How can teacher educators engage pre-service and in-service teachers in learning about and framing their teaching from a critical literacy perspective? What does this mean? Why is it important? To address these questions, this book offers a theoretical framework and detailed examples, pedagogical resources, and insights into ways to build critical literacies with teachers in and out of school. Its unique contribution is to bridge critical literacy theory and teacher education. Participants in teacher education programs and professional development settings are often reminded of the need to build curriculum using children’s inquiry questions, passions and interests but generally this message is delivered only through telling (lectures) or showing (examples from other people’s classrooms). This book advances critical literary by explaining and illustrating how teacher educators can do much more—by creating opportunities for pre-service and in-service teachers to "live critical literacies" through experiencing firsthand what it is like to be a learner where the curriculum is built around teachers’ own inquiry questions, passions, and interests.

In this innovative and engaging text, Vivian Maria Vasquez draws on her own classroom experience to demonstrate how issues raised from everyday conversations with pre-kindergarten children can be used to create an integrated critical literacy curriculum over the course of one school year. The strategies presented are solidly grounded in relevant theory and research. The author describes how she and her students negotiated a critical literacy curriculum; shows how they dealt with particular social and cultural issues and themes; and shares the insights she gained as she attempted to understand what it means to frame ones teaching from a critical literacy perspective. New in the 10th Anniversary Edition New section: "Getting Beyond Prescriptive Curricula, the Mandated Curriculum, and Core Standards" New feature: "Critical Reflections and Pedagogical Suggestions" at the end of the demonstration chaptesr New Appendices: "Resources for Negotiating Critical Literacies" and "Alternate Possibilities for Conducting an Audit Trail" Companion Website: narratives of ways in which the audit trail has been used as a tool for teaching and learning; resources on critical literacy including links to other websites and blogs; podcast focused on critical literacy and young children

This book explores the intersection of technology and critical literacy, specifically addressing what new technologies afford critical literacy work with young children between ages three to eight.

Distinguished multiculturalist Sonia Nieto speaks directly to current and future teachers in this thoughtful integration of a selection of her key writings with creative pedagogical features. Offering information, insights, and motivation to teach students of diverse cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds, this text is intended for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level students and professional development courses. Examples are included throughout to illustrate real-life dilemmas about diversity that teachers face in their own classrooms; ideas about how language, culture, and teaching are linked; and ways to engage with these ideas through reflection and collaborative inquiry. Each chapter includes critical questions; classroom activities; and community activities suggesting projects beyond the classroom context. Over half of the chapters are new to this edition, bringing it up-to-date in terms of recent educational policy issues and demographic changes in our society.

Through stories from kindergarten to sixth grade classrooms where students and teachers have attempted to put a critical edge on their teaching, this book shows critical literacy in action across the curriculum. Readers see students and teachers together using critical literacy discourse to frame conversations in ways that engage students in examining the meaning of the texts they read and acting on local and global social issues that emerge. Drawing on multiple perspectives such as cross-curricular explorations, multimedia, and child-centered inquiry pedagogies, the text features a theoretical toolkit; demonstrations from across the content areas including art, music, and media literacy; integration of technology; and attention to how critical literacy can inform decisions about standards and assessment. Annotated booklists, examples of students’ work, Reflection Questions, Try This (practical classroom strategies), and Resource Boxes can be used to encourage and support engaging in critical literacy work in different areas of the curriculum.

"Getting Beyond "I Like the Book": Creating Space for Critical Literacy in k-6 Classrooms" (second edition) draws you into life in classrooms where students and teachers together use critical literacy as a framework for taking on local and global issues like racism and gender using books and everyday texts such as school posters and advertisements. This expanded second edition includes the following features: (1) Two additional content areas chapters--science and social studies--to emphasize that critical literacy is not just a part of the literacy curriculum; (2) a new chapter on new technologies such as websites, videos, and podcasts and their impact on critical literacy; and (3) a fresh focus interspersed throughout the book on multimedia literacy and using multimedia text sets. In addition, reflection questions at the end of each chapter can help you connect the ideas in this book with your experiences.

This book bridges critical literacy theory and teacher education by offering a theoretical framework and detailed examples and pedagogical resources teacher educators can use to build critical literacies with teachers in and out of school.

This powerful book demonstrates how culturally responsive teaching can make learning come alive. Drawing on his experience as a fifth-grade teacher in a multiethnic school where children spoke over 14 different home languages, the author reveals how he created a language arts curriculum from the students’ own rich cultural resources, narratives, and identities. Illustrating the challenges and possibilities of teaching and learning in a large urban school, this book: Documents how a culturally engaged pedagogy improved student achievement and increased standardized test scores.Examines the literacy practices of children from immigrant, migrant, and refugee backgrounds, and includes powerful examples of their voices and writing.Provides an invaluable model of reflective practice, including a wide array of student-centered strategies, to generate powerful learning experiencesDemonstrates a way for teachers to tap into the various forms of literacy students practice beyond the borders of the classroom. “Campano illustrates what it takes to be a teacher with heart and soul, not simply one who succumbs to the increasing calls for higher test scores and standardized curricula. . . . There are many lessons to be learned from this gem of a book.” —From the Foreword by Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts at Amherst “Campano shows us what we can do—what we must all learn to do—to restore children’s full humanity to the center of U.S. literacy education.” —Patricia Enciso, The Ohio State University

This volume helps understand the power and complexity of the forces in the lives of children that impact their literacy learning. The critical issues presented emerge from interpretivist research and thinking practices that are constructivist in nature. --From publisher's description.

Today’s students use their digital expertise and the power of their voice to respond to issues of inequity in society. It is essential that teacher educators develop their own racial literacies and those of their preservice and classroom teachers to support student digital activism. From talking about race and racism to resisting the harmful narratives that circulate online but impact face-to-face interactions in the classroom, teacher educators must navigate sociotechnical spaces with a critical lens and develop strategies to help their preservice teachers do the same. This book is designed to increase educators’ capacity and agency to respond to inequities that plague our educational system. The authors provide a framework to help readers rethink how curriculum and pedagogy impact classroom instruction. In Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education, Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz provide theoretical and practical entry points into a conversation about race in the digital age that aim to increase equity in schools and better prepare teachers entering the U.S. school system. Book Features: Provides examples of how racial literacy can be fostered in teacher education programs.Offers reflection questions designed to assess the status of racial literacy in both teacher education programs and K–12 classrooms. Helps educators develop curriculums that leverage multimodal ways of cultivating racial literacy.Offers a conceptual model of racial literacy for the digital age that advances civic engagement for equity in education.Focuses on pedagogical practices that support racial literacy development in teacher education.Includes a Foreword by Jabari Mahiri and an Afterword by Rebecca Rogers, leading scholars in the field of racial literacy.