The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice

With contributions from leading scholars, this compelling volume offers fresh insights into literacy teaching and learning—and the changing nature of literacy itself—in today's K–12 classrooms. The focus is on varied technologies and literacies such as social networking sites, text messaging, and online communities. Cutting-edge approaches to integrating technology into traditional, print-centered reading and writing instruction are described. Also discussed are ways to teach the new skills and strategies that students need to engage effectively with digital texts. The book is unique in examining new literacies through multiple theoretical lenses, including behavioral, semiotic, cognitive, sociocultural, critical, and feminist perspectives.

Elizabeth A. Baker, EdD, is Associate Professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri, where she teaches graduate seminars on new literacies, theoretical foundations of literacy, and qualitative research methods. Her research interests include the nature of literacy in digital environments, multimedia case-based instruction in teacher education, classroom websites used to support literacy development, and theoretical groundings of new literacies. Dr. Baker has published research reports in a wide range of journals. She is the creator and host of the Voice of Literacy podcast, produced in collaboration with Reading Research Quarterly and the Journal of Literacy Research, and is codeveloper and principal investigator of “ChALK, Children as Literacy Kases.”