Literate Lives: Teaching Reading and Writing in Elementary Classrooms [Loose-leaf]

An excellent resource for elementary teachers, this book will help them learn how to organize for literary instruction in their classroom. It is written in a way that turns the reader into a problem solver as they find solutions for numerous real-world questions. They'll discover how to dig deeper into literacy instruction and decide on what actions to take. The book also emphasizes ways to drive and teach literacy by using such things as children's toys and familiar characters.

Part I:?Gaining a Knowledge Base about Reading and Learners

1?Examining Literacy in the Twenty-First Century?2

OPENING VIGNETTE: Discovering What Makes a Good

Reader and a Good Teacher of Readers 2

THE GAP: LITERACY PRACTICES IN SCHOOL AND OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 4

PERSPECTIVES ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE LITERATE 5

MODELS OF SCHOOLING THAT IMPACT LITERACY DEVELOPMENT 6

Learning Is about Skill Building: Industrial Model 6

Investigating a Question: Inquiry Model 8

Problematizing the Status Quo: Critical Model 9

SIX GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING READING AND WRITING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 11

Principle #1: Literacy Practices Are Socially and Culturally Constructed. 11

Principle #2: Literacy Practices Are Purposeful. 12

Principle #3: Literacy Practices Contain Ideologies and Values. 13

Autonomous model 13

Ideological model 14

Principle #4: Literacy Practices Are Learned through Inquiry. 14

Principle #5: Literacy Practices Invite Readers and Writers to Use Their Background Knowledge and Cultural Understandings to Make Sense of Texts. 15

Principle #6 Literacy Practil��