey 6Part I: “How Do Stories Come into Our Class?”: Laying the Foundations 111. The Classroom and Its Practices 13Small Moments and Everyday Stories Lead to Big Curricula 15Building Blocks for Constructing Literacy Curricula in the Early Childhood Classroom 17The Classroom and Its Practices: Conclusion 222. Storying in Play: Investigating the Purpose of Authoring 24Making Sense of Play-Based Authorship 25Understanding Authorship in the Pre-K Classroom 283. Investigating the Purposes of Writing and Publishing with Young Children 32On the Pressure to Read and Write Earlier and Earlier 33Asking Questions: A Pathway for Investigating and Learning 34Young Children Speak, Read, and Author with Purpose 37Part II: “But How Can Our Stories Turn into a Book?”: Planning and Making 434. Creative Writing and The Book Project 45What the Children Already Knew About Books and Stories 47The Authoring Process: Writing The Whole Pre-K East Book 49The Book Project: Children as Authors, Play as Authorship 525. Investigating the Body of the Book: Unveiling Children’s Knowledge About Books and About Print 57Honoring Children’s Conceptualization of Publishing 58Rethinking the Roles of the Teacher and the Curriculum 60Teachers as Learners, Emergent Curriculum as Meeting Expectations 636. Science, Mathematics, and The Book Project 67Science and Mathematics in Paper Airplane Flying and Story Authoring 68The Investigation: Reading and Writing Toward Acquiring Information 72From Experimenting with Paper Airplanes to Authoring “How-To” Books 777. Observation, Language, Poetry, and The Book Project 81On the Importance of Circles 84Children’s Observations: Reading the World 85Poetry as a Language Art: Making Meaning and Making Sense Through Art 87Reflecting on Children’s Language and Literacy Development in and Through Poetry 968. Social Studies and The Book Project 98How Social Studies Comes to Life in the Pre-K Classroom 98Families at the Heart of the Social Studies Curriculum 102Authoring Our History as a Community 107Conclusion of This Chapter and of Part II 115Part III: Reflecting on The Book Project in the Larger Context of Teaching and Learning 1179. Perspectives and Insights on Authorship in an Emergent, Child-Centered Classroom 119Exploring Children’s Development of Traditional Literacy Skills 123Understanding the Development of a Learning Community 12910. “Look at Us! We’re All So Different!”: Remembering and Reflecting 3 Years Later 134References 141Index 147About the Authors 153