The Literacy of Play and Innovation provides a portrait of what innovative education looks like from a literacy perspective. Through an in-depth case study of a "maker" school’s innovative design—in particular, of four early childhood educator’s classrooms—this book demonstrates that children’s inspiration, curiosity, and creativity is a direct result of the school environment. Presenting a unique, data-driven model of literacy, play, and innovation taking the maker movement beyond STEM education, this book helps readers understand literacy learning through making and the creative approaches embedded in early literacy classroom practices.

Bringing together strands of public discourse about valuing personal achievement at the expense of social values and the impacts of global capitalism, mass media, and digital culture on the lives of children, this book challenges the potential of science and business to solve the world’s problems without a complementary emphasis on social values. The selection of literary works discussed illustrates the power of literature and human arts to instill such values and foster change. The book offers a valuable foundation for the field of literacy education by providing knowledge about the importance of language and literature that educators can use in their own teaching and advocacy work.

This is a bank of ideas designed to help teachers to develop the writing of primary-school pupils. It is concerned mainly with the compositional aspects of writing, rather than spelling, handwriting and punctuation, and consists of five main sections, dealing with writing stories and poems, writing for information, writing from reading, writing from personal experience, and redrafting and proof-reading.

Pedagogy is at the heart of teaching and learning. Preparing young people to become lifelong learners with a deep knowledge of subject matter and a broad set of social skills requires a better understanding of how pedagogy influences learning. Focusing on pedagogies shifts the perception of ...

Building on her award-winning research (featured in Playing Their Way into Literacies) which emphasizes that play is an early literacy, Wohlwend has developed a curricular framework for children ages 3 to 8. The Literacy Playshop curriculum engages children in creating their own multimedia productions, positioning them as media makers rather than passive recipients of media messages. The goal is to teach young children to critically interpret the daily messages they receive in popular entertainment that increasingly blur toys, stories, and advertising. The first half of this practical resource features case studies that show how six early childhood teachers working together in teacher study groups developed and implemented play-based literacy learning and media production. The second half of the book provides a Literacy Playshop framework with professional development and classroom activities, discussion questions, and technology try-it sections. This user-friendly book will inspire and support teachers in designing their own Literacy Playshops.

A novel approach to STEAM learning that engages students from historically marginalized communities in culturally relevant and inclusive maker education. The growing maker movement in education has become an integral part of both STEM and STEAM learning, tapping into the natural DIY inclinations of creative people as well as the educational power of inventing or making things. And yet African American, Latino/a American, and Indigenous people are underrepresented in maker culture and education. In this book, Nettrice Gaskins proposes a novel approach to STEAM learning that engages students from historically marginalized communities in culturally relevant and inclusive maker education. Techno-vernacular creativity (TVC) connects technical literacy, equity, and culture, encompassing creative innovations produced by ethnic groups that are often overlooked. TVC uses three main modes of activity: reappropriation, remixing, and improvisation. Gaskins looks at each of the three modes in turn, guiding readers from research into practice. Drawing on real-world examples, she shows how TVC creates dynamic learning environments where underrepresented ethnic students feel that they belong. Students who remix computationally, for instance, have larger toolkits of computational skills with which to connect cultural practices to STEAM subjects; reappropriation offers a way to navigate cultural repertoires; improvisation is firmly rooted in cultural and creative practices. Finally, Gaskins explores an equity-oriented approach that makes a distinction between conventional or dominant pedagogical approaches and culturally relevant or responsive making methods and practices. She describes TVC habits of mind and suggests methods of instructions and projects.

Now in its sixth edition, Merryl Goldberg’s popular volume Arts Integration presents a comprehensive guide to integrating the arts throughout the K-12 curriculum, blending contemporary theory with classroom practice. Beyond teaching about arts education as a subject in and of itself, the text explains how teachers may integrate the arts—literary, media, visual, and performing—throughout the subject curriculum, offering a wealth of strategies, techniques, and examples. Promoting ways to develop children’s creativity and critical thinking while also developing communications skills and fostering collaboration and community activism, Arts Integration explores assessment and the arts, engaging English Language Learners, and using the arts to teach academic skills in science, math, history, and more. This text is ideal as a primer on arts integration and a foundational support for teaching, learning, and assessment, especially within the context of multicultural and multilingual classrooms. In-depth discussions of the role of arts integration in meeting the goals of Title I programs, including academic achievement, student engagement, school climate, and parental involvement, are woven throughout the text, as is the role of the arts in nurturing Creative Youth Development work and its importance to the community. This revised and updated sixth edition combines a social justice emphasis with templates for developing lesson plans and units, updated coverage on STEAM education, along with brand new examples, case studies, and research. An expanded range of eResources is also available for this edition, including links to further resources readings, additional imagery and videos, and sample lesson plans.