Brett Elizabeth Blake

Our wildly diverse country contains multitudes-wanderers and drifters, exiles and refugees, boundary defenders and border-crossers, nomads and immigrants, Underground Railroaders and long-haul riders, free-thinkers and rule-followers. No single story can say it all, for we are people who speak with many tongues, and who refuse to stand still-we're on the move, on the run, and in the mix, our collective experiences united in motion. Critical Process Writing begins here, for Brett Blake understands that no one is literally "voiceless," although too many (massively and tragically in American schools) are savagely silenced or heartlessly unheard. Dr. Blake illuminates a sturdy antidote-literacy practices that are collaborative, social, and critical, geared toward co-creating (teacher and student together) a relationship that reveals a wide universe of meaning-making. The result: the poetry of the everyday, the literature of the street, and an authentic encounter in which a teacher, listening with empathy and identification, and a student, seizing an occasion to perform an account of events and experiences, become both more literate and more powerful and intentional in their projects and their pursuits. Critical Process Writing is an indispensable book. Bill Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago

Pandemic Poetic Perspectives was written as a dialogue of expression between professor and teacher/students. The book reflects New York City teachers' emotions, hopes and fears around Covid 19 while New York was the global virus hotspot. The book reminds us of the essential and personal nature of teaching, and of the exceptional dedication of those confronted by their own existential horror of the virus and its threat and repercussions with their students. Brett Blake's edited collection attests to the human, the intellectual, and the pedagogical as we unravel words echoing the raw locus reflected during the early days of the treacherous pandemic. Not only a testament to the strength and integrity of our teachers, but an illustration of the power of poetry and narrative to understand ourselves. Shirley R Steinberg, Research ProfessorThe University of Calgary

Teaching Writing for All: Process, Genres, and Activities offers educators an informative anthology about writing instruction in the K-12 school setting. The collection provides articles, discussion questions, and activities to deepen educators' understanding of the writing process, genres of writing, and the uses of writing. The text begins with articles that explore the evolution of writing instruction and effective practices which can help educators t

A Road Less Traveled: Critical Literacy and Language Learning in the Classroom, 1964–1996 takes us through what Robert W. Blake calls the "jaunty journey" of the English/English Language Arts classroom from its linguistic and literature foundations, to emphases on close reading techniques and structures to composing and responding to literature. A Road Less Traveled heads bumpily into the path of learning how to work with "non-native speakers" and other "basic" students toward a (re)-burst of a renewed interest in poetry and drama, reader response, a process approach to writing, and the diverse student, showing through the often winding and blurry road along the journey of our literacy travels over 30 years, that what we understood best about reading and writing has stood the test of time.

A Road Less Traveled: Critical Literacy and Language Learning in the Classroom, 1964–1996 takes us through what Robert W. Blake calls the "jaunty journey" of the English/English Language Arts classroom from its linguistic and literature foundations, to emphases on close reading techniques and structures to composing and responding to literature. A Road Less Traveled heads bumpily into the path of learning how to work with "non-native speakers" and other "basic" students toward a (re)-burst of a renewed interest in poetry and drama, reader response, a process approach to writing, and the diverse student, showing through the often winding and blurry road along the journey of our literacy travels over 30 years, that what we understood best about reading and writing has stood the test of time.

This book provides not only educators, but parents and caretakers with a variety of engaging instructional strategies for K-8 students. These approaches enable all students to read easily and enjoyably by utilizing different styles and approaches. None typically are used in conventional classrooms, but children who either have not mastered—or who do not enjoy—reading, become involved in and energized with active participation. When these activities are introduced, many children will begin recognizing words, stringing them together, increase vocabulary, and reading within the first four months of beginning_if not earlier.

The "Literacy Primer" is devoted to the most recent topics in literacy studies, such as the meanings of literacy, the invention of alphabetic writing, a history of reading, the consequences of literacy, teaching the two modes of knowing - literary and informational - and literacy for diverse learners. Each chapter includes a glossary of key terms for students new to the field. A list of selected resources and further readings is provided at the end of the volume. The book is written in a refreshingly straightforward style that is inviting to undergraduate students who might otherwise have difficulty learning about the subject.

A state-of-the-art compendium of resource materials and current practice that answers two basic questions: "What is literacy?" and "How do individuals become literate?" Not long ago, literacy simply meant knowing how to read and write. Today, the study of literacy is a complex field encompassing many different areas, from computer literacy to geographic literacy, and including several degrees of competence such as functional, pragmatic, and cultured. In addition there are six kinds of readers: the submissive, the active, the semiotic, the subjective, the psychoanalytic, and the interpretive community reader, and at least two distinct ways of reading: aesthetic reading and rational reading. In this comprehensive, accessible volume, two literacy experts not only help readers understand the latest theories and the heated controversies in this exciting field, they also show readers how this vast new knowledge is being applied in successful literacy programs. Detailed discussion of reader response theory and the different types of readersContact information for a variety of literacy organizations along with a list of websites offering lesson plans, teaching resources, and literacy research

Examines public and private writings of low-income, urban, pre-adolescent girls, illuminating ways that girls' voices are often silenced in schools and society. She Say, He Say reveals the development of fifth-grade urban girls' voices through their own writing in the classroom. This book underscores the importance of including all of the girls' voices into the curriculum where their voices can be nurtured, cultured, and responded to in potentially productive ways. Through an exploration of two major writing contexts, the public and the private, Brett Elizabeth Blake chronicles how the girls learned through their writing not only how to name issues salient to them, such as domesticity and racism, but also how to resist the underlying notions of such important issues. The girls' stories are based on nearly three years of study, and the traditional notion of a process approach to writing is challenged by addressing how such an approach must become a site for significant tension and struggle over issues like ownership and voice. Blake suggests several curricular strategies, such as reader response techniques and a violence-prevention unit, as additional approaches that support girls' voices. This book explores and challenges us to look more closely at how the intersection of gender, race, and class is crucial for understanding not only how and what girls write about, but also why they write so deliberately and poignantly about their lives.