Janet C. Richards – författare

Innovative and practical, this text helps prepare teachers to support the literacy learning needs of all children in grades K-6, including academically, linguistically, and culturally diverse students. It features original teaching cases written by preservice teachers enrolled in field-based reading/language arts methods courses, accompanied by commentaries written by experienced teacher educators and skilled classroom teachers. High-interest content and a reader-friendly format encourage critical and reflective thinking about topics important to effective literacy instruction. By promoting reflection about case issues, the text helps prepare future teachers to respond to teaching narratives presented on the practical applications section of the PRAXIS II, an examination required in most states for teacher licensure. The authentic cases candidly and poignantly describe preservice teachers'' plans, problems, hopes, disappointments, dilemmas, and reflective thinking as they address the multilayered complexities and ambiguities associated with learning to teach reading and language arts in elementary classrooms. These teaching stories reveal glimpses of literacy instruction and allow us to enter real classrooms and experience the wide varieties of situations that reading/language arts teachers encounter daily. Although the cases are grouped according to specific dimensions of literacy theory and pedagogy, just as in real classrooms, other issues are woven through each case as well. The commentaries provide scholarly, and sometimes contrasting, perspectives and approaches through which readers might consider the issues presented in the cases. The commentaries represent only particular perspectives, but readers are encouraged to explore and consider as many perspectives and issues as possible regarding each case. Each chapter includes helpfulpedagogical features: * New or critical concepts and terms listed at the beginning of each chapter alert readers to what might be unfamiliar vocabulary. * Applications and Reflections pages help readers take an active part in analyzing, documenting, and talking about the particular issues portrayed in the case narratives. Using the questions on these pages, the cases and accompanying commentaries can be read and discussed as a whole class activity, in small collaborative groups, or by individuals. The questions can also be used by readers to guide their own case writing initiatives. * Margin References direct readers to correlated readings for the strategies and parallel concepts mentioned in the cases and commentaries. Suggested readings can be discussed within the format of literacy study groups. * Annotated Bibliographies at the end of each chapter help readers construct more in-depth knowledge for the instructional strategies and activities discussed in the teaching cases. The cases, commentaries, and pedagogical features in this distinctive text provide rich opportunities for readers to discover what they need to know and how they need to think in order to teach reading and language arts effectively and successfully.

Innovative and practical, this text helps prepare teachers to support the literacy learning needs of all children in grades K-6, including academically, linguistically, and culturally diverse students. It features original teaching cases written by preservice teachers enrolled in field-based reading/language arts methods courses, accompanied by commentaries written by experienced teacher educators and skilled classroom teachers. High-interest content and a reader-friendly format encourage critical and reflective thinking about topics important to effective literacy instruction. By promoting reflection about case issues, the text helps prepare future teachers to respond to teaching narratives presented on the practical applications section of the PRAXIS II, an examination required in most states for teacher licensure. The authentic cases candidly and poignantly describe preservice teachers'' plans, problems, hopes, disappointments, dilemmas, and reflective thinking as they address the multilayered complexities and ambiguities associated with learning to teach reading and language arts in elementary classrooms. These teaching stories reveal glimpses of literacy instruction and allow us to enter real classrooms and experience the wide varieties of situations that reading/language arts teachers encounter daily. Although the cases are grouped according to specific dimensions of literacy theory and pedagogy, just as in real classrooms, other issues are woven through each case as well. The commentaries provide scholarly, and sometimes contrasting, perspectives and approaches through which readers might consider the issues presented in the cases. The commentaries represent only particular perspectives, but readers are encouraged to explore and consider as many perspectives and issues as possible regarding each case. Each chapter includes helpfulpedagogical features: * New or critical concepts and terms listed at the beginning of each chapter alert readers to what might be unfamiliar vocabulary. * Applications and Reflections pages help readers take an active part in analyzing, documenting, and talking about the particular issues portrayed in the case narratives. Using the questions on these pages, the cases and accompanying commentaries can be read and discussed as a whole class activity, in small collaborative groups, or by individuals. The questions can also be used by readers to guide their own case writing initiatives. * Margin References direct readers to correlated readings for the strategies and parallel concepts mentioned in the cases and commentaries. Suggested readings can be discussed within the format of literacy study groups. * Annotated Bibliographies at the end of each chapter help readers construct more in-depth knowledge for the instructional strategies and activities discussed in the teaching cases. The cases, commentaries, and pedagogical features in this distinctive text provide rich opportunities for readers to discover what they need to know and how they need to think in order to teach reading and language arts effectively and successfully.

There is little doubt that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a controversial entity. They are provocative for the way in which they have been developed, for the ways they are being implemented and evaluated, for their content, and for their failure to explicitly consider the needs, interests, and histories of diverse populations. While the CCSS continue to be problematized by critics around the country—including the editors of this volume—it is evident our nation is moving toward (some would argue we have arrived at) a national set of standards and/or a national curriculum. This text will be an important volume for multiple audiences, in large part because it will bring together critical perspectives on the CCSS and the notion of national standards/curricula. It will simultaneously provide a social justice orientation as a way to interpret the CCSS and respond to their limits, while presenting practical examples of social justice-oriented, CCSS-focused curricula that empower diverse learners and their teachers.

Social Justice, the Common Core, and Closing the Instructional Gap will consist of chapters by classroom teachers and university scholars who portray honest, engaging, first-person accounts of their successes and challenges connecting a social justice pedagogical orientation to the Common Core State Standards. These authors candidly and passionately share the challenges of navigating between a social justice curriculum and high stakes standards- and test-driven environments. They highlight their accomplishments that include effectively supporting students to consider social injustices and devise plans to work toward a more equitable world.