Archive for June, 2011

Amazing Volunteer at Dyslexia Association Turns 101

This amazing woman, Lillian Davis, has been volunteering at the International Dyslexia Association in Towson, MD, for over 20 years. More: continued here

The Disappearance of Asperger’s Syndrome

Why and How Asperger Syndrome Will Disappear With the American Psychiatric Association’s new Diagnostic Manual (DSM-5) due to come out sometime this year, the diagnostic term Asperger’s Syndrome will begin to disappear. In an attempt to streamline the umbrella term of Autism Spectrum Disorder, the discrete subcategory term of Asperger’s will no longer exist, except [...]

Book Review: Gunther Kress, Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication, Routledge: Abingdon and New York, 2010; 212 pp.: 9780203970034, {pound}41.95 (hbk), 9780415320610, {pound}24.99

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Book Review: Susan Feez, Montessori and Early Childhood: A Guide for Students, SAGE Publications: London, 2010; 182 pp.: 9781847875150, {pound}62.00 (hbk), 9781847875150, {pound}20.99 (pbk)

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Polylingual and polycultural learning ecologies: Mediating emergent academic literacies for dual language learners

In this article, we examine the affordances of polylingual and polycultural learning ecologies in expanding the linguistic repertoires of children, particularly young Dual Language Learners. In contrast to settings that promote the development of English and academic language at the expense of maintaining and developing home language, we argue that the social organization of learning [...]

‘Literacy nooks’: Geosemiotics and domains of literacy in home spaces

Conceptualizations of the home have changed, particularly in respect to children’s rearing and development. An increased awareness of early intervention in meeting a child’s learning needs has filtered down into the organization of space in homes. Maximizing learning opportunities by creating ‘literacy nooks’, which involves carving out interactive domains in the home, has become a [...]

‘I don’t know what literacy is’: Uncovering hidden literacies in a community library using ecological and participatory research methodologies with children

This article describes an ecological study in Eastside, a particular area of Rotherham, a town in the north of England, UK. The purpose of the study was to collect information about literacy practices in a community setting, focusing on a library. The researchers used an ecological approach to data collection. The methodology included approaches such [...]

Young children’s literacy in the activity space of the library: A geosemiotic investigation

An ecological approach, emphasizing the importance of understanding multiple contexts for learning, underpins this study of libraries as activity spaces for young children’s literacy participation. Five libraries serving a diversity of communities were the subject of ethnographic investigation incorporating participant observation, visual documentation, and parent and librarian interviews. A geosemiotic approach was taken to the [...]

Navigating discourses in place in the world of Webkinz

Geosemiotics (Scollon and Scollon, 2003) frames this analysis of play, multimodal collaboration, and peer mediation as players navigate barriers to online connectivity in a children’s social network and gaming site. A geosemiotic perspective enables examination of children’s web play as discourses in place: fluidly converging and diverging interactions among four factors: (1) social actors, (2) [...]

‘From bricks to clicks’: Hybrid commercial spaces in the landscape of early literacy and learning

In their quest for resources to support children’s early literacy learning and development, parents encounter and traverse different spaces in which discourses and artifacts are produced and circulated. This paper uses conceptual tools from the field of geosemiotics to examine some commercial spaces designed for parents and children that foreground preschool learning and development. Drawing [...]