Anne Dyson confronts race and racism head-on with this ethnographic study of a child’s efforts to belong—to be a child among children. Follow the journey of a small Black child, Ta’Von, as he moves from a culturally inclusive preschool through the early grades in a school located in a majority white neighborhood. Readers will see Ta’Von encountering obstacles but finding agency and joy through writing and music-making, especially his love of the blues. Most attempts at desegregating schools are studied by reducing individual children to demographic statistics and test scores. This book, instead, provides a child’s perspective on challenges to classroom inclusion. Ta’Von’s journey demonstrates that it is within children’s peer worlds—formed in response to institutional policies and practices like desegregation initiatives, standardized testing, and a curricular focus on so-called “basic literacy skills”—that inequity becomes part of the experience of childhood. This book examines policies about literacy testing and teaching, including the potential power of the written word and of the arts. “Few researchers have had a career so embedded inside the lives of children in a classroom context as Anne Haas Dyson. This book should be on every literacy researcher’s shelf. It is a culmination of years of Dyson’s relentless fight against deficit framings of children and the deep inequalities that continue to persist in the world.” —Jennifer Rowsell, professor of literacies and social innovation, University of Bristol

Applying an asset-based approach, Multimodal Funds of Knowledge in Literacy prepares educators to teach and support diverse students and their families as they negotiate multimodal aspects of literacy learning. Framed by sociocultural theory, multiliteracies, multimodality, and posthumanism, the text combats deficit narratives by providing concrete alternatives that push educators to rethink their practices and support students’ and families’ cultural and linguistic strengths. Chapters include case studies, vignettes, prompts, and learning samples that will leave readers with valuable insights and new understandings of multimodal funds of knowledge. Comprehensive and instructive, this book is a key text in literacy education, family literacy, and community engagement.

What was is about the little country schoolhouse that so endears it to us? Travel with us to a time when education was a lot more than the three R's. You'll treasure this collection of heartwarming memories about those "dear old Golden Rule days."

Curating a Literacy Life spotlights the idea of curation as a process for inspiring student-centered learning with digital media. Young people need to learn to become purposeful collectors and, thus, curators of their own learning. In this book, Kist shows educators how to empower students as they make sense of all the books, videos, websites, and social media they access. Packed with ideas and activities developed over time in a high school setting, the author presents a model for learning to learn—a way of processing, making meaning, and repurposing all the texts around us. Kist demonstrates how curating can happen no matter where the teaching and learning are taking place, whether virtually or face-to-face, in school or out of school. Using Smart phones; a Netflix account, and access to a variety of YA, canonical, and media texts, this resource provides a foundation for becoming lifelong scholars and artists. Curating a Literacy Life is for both teachers and parents who are interested in helping young people harness, manage, and learn from the multiple messages and texts they encounter every day. Book Features: A powerful model to help teens make sense of and even repurpose the texts they encounter daily.Ideas for making use of digital media in ways that are meaningful to today’s students.Strategies for bridging the divide between in-school and out-of-school literacies. Activities developed during the author’s years as an instructional coach at Cleveland’s Glenville High School.

This book provides targeted suggestions that educators can use to ensure successful teaching and learning with today's growing population of transnational, multilingual students. The text offers insights based on the author's observations, interactions, and interviews with second-generation immigrant children, their families, and their teachers in the United States and South Korea. These collected stories give educators a better understanding of how elementary school children engage in language, literacy, and learning in and across spaces and countries; the forms of unique linguistic and cultural knowledge immigrant children build, expand, and mobilize as they move across contexts; the ways in which immigrant children position themselves and represent their identities; and how educators and researchers can honor these children's identities and unique talents. Featuring children's narratives, drawings, writings, maps, and photographs, this resource is a must-read for educators and researchers seeking to create more inclusive learning spaces and literacy practices. Book Features: Examples of students' literacy practices with insights for more effective teaching. Practical lessons gleaned from children engaging with language and literacy in flexible and dynamic ways in their everyday lives. Targeted suggestions to help educators better understand and utilize children's unique linguistic abilities and cultural understandings. Discussion questions and examples that challenge deficit perspectives of immigrant children and reposition them as multilingual and transnational experts. Implications for educators and researchers seeking ways to amplify young immigrant children's voices and leverage their knowledge.

