Language and Literacy – serie

In ""The Languages of Learning"" Karen Gallas offers a new approach to understanding how young children in early and elementary grades communicate their knowledge of the world and the ways in which that kind of understanding can transform the educative process. In addition to expanding the traditional definition of narrative to include all forms of expression, the book also offers an original conceptualisation of what a classroom community is and how it is shaped. The book introduces new models for learning about science as well as an argument for, and description of, how the arts can transform the curriculum. Finally, Gallas describes, first hand, the process of doing teacher research, and what distinguishes that process from other kinds of educational research.

Karen Gallas provides us with a window into children's thinking about the world, enabling us to see how students build complex theories, identify important questions, and begin to enter the world of science, all within the naturalistic setting of the classroom.As the title suggests, this book treats classroom science as a particular type of discourse, with its own set of language and thinking practices. Gallas describes the content, structure, and practice of her child-centered approach, explains how the teacher's role in Science Talks develops and changes over time, and discusses how the use of Science Talks could transform science instruction as a whole. The full transcripts of two such talks included in the appendix, in addition to many smaller quoted interchanges throughout the text, will fascinate readers.

This text provides a portrait of adolescent girls in middle school - the ""social queens"" and the ""tough cookies"". The author, Margaret Finders, follows the girls, focusing on what they read and write - not just school-sanctioned activities but also the important ""hidden literacies"" - signing yearbooks, writing notes, bathroom graffiti and reading teen magazines. She spends time interviewing and interacting with the girls in and out of the classroom, on sleepovers, mall visits nd other recreational visits. What she sees raises questions about what is known about girls' lives. Highlighting the social importance of friendship, family and social networks in girls' sense of themselves, she suggests that literacy plays an important role in maintaining friendship groups and in the construction of the self. The study questions many common assumptions about early adolescence, mostly importantly the ""good girl"" role so often assigned to and reinforced in female students.

This is a text about the beliefs, issues and practices at the forefront of literacy education - language, ethnic, and academic diversity; authentic assessment; social construction of meaning and knowledge - explored through the lens of a cohesive instructional design, the Book Club Programme. As such, it provides a well-researched pedagogical model. Commentaries by eminent literacy scholars outside the project provide an expanded perspective on the many issues raised by the chapter authors. The resulting multiplicity of voices - including those of students (the authors of chapter 10) who are fifth-grade participants in the Book Club Programme - is a feature of this volume.

This compelling book examines the often cited but poorly supported claims that immigrants fail to learn English, and the mistaken belief that immigrant communities cling to their heritage languages. The author reveals that, on the contrary, English is being learned at a rapid pace while heritage languages are disappearing quickly from family use. She shows us how current assumptions have a pervasive influence on language policy in the United States. Ultimately, the author argues for an educational approach that effectively embraces immigrant communities as they tackle the obstacles to language learning in the United States. This unique volume offers a short, readable introduction to these issues suitable for nonspecialists as well as educators, researchers, and other professionals.

This valuable resource offers an alternative framework for middle and secondary school English instruction. The authors provide concrete strategies for engaging students in critical inquiry projects about the social worlds they inhabit or about those portrayed in literature and the media—their peer, school, family, romance, community, workplace, and virtual worlds. You will find numerous examples of middle and high school students using various literacy tools (language, genres, narratives, signs, multimedia, and drama) to study, represent, critique, and transform these worlds. Rather than simply studying about literacy practices, this new framework shows how students learn best through active participation driven by a need to critically examine and promote changes in their social worlds.

This timely book uses research on literacy outside of school to challenge how we think about literacy inside of school. Bringing together highly respected literacy researchers, this volume bridges the divide in the literature between formal education and the many informal settings - homes, community organisations, after-school programs, etc. - in which literacy learning flourishes. To help link research findings with teaching practices, each chapter includes a response from classroom teachers (K-12) and literacy educators. This book's unique blending of perspectives will have a profound effect on how literacy will be taught in school.

