CONTENTS
Acknowledgments?ix
Introduction?1
Storying the Pre-K East Classroom?3
The Journey?6
Part I: ?How Do Stories Come into Our Class??: Laying the Foundations?11
1.?The Classroom and Its Practices?13
Small Moments and Everyday Stories Lead to Big Curricula?15
Building Blocks for Constructing Literacy Curricula in the Early Childhood Classroom?17
The Classroom and Its Practices: Conclusion?22
2.?Storying in Play: Investigating the Purpose of Authoring?24
Making Sense of Play-Based Authorship?25
Understanding Authorship in the Pre-K Classroom?28
3.?Investigating the Purposes of Writing and Publishing with Young Children?32
On the Pressure to Read and Write Earlier and Earlier?33
Asking Questions: A Pathway for Investigating and Learning?34
Young Children Speak, Read, and Author with Purpose?37
Part II: ?But How Can Our Stories Turn into a Book??: Planning and Making?43
4.?Creative Writing and The Book Project?45
What the Children Already Knew About Books and Stories?47
The Authoring Process: Writing The Whole Pre-K East Book?49
The Book Project: Children as Authors, Play as Authorship?52
5.?Investigating the Body of the Book: Unveiling Children?s Knowledge About Books and About Print?57
Honoring Children?s Conceptualization of Publishing?58
Rethinking the Roles of the Teacher and the Curriculum?60
Teachers as Learners, Emergent Curriculum as Meeting Expectations?63
6.?Science, Mathematics, and The Book Project?67
Science and Mathematics in Paper Airplane Flying and Story Authoring?68
The Investigation: Reading and Writing Toward Acquiring Information?72
From Experimenting with Paper Airplanes to Authoring ?How-To? Books?77
7.?Observation, Language, Poetry, and The Book Project?81
On the Importance of Circles?84
Children?s Observations: Reading the World?85
Poetry as a Language Art: Making Meaning and Making Sense Through Art?87
Reflecting on Children?s Language and Literacy Development in and Through Poetry?96
8.?Social Studies and The Book Project?98
How Social Studies Comes to Life in the Pre-K Classroom?98
Families at the Heart of the Social Studies Curriculum?102
Authoring Our History as a Community?107
Conclusion of This Chapter and of Part II?115
Part III: Reflecting on The Book Project in the Larger Context of Teaching and Learning?117
9.?Perspectives and Insights on Authorship in an Emergent, Child-Centered Classroom?119
Exploring Children?s Development of Traditional Literacy Skills?123
Understanding the Development of a Learning Community?129
10.??Look at Us! We?re All So Different!?: Remembering and Reflecting 3 Years Later?134
References?141
Index?147
About the Authors?153