Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices

A 2022 SPE Outstanding Book Award Winner How do ideas change practices and people? In Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices, 32 influential scholars in literacy education get personal about how they have worked on ideas and how those ideas have worked on them. Together, the essays offer never-before revealed personal histories of the authors’ published writing about ideas that have shaped the field of literacy education. As a collection, the essays highlight some of the major themes that have guided and changed literacy practices over the last few decades. They also offer a rare glimpse into the complex ways histories of research emerge alongside personal and political influences on policy and practice. The volume includes an introductory chapter by Sumara and Alvermann in which they detail the processes they used in creating a context for the significance of this work. They begin with the premise that most literacy scholars rarely, if ever, reveal their personal and intellectual investments in ideas that have animated their research and other scholarly endeavors. That this observation rang true for all of the contributors was evidenced in their responses to the invitation. For example, some replied by saying this was the most exciting project they had engaged in because it required reflection on what motivated them to write the requested 3,500-word essay; others mentioned they were looking forward to reading what their peers would share. Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is a unique collection of autobiographical essays that situates literacy learning and teaching in a rich context of personal and professional knowledge that highlights and celebrates the vibrant complexities of the field of literacy education. It is a unique and valuable resource for researchers and educators, whether in K-12 or higher education. Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Literacy Research ӏ Literacy Research and Methods ӏ Language, Literacy and Culture ӏ Literacy Policy and Practice ӏ Narrative Research ӏ Interpretive Inquiry ӏ Research Methods in Education ӏ Foundations of Literacy Education ӏ Research Methods in Language and Literacy ӏ Popular Culture in Literacy Classrooms ӏ New and Digital Literacies ӏ History of Literacy Practices ӏ Educational Philosophy ӏ Reading and Language Arts ӏ Critical Theory ӏ Poststructuralism ӏ Digital Media Education ӏ Creative Writing ӏ Politics of Literacy

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.

The increasing popularity of digitally-mediated communication is prompting us to radically rethink literacy and its role in education; at the same time, national policies have promulgated a view of literacy focused on the skills and classroom routines associated with print, bolstered by regimes of accountability and assessments. As a result, teachers are caught between two competing discourses: one upholding a traditional conception of literacy re-iterated by politicians and policy-makers, and the other encouraging a more radical take on 21st century literacies driven by leading edge thinkers and researchers. There is a pressing need for a book which engages researchers in international dialogue around new literacies, their implications for policy and practice, and how they might articulate across national boundaries. Drawing on cutting edge research from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and South Africa, this book is a pedagogical and policy-driven call for change. It explores studies of literacy practices in varied contexts through a refreshingly dialogic style, interspersed with commentaries which comment on the significance of the work described for education. The book concludes on the ‘conversation’ developed to identify key recommendations for policy-makers through a Charter for Literacy Education. .

This edited collection introduces English and literacy educators to the theoretical, research-based, and practical dimensions of using digital memetic texts—“memes”—in the classroom. Digital memetic texts come with new affordances, particularly as avenues for student creativity, voice, and advocacy. But these texts can also be put to manipulative, propagandistic, and nefarious purposes, posing critical challenges to an informed, democratic citizenry. Grounded in multimodality and critical literacy, this book investigates the fascinating digital dimension of texts, audiences, and meaning, and considers how English educators might take up these conversations in practical ways with students. With authentic examples from teachers and students, this volume provides a road map to researchers and educators—both preservice and in-service—interested in critical and productive uses of these modern phenomena.

How do educators best prepare students for the new literacies that will define their future? Quite possibly that is the single greatest challenge they face in literacy education today. Innovative Approaches to Literacy Education: Using the Internet to Support New Literacies will help K-12 educators respond to this challenge with valuable insight on the fundamental changes to literacy, literacy learning, and literacy instruction that are brought forth by information and communication technologies. Editors Rachel A. Karchmer, Marla H. Mallette, Donald J. Leu, Jr., and Julia Kara-Soteriou make important connections among theory, research, and practice by offering the stories of pioneering, award-winning classroom teachers who successfully use the Internet to support literacy instruction and scholars who study the relationship between literacy and technology. With this powerful combination of perspectives, educators will discover new instructional ideas and resources for their classrooms, new visions of instructional possibilities for their schools and districts, and new ways to view their work in light of new literacies. definition of literacy but also transform the nature of literacy instruction in their classrooms as they integrate the Internet and other information and communication technologies into

