Literacy Tools in the Classroom

This innovative resource describes how teachers can help students employ “literacy tools” across the curriculum to foster learning. The authors demonstrate how literacy tools such as narratives, question-asking, spoken-word poetry, drama, writing, digital communication, images, and video encourage critical inquiry in the 5–12 classroom. The book provides many examples and adaptable lessons from diverse classrooms and connects to a website where readers can join a growing professional community, share ideas, and get frequent updates (http://literacytooluses.pbworks.com).

This dynamic text will inspire teachers to:

• Work together to create richer and more equitable literacy curricula.
• Develop purpose-driven activities and projects.
• Identify and showcase students’ strengths through their use of literacy tools.
• Foster learning and critical inquiry across all content areas.
• Use “change-based assessment” to encourage student reflection and growth.

Richard Beach is professor of English education at the University of Minnesota and president of the Literacy Research Association (2012). Gerald Campano is an associate professor at Indiana University, Bloomington. Brian Edmiston is associate professor of teaching and learning at The Ohio State University. Melissa Borgmann has worked as a high school English teacher, a literacy coach, a K–12 teaching artist, and as director of The Juno Collective, which centers on literacy through the arts.

“A unique blend of digital literacy tools with traditional forms…ushers us into a 21st-century vision of literacy education.”
—Shelby A. Wolf, University of Colorado at Boulder

“This book is a well-thought-out answer to the question I am constantly asked by teachers, ‘What does critical literacy mean in terms of what I might consider doing differently in my classroom? ’”
—From the Foreword by Jerome C. Harste, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington.

“The promise of this book reflects the dedication of youth and adults to collaborate for change and imagine the expansive possibilities of multimodal communicative forms in their ongoing search for increased understandings of self across multiple spaces.”
—Valerie Kinloch, School of Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University, author of Harlem on Our Minds