Best Practice? Insights on Literacy Instruction from an Elementary Classroom

9780872073449

0872073440

Teachers, parents, policymakers, and others interested in researching what's best for teaching children literacy skills will find literally thousands of resources purporting to be best practices. Who are you to believe? How can you make sense of what has been learned over the past decades about classroom literacy instruction? Author Margaret Stewart suggests examining real classrooms--teachers and students actively involved in literacy learning--to determine what works in practice. She focuses on her own teacher research and shows how what became "best practice" for her second-grade students grew our of their growth as a learning community. Stewart provides this research through scenes of classroom life. The author encourages preservice and in-service teachers to undertake practitioner research and incorporate reflective practice in the classroom. Likewise, parents, policymakers, and others can do their own research on best practices by investigating real classrooms and mentoring a child whom they will be able to observe and grow with over a period of time. This book celebrates children and their work, and invites you to search for the best practice for your students. Published by International Reading Association