Seeing All Kids as Readers : A New Vision for Literacy in the Inclusive Early Childhood Classroom

by Kliewer, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9781557669018
• ISBN10: 1557669015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-28
• Publisher: Paul H Brookes Pub Co

Summary

For young children with moderate to severe disabilities, developing literacy skills can lead to more active and fulfilling membership in society. This motivating, forward-thinking book will help educators see all their students as literate-and use an innovative social model of literacy to enrich the skills of children with and without disabilities. Relating in-depth stories from hundreds of hours spent observing inclusive preschool classrooms, literacy researcher Christopher Kliewer inspires readers to: view literacy as more than direct interaction with alphabetic text, use dynamic, imaginative methods-dramatic play, drawing, painting, dance, movement-to help students with disabilities acquire useful literacy skills, encourage students with and without disabilities to collaborate on literacy-building activities throughout the day, incorporate the interests, imaginations, and histories of students with disabilities in classroom routines and lessons.

Author Biography

Christopher Kliewer, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Special Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls

Table of Contents

About the Author	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
"Dancing to Books": Local Understanding and Literate Participation in Early Childhood	p. 7
Implementing Local Understanding	p. 9
Encouraging Literate Participation	p. 10
The Genesis of Local Understanding	p. 12
"It's About Making Sense": Citizenship in the Inclusive Early Childhood Literate Community	p. 15
Young Children's Expression on a Continuum	p. 19
Established Constructions of Literacy	p. 26
Perceptions of Literacy for Young Children with Significant Developmental Disabilities	p. 32
"We Going a Space": Cardboard Boxes, Rockets, and the Child's Literate Construction of Meaning	p. 37
Children's Literate Citizenship Formed from the Triadic Literate Profile	p. 37
Interrelationship of the Constructs of the Young Child's Literate Profile	p. 41
The Bethel Rocket	p. 42
"Just Shooting for the Stars" and Other Concluding Thoughts	p. 51
"I See All My Kids as Readers!": Symbolic Presence, Narrative Construction, and Literacy Signs	p. 53
The Child's Symbolic Presence	p. 56
The Child's Construction of Narrative	p. 58
The Child's Construction of Visual, Orthographic, and Tactile Sign Systems	p. 62
The Tenuous Relationship Between the Child and Literate Citizenship	p. 86
"And I Looked in Those Eyes": Fostering the Literate Citizenship of Young Children with Significant Developmental Disabilities	p. 91
The Struggle for Literate Acceptance	p. 93
Realizing a Literate Voice	p. 95
Currents of Literate Citizenship	p. 98
The Basic Skills-Phonics Model and Young Children with Significant Developmental Disabilities	p. 127
"His Only Limitations Were How I Imagined He Could Do Things": Concluding Thoughts on the Literate Citizenship of Young Children with Significant Developmental Disabilities	p. 131
Inclusive Education and Local Understanding: The True Basics of Literate Citizenship	p. 133
The Enriched Community: Inclusion and Literacy	p. 135
Literacy as a Civil Right	p. 136
References	p. 139
Index	p. 147
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