Utilizing a New Literacies Studies framework, this article presents critical lessons in film production from a multiple site case study. Examples of children's classroom experiences demonstrate how filmmaking and play come together in a process of storying--a collaborative and multimodal approach to text composition. Students in both preschool and…

Describes how a teacher and her grades one through three children made poetry come alive and serve as an authentic part of their lives. Describes the factors underlying authentic classroom instruction, and notes how poetry moved out from lessons and even school time to become something that will continue to be with many of these children…

Describes an inventive way of promoting children's literacy learning: having them design picture books, including in the process, aspects more typically associated with illustrators, book designers, and art directors. Describes one child's creation of three different books. (SR)

Describes a nonfiction genre study in a first-grade class in which reading and writing minilessons focused on nonfiction, and the children were required to read nonfiction and write a piece in that genre. Notes that, by the end of the nonfiction study, the group exhibited confidence and comfort with nonfiction. (SR)

Describes a first-year course in teaching language arts for teacher education students. Shows students and teachers reveling in language and literacy. Describes the tone, attitudes, and methods of the course, which uses language energetically to amuse and enthuse, modelling language as a vital tool employed with power and enjoyment for many…

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…