Print Literacy Development
Uniting Cognitive and Social Practice Theories
Published on 1. September 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
218 pages
978-0-674-02254-6 (ISBN)
Description
Is literacy a social and cultural practice, or a set of cognitive skills to be learned and applied? Literacy researchers, who have differed sharply on this question, will welcome this book, which is the first to address the critical divide. The authors lucidly explain how we develop our abilities to read and write and offer a unified theory of literacy development that places cognitive development within a sociocultural context of literacy practices. Drawing on research that reveals connections between literacy as it is practiced outside of school and as it is taught in school, the authors argue that students learn to read and write through the knowledge and skills that they bring with them to the classroom as well as from the ways that literacy is practiced in their own different social communities.
The authors argue that until literacy development can be understood in this broader way educators will never be able to develop truly effective literacy instruction for the broad range of sociocultural communities served by schools.
The authors argue that until literacy development can be understood in this broader way educators will never be able to develop truly effective literacy instruction for the broad range of sociocultural communities served by schools.
Reviews / Votes
After researching the characteristics of adult literacy students in the U.S., the authors reject the implications that the cognitive perspectives of Jeanne Chall and the social perspectives of James Gee are independent and incommensurable. The primary goal of this volume is to reconnect the two perspectives of social and cognitive researchers and, hopefully, provide a better account for literacy development... The authors [argue] that adults learn to read and write through instruction that builds on the literacy worlds in the classroom and in their social worlds. -- D. Pellegrino * Choice * This book powerfully advances the argument that becoming literate involves much more than learning a set of skills in school. The authors skillfully weave many threads-child literacy, social literacy, use of authentic materials, in school learning and out of school literacy practices-into a complex, clear, convincing case. Important for literacy theorists, readable by practitioners, this is an academic book that one might actually read on a beach. -- Hal Beder, Rutgers UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student
Illustrations
6 line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-674-02254-6 (9780674022546)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Victoria Purcell-Gates | Erik Jacobson | Sophie Degener
Print Literacy Development
Uniting Cognitive and Social Practice Theories
E-Book
07/2009
Harvard University Press
€30.69
Available for download
Persons
Victoria Purcell-Gates is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Erik Jacobson is an Assistant Professor at Montclair State University. Sophie Degener is a Research Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.