The life and nature of language itself is breaking down under the adverse pressures of modern society, argues author Michael Rose. In Living Literacy, he maps out the threats to literacy - from inappropriate electronic media to fundamental flaws in the educational system - investigates the nature of literacy and how it relates to child development, and examines what really works in preparing for and teaching literacy. His wise and thoughtful book will help teachers and parents to prepare children for the transition to literacy through conversation, story, song and play and then introduce reading and writing formally in a relevant and living way.
An approach to literacy that understands it as lived and experienced in the everyday across varied spaces and populations. This book approaches literacy as lived and experienced in the everyday. A living literacies approach draws not only on such official, schooled activities as reading, writing, speaking, and listening but also on such routine, tacit activities as scrolling through Instagram, watching news footage, and listening to music. It goes beyond well-worn framings of literacy as an object of study to reimagine literacy as constantly in motion, vital, and dynamic, filled with affective intensities. A lived literacies approach implies a turn to activism, to hopeful practice, and to creativity. The authors examine literacies through a series of active verbs: seeing, disrupting, hoping, knowing, creating, and making. Case studies--ranging from an exploration of photography as a way to shift perspectives to a project in which adults teach young people how to fish--show lived literacies in both theory and practice. With these chapters, Pahl and Rowsell, along with contributors Collier, Pool, Rasool, and Trzecak, make it possible to see literacy in everyday activities, woven into the modes of seeing and knowing. By disruption and activism, literacy can encompass a wide array of practices--exchanging information at a school gate or making a collage. Grounding theory in the sites and spaces of their research, working with artists, photographers, poets, and makers, the authors issue a call to action for literacy education.
Reading to children at home is a joyful and celebratory time for parents and children alike. Both relish in the story and the time spent together. Early exposure to texts provides other benefits as well because it prepares children for school and builds a love of reading. Living Literacy at Home provides tips and strategies to help parents build those connections. Included is a snapshot of what literacy looks like in today?s classroom and support on how to make that home-to-school connection, how to build a home library and develop a reading routine, and how to make every day a literacy-rich day. Easy-to-use forms and a glossary of literacy terms round out this resource. Although the book is intended for parents of children in kindergarten through grade 8, the routines and suggestions can be easily adapted for any grade level.
In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.
Book Features: • 24 Pages, 8 inches x 8 inches • Ages 6-7, Grades 1-2 Leveled Readers, Lexile 350L • Simple, easy-to-read pages with vibrant images • Features a teaching focus on phonics for young readers • Includes bolded vocabulary words, an index, and post-reading questions for comprehension Bring Learning to Life: In Living Or Nonliving?, first—second graders learn about everyday nonliving objects, as well as living beings. Science Made Fun: You are a living being! Is a frog, or a stuffed animal? This kid’s book helps young readers learn about what makes something a non-living being, as well as what makes something living, too! Build Reading Skills: This engaging 24-page children’s book will help your child improve comprehension and build confidence with post-reading comprehension questions, extension activities, and high frequency vocabulary words. Leveled Reading: Part of the My Science Library series, the early reading level text and vibrant photographs make this kid’s book a fun, informative title that teaches children about the different types of non-living beings. Why Rourke Educational Media: Since 1980, Rourke Publishing Company has specialized in publishing engaging and diverse non-fiction and fiction books for children in a wide range of subjects that support reading success on a level that has no limits.
Combining language research with digital, multimodal and critical literacy, this book uniquely positions issues of transcultural spaces and cosmopolitan identities across a range of contexts. Its distinctive contribution is a framework to relate observation and analysis of these flows to language development, communication, and meaning making
There is a mutual dependence between poverty and academic achievement, creative pedagogies for low-income pupils, school models that ‘beat the odds’, and the resiliency of low-income families dedicated to the academic success of their children. This book examines the connection between poverty and literacy, looking at the potential roles and responsibilities of teachers, school administrators, researchers, and policymakers in closing the achievement gap and in reducing the effects of poverty on the literacy skill development of low-income children. There are numerous suggestions about how to improve schools so that they respond to the needs of low-income children; some argue for school reform, while others advocate social reform, and yet others suggest combining both educational reform and social reform. Without a strong foundation in literacy, children are all too often denied access to a rich and diverse curriculum. Reading and writing are passports to achievement in many other curricular areas, and literacy education plays an important role in moving people out of poverty toward greater self-sufficiency post-graduation. Schools and home environments share responsibility for literacy skill development; in school, literacy equals the acquisition of reading and writing skills, but it is also a social practice key to social mobility. The achievement gap between low-income, middle-class, and upper middle-class students illustrates the power of socioeconomic factors outside school. This book was originally published as two special issues of Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties.
An award-winning journalist and literacy advocate provides a clear, step-by-step guide to helping your child thrive as a reader and a learner. When her child went off to school, Maya Smart was shocked to discover that a good education in America is a long shot, in ways that few parents fully appreciate. Our current approach to literacy offers too little, too late, and attempting to play catch-up when our kids get to kindergarten can no longer be our default strategy. We have to start at the top. The brain architecture for reading develops rapidly during infancy, and early language experiences are critical to building it. That means parents’ work as children’s first teachers begins from day one too—and we need deeper knowledge to play our positions. Reading for Our Lives challenges the bath-book-bed mantra and the idea that reading aloud to our kids is enough to ensure school readiness. Instead, it gives parents easy, immediate, and accessible ways to nurture language and literacy development from the start. Through personal stories, historical accounts, scholarly research, and practical tips, this book presents the life-and-death urgency of literacy, investigates inequity in reading achievement, and illuminates a path to a true, transformative education for all.
