Constructing Meanings 7th edition

Constructing Meanings: Teaching the Language Arts K-8 is more than an update of previous editions. It reflects contemporary multilingual/multicultural Canadian classroom contexts and, very importantly, Canadians’ finally-awakened consciousness of the need to disrupt the devastating effects on Indigenous peoples of Canadian settler-colonial policies and practices. Digital literacies are treated as the commonplace practices they have become in today’s world. Websites and apps are recommended and analyzed alongside bilingual picture books and professional teaching resources. Using leading-edge contemporary research and seminal studies of previous decades, co-authors Rachel Heydon (Western University), Marianne McTavish (University of British Columbia), and Joyce Bainbridge (University of Alberta) reflect on their experiences as teachers/teacher-educators/researchers and include vignettes of practicing teachers in Canadian classrooms. Very importantly, the authors make explicit connections between the topics taken up in each chapter, clearly showing the interconnections between literacy dimensions and the need to recognize these connections in classroom teaching. Text-to-self questions stimulating thoughtful reflections on literacy teaching and learning are among the many features of Constructing Meanings that embody the spirit of readers and authors constructing meaning together. (Shelley Stagg Peterson, OISE)