ReWRITING the Basics

What are the real basics of writing, how should they be taught, and what do they look like in childrens worlds? In her new book, Anne Haas Dyson shows how highly scripted writing curricula and regimented class routines work against young childrens natural social learning processes. Readers will have a front-row seat in Mrs. Bees kindergarten and Mrs. Kays 1st-grade class, where these dedicated teachers taught writing basics in schools serving predominately low-income children of color. The children, it turns out, had their own expectations for one anothers actions during writing time. Driven by desires for companionship and meaning, they used available linguistic and multimodal resources to construct their shared lives. In so doing, they stretch, enrich, and ultimately transform our own understandings of the basics. ReWRITING the Basics goes beyond critiquing traditional writing basics to place them in the linguistic diversity and multimodal texts of childrens everyday worlds. This engaging work: Illustrates how scripted, uniform curricula can reduce the resources of so-called at-risk children. Provides insight into how children may situate writing within the relational ethics and social structures of childhood cultures. Offers guiding principles for creating a program that will expand childrens possibilities in ways that are compatible with human sociability. Includes examples of childrens writing, reflections on research methods, and demographic tables.