Hardly a day goes by in America without talk of testing students to higher standards as a means to improve our education system. In The Testing Trap, George Hillocks puts this logic to the test. Through interviews with over three hundred teachers and administrators, Hillocks examines whether state writing tests in Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, New York, and Texas do what they are supposed to do: Improve education. Ultimately, Hillocks argues that the majority of existing tests actually have a harmful effect on the way students are taught to write. In The Testing Trap, Hillocks demonstrates how the structure of assessment is actually responsible for the low level of thinking encouraged and reinforced in American classrooms. It is his contention that although politicians call for excellence, the tests that they create, and the formulaic writing they accept as passing, actually point to mediocrity as their true aim. In this way, political objectives are easily achieved but our children suffer the consequences. The Testing Trap is a provocative and essential read for administrators, teachers, parents, policymakers, legislators, voters, and all who care about the education of our children.

Here, Anne Dyson traces the influence of a wide-ranging set of ""textual toys"" from children's lives - church and hip-hop songs, rap music, movies, TV, traditional jump-rope rhymes, the words of professional sports announcers and radio deejays - upon school learning and writing.

Featuring contributions from a stellar group of teachers and researchers, this volume opens new territory on a critical but rarely addressed topic—the intersection of race with literacy research and practice. Grounded in classroom experiences, this insightful volume:Shows how race is constructed through literacy instruction and how adopting a “colorblind” stance serves to maintain a system of racism that is pervasive in and out of schools.Develops authentic knowledge of teaching and learning practices to insure that student and teacher voices are heard.Considers the ethics of research agendas and the consequences of their findings, discussing the importance of research in addressing issues of racial inequality in school literacy achievement.Details the value of the research process itself, coming to terms with the researcher’s aims, audiences, and his or her responsibilities as a potential agent of change.

This book examines the work of pioneers: teachers who have transformed their classrooms in an effort to broaden the literacy of their students, describing some of the most innovative examples of teaching and learning.

This book offers an exciting new perspective on language socialization in Latino families. Tackling mainstream views of childhood and the role and nature of language socialization, leading researchers and teacher trainers provide a historical, political, and cultural context for the language attitudes and socialization practices that help determine what and how Latino children speak, read, and write. Representing a radical departure from the ways in which most educators have been taught to think about first language acquisition and second language learning, this timely volume: introduces the theories and methods of language socialization with memorable case studies of children and their families; highlights the diversity of Latino communities, covering children and caretakers of Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American origin living in Chicago, San Antonio, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami, Tucson, and New York City; offers important insights into the ways in which children learn to speak and read by negotiating overlapping and/or conflicting cultural models; and suggests universal practices to facilitate language socialization in multilingual communities, including applications for teachers.

This practical book is a great resource for teachers who want to engage their students with young adult literature. The author presents in-depth, instructional units centered on historical conflicts and texts that will help students to better understand other cultures and time periods. An array of active learning strategies place students close to the featured novel or memoir while meeting standards and addressing a broad range of critical thinking skills. Historical themes center on: the Depression; Mexican American migrant farm workers; children during the Holocaust; the internment of the Japanese during WWII; the Japanese occupation of Korea; the U.S. Civil Rights Movement; the experience of U.S. soldiers and children affected by the Vietnam War. This book features: depictions of active learning in the English classroom, including many examples of student work with accompanying photos, web pages, and more; a variety of adaptable assignments designed to promote empathy and deepen students' awareness of the world around them; and, young adult literature that has proven to be of interest to students and relevant to their lives.

Formative and design experiments represent a methodology uniquely suited for educational research in general and literacy research in particular. Providing a practical overview of this emerging and promising approach, the authors address the following questions: What is the origin of formative and design experiments and how do they compare to other approaches to investigating interventions in classrooms? How do you conceptualize, plan, conduct, and report formative and design experiments? What practical, ethical, and methodological issues might be encountered when using this approach? What is the current status and future potential of this approach?

Over a decade ago, this classic text introduced the framework for the current response to intervention initiative. Now that federal education policy has caught up with the research and reform models presented here, this special reissue of ""No Quick Fix"" is of critical importance to today's teachers, principals, administrators, policymakers, and everyone interested in creating schools where all students learn to read. This groundbreaking resource outlines the key factors essential for effective reform of early literacy programs.

