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ERIC Number: ED341691
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1991-Dec
Pages: 24
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Redefining School Literacy: Teachers' Evolving Perceptions. Research Series No. 210.
Hollingsworth, Sandra; Gallego, Margaret A.
For the past year, 12 social studies, English/reading, bilingual, and library teachers at an urban middle school have collaborated with 2 professors and 2 graduate assistants from Michigan State University (MSU) to create the concept of "multiple literacies" in themselves and among their students. The purpose of the work is to extend the concept of multiple literacy beyond its traditional reading/writing and content knowledge boundaries and to help students see the connections between the knowledge and processes that are required to be school literate and those they will need for real life success. Developing multiple literacies thus involves the integration of community literacy (or the appreciation, understanding, and/or use of interpretive and communicative processes needed to adapt socially to school settings, maintain a good sense of self, and gain a conceptual understanding of school subjects) and personal literacy (or ways of knowing and believing about the self, and personal communication norms arising from historical or experiential and gender-specific backgrounds). Drawing upon the literature which supports teachers as change agents, the MSU group used principles embedded in feminist praxis to facilitate an interaction between these literacies. Teachers collaborated by selecting and designing instructional projects intended to support the work. Both problems in establishing the collaboration and successes in creating multiple literacies are described in the paper. Preliminary changes in students' school and personal success are also indicated. (Author)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Inst. for Research on Teaching.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A