A Literate Community

Book excerpt: A fourth-grade classroom and school library are the setting for this book that presents an in-depth and qualitative study of teaching and learning of reading and writing. The study's exploration is designed to identify and explain connections among the school and classroom as literate communities, teachers' classroom practices, children's learning, and the type of literacy that is jointly constructed. In contrast to the traditional focus on reading lessons, methods, materials, and standardized test scores, this study explores teaching by closely examining teacher-child interactions with texts across the school day. Contents: Introduction: Early Indications of a Literate Community; Frameworks for Understanding a Literate Community; Culture and Teacher Thinking in a Literate Community; Opportunities to Become Literate; A Framework for Looking at Literacy Work; Common Threads and Unique Patterns.