"At a time when popularizers of cultural literacy are prescribing a cultural canon for the purposes of prying open the `closed minds' of American youth . . . Literacy provides an articulate and courageous response." Harvard Educational Review "[This] book directs our attention to literacy in its broadest sense so that we can better evaluate the shortcomings of our work as educators at all levels of learning." Contemporary Sociology "Every chapter . . . asks teachers to think again about how they teach, what they want for their pupils and how to get on with it." The Times Educational Supplement
There is an immensely important conjunction between literacy and Information and Communications Technology (ICT). This book considers the application of ICT in raising and widening literacy achievements within the classroom, and explores ways that ICT can be harnessed to help students develop their literacy skills. Teaching Secondary School Literacies with ICT supports educators in this aim by offering creative examples of good practice. It provides commentary and research into what adolescent students are doing, both in formal education and socially, with regard to ICT and literacy, including: * Computer mediated communication * Literacy implications of computer games and chatrooms * Parents and children using the internet at home, and the implicit literacy skills involved Several contributors provide useful insights into the debate around teenage literacy cultures and literacy in schools. For example, in schools, word processing and keyboard skills are valued; yet thumb-controlled technologies (games con- soles, texting) are denigrated. This book argues that if we are to encourage pupils to develop the literacy skills they need for the 21st century, we need a more positive and creative response to these popular forms of literacy. This inspiring book is key reading for trainee and practising teachers, literacy advisers and policy makers.
This book shares with prospective and in-service teachers information about learning and teaching reading, writing, and thinking in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and communities. The underlying and recurrent thread throughout the book is the necessity for teachers to examine every instructional practice from the perspective of the culturally and linguistically diverse learner. This is a difficult task because prospective teachers and in-service teachers must "let go" of many concepts and practices they themselves experienced as students. Thus, the goal of this book is to inform and challenge English-speaking teachers who will be teaching English literacy to linguistically and culturally diverse students.
However, the focus on English literacy development does not imply advocacy for "English only" or even English as a second language (ESL) as the primary mode of literacy instruction. I have written elsewhere about the importance and benefits of first or native literacy development. In this book, I and the contributing authors assume a position that learners need to develop literacy in their native language and that the concepts and skills learned in developing the native language create a foundation of strength from which students can develop English literacy.
Literacy and Gender provides a major contribution to general debates about literacy and gender in schools. It advances the theory in literacy as a social practice as well as providing practical support to those researching literacy.
This timely project is essential reading for anyone with an interest in applied linguistics, education or gender studies.
This book presents a 'hot topic'--critical literacy--in a unique setting: a junior kindergarten....Most people, teachers in particular, think primary age kids, let alone preschoolers, are too young for this. Vivian shows not only that it can be done, but that done well (and her practice was certainly gorgeous), it promotes a depth of learning that teachers, parents, and even the kids themselves recognize....The case she makes for critical literacy being not only powerful but pleasurable and hopeful is important and often missing from other books on the subject....What an extraordinary achievement and what an extraordinary contribution to the fields of early childhood education, early literacy, and language education!
