ED257113 CS208958

 

Title: Language Stories & Literacy Lessons.
Author(s): Harste, Jerome C.; And Others
Pages: 252
Publication Date: 1984
ISBN: 0-435-08211-6
Available from: Document Not Available from EDRS.
Availability: Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 70 Court St.,
Portsmouth, NH 03801 ($15.00, paper).
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Information Analysis (070)
Geographic Source: U.S.; New Hampshire
Journal Announcement: RIEOCT1985
Target Audience: Teachers; Practitioners

As a result of a program of research about cognitive processes
involved in learning to read and write among 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year old-children, this book attempts to get teacher-researchers to think through the implications of recent insights into literacy and literacy learning. The first section examines instructional assumptions; proposes a new view of language development; presents a language lesson from a 3-year old; suggests a new perspective concerning the relationship between literacy and race, sex, and socioeconomic status; and examines literacy assumptions. The second section presents key patterns in language and language learning that were seen in the language stories of the children, and examines the organization of the writing, the intentionality of the children as language users, the generativeness of language, risk taking as being central to cognitive processing, writing as a form of social action, the text as the basic unit of language, how language is learned, and new patterns in literacy. The third section deals with the conceptual implications and the methodological implications of literacy and literacy learning. Research task directions and a bibliography are appended. (EL)

Descriptors: *Cognitive Processes; Early Childhood Education;
*Language Acquisition; Language Patterns; *Language Processing; *Language Research; Language Skills; *Literacy; Reading Instruction; Verbal Communication; Writing Instruction