The compelling connection between the classroom and what happens in the world is the basis of Real Life Literacy. It shows teachers how to turn kids on to learning and build skills that will help them function more successfully in the real world. It fills in the gaps often missing from traditional language arts classes and offers a range of classroom tools that promote real-world reading and writing. Some of the basic literacy topics that are covered include: Writing and deciphering messages -- from notes and memos to invitations and advertisements; Taking the mystery out of labels -- from understanding labels on medicine bottles to making sense of food and clothing labels; Coping with everyday money management -- from completing order forms to writing cheques and balancing a bank book; Reading and interpreting specialized text -- from finding information in nonfiction books to effectively using phone books, entertainment guides, and bus schedules. This timely book makes a powerful case for linking genuine, purposeful, and functional in-school activities to the lives of students. It promotes using classroom learning to guide and support students as they strive to make meaning of their world.

This collection presents "more than 650 readings about daily life from present-day authors ..."--Inside jacket flap.

It has become almost cliché to say that the world has changed. The pace of technology change, the increasing number of new businesses, and growing global workforce has made the world a more competitive place. Global economic events have delayed retirement for millions around the world and thinning margins are making employers more risk adverse to prevent any disruptions in business continuity. This major shift in the business world is the recipe for a perfect storm that could be nothing short of catastrophic for many organizations, nations, and people. Life Literacy is a cautionary tale, a forensic journey into what went wrong, a roadmap out of trouble, and a beacon for what life can be like. It is a timely, highly practical survival guide that will help the current and future generations create a better world where opportunities are abundant, success is achieved, and the pitfalls of predecessors are avoided. One-sided solutions never solve problems. Life Literacy provides both viewpoints highlighting the problems that aren’t very far downstream that will cripple companies and communities if left unaddressed, as well as solutions that show what life could be like if people learn from one another.

An award-winning journalist and literacy advocate provides a clear, step-by-step guide to helping your child thrive as a reader and a learner. When her child went off to school, Maya Smart was shocked to discover that a good education in America is a long shot, in ways that few parents fully appreciate. Our current approach to literacy offers too little, too late, and attempting to play catch-up when our kids get to kindergarten can no longer be our default strategy. We have to start at the top. The brain architecture for reading develops rapidly during infancy, and early language experiences are critical to building it. That means parents’ work as children’s first teachers begins from day one too—and we need deeper knowledge to play our positions. Reading for Our Lives challenges the bath-book-bed mantra and the idea that reading aloud to our kids is enough to ensure school readiness. Instead, it gives parents easy, immediate, and accessible ways to nurture language and literacy development from the start. Through personal stories, historical accounts, scholarly research, and practical tips, this book presents the life-and-death urgency of literacy, investigates inequity in reading achievement, and illuminates a path to a true, transformative education for all.

'Joanne Larson and Jackie Marsh's Literacy Learning is easily the most theoretically sophisticated and practically useful discussion of sociocultural and critical approaches to literacy learning that has appeared to date' - James Paul Gee, Tashia Morgidge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin-Madison Making Literacy Real is the essential reference text for primary education students at undergraduate and graduate level who want to understand literacy theory and successfully apply it in the classroom. Doctoral students will find this a useful resource in understanding the relationship of theory to practice. The authors explore the breadth of this complex and important field, orientating literacy as a social practice, grounded in social, cultural, historical and political contexts of use. They also present a detailed and accessible discussion of the theory and its application in the primary classroom.

This book introduces a set of pedagogical practices designed to assist adolescent English learners in developing their English skills in a way that honors and leverages their native languages and cultures. Responding to the linguistic and educational diversity of adolescents, the R.E.A.L. (Relevant, Engaging, and Affirming Literacy) method offers teachers a range of scalable activities, reading lists, and other resources, along with numerous suggestions on how to adapt them for students’ particular needs. By sharing experiences from actual secondary English classes, Stewart presents diverse learners making meaningful connections to texts and responding through writing, speaking, and other artistic means. These students are developing high levels of literacy, English language skills, and even biliteracy through R.E.A.L. instruction that all English teachers can use. Book Features: Shows educators how to effectively engage middle and high school students through reading and responding to literature. Provides creative solutions for centering students’ needs and interests within standards and other curricular restraints. Brings together theory from reader response, second language acquisition, and bilingual research. Written for all English language arts teachers and for all levels of adolescent ELs—beginners to advanced students. Considers ELs’ full literacy development in all of their languages, not just English.

One of the most important ways to scaffold a successful transition from high school to college is to teach real-world, gate-opening writing genres, such as college admission essays. This book describes a writing workshop for ethnically and linguistically diverse high school students, where students receive instruction on specific genre features of the college admission essay. The authors present both the theoretical grounding and the concrete strategies teachers crave, including an outline of specific workshop lessons, teaching calendars, and curricular suggestions. This text encourages secondary teachers to think of writing as a vital tool for all students to succeed academically and professionally. Appropriate for courses and teacher professional development, this accessible book: Reconceptualizes the ways in which writing can best serve marginalized students.Examines research-based curricular and teaching approaches for the secondary school classroom.Provides a writing workshop framework for creating a college admissions essay complete with lesson-planning materials, activities, handouts, bibliographic resources, and more.Includes student perspectives and work samples, offering insight into the lives and struggles of diverse adolescents. “In this important book, Jessica Early and Meredith DeCosta describe a readily replicable set of activities that provides motivated, meaningful opportunities for writing development and helps potential first-generation higher education students gain university admission.” —From the Foreword by Charles Bazerman, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California Santa Barbara “This is a book about opening doors, about demystifying writing tasks that can keep many students on the outside. The authors take on a major writing challenge—the college application essay—and through careful instruction help students use their real life stories to master it. It is teaching at its best, and democracy at its best.” —Thomas Newkirk, University of New Hampshire “This groundbreaking book has the best qualities of an exemplary research study while also providing us with a handbook of practical wisdom and engaging lessons for teaching writing to a diverse population of secondary students. It is certain to inspire and instruct all English teachers and composition researchers who care about helping traditionally marginalized and underprepared students discover and demonstrate that they are qualified to enter college.” —Sheridan Blau, Teachers College, Columbia University

This book lays out a new vision for the teaching of English, building on themes central to Wilhelm's influential "You Gotta BE The Book." With portraits of teachers and students, as well as practical strategies and advice, they provide a roadmap to educational transformation far beyond the field of English. --from publisher description

How can we prepare the work-force of tomorrow for the increasing writing demands of the Information Age? Anne Beaufort provides a multidimensional response to this critical question. Offering a vital view of the developmental process entailed in attaining writing fluency in school and beyond, and the conditions that contribute to acquiring such expertise, Beaufort illuminates what it takes to foster the versatility writers must possess in the workplace of the twenty-first century.