In this book, Linda Laidlaw explores the questions: What happens when children begin to write? Why is it that the teaching and practice of writing seems at times to be difficult in schools? How might teachers work differently to create more inviting spaces for developing literacy? The premise is that written texts and literacy processes are developed within a complex "weave" of particular contexts, or ecologies, and the unique particularity of the learner's experiences, histories, memories and interpretations. Laidlaw offers new information about writing and literacy pedagogy linked to current research in the complexity sciences and cognition, and considers the possibilities that might emerge for pedagogy when alternative metaphors, images, and structures are considered for writing and curriculum. The volume includes qualitative and narrative description of writing and literacy situations, events, and pedagogy, and elaborates the historical, theoretical, and curricular background in which such instruction exists within contemporary schooling. Reinventing Curriculum: A Complex-Perspective on Literacy and Writing: *addresses literacy through a focus on writing rather than on reading; *develops an approach to literacy and writing pedagogy that incorporates recent theories and research on learning and the complexity sciences; *examines perspectives on writing from both a teaching perspective and that of the work of writers; *makes connections between the acquisition of literacy to research in other domains; *examines both the benefits and the "costs" of literacy; and *challenges "commonsense" understandings within instruction, for example, that literacy teaching and learning can occur apart from other aspects of children's learning, context, and subjectivity, or that learning occurs individually rather than collectively. This book is important reading for researchers, professionals, teacher educators, and students involved in literacy education and writing instruction, and an excellent text for courses in these areas.

In this book, Linda Laidlaw explores the questions: What happens when children begin to write? Why is it that the teaching and practice of writing seems at times to be difficult in schools? How might teachers work differently to create more inviting spaces for developing literacy? The premise is that written texts and literacy processes are developed within a complex "weave" of particular contexts, or ecologies, and the unique particularity of the learner's experiences, histories, memories and interpretations. Laidlaw offers new information about writing and literacy pedagogy linked to current research in the complexity sciences and cognition, and considers the possibilities that might emerge for pedagogy when alternative metaphors, images, and structures are considered for writing and curriculum. The volume includes qualitative and narrative description of writing and literacy situations, events, and pedagogy, and elaborates the historical, theoretical, and curricular background in which such instruction exists within contemporary schooling. Reinventing Curriculum: A Complex-Perspective on Literacy and Writing: *addresses literacy through a focus on writing rather than on reading; *develops an approach to literacy and writing pedagogy that incorporates recent theories and research on learning and the complexity sciences; *examines perspectives on writing from both a teaching perspective and that of the work of writers; *makes connections between the acquisition of literacy to research in other domains; *examines both the benefits and the "costs" of literacy; and *challenges "commonsense" understandings within instruction, for example, that literacy teaching and learning can occur apart from other aspects of children's learning, context, and subjectivity, or that learning occurs individually rather than collectively. This book is important reading for researchers, professionals, teacher educators, and students involved in literacy education and writing instruction, and an excellent text for courses in these areas.

Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age: Disruptive Devices and Resourceful Learners offers an examination of the impact on children, their families and their teachers, as digital technologies and new literacy practices have rapidly transformed how children learn, play and communicate. While ease of access to enormous knowledge bases presents many benefits and advantages, mobile screen technologies are often perceived by parents and teachers as disruptive and worrisome. Developed from a wide range of the authors' research over the past decade to an examination of remote learning during the COVID 19 pandemic, this book posits that while teachers, parents and governments are focused on protecting children, what is often neglected is children's own agency and capacity to engage with mobile technologies in ways that support them in pursuing their own interests, pleasures and learning. This text works to disrupt boundaries in research, policy and practice, between home and school, and across virtual and actual worlds, positioning children as both users of media texts and coproducers of digitally mediated knowledge, with peers, family and teachers. Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age contributes to research on digital literacies, and offers a pedagogical examination of digital possibilities for bringing playfulness and innovation into learning.

How do we help students make sense of our increasingly-complex digital world? The 3rd edition of this classic text shows teachers how to empower students with the skills they need to ask critical and reflective questions about the overwhelming amount of information around them. It shows teachers how to challenge students to assume a deeper ownership of their learning, ask questions that are important to them, and care about the answers.