Literacy: Multiple Perspectives and Practices Autumn 2009 Vol. 3 No. 1 Editorial Staff Editor: Lynn Butler-Kisber Managing Editor: Mary Stewart Copy Editor: David Mitchell Graphic Artist: Maryse Boutin Technological Direction and Support: Timothy Scobie and Jeremy Dubeau Web Integration: Zegapi The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Editorial Staff or LEARN. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that proper standards of scholarship have been followed, including obtaining approval from review boards, where applicable, and ensuring that informed con- sent has been given from participants involved in any research studies. Copyright ©2009 LEARN holds the copyright to each article; however, any article may be reproduced without permission, for educational purposes only, provided that the full and accurate bibliographic citation and the following credit line is cited: Copyright (year) by the LEARN Web site, www.learnque- bec.ca; reproduced with permission from the publisher. Any article cited as a reference in any other form should also report the same such citation,following APA or other style manual guidelines for cit- ing electronic publications. Comments to the Editor: [email protected] Published in Canada in the 4th quarter of 2009 Publié au Canada au 4ième trimestre 2009 ISSN 1913-5688 Table of Contents Autumn 2009 Vol. 3 No. 1 7 Statement of Purpose 8 Review Board 9 Editorial Lynn Butler-Kisber 17 Commentary: The Intellectual Properties of Literacy John Willinsky 27 Commentary: Thoughts on Three Decades in Literacy Education: Why Don’t We Ever Learn? Susan Church 33 Commentary: On the Road to Literacy: Before the Three R’s Come the Three F’s Vivian Paley 41 Commentary: Early Literacy Development and Implications for Practice Anne Haas Dyson 47 Commentary: Elementary Students Discuss Literacy Sonora Lemieux, Benoît Mallette & Shannon Prevost O’Dowd 49 Weaving Tales and Leaving Trails Georgia Heard LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 3 53 Early Childhood Literacy and the Sense of Play Geneviève Côté 59 Making the Invisible Process Visible: A Kinesthetic Approach to Explicit Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction in Early Primary Grades Sarah Kingsley 69 Saying What You See in the Dark: Engaging Children Through Art Mary Ann Reilly 89 Teaching the “Bad Boy” to Write Gary McPhail 105 How a Therapy Dog May Inspire Student Literacy Engagement in the Elementary Language Arts Classroom Lori Friesen 123 Life-Long Readers of Poetry? Why Not? Patrick Dias 139 Inquiry Literacy: A Proposal for a Neologism Bruce M. Shore, Camelia Birlean, Cheryl L.Walker, Krista C. Ritchie, Frank LaBanca & Mark W. Aulls 157 On Screen: Writing, Images and What It Means to Be a Reader Abigail Anderson 171 Multiple Definitions of Reading: Why They Continue to Be Used in the Same Contexts, and What This Has Meant for Literacy Instruction Paul Kettner 189 Whose Literacy Learning Landscapes Matter? Learning From Children’s Disruptions Mary H. Maguire 4 LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 207 Unexpected Learning:Two PhD Candidates Narratively Inquire Into Their Experiences With an ESL Group Sandra Jack-Malik & Miao Sun 225 Arts-Based Research as a Pedagogical Tool for Teaching Media Literacy: Reflections From an Undergraduate Classroom Patricia Leavy 243 Crossing Thresholds and Expanding Conceptual Spaces: Using Arts-Based Methods to Extend Teachers’ Perceptions of Literacy Shelley Tracey 263 Adult Literacy … and the Children Shall Lead Joe Norris LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 5 6 LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 Statement of Purpose LEARNing LandscapesTM is an open access, peer-reviewed, online educa- tion journal supported by LEARN (Leading English Education and Resource Network). Published in the autumn and spring of each year, it attempts to make links between theory and practice and is built upon the principles of partnership, collaboration, inclusion, and attention to multi- ple perspectives and voices.The material in each publication attempts to share and showcase leading educational ideas, research and practices in Quebec, and beyond, by welcoming articles, interviews, visual representa- tions, arts-informed work and multimedia texts to inspire teachers, administrators, and other educators to reflect upon and develop innova- tive possibilities within their own practices. LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 7 Review Board Avril Aitken, Bishop’s University Susann Allnutt, McGill University Jon Bradley, McGill University Faith Butler,The College of The Bahamas Donna Davis, Education Consultant David Dillon, McGill University Anne Doucet, Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport Jean Fillatre, Lester