This paper explores the importance of students responding to children's books for diversity and disabilities. The main claim of the paper is that we need to explore new ways of engaging children to respond to diversity beyond the traditional model of Reader's Response Theory. Even though Reader's Response Theory is a very important framework to…

This paper attempts to answer a key question in teacher education: what does it mean to be a literacy teacher in K-12 schools in challenging times? The question emerges from a series of dialogues between student teachers and the instructor in a graduate course in education to prepare pre-service teachers to support students in elementary schools…

Literacy is at the center of any teacher's preparation program in the United States. Students in K-12 schools need systematic and effective literacy instruction to acquire foundational knowledge crucial to their success in college and beyond. This paper discusses how teacher's preparation programs can support the preparation of pre-service…

Literacy plays such an important role in our lives that being able to know who we are as literate individuals is paramount to live and thrive in a complex literate society in the 21st century. Understanding the relationship between an individual's background (cultural, linguistic, social, political, familial, educational, communal and economic)…

This article discusses the importance of rethinking the content and delivery of literacy instruction in university courses for pre-service and in-service teachers by aligning curriculum and instruction to new literacies to prepare the next generations of teachers to support the literacy learning of students in K-12 schools in the 21st century. The…