Teaching Literacy In The Twenty First Century Classroom

This book discusses current issues in literacy teacher education and illuminates the complexity of supporting self-efficacious educators to teach language and literacy in the twenty-first century classroom. In three sections, chapter authors first detail how teacher education programs can be revamped to include content and methods to inspire self-efficacy in pre-service teachers, then reimagine how teacher candidates can be set up for success toward obtaining this. The final section encourages readers to ruminate on the interplay among teacher candidates as they transition into practice and work to have both self- and collective- efficacy.

Previous ed.: Boston, Mass.: London: Allyn & Bacon, 2010.

Literacy for the 21st Century, 2e, gives students the strategies and ability to teach literacy effectively in Australian classrooms. Linking the theory and research to classroom practice, and with a greater emphasis on the use of digital literacies, students will gain a practical understanding of teaching reading and writing.

Literacy for the 21st Century, 2e, gives students the strategies and ability to teach literacy effectively in Australian classrooms. Linking the theory and research to classroom practice, and with a greater emphasis on the use of digital literacies, students will gain a practical understanding of teaching reading and writing.

Upper-elementary students encounter a sometimes dizzying array of traditional and nontraditional texts both in and outside of the classroom. This practical handbook helps teachers in grades 4–6 harness the instructional potential of fiction, poetry, and plays; informational texts; graphic novels; digital storytelling; Web-based and multimodal texts; hip-hop; advertisements; math problems; and many other types of texts. Twenty-four complete lessons promote critical literacy skills such as comprehending, analyzing, and synthesizing information and using writing to communicate new ideas and pose questions. Snapshots of diverse classrooms are accompanied by clear explanations of the research base for instruction in each genre. Ready-to-use reproducibles are included.

Renita Schmidt and P. L. Thomas The guiding mission of the teacher education program in the university where we teach is to create teachers who are scholars and leaders. While the intent of that mission is basically sound in theory—we instill the idea that teachers at all levels are professionals, always learning and growing in knowledge—that theory, that philosophical underpinning does not insure that the students who complete our program are confident about the act or performance of teaching. In our unique program, students work closely with one teacher and classroom for the entire senior year and then are supervised and mentored during their first semester of teaching; the program is heavily field-based, and it depends on the effectiveness of mentoring throughout the methods coursework and the first semester of full-time teaching. Students tell us this guidance and support is invaluable, and yet we feel the disjuncture between university and school just as many of you in more traditional student teaching settings. Students hear “best practice” information from us in methods classes and they receive ample exposure to the research supporting our field, but have a hard time implementing research-based practices in their cla- room settings and an even harder time finding it in the classrooms around them.

Students in the 21st century still need to develop traditional reading and writing skills, and they must also learn how to use technology for communicating and collaborating in new ways. This book offers specific teaching strategies for developing student literacy in using search engines efficiently, evaluating information found on websites, avoiding plagiarism, communicating with a wide audience, working collaboratively, and creating multimedia products.

Literacy in the 21st century is about constructing and validating knowledge. Digital technologies have enabled the spread of all kinds of information, displacing traditional formats of usually more carefully curated information such as encyclopaedias and newspapers.