B. Pearson School Board Corrine Glesne, University of Vermont Janice Huber, St. Francis Xavier University Joanne Kingsley, Bishop’s University Neomi Kronish, McGill University Marie-Claude Larouche,McCord Museum Ruth Leitch, Queen’s University, Belfast Bronwen Low, McGill University Nancy Mellin McCracken, Kent State University M. Shaun Murphy, University of Saskatchewan Stefinee Pinnegar, Brigham Young University Sara Promislow, Education Consultant Debbie Pushor, University of Saskatchewan Lori Rabinovitch, Education Consultant J. Kenneth Robertson, Champlain Regional College Sylvia Sklar, McGill University Carolyn Sturge Sparkes, Memorial University Pam Steeves, University of Alberta Anne Sullivan, National Louis-University Boyd White, McGill University Lee Williams, Slippery Rock University John J. Guiney Yallop, Acadia University 8 LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 Editorial n order to be read, a poem, an equation, a painting, a dance, a novel, or a con- tract each requires a distinctive form of literacy, when literacy means … a way of conveying meaning through and recovering meaning from the form of rep- Iresentation in which it appears. (Eisner, 1997, p. 353) In September 1994,at a landmark meeting,a group of ten eminent scholars1 from different corners of the world, gathered in New London, New Hampshire to dis- cuss the future of literacy teaching and learning. Their plan was to use their diverse areas of expertise in language education to interrogate and flesh out some future directions for literacy. They were concerned about the repercussions that would fol- low the burgeoning standards movement, the need to respond more quickly to the “increasing multiplicity of and integration of significant modes of meaning” (Cope & Kalantzis,2000,p.5) and the need for more critical pedagogies to respond specifically, innovatively, and sensitively to the literacy needs of diverse literacy learners in a fast- changing, globalized world. The term “multiliteracies” emerged in their discussions. They latched onto this word because it reflects the changing nature of literacy. It embraces the “necessity for an open-ended and flexible functional grammar which assists language learners to describe language differences (cultural, subcultural, regional/national, technical, context-specific, and so on) and the multimodal chan- nels of meaning now so important to communication” (p. 6). They were not alone at this time in their search for new ways of thinking about literacy teaching and learning.These same issues were being grappled with in other domains with slightly different emphases, for example, by critical theorists (Giroux, 1988), and by artist educators (Eisner, 1991), which resulted in a growing interest in media studies and arts-based pedagogy and research, and fruitful exchanges across disciplines. It is imperative that these discussions continue. LEARNing Landscapes | Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2009 9 Lynn Butler-Kisber In this fifth issue of LEARNing Landscapes, and in a time when educators continue to explore the exciting possibilities that “multiliteracies” offer and respond to the increasing responsibilities that are part of our digital, multicultural, and global- ized world,we are pleased to feature salient commentaries from John Willinsky,Susan Church, Vivian Paley, and Anne Haas Dyson. These eminent educators all have made substantial contributions to language education over many years. An added high- light is an interview with Sonora Lemieux, Shannon Prevost O’Dowd, and Benoît Mallette who are grade-six students from Courtland Park International School in Saint-Bruno, Quebec. These interesting and varying commentaries provide a reflec- tive and engaging backdrop for the articles that follow. Willinsky suggests that missing from the literacy landscape, and more important and nuanced than ever, is a focus on the intellectual properties of literacy. He argues that students are involved in the creation of intellectual property from a very young age, yet know little about how it works in and outside of educational set- tings, or how it is valued and economically driven. It is only when students have the opportunities to experience and reflect on the intellectual properties of literacy that they will truly understand why literacy matters. Church reminisces about the pendulum swing in literacy education of which she has been a part over the past thirty years. She chronicles her journey from basal reading programs, through the excitement of the whole language era, to the tightening reforms of the 1990s with the resurgence of standardized tests and prede- termined literacy programs. She garners some hope from the reflective and critical stance that has emerged with the “new literacies”