In her newest book, teacher researcher and bestselling author Karen Gallas investigates imagination in the classroom to understand its function in literacy learning. Using rich examples from her elementary classroom, she proposes that imagination is a central, but untapped, component of learing accross all subject areas—language arts, science, social studies, and math.

In her newest book, teacher researcher and bestselling author Karen Gallas investigates imagination in the classroom to understand its function in literacy learning. Using rich examples from her elementary classrooms, she proposes that imagination is a central, but untapped, component of learning across all subject areas—language arts, science, social studies, and math. This book gets to the heart of a theme which has been a strong undercurrent in her previous books. “Karen Gallas shares persuasive insights that will be of importance to educators at all levels. As one pre-service teacher put it after reading the book, ‘I am now inspired to unleash the imagination of my students and see where it takes us!’” —Gordon Wells, University of California at Santa Cruz “Karen Gallas’s inquiry into imagination and literacy is an engaging illustration of the power of inquiry to inform teaching while making a substantial contribution to current theory and research on the meaning and power of imagination.” —Curt Dudley-Marling, Lynch School of Education, Boston College “Eloquent and intellectual . . . Karen Gallas offers us insights from her teaching journal and connections to philosophers from Freire to Bakhtin, showing teachers and researchers how to re-envision and improve our work with our students. I loved this book and have already recommended it to colleagues and friends.” —Ruth Shagoury, author of A Workshop of the Possible, Mary Stuart Rogers Professor of Education at Lewis & Clark College

Defining the "common knowledge" a "literate" person should possess has provoked intense debate ever since the publication of E. D. Hirsch's controversial book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Yet the basic concept of "common knowledge," Ramona Fernandez argues, is a Eurocentric model ill-suited to a society composed of many distinct cultures and many local knowledges. In this book, Fernandez decodes the ideological assumptions that underlie prevailing models of cultural literacy as she offers new ways of imagining and modeling mixed cultural and non-print literacies. In particular, she challenges the biases inherent in the "encyclopedias" of knowledge promulgated by E. D. Hirsch and others, by Disney World's EPCOT Center, and by the Smithsonian Institution. In contrast to these, she places the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Leslie Marmon Silko, whose works model a cultural literacy that weaves connections across many local knowledges and many ways of knowing.

This unique approach to teaching core literacy skills offers step-by-step planning frameworks and an appendix of activity ideas to show teachers how to engage students in the process.

Imagination is the source of creativity and invention. This volume of essays has been collected expressly to bring readers new ideas about imagination and creativity in education that will both stimulate discussion and debate, and also contribute practical ideas for how to infuse daily classrooms with imaginative activities. Researchers and educators around the world have taken up the discussion about the importance of imagination and creativity in education. This global relevance is represented here by writings from authors from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Japan, and Romania. In the first part of the book, these authors explore and discuss theories of development, imagination, and creativity. In the second part, they extend these theories to broader social issues, including responsible citizenship, gender, and special needs education, and to new approaches to teaching curriculum subjects such as literacy, science, and mathematics, as well as to the educational environment of the museum. Since the first edition of this book, Imaginative Education (IE) has developed increasingly accessible strategies for teachers to routinely engage imagination in everyday practice. New essays for the second edition include discussions about increasing political consciousness, improving teacher education, and using mathematical evaluation in Part I, and phenomenological approaches to media education in Part II.

Grade 4 Level 11.