Go Be a Writer!

Go Be a Writer! provides an introduction to poststructural and posthumanist theories in order to imagine new possibilities for expanding literacy education. The authors put these theories to work in the context of an elementary school classroom, examining literacy-based activities that occur as students participate with materials in a multimedia writers studio. Focusing on literacy processes, the book emphasizes the fluid and sometimes unintentional ways multimodal artifacts come into being through intra-actions with human and nonhuman materials. Because these theories emphasize the unplanned, nonlinear aspects of literacy, the authors demonstrate an approach to literacy that works against the grain of standardization and rigid curricular models. Go Be a Writer! reveals that when educators appreciate the value of unscripted intra-actions, they allow for more authentic learning. Book Features: Allows educators to imagine news ways of thinking, teaching, and researching about texts in schools. Embraces entangled literacy practices that involve materials, time, and space. Demonstrates a long-term teacher/researcher partnership, including data from four years of teaching. Disrupts traditional forms and standards of academic texts, experimenting with new ways of writing.