Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.This cutting-edge Research Agenda offers a way forward for critical literacies that takes into account current conditions of possibility. Expert contributing authors showcase innovative research that emphasises the importance of ...

How might educational leaders and teachers improve literacy achievement in schools serving communities experiencing high levels of poverty? This question is the focus of this book. Drawing on long-term case studies of four primary schools located in these communities, this book describes the difference between what is commonly practiced and those practices that have a greater chance of supporting young people’s literacy learning.In this multi-layered analysis of the effects of poli...

How can teachers ensure a pedagogy of possibility underpinned by social justice, and what has literacy got to do with this? This book explores the positive synergies between critical literacy and place-conscious pedagogy. Through rich classroom research it introduces and demonstrates how a synthesis of insights from theories of space and place and literacy studies can underpin the design and enactment of culturally inclusive curriculum for diverse student communities, and illustrates how m...

The International Handbook of Research in Children's Literacy, Learning and Culture presents an authoritative distillation of current global knowledge related to the field of primary years literacy studies.Features chapters that conceptualize, interpret, and synthesize relevant researchCritically reviews past and current research in order to influence future directions in the field of literacyOffers literacy scholars an international perspective t...

Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classrooms brings together accounts of educators who have sought to make a difference in the lives of their students through literacy education--from university classrooms in the United States, England, and South Africa, to policy and curriculum development in Singapore and Australia. Each chapter represents the results of extended research on classroom practice.The authors in this collection write as teachers. The literacy classrooms the...

This book provides a synopsis of recently published empirical research into the acquisition of reading and writing in Arabic. Its particular focus is on the interplay between the linguistic and orthographic structure of Arabic and the development of reading and writing/spelling. In addition, the book addresses the socio-cultural, political and educational milieu in which Arabic literacy is embedded. It enables readers to appreciate both the implications of empirical research to literacy en...

Today’s teachers need up-to-the-minute information to help their students make sense of the multimodal texts they encounter daily in and out of school. Reading the Visual is an essential introduction that focuses on what teachers should know about multimodal literacy and how to teach it.  This engaging book provides theoretical, curricular, and pedagogical frameworks for teaching a wide-range of visual and multimodal texts, including historical fiction, pic...

Devised by the man recorded in Guinness as the world's fastest reader--80 pages per minutes--this is the only program that combines the most up-to-date learning techniques and psychological discoveries with proven speed-reading methods and ancient tools like meditation to significantly improve both reading speed and comprehension.

Understanding Reading revolutionized reading research and theory when the first edition appeared in 1971 and continues to be a leader in the field. In the sixth edition of this classic text Smith’s purpose remains the same: to shed light on fundamental aspects of the complex human act of reading – linguistic, physiological, psychological, and social – and of what is involved in learning to read.The text critically examines current theories, instructional practices, and con...

Inspiring Dialogue helps new English teachers make dialogic teaching practices a central part of their development as teachers, while also supporting veteran teachers who would like new ideas for inspiring talk in their classrooms. Chapter by chapter, the book follows novice teachers as they build a repertoire of practices for planning for, carrying out, and assessing their efforts at dialogic teaching across the secondary English curriculum. The text also includes a section to su...

In this "important, alarming" (New York Times) book, see why so many American students are falling behind in their reading skills while others around the world excel.The way we teach reading is not working, and it cannot continue. We have largely abandoned phonics-based reading instruction, despite research that supports its importance for word recognition. Rather than treating Black English as a valid dialect and recognizing that speaking one dialect can ...

"The text is extraordinarily succinct, very well organised and highly readable. Each chapter examines in depth specific aspects of teaching and learning in drama and well-chosen practical examples can readily be adopted by teachers. A 'must' for all primary schools."Drama (the Journal of National Drama)Review of ‘Drama in Primary English teaching’Teaching Primary English through Drama builds on the success of the classic t...