"A number of academic texts address culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), but very few focus on literacy practices that are culturally sustaining, unlike this one. Despite widespread interest among educators in culturally sustaining pedagogy, implementation of its practice is limited. This text provides authentic examples of culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy in real classrooms so that readers can see how CSP is enacted in practice, across multiple grade levels"--

Learn how to use literature and informational texts related to sports as an alternative or a supplement to a canon-centric English classroom. This practical book promotes an instructional approach that honors students’ knowledge of, interests in, and experiences with sports culture to advance literacy learning. Informed by his own experiences in high school classrooms, the author documents the distinct methods employed by four secondary English teachers in rural, urban, and suburban schools. Each narrative features the voices of teachers and students and details a range of activities that readers can adapt for their unique contexts. Whether teaching traditional English courses or those focused on the study of sports literature, teachers can use this book to tap into students’ sporting interests and foster critical readings of sports culture as a mirror to our greater society. Book Features:Adaptable methods for using sports-related content to foster the six language arts: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing.Actionable ideas for going beyond sports fandom and, instead, reading sports culture through a critical lens.Implications for incorporating sports culture into the English curriculum, whether teaching traditional courses or a stand-alone sports literature class.Answers to frequently asked questions that can support teachers as they bring sports culture to the English classroom. “Luke Rodesiler demonstrates that moving beyond traditional canonical texts and topics contributes to an understanding that racism, sexism, inequity, and inequality of all kinds are current ongoing problems. When we expand our teaching to include new topics and new voices, we can invigorate our teaching in ways that make it matter more—in both the immediate and the long term.” —From the Foreword by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Distinguished Professor, Boise State University

Situated against a backdrop of multiple global pandemics—COVID-19, racial injustice and violence, inequitable resource distribution, political insurrections and unrest—this timely and critical volume argues for a divestment in white privilege and an investment in anti-racist pedagogies and practice across early childhood contexts of research, policy, and teaching and learning. Featuring established scholar-practitioners alongside emerging voices, chapters explore key issues around equitable and inclusive practices for young children, covering topics such as multilingualism and multicultural practices of immigrant communities, language varieties, and dialects across the Black diaspora, queer pedagogies, and play at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and language. Thoughtfully and compellingly written, each chapter offers an overview of the issue, the theoretical framework and critical context surrounding it and implications for practice.

This book introduces the Cycle of Responsibility (COR) model--the next step in the evolution of the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, which has been a conceptual mainstay of literacy education for decades. This new model shifts the current linear model to a cyclical process of multifaceted interactions that better reflect the complexities of early literacy, and with an emphasis on constructing knowledge together in the context of vibrant learning communities. Focused on reading, writing, and word study in the primary grades, the COR is put into motion through five key motivators: challenge, creativity, collaboration, choice, and independence. Vignettes demonstrate how to enact COR in classroom contexts. This practical resource is based on the authors' shared research and teaching experiences in employing the COR to empower children as literacy learners and teachers as agents of impactful instruction. Book Features: Presents the Cycle of Responsibility model--a new, field-tested teaching and learning model. Moves away from linear task completion to a cyclical collaborative process that reflects the energetic, complex, and creative world of classrooms. Provides a teacher-centric approach that emphasizes shared construction of knowledge and the forces that motivate young learners. Includes vignettes from the author's first-grade classroom to illustrate ideas in practice, as well as a chapter on teacher professional learning.

"The book is for preservice secondary teachers across all content areas and for beginning teachers who may not yet have much experience working in secondary classrooms. Connected to adolescent literacy, the authors encourage a "widened lens" approach that considers varied perspectives and research findings when engaging in various and often competing initiatives, issues, pedagogies, and strategies"--