In Shakespeare's "As You Like It," Jaques offers the image of the world--or society--as a stage on which "one man in his time plays many parts." The question is: how does he (or she) know how to play those parts? Jaques seems to be suggesting that individuals are the creation of society, and the parts they play are written in…

This article presents a case study of a kindergarten girl from a Bangladeshi immigrant family who demonstrates her multiliteracies as she negotiates the multiple demands of the mandated literacy curriculum. The case is drawn from a year-long ethnographic inquiry of the literacy practices and cultural models in a balanced literacy curriculum where…

Highlights opportunities for engaging pleasurable and powerful literacies by looking closely at a student's appropriations of the popular text Pokemon. Shows the literacies he learned and used while participating as a member of a Pokemon club and in creating his own Pokemon cards. Discusses the powerful and creative learning students can bring to…

Presents a case study of one six-year-old that suggests that e-mail messages foster different skills and conventions than does print-based letter writing. Hopes to illuminate the writing practices children might develop as they engage in e-mail communication. (SG)

Discusses how Wera, a recent immigrant from Poland, uses memoir as a tool to reflect on her life while shaping her identity between school and family. Presents three scenes to describe her work. Discusses how the three scenes focus on using life knowledge and experiences in building of self, writing as a tool for identity construction, and…

Shares the author's minute-by-minute decisions in working with an alienated student whose beliefs about reading created a wall of resistance to learning. Notes the student's beliefs about his learning potential and his lack of strategies were at the root of his reading problems. Concludes that before alienated students can overcome the restrictive…

Draws on a series of case studies and instructional projects to illustrate the importance of proofreading and developing a "spelling conscience" and, ultimately, learning to spell conventionally. Argues that proofreading is a special kind of reading that requires readers to "read like a speller," and that proofreading should be an integral part of…

Considers that one way to create teacher education programs that build strategies for culturally engaged teaching is through cultural memoir and photography. Presents a study addressing the challenges of multicultural teacher education and the potential of culturally engaged teacher education. (SG)

Describes how in the examination of a sixth-grade girl's participation in the language arts classroom that is driven by high-stakes testing and by a regimented classroom culture, the authors came to view students' approaches to literacy events as "stances" and their negotiation of their subjectivities in response to literacy events as…

Contends that children assimilate enormous amounts of information from society. Reveals the presence, in one child's fictional piece of writing, of complex layers of gender (including gender stereotypes), societal tensions, and economic social forces which one might expect to be beyond the grasp of a seven-year-old. (SR)

Suggests that good fourth-grade teaching is an expert activity--a complex activity that is not amenable to scripted materials, standardized lessons, or any one-size-fits-all plan for the organization of instruction. Shows that the 30 exemplary teachers discussed produce superior educational gains as measured on standardized achievement tests--not…

Presents a case study of a fourth-grade boy who was an active, intelligent boy who was not coping well with reading and writing in school. Discusses observations of, and conversations with, the boy and his parents in their home. Demonstrates the importance of educators' having a family perspective on students' language and literacy development.…

Examines three children's early experiences of school literacy lessons to consider what makes a difference in their relative success and failure during the first months of school. Argues that how, whether, and to what extent children take up what teachers make available to them is inextricably connected with the repertoires of practices and…

Recognizes the essential role parents play in teaching and learning, the importance of developing both compassion and intelligence, and a shared responsibility for creating a more equitable world. Focuses on two sets of written conversations that parents and children created after reading texts about civil rights and human rights. (SG)

Follows the development, from fifth grade through eighth grade, of a student poet, who can teach educators what it means to "feel expressed." Offers new ways to think about who children are, what they need to say, and what they need to be taught. Discusses the possibilities of poetry for gaining access to children's deepest capacities for…