Education : Preschool & Kindergarten

Language is a child's major tool for learning about the world. Through the taken-for-granted interactions of everyday conversation, a child not only learns the mother tongue, but uses it as a resource for thinking and reasoning. This book presents a rich naturalistic case study of one child's use of language from two-and-a-half to five years, drawing on systemic functional theory to argue that cognitive development is essentially a linguistic process and offering a new description and interpretation of linguistic and cognitive developments during this period. The case study examines the child's changing language in terms of its role in interpreting four key domains of experience - the world of things, the world of events, the world of semiosis (including the inner world of cognition) and the construal of cause and effect. It shows how new linguistic possibilities constitute developments in cognitive resources and prepare the child for later learning in school. more...

Price: $170.00

`Some interesting ideas for Literacy Hour.. A useful introduction and source of ideas' - NATE. This accessible and practical guide to teaching young children to read focuses on: the process of learning to read and its implications for teaching; issues about learning to read which all teachers need to understand; and a programme of teaching children to read. The author deals with the learning that is necessary, and the teaching which enables it to be achieved. Now fully updated to include the most recent thinking on phonics, handwriting and literacy practices in the early years classroom, the book proposes a theoretical teaching model which will help teachers to make optimum use of the Literacy Hour. more...

Price: $24.95

Most children engage with a range of popular cultural forms outside of school. Their experiences with film, television, computer games and other cultural texts are very motivating, but often find no place within the official curriculum, where children are usually restricted to conventional forms of literacy. This book demonstrates how to use children's interests in popular culture to develop literacy in the primary classroom. The authors provide a theoretical basis for such work through an exploration of related theory and research, drawing from the fields of education, sociology and cultural studies. Teachers are often concerned about issues of sexism, racism, violence and commercialism within the discourse of children's media texts. The authors address each of these areas and show how such issues can be explored directly with children. They present classroom examples of the use of popular culture to develop literacy in schools and include interviews with children and teachers regarding this work. This book is relevant to all teachers and students who want to develop their understanding of the nature and potential role of popular culture within the curriculum. It will also be useful to language co-ordinators, advisers, teacher educators and anyone interested in media education in the 5-12 age-range. more...

Price: $48.95

`Easily the most theoretically sophisticated and practically useful discussion of sociocultural and critical approaches to literacy learning that has appeared to date' - James Paul Gee, Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Making Literacy Real is the essential reference text for students who want to understand literacy theory and successfully apply it in the classroom. Each chapter examines a theoretical model, accompanied by a discussion of case study material with a leading proponent of the field, including Barbara Comber, Michele Knobel, Colin Lankshear, Barbara Rogoff and Brian Street. more...

Price: $45.95

Implement strategies of creating and managing a developmentally-appropriate early childhood classroom. more...

Price: $24.99