Fans often express their love of authors or books by creating and sharing "fanfiction," a genre wherein fans write new narratives that add to beloved works or take place in existing story worlds. In this article, we describe a kindergarten teacher's efforts to enhance students' foundational literacy skills by combining author studies…

Black girls and their literacies are genius. Yet, education, as we know it, does not consistently offer spaces for Black girls to be loved and honored. This form of neglect extends to literacy classrooms. As displayed in the news and research, Black girls experience abuse within the confines of educational walls. Educational violence against Black…

This article explores learning through modes of signification in literacy activity books for early childhood learners in Kenya. These modes of signification are important for the cognitive and social development of children. Early childhood education in Kenya aims to prepare children for primary school by building foundational skills in a…

The role of knowledge and reading comprehension has seen a recent explosion of attention from researchers, journalists, and policy advocates. Much of this discourse describes knowledge in neutral terms such as knowledge of "the world". That knowledge of the world, however, is woven into the fabric of the gendered world we live in and its…

A survey completed by 22 literacy clinic directors indicated that clinics share beliefs and instructional practices. Literacy clinics provide a context in which children are taught to read and write by clinicians who are training to be literacy teachers. As best practices in reading instruction are debated, effective clinical assessment and…

Abstract America's traditional public schools are facing challenges that may ultimately lead to their extinction. From their beginnings, some criticized them for being secular schools when much of the country was religious and wary of government. Today, the Internet has amplified conservative voices, swaying public opinion against government-run…

Family literacy programs can be effective for supporting the literacy learning of both parents and children. Educators and community members can be constructive in establishing family literacy programs in their school and in the community. Having knowledge of successful family literacy programs is important for both initiating and continuing with…

Discussions and practices focused on Black boys' literacy development and equity in U.S. classrooms require serious thought and interrogation if the aim is to move these boys toward advanced levels of reading, writing, intellectual development, and human development. Sorely, Black boys have become subjects of educational, programming, and policy…

Culture and language shape the way people read. Yet, within many popular reading models of reading development, culture is a component, if featured at all. Illustrated through examples of pro-Black, culturally sustaining, emancipatory practices of one teacher, this article highlights the Cultural Sustenance View of Reading, a reader model that can…

Offering a heuristic to apprentice young children into the disciplines, we examine how one multiage classroom teacher leveraged the resources of personal digital inquiry to forward students' knowledge building.

Teaching disciplinary literacy in the elementary classroom provides rich potential for bridging the literacy-content divide, building background knowledge, extending learning, and deepening student thinking. This article explores how six elementary teachers tried and tested approaches to embedding literacy in three very different subjects:…

In this article, I share some of the findings from a community-engaged research project based at Autores Fuertes, a community literacy center, located in urban Philadelphia. Using an engaged, ethnographic case study approach, I conducted observations and interviews at the center, as well as taught translanguaging writing workshops. The findings…

Read Two Impress Plus (R2I+) is a fluency-building routine involving students and a more experienced reader in an echo reading process using culturally and linguistically authentic texts. R2I+ was offered as a partnership-centered, culturally and linguistically affirming family engagement to improve the literacy proficiency of students, aged 7-12,…

Across the globe, students increasingly use literacies to cross boundaries, locally and globally, virtually and geographically, willingly and involuntarily. They cross these boundaries with versatile linguistic backgrounds that allow them to effectively navigate new school and life worlds. Many students who cross boundaries are students of color…

Engaging in frequent, meaningful conversation during the early years of schooling is foundational for children's literacy development. Specifically, developing oral language through daily conversations is essential for language comprehension, and eventually, reading comprehension. In this article, we discuss how teachers can use the…