Hidden Literacies: Children Learning at Home and at School

Far from teachers' eyes, children learn some of their most powerful literacies--literacies that usually remain unknown, unacknowledged, and uncelebrated by school. Teachers want and need that information. Hidden Literacies provides a much-needed window into children's home lives and learnings, uncovering multiple literacies that need to be valued in their own right--and that can become additional tools to develop print literacy.

Voss tells the stories of three fourth-grade children: Kelly, talkative but lacking confidence in her ability to read and write; Eric, struggling with print but handy with tools and mechanical things; and Janette, literate in print and successful--though quiet--in school. With insight and sensitivity, Voss shows the children interacting and learning in their homes and describes their classroom teacher's efforts to tap their varied literacies in school.

Influenced by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and Denny Taylor's research on family literacy, Voss shows how familial influences on children lead them to develop particular strengths, and she describes the features of home learning that teachers should understand and consider. She suggests we broaden our concept of literacy to include more than print--media literacy, consumer literacy, and especially interactive and mechanical literacy--so that we might see and value the multiple literacies children already have. The book's final chapter acknowledges the difficulties of translating knowledge into practice, but suggests ways to begin.

Hidden Literacies will challenge educators at all levels to broaden their definition of literacy. It is a book that both teachers and parents will value.

Margaret M. Voss, currently a fifth-grade teacher in Marblehead, Massachusetts, has also been a writing specialist, educational consultant, college teacher. She holds a Ph.D. in reading and writing instruction from the University of New Hampshire, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses and studied with Donald Graves and Jane Hansen. Her articles have appeared in Language Arts and Reading/Writing Newsletter, and she has published chapters in several Heinemann books. Voss was a finalist for 1996 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.

Donald H. Graves was a pioneer in literacy education who ultimately revolutionized the way that writing is taught in the United States and around the world.  The research study he began in the 1970s at the Atkins Academy, a rural New Hampshire elementary school, would transform writing instruction and launch a new kind of resource: professional books for educators.  His bestselling book, Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, challenged teachers to let children’s needs and interests, not mandates, guide instruction.  For the first time, young children became engaged as writers—not just students learning to write. As they were guided to make the decisions writers make in an authentic writing process, they raised our beliefs about what young writers were capable of.

Don Graves was a teacher, principal, Education Director, and Co-Director of an urban teacher preparation program. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire .

Heinemann proudly published Don’s many other titles including A Fresh Look at Writing; A Sea of Faces; The Energy to Teach; Teaching Day By Day; and Inside Writing (coauthored with Penny Kittle).  Children Want to Write: Don Graves and the Revolution in Children’s Writing, edited by Thomas Newkirk and Penny Kittle, pairs Don’s most important writings with recovered video from his classrooms, creating a vivid and surprising portrait of the man still referred to as “the Don.”

NCTE’s Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing is given annually to deserving educators who have shown exemplary understanding and insight on student improvement in writing.

For additional information about Don Graves, see:

• Where It All Started by Tom Newkirk
• A True Friend & a Good Writer by Nancie Atwell
• The Teacher as Learner: The Research of Donald Graves by Mary Ellen Giacobbe