This provocative new title in the ""NCRLL Collection"" is a call to action for new and experienced scholars to examine their bias and adopt a more critically conscious stance in their work. Balancing an historical grounding with contemporary research, this book focuses on how critical theories are manifested in language and literacy research. The authors discuss critical consciousnesses in various places, at various times in the world, and at varying levels in language and literacy research. They examine some overlooked roots and routes to present-day critical thinking and predict how branches of theorizing may emerge, evolve, and transform research in a democratic society.

This groundbreaking work redefines traditional ideas of what a “text” should be, incorporating new kinds of multimodal texts to revitalize instruction within and across disciplines. The authors provide examples of innovative representations to aid learning in earth science, language arts, mathematics, and social studies classrooms. Each chapter focuses on a specific content area, outlining learning goals, relevant national standards, types of representation that enrich learning, and teaching strategies for developing critical literacy specific to that discipline. Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas is a powerful application of creative, multimodal teaching principles for meeting challenging standards.

This groundbreaking work redefines traditional ideas of what a “text” should be, incorporating new kinds of multimodal texts to revitalize instruction within and across disciplines. The authors provide examples of innovative representations to aid learning in earth science, language arts, mathematics, and social studies classrooms. Each chapter focuses on a specific content area, outlining learning goals, relevant national standards, types of representation that enrich learning, and teaching strategies for developing critical literacy specific to that discipline. Reading and Representing Across the Content Areas is a powerful application of creative, multimodal teaching principles for meeting challenging standards.

Author Thomas McCann invites readers to rethink their approach to teaching writing by capitalizing on students’ instinctive desire to talk. Drawing on extensive classroom research, he shows teachers how to craft class discussions that build students’ skills of analysis, problem-solving, and argumentation as a means of improving student writing. McCann demonstrates how authentic discussions immerse learners in practices that become important when they write. Chapters feature portraits of teachers at work, including transcripts that reveal patterns of talk across a set of lessons. Interviews with the teachers and samples of student writing afford readers a deeper understanding of process. Students also report on how classroom discussions supported their effort to produce persuasive, argument-driven essays.

Multigenre research projects affirm students’ home cultures while developing important academic skills consistent with the Common Core State Standards in reading and writing. This book will guide teachers in assigning, scaffolding, and assessing multigenre research assignments, including how to choose a topic, pace the work, and keep writers on track to achieve specific goals. Chapters are arranged by topic with each containing a description of the educational rationale for the topic, an introductory activity that serves as an inspiration for students in selecting a topic, and field-tested minilessons with step-by-step instructions. All the traditional elements of a research paper—quotations from experts, works cited, explanation, synthesis, and analysis—are brought to life as students animate information with emotion and imagination. An additional chapter describes how teachers have adapted this project for other subjects, such as social studies, science, and literature.Book Features:Prompts focused on home culture, inclusive model texts, and support for diverse language proficiencies.Correlations between writing skills and the Common Core State Standards, including academic citation and reading historical documents and other nonfiction texts.Practical management strategies for teaching large writing projects, including prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing.Publication options that include everything from paper-crafting to multimodal composition.A companion website with downloadable handouts and additional teaching strategies.

In this book, Ed Madison—journalist, producer/director, and innovative educator —provides specific strategies to help teachers use journalistic learning to achieve positive outcomes that engage students in new ways. Journalistic learning is a teaching approach that borrows techniques from the journalism profession to better instruct students in research, reading, and writing in language arts and the social sciences classes. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in schools across the United States, Madison demonstrates how this approach is uniquely aligned with Common Core State Standards that call for more emphasis on nonfiction texts and digital literacy skills. Centered on research and writing projects that will yield publishable student writing, chapters demonstrate how this approach works across contexts and benefits a broad range of students from diverse backgrounds. The text also explores new and affordable approaches to teacher training.

In this book, Ed Madison—journalist, producer/director, and innovative educator —provides specific strategies to help teachers use journalistic learning to achieve positive outcomes that engage students in new ways. Journalistic learning is a teaching approach that borrows techniques from the journalism profession to better instruct students in research, reading, and writing in language arts and the social sciences classes. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in schools across the United States, Madison demonstrates how this approach is uniquely aligned with Common Core State Standards that call for more emphasis on nonfiction texts and digital literacy skills. Centered on research and writing projects that will yield publishable student writing, chapters demonstrate how this approach works across contexts and benefits a broad range of students from diverse backgrounds. The text also explores new and affordable approaches to teacher training.

