Different Perspectives on Reading

• There's Reading...and Then There's Reading (May 1997)
  • In this Focus on Basics article, Victoria Purcell-Gates overviews three theories of reading instruction and their implications for pracititioners.

• Print Literacy Development: Uniting Cognitive and Social Practice Theories (2004)
  • In this book, Victoria Purcell-Gates, Erik Jacobson, and Sophie Degener discuss how both the narrow lens of cognitive theory and the broader lens of social practice theory have something important to offer to our understandings of how reading might be learned and taught.

Contextualized Approaches to Reading Instruction

• Functional Context Education (FCE)
  • An introduction to one of the resources for Functional Context Education available in the NCLD library offers this description of FCE: Functional Context Education is an approach to education that is based upon a cognitive science theory of cognitive development, learning, and instruction. The theoretical framework and the principles for applying this framework to the task of instructional development are discussed in this notebook. Literacy is given special attention in FCE (Functional Context Education) because of its importance to all schooling and instruction in our information age. A general thesis is that the idea that literacy is something one must “get” in one program, which is then applied in another is misleading. Rather it is argued that literacy is developed while it is applied. This means that for the large numbers of youth and adults who read between the fifth and ninth grade levels, literacy and content skills education can be integrated. Therefore there is no need for special “remedial” literacy programs to get students to “prerequisite” levels of literacy before they are permitted to study the “real thing.”
  • Functional Context Education: Making Learning Relevant in the 21st Century (2005) These materials were developed by Thomas Sticht and are used in his workshops about FCE. They present the rationale and features of Functional Context Education.
  • Functional Context Education (FCE) Part 1: New Interest in FCE Theory and Principles for Integrating Basic Skills and Work Skills (2003)by Thomas Sticht
  • Functional Context Education (FCE) Part 2: Toward Policies and Practices for Contextualized Teaching and Learning in Community Colleges and High Schools (2003) by Thomas Sticht

• Equipped for the Future [needs more info - atrawick.7.13.09]

• Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom: A Handbook for Practitioners (2003) by Erik Jacobson, Sophie Degener, Victoria Purcell-Gates

Critical Approaches to Reading Instruction

• [material needed - atrawick.7.13.09]

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