City Literacies: Learning to Read Across Generations and Cultures [Paperback]

City Literacies explores the lives and literacies of different generations of people living in two contrasting areas of London at the end of the 20th century: Spitalfields and the City. This contrast outwardly symbolizes the huge difference between poverty and wealth existing in Britain at this time. The book presents a study of living, learning and reading as it has taken place in public settings, including the school classroom, clubs, places of worship, theatres, and in the home. Over fifty people recount their memories of learning to read in different contexts and circumstances.
City Literacies explores the lives and literacies of different generations of people living in Spitalfields and The City at the end of the twentieth century.Eve Gregory is Professor of Language and Culture in Education at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Ann Williams is Lecturer in Linguistics at The University of Reading.'The book must be widely read and used as a basis for discussion. I hope it will be used as a model for further investigation of language in inner cities.' - Harold Rosen, Times Education SupplementIntroduction: poverty and illiteracythe deficit myth PART I Living and learning east of the Aldgate pump 1 Places and peoples 2 Schooling the City PART II Childhood memories of literacy and learning 3 Literacy for survival 4 Literacy for equality 5 Literacy for choice PART III Looking ahead: young literacies, lives and learning 6 Living literacies in homes and communities 7 Learning the literacy of schoolUS? 2000 Eve Gregory and Ann Williams The rights of Eve Gregory and Ann Williams to be identified as the Authors of this Work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.