'If we take the book Literacy and Education: Understanding New Literacy Studies in the Classroom seriously, it may help us teachers in training, teachers in the field, teaching theorists and researchers to learn more about ourselves and our teaching.' Journal of Early Childhood Literacy '… the best introduction to the theory and practice of New Literacy Studies available today for teachers, though policy-makers and researchers should also read it' - James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin-Madison 'This long awaited, accessible text shows how key research strands into the nature of contemporary literacy can reinvigorate classroom practice. Technological advances have transformed literacy practices in all spheres of learners’ lives and Pahl and Rowsell show through real examples, how pedagogical practice can accommodate these developments. This is a must for all those involved in all levels of literacy education' - Dr Julia Davies, Deputy Head of the School of Education, The University of Sheffield. Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom is a practical guide to applying New Literacy Studies in primary, secondary and family literacy contexts. It represents a comprehensive look at how to rethink, redefine, and redesign language in the classroom to meet contemporary needs and skills of students based on current literacy research, theory and practice. Each chapter profiles key themes within New Literacy Studies including: literacy and identity; multimodality and multiliteracies, bridging home-school literacy practices, and literacy and globalization. The book follows an accessible format with multiple activities in each chapter, theory boxes highlighting seminal research and theory; suggestions for classroom design and planning ideas; and New Literacy Studies assessment framework; and vignettes of New Literacy Studies and Multiliteracies classrooms in Britain and Canada, as well as a comprehensive glossary of terms. Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom brings research and practice together and is a valuable resource for teachers-in-training, practising teachers, and students studying literacy education at the graduate level. Allan Luke Dean, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, Singapore, prefaces the book with a look to the international importance of understanding and implementing New Literacy Studies in pedagogy and practice Jim Cummins Professor, OISE/University of Toronto, concludes the book with an eye to local settings and the necessity for us to accommodate the diverse literacy needs of students and clearly illustrates how New Literacy Studies fills such a niche.

This book presents an evidence-based framework for understanding the literacy needs of adolescents. The premise is that educators and other critical stakeholders need to understand evidence-based principles in order to develop effective curriculum to meet the needs of diverse learners. Recommendations are provided for middle and secondary education, professional development, teacher education research and policy. At the center of the book are Eight Guiding Principles developed by the authors through a process that included an extensive review of research and policy literature in literacy and related fields, a comparison of National Standards documents, and visits to the classrooms of 28 middle and high school teachers across the United States. The Principles are broad enough to encompass a variety of contexts and student needs, yet specific enough to offer real support to those involved in program development or policy decisions. They provide an overarching structure that districts and teachers can use to develop site-specific curriculum that is both research-based and designed to meet the needs of the learners for whom they are responsible. Important Text Features: Organized to help readers understand empirically supported principles of practice that can be used to address literacy concerns in today's schools, each chapter that addresses one of the eight Principles follows a similar format: * The Principle is presented along with a brief explanation of the research base and a sample of national standards that support it. * One or more case examples spanning a wide variety of disciplines, grade levels, and local conditions - provide an in-depth look at the Principle in action. * A well-known adolescent literacy expert offers a response to each case example, giving readers an informed view of the importance of the Principle, how it is enacted in the cases, and examples of other work related to the Principle. Discussion questions are provided that can be used for individual reflection or group discussion. Principled Practices for Adolescent Literacy is intended as a text for pre-service and in-service upper-elementary, middle and high school literacy methods courses and graduate courses related to adolescent literacy, and as a resource for school district personnel, policymakers and parents.

New literacies have been researched with various age groups in a variety of settings, illustrating how text uses differ across contexts and highlighting stark divides between schooled and out-of-school literacies. Not surprisingly, schools have difficulty staying abreast of the technological and social aspects associated with new literacies. New Literacies Practices: Designing Literacy Learning takes into account these two concerns - the dichotomy of contextual uses of new literacies across spaces, and concerns that schooled instructional attempts with new literacies reify conventional literacy practices. Authors in this volume include classroom teachers and researchers who begin from a stance that in an interconnected, multimodal world, new literacies exist across spaces. It is no longer appropriate to consider if literacies between contexts, such as out-of-school and in-school, dovetail. Instead, we must shape examinations according to how they dovetail. The essays in this volume forge the amorphous divide between out-of-school and in-school literacies through a design of pedagogy and examine how teachers and researchers collaborate to design instruction that accounts for students' new literacies. This book acknowledges that new literacies must be embedded into the curriculum, not just included as an add-on course or activity to the school day.