Synopses & Reviews
A study of how children acquire literacy, viewing literacy acquisition as a socially constructed process.
Synopsis
Literacy - the ability to produce and interpret written text - has long been viewed as the basis of all school achievement. This volume raises questions central to the acquisition of literacy. Why do children with similar classroom experiences show different levels of educational achievement? Why do differences in literacy, and ultimately employability, persist? This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography, and each chapter has been re-written to account for the most recent research. Groundbreaking and revealing, it will continue to have far-reaching implications for educational theory and practice.
Synopsis
This volume raises important questions about children's acquisition of literacy, the ability to produce and interpret written text, which is considered the basis of all school achievement. This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography, and each chapter has been re-written to account for the most recent research.
About the Author
Jenny Cook-Gumperz is Professor in the Gervirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Table of Contents
1. The social construction of literacy Jenny Cook-Gumperz; 2. Literacy and schooling: an unchanging equation? Jenny Cook-Gumperz; 3. Interactional sociolinguistics in the study of schooling John J. Gumperz and Jenny Cook-Gumperz; 4. The language experience of children at home and at school Gordon Wells; 5. Narrative presentations: an oral preparation for literacy with first graders Sarah Michaels; 6. Differential instructions in reading groups James Collins; 7. Organizational constraints on reading group mobility Donna Eder; 8. Developing mathematical literacy in a bilingual classroom Douglas R. Campbell; 9. Spoken language strategies and reading acquisition Herbert D. Simons and Sandra Murphy; 10. Speaking and writing: discourse strategies and the acquisition of literacy James Collins and Sarah Michaels; 11. The implicit discourse genres of standardized testing: what verbal analogy items require of test makers M. C. O'Connor.