[NLA] More on Purcell-Gates's citations

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Colleagues,

Let me add to the Purcell-Gates bibliography list:

1)  Taylor, Denny, "Family Literacy:  Young Children: Learning to Read and 
Write," 1985, Heinemann, NH

2)  Taylor and Catherine Dorsey-Gaines, "Growing Up Literate, Learning from 
Inner-City Families,"  1988, Heinemann, NH

The first book describes how chidlren grow up in a literate environment, the 
support they get for ltieracy development, reading and writing, using normal 
interactions within the home. 

The second book describes the poverty of inner-city black families, all 
literate, as the seek to findwork and to maintain families.  It unhooks 
literacy from poverty, looks also at the schooling of the children.  

Both of these books demonstrate through naturalistic studies how it is that 
childnre learn how to read and write when their parents are literate.  

The book I have referred to so frequently  "Other People's Words," is about a 
particular white family, "urban Appalachian," who Purcell-Gates taught in the 
early '90's.  First sentence:  "Jenny was poor, of a low-caste group, and, 
when I met her, virtually nonliterate.  Donny, her son, was unable to read 
anything beyond his name, although he had just been promoted to second grade."

In "the trade," ours, two ways to learn reading and writing are often 
referred to as  "skills-based," and "meaning-based."  "Skills-based" looks at 
reading as the mastery of separate pieces of knowledge about how words are 
put together, reading is based on learning this skill.  "Meaning-based" says 
that learning to read means "learning to read for comprehension."  Different 
methodologies follow from each of these understandings about what is 
"learning to read."   This is why it is important to know about methodology, 
it has real effects on real people.  

On another list I asked about the Wilson method, which uses as part of it's 
rubric nonsense words which might/might not turn into sylalbles when they are 
linked to other syllables.  What are the implications of this method?  

Theory AND PRACTICE derive from good, well-designed field work, this is where 
case studies hit their stride.

Andrea
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