Creating Critical Classrooms: Reading and Writing with an Edge (2Nd Ed.)

Technology & Critical Literacy in Early Childhood by Vivian Maria Vasquez and Carol Branigan Felderman, New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, 128 pp., ISBN 978-0- 415- 53950- 0In scope, Technology and Critical Literacy in Early Childhood highlights the work of preservice and inservice teachers, as well as teacher leaders in settings such as learning cooperatives, public schools, and private schools in Washington DC, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Ontario, Canada. Written for preservice and classroom teachers and teacher educators, this text explores the integration of literacy, social studies, and science with new forms of communication in early childhood settings (ages 3-8). It provides clear examples of how professional standards and sound classroom practices work together to enrich the lives of young children. This well-written and accessible text also offers ways to enact social justice themes that position children as highly engaged, critical literacy users. The authors embed Reflection Points, invitations to Try This, and resource boxes to help readers move beyond the text into their personal classroom spaces.The first chapter, Setting a Context for Exploring Critical Literacies Using Technology, and last chapter, Desires, Identities, and New Communication Technologies, set up the theoretical underpinnings of critical literacies and how new communications impact children's literacy development and identities. These chapters provide clear rationales and guidelines so teachers can implement highly effective curricula. Each chapter provides examples of lessons, teacher and student interactions, and results obtained when children are immersed in such classrooms.Chapter 2, Teaching and Learning with Voice Thread, and Chapter 3, Yes We Can!: Using Technology as a Tool for Social Action, illustrate the use of VoiceThread in a variety of classrooms. In a first-grade charter school classroom, children discussed and wrote about social justice issues. Small groups researched issues people face in different countries. One group met Lubo, an African man who was rescued as a child from a refugee camp and relocated to North Carolina. As an adult, he dreamed of helping other children like himself. This group used VoiceThread to talk with refugees in Africa and inform others about their project. These projects helped them study life in different countries and be advocates to change unfair issues children can face. In other Pre-K- first- grade classrooms, children explored their classrooms and communities using technology in social studies and science. One Pre-K class studied water and pollution and helped others save on energy; another class learned about endangered animals and the rainforest; yet another first-grade class studied the weather and produced weather forecasts for their school. Across these contexts, students used information gained to develop technology and communication skills, thus bettering their own lives and the lives of others in their schools and communities.Chapter 4, Our Families Don't Understand English! and Chapter 5, What about Antarctica? describe second-grade podcasts that address issues of diversity, difference, language, and power. Most of these students from seven different countries participated in free or reduced-free lunch programs, so these issues were of personal import. A touching story of Subrina, a Latina student from Guatemala, illustrates how podcasts foster growth in oral and written communication. …

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.