Publication Date: December 19, 2003
Pages: 264
Series: Language and Literacy Series
Building on her groundbreaking work in Writing Superheroes, Anne Dyson traces the influence of a wide-ranging set of “textual toys” from children’s lives—church and hip-hop songs, rap music, movies, TV, traditional jump-rope rhymes, the words of professional sports announcers and radio deejays—upon school learning and writing. Wonderfully rich portraits of five African American first-graders demonstrate how children’s imaginative use of wider cultural symbols enriches their school learning.
Featuring lively and engaging vignettes of children who are often left behind by our educational system, this book:
Anne Haas Dyson is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Social Worlds of Children Learning to Write in an Urban Primary School, Writing Superheroes, The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write, and with Celia Genishi, Children, Language, and Literacy: Diverse Learners in Diverse Times.
“The most significant work that has ever been done in this area. It is superior in every respect and Anne Dyson writes like a dream.”
—Tom Newkirk, University of New Hampshire
“This book is unique in that it features students who draw on the cultural experiences of the Black church, sister and brother play-family games, rap, and Black popular music. It should be ideal in courses on literacy learning.”
— Arnetha Ball, School of Education, Stanford University
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