| Description |
xiv, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Series |
Language and literacy series |
|
Language and literacy series (New York, N.Y.)
|
| Contents |
Introduction: On the Trail of the Superheroes -- Ch. 1. Studying Children's Social and Textual Lives: Appropriated and Disputed Heroes -- Ch. 2. Orientation: The Children, the Teacher, and the Shifting Social Ground -- Ch. 3. The Ninjas, the Ladies, and the X-Men: Text as Ticket to Play -- Ch. 4. The Blobs and the X-People: New Perspectives on Old Representations -- Ch. 5. The "Trials and Tribulations" of Emily and Other Media Misses: Text as Dialogic Medium -- Ch. 6. The Coming of Venus Tina: Texts as Markers and Mediators of Tough-Talking Kids -- Ch. 7. Transformed and Silenced Lovers: Texts as Sites of Revelation and Circumvention -- Ch. 8. The Negotiating Teachers: On Freeing the Children to Write -- Coda: On Writing "Good Guys" -- App. B. Media Summaries -- App. C. Annotated List of Figures from the Greek Myths |
| Summary |
Based on an ethnographic study in an urban classroom of 7- to 9-year olds, Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy examines how young school children use popular culture, especially superhero stories, in the unofficial peer social world and in the official school literary curriculum. In one sense, the book is about children "writing superheroes" - about children appropriating superhero stories in their fiction writing and dramatic play on the playground and in the classroom. These stories offer children identities as powerful people who do battle against evil and win, but they also reveal limiting ideological assumptions about relations between people - boys and girls, adults and children, people of varied heritages, physical demeanors, and social classes. The book, then, is also about children as "writing superheroes." With the assistance of their teacher, the observed children became superheroes of another sort, able to take on powerful cultural storylines. In this book, Anne Dyson examines how the children's interest in and conflicts about commercial culture give rise to both literacy and social learning, including learning how to participate in a community of differences |
| Notes |
At foot of t.p.: Teachers College, Columbia University |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-244) and index |
| Credits |
At foot of t.p.: Teachers College, Columbia University |
| Subject |
Child development -- United States -- Case studies.
|
|
English language -- Composition and exercises -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- Social aspects -- United States -- Case studies.
|
|
Multicultural education -- United States -- Case studies.
|
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Popular culture -- United States -- Case studies.
|
| Author |
Columbia University. Teachers College.
|
| LC no. |
97001488 |
| ISBN |
0807736392 (paperback: alk. paper) |
|
0807736406 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
