Literacies in the Classroom

Abstract

As teachers and children interact among themselves and with each other in classrooms, they use written language and related semiotic sys-tems (such as text messaging and internet technologies) for a broad range of purposes. They acquire academic information and concepts, negotiate social relationships and social identities, engage in imaginary play, control others and themselves, and express their emotions and needs, among other functions. They also use written language to acquire competence in a select set of literacy practices (ways of using written language) labeled school literacy practices (more commonly described as learning to read and write) and academic literacies (ways of using written language in academic disciplines). As a heuristic, literacy practices in classrooms can be categorized as official or unofficial literacy practices. Official literacy practices are promoted by the school and include learning to read and write literacy practices and academic literacies. Unofficial literacy practices are not sanctioned by the school (but may be tolerated) and occur in the class-room subrosa (e.g., Maybin, forthcoming). These include literacy prac-tices such as passing notes, noninstructional game playing, and graffiti writing, among others. Here, we focus on official literacy practices. Research on literacy practices in classrooms has been concerned with the nature of classroom literacy practices, the relationship of lit-eracy practices outside of the classroom (in home and community) to literacy practices in classrooms, the use of classroom literacy practices for schooling, academic literacies, critique, and community action (cf.