Real-World Literacy Activity in Pre-school

In this article, we share real-world literacy activities that we designed and implemented in two early literacy classes for preschoolers from two inner-city neighborhoods that were part of an intergenerational family literacy program, Literacy for Life (LFL). The program was informed by research that shows that young children in high literate homes develop important emergent literacy knowledge by engaging in meaningful and functional activities in their homes and communities that are mediated by print. We defined real-world literacy activity as reading, writing, or listening to real-life texts for real-life purposes. The children made significant gains in literacy knowledge when compared to the norm group. We share examples of how we integrated real-world literacy activities into daily classroom management/organizational routines, whole class and small group instruction, celebrations and special events and how we took advantage of teachable moments to make explicit the purposes and functions of print and texts in developmentally appropriate ways

To Learn About Science: Real Life Scientific Literacy Across Multicultural Communities

Much of the current research on scientific literacy focuses on particular text genres read by students within the classroom context. We offer a cross-case analysis of literacy as social practice in multicultural communities around the world, through which we reveal that individuals with no formal education, as well as people with varied levels of schooling completed, customarily and actively engage in literacy events with the goal of learning about science as part of their everyday lives. We argue that these outcomes substantiate the notion that multiple ways of being scientifically literate actually exist and that scientific literacy in its most fundamental sense is crucial in science education, despite the fact that the most common definitions and notions of scientific literacy have predominantly considered its derived sense (Norris and Phillips 224)

Constructions of Deficit: Families and Children on the Margins in Costa Rica

This analysis examines the nexus of marginalization and education, particularly the literacy potential and achievement of young children from socially and politically marginalized communities. Drawing on data from a study of literacy practice among Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica and the schooling the Nicaraguan children in Costa Rican schools, this analysis reveals the ways that constructs such as difference and deficit are constructed within historical, economic, and cultural contexts, for the most part in the absence of empirical evidence. The data used for this analysis was collected as part of a six-month, ethnographic case study of literacy practice within Costa Rican and the Nicaraguan immigrant communities. Data came from (a) observations in kinder, grade 1, and grade 2 classes in a public school near San José; (b) interviews with public school administrators and teachers; (c) community observations of literacy practices in Costa Rican contexts and within the precarios where Nicaraguan immigrants live; (d) semi-structured home literacy interviews with Nicaraguan participants from one prominent precario; (e) early literacy assessment results for children in the kinder and first grade; (f) expert interviews with administrators of NGOs who focus on the “Nicaraguan problem; and (g) reading and writing artifacts from the communities and the schools

Print Literacy Development Uniting Cognitive and Social Practice Theories

The authors lucidly explain how we develop our abilities to read and write and offer a unified theory of literacy development that places cognitive development within a sociocultural context of literacy practices.Intro -- Contents -- 1 To Learn to Read and Write: Students Who Fail and Succeed -- 2 The LPALS Study -- 3 How Does Print Literacy Develop? -- 4 Literacy as Social Practice -- 5 Print Literacy as Cognitive Skill Development -- 6 The Seeming Incommensurability of the Social and the Cognitive -- 7 Print Literacy Development through a Widened Lens -- 8 The Course of Print Literacy Development in and out of School -- Notes -- References -- IndexThe authors lucidly explain how we develop our abilities to read and write and offer a unified theory of literacy development that places cognitive development within a sociocultural context of literacy practices.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries

Victoria Purcell-Gates interview

Webcast file name: purcell-gates_jul13_2012Date: July 13, 2012Voice of Literacy host, Dr. Betsy Baker, interviews Dr. Victoria Purcell-Gates, Canada Research Chair for Early Childhood Literacy at the University of British Columbia