What Is Literacy [Paperback]

Richard E. Hodges (Author), Hodges (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0872072479 | ISBN-13: 978-0872072473 | Publication Date: May 1, 1999

This easy-to-use flipchart highlights often-used terms and challenging definitions and related essays from the best-selling book "The Literacy Dictionary." This publication will be a valuable resource for beginning teachers who are trying to familiarize themselves with important topics in literacy, and for experienced educators who need to reacquaint themselves with these terms.

Editorial Reviews

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Preface

"What Is Literacy? Selected Definitions and Essays From The Literacy Dictionary: The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing" is a collection that illustrates contemporary and historical terminology related to the literacy field. Before the scope of this collection can be understood, it is first important to review the importance of the publication on which this compilation is based.

"The Literacy Dictionary" (1995) is a depository of literacy and related concepts as embodied by the words that name and define them. As a historical resource, "The Literacy Dictionary" furnishes examples of how the many facets of literacy have been defined in the past. And as a contemporary resource, it sets forth the dynamic nature of literacy and related fields as new terms emerge, while established terms hold firm or change with advances of knowledge. (See the essay titled "Literacy" on pages 19 and 20, which illuminates the history and dynamism of the literacy field.) "The Literacy Dictionary" thus provides a resource that brings together in a single volume the extensive vocabulary of reading and writing for the use of educational practitioners, researchers, and other interested persons, both in the United States and throughout the world.

"What Is Literacy?" has been compiled to provide a ready resource of selected core terms and their definitions that bear upon reading and writing instruction. Some entries also refer to related terms that can be further examined in "The Literacy Dictionary." (See, for example, the list of various types of historical and contemporary reading methods that is offered in the "Reading Methods" section.) Cross-references that have been retained in the entries likewise may be consulted in "The Literacy Dictionary".

Six essays from "The Literacy Dictionary" have been incorporated into "What Is Literacy?" (see pages 19-27). Selected for their topical currency and for the clarity of viewpoints expressed by their authors, these essays are designed to extend understandings of specific terms, and for some, to provoke alternative ways of thinking about aspects of reading and writing instruction.

How might "What Is Literacy?" be used? Two purposed come to mind. First, the "flipchart" format provides a handy, portable reference for core terms common to the literature of reading and writing. This resource thus provides a standard reference point useful both for personal understanding and for professional and public discussions of these terms. As such, this book will be useful in settings such as school faculty meetings, inservice sessions, preservice classes, parent meetings, and with other groups for whom reading and writing instruction is a central topic of concern.

Second, "What Is Literacy?" offers an invitation to explore in greater depth the richly diverse yet related terminology that has been assembled in "The Literacy Dictionary," terminology that reflects the multidimensional and multidisciplinary scope of the sources from which it stems. Words and their meanings are the currency of a profession. They can be spent wisely or imprudently. This flipchart and the book from which it originates provide a trove of valuable terms for your prudent use.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: International Reading Association (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872072479
• ISBN-13: 978-0872072473
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,516,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Books & Reading > Literacy