Children develop their language abilities through meaningful interactions with people at storytime, at meal times, during chores, while searching for information, while playing, and while at school. In the classroom, teachers serve a crucial role in maximizing learners’ language and literacy acquisition. They serve as strong models, providing a stimulus for thinking and exploring ideas. They put multiliteracies in action.

Constructing Meaning: Teaching the Language Arts K-8, Sixth Edition is founded on a commitment to helping educators expand learners’ communication and identify options through multiliteracies, curriculum and pedagogies. The text discusses and illustrates the various ways in which rapidly evolving communication technologies and learner demographics have radically changed literacy from even a generation ago. These are exciting times for language and literacy educators and learners, and this text offers many ways for pre- and in-service educators to capitalize on this excitement by helping to support learners’ literacy learning in all their teaching.

Tailored for Canadian contexts and capitalizing on a strong Canadian research base complemented by international scholars, Constructing Meaning offers detailed understandings and illustrations of learners’ reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing practices, grade-appropriate book lists, illustrations of teaching/learning in action, and wisdom from practicing educators.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Language and Literacy Teaching and Learning
Chapter 2: Planning for Language and Literacy Teaching
Chapter 3: Language Development and Oracy
Chapter 4: Early Literacy
Chapter 5: The Nature and Assessment of Reading
Chapter 6: Reading Instruction: Major Components
Chapter 7: Pedagogies to Foster Strategic Reading
Chapter 8: Literacy Across the Curriculum
Chapter 9: The Process of Writing
Chapter 10: Assessment and Conventions of Writing
Chapter 11: The Pleasures of Literacy
Chapter 12: Responding to Literature
Chapter 13: New Media

Children develop their language abilities through meaningful interactions with people at storytime, at meal times, during chores, while searching for information, while playing, and while at school. In the classroom, teachers serve a crucial role in maximizing learners’ language and literacy acquisition. They serve as strong models, providing a stimulus for thinking and exploring ideas. They put multiliteracies in action. Constructing Meaning: Teaching the Language Arts K-8, Sixth Edition is founded on a commitment to helping educators expand learners’ communication and identify options through multiliteracies, curriculum and pedagogies. The text discusses and illustrates the various ways in which rapidly evolving communication technologies and learner demographics have radically changed literacy from even a generation ago. These are exciting times for language and literacy educators and learners, and this text offers many ways for pre- and in-service educators to capitalize on this excitement by helping to support learners’ literacy learning in all their teaching. Tailored for Canadian contexts and capitalizing on a strong Canadian research base complemented by international scholars, Constructing Meaning offers detailed understandings and illustrations of learners’ reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing practices, grade-appropriate book lists, illustrations of teaching/learning in action, and wisdom from practicing educators. The content of the text has been streamlined to emphasize what is most important in language and literacy education and to promote contemporary and enduring trends in the field. The text approaches language and literacy from an integrated, social constructivist perspective, drawing heavily on multiliteracies theory, which highlights the multiple modes, media, discourses, and languages through which people communicate. Each chapter is introduced with a graphic organizer that provides readers with an overview of topics and subtopics to be considered, along with presented scenarios of educator practice. Included in many chapters are book lists, examples of teaching/learning activities, and samples of learners’ reading, writing, visual representations, and oral language. Each chapter is concluded with a summary and a short annotated list of professional resources for readers who wish to pursue an area further. The Appendix contains publishing information for all the children’s and young adult books mentioned in the chapters, along with additional titles, both fiction and nonfiction, that are recommended for learners at various grade levels. CourseMate provides instructors with all of the reporting tools needed to track student engagement, while students can access an interactive e-book and study tools in a dynamic, online learning environment.