Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Second Edition

In the first edition, Short, Harste, and Burke presented practical theory of literacy instruction based on their work with classroom teachers. Their aim was to show practicing and preservice elementary teachers how to create the best possible literacy-learning environment.

In this second edition, the authors offer more ideas and rich descriptions of how their curriculum moved from writing and reading to include inquiry. Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirersrepresents their latest thinking, along with lingering questions and new concerns.

The first half of the book focuses on the authoring cycle and the ways in which Short, Harste, Burke, and other teacher-researchers have used the cycle as a curricular framework. The authors share their work within the writing curriculum, then move to the reading curriculum, and finally to rethinking curriculum as inquiry. They also discuss issues related to maintaining a community of inquirers.

The second half of the book contains more detailed descriptions of curricular engagements within the authoring cycle framework, such as authors folder, bookmaking, and readers theatre. These classroom strategies have already worked for hundreds of teachers, and Short, Harste, and Burke are at their practical best as they share them with you. Extensive samples of student work are included.

The ideas and experiences expressed in this volume are the result of a group of people who have worked together, thought together, and built from the work of others over time. Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers is a resource you will refer to again and again.

Kathy Gnagey Short teaches courses in children’s literature and curriculum at the University of Arizona. She continues to work with teacher study groups on a wide range of topics, including literature circles and curriculum as inquiry. She is coauthor of Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Second Edition (Heinemann, 1996), with Jerome Harste and Carolyn Burke, and coauthored Learning Together Through Inquiry with several contributors to this book.

Carolyn Burke has the rare ability to take what is currently known and apply it to classroom instruction. A former first-grade teacher, Burke currently is Professor of Language Education at Indiana University and spends the bulk of her time teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in reading and writing education. She is well known for her work in miscue analysis and reading.

Jerome C. Harste is a well known author of children’s books, such as It Didn’t Frighten Me and My Icky Picky Sister (Willowisp Press). Harstes’s research has focused on what young children know prior to coming to school. Together with Carolyn Burke and Virginia Woodward, their book Language Stories & Literacy Lessons (Heinemann) received the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English by the National Council of Teachers of English in 1987.