This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the most influential theories and models of reading and literacy, ranging from behaviorism and early information processing theories to social constructionist and critical theories. Focusing on how these theories connect with different curricular approaches to literacy instruction from pre-K to grade 12, the author shows how these theories both shape and are shaped by everyday literacy practices in classrooms. Readers are invited to explore detailed vignettes that offer a practice-based view of theories as they are brought to life in classrooms. Unlike other books on literacy theories, Reading Theory devotes substantial attention to linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and 21st-century technologies.

This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the most influential theories and models of reading and literacy, ranging from behaviorism and early information processing theories to social constructionist and critical theories. Focusing on how these theories connect with different curricular approaches to literacy instruction from pre-K to grade 12, the author shows how these theories both shape and are shaped by everyday literacy practices in classrooms. Readers are invited to explore detailed vignettes that offer a practice-based view of theories as they are brought to life in classrooms. Unlike other books on literacy theories, Reading Theory devotes substantial attention to linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and 21st-century technologies.

This book offers a solid research and theoretical foundation for combining social studies and literacy instruction. A collaboration between a literacy scholar, two classroom teachers, and a school librarian, this volume also shows teachers how to engage middle and high school students in historical inquiry that incorporates literacy skills like reading complex texts and writing elaborated arguments. The authors present extended simulation activities that immerse students in three eras of U.S. history: European incursions into North America, pre-Revolutionary War colonialism, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. These simulations allow learners to experience these major periods of U.S. history while they discuss, read, and write in ways that align closely with the Common Core State Standards. The final chapter guides teachers in constructing their own classroom simulations and identifies useful resources.

This book offers a solid research and theoretical foundation for combining social studies and literacy instruction. A collaboration between a literacy scholar, two classroom teachers, and a school librarian, this volume also shows teachers how to engage middle and high school students in historical inquiry that incorporates literacy skills like reading complex texts and writing elaborated arguments. The authors present extended simulation activities that immerse students in three eras of U.S. history: European incursions into North America, pre-Revolutionary War colonialism, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. These simulations allow learners to experience these major periods of U.S. history while they discuss, read, and write in ways that align closely with the Common Core State Standards. The final chapter guides teachers in constructing their own classroom simulations and identifies useful resources.

While the critical importance of summer reading loss is receiving more attention than in the past, not all summer reading programs are alike. Featuring three new chapters and extensive updating, the second edition of this groundbreaking book describes current research that confirms the importance of key elements in the authors’ summer reading model that are essential to ensure gains for low-income, low-achieving students. Allington and McGill-Franzen—acknowledged experts on reading, remedial reading, and special education—describe multiple models of effective summer reading and book distribution initiatives. They also provide research-based guidelines for planning a successful summer reading program, including tips on book selection, distribution methods, and direction for crucial follow-up.New for the Second Edition:Description of the authors’ recent related research.A new chapter on connecting summer reading programs and the summer reading setback phenomenon by Jennifer M. Graff.A new chapter on summer reading and multilingual and English learners by Natalia Ward.A new chapter on what libraries can do to support children, teens, and families by Maria Cahill.An extensively revised chapter focused on enticing boys to read by Lunetta M. Williams.List of new “favorite titles” as selected by students.Reference to new research that validates the authors’ emphasis on recreational rather than leveled reading, free books, and student choice of reading material.

As an alternative to reductive views of emergent literacy, Lysaker explains how wordless books help young children to develop a range of comprehension abilities that are important for understanding narrative texts. Readers will find concrete methods to help them gauge, document, and respond to children as they make meaning of wordless books.

As an alternative to reductive views of emergent literacy, Lysaker explains how wordless books help young children to develop a range of comprehension abilities that are important for understanding narrative texts. Readers will find concrete methods to help them gauge, document, and respond to children as they make meaning of wordless books.