Literacy and Education—Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom

Updating this edition of their book to reflect changes in the past five years, Pahl (literacies in education, U. of Sheffield, UK) and Rowsell (multiliteracies, Brock U., Canada) survey New Literacy Studies to see how the concept of literacy as a social practice can be applied to classrooms. They explain the concepts behind this idea to teacher educators and teachers, as well as the context of studies that have contributed to the field and the role of literacy events and practices. They argue that an understanding of literacy as a set of skills can be combined with an understanding of how it is used in everyday life, and how the idea of literacy as a social practice encourages students' writing and reading development. They explain the theory behind New Literacy Studies; how concepts help to teach students; the areas of digital literacies, multimodality, and multiliteracies; home and community literacy practices; the role of identity; and elements of classrooms that reflect these ideas. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)