ISTE Literacy Practices Book

Mark Gura
CALL for CHAPTERS Book Project Educators Guide to be published by ISTE Working Title -LITERACY MAGIC: Tech Supported Instructional Practices for Todays Classrooms and Beyond Edited by Mark Gura in collaboration with the ISTE Special Interest Group (SIG) for LITERACY Educators. Length: Approximately 200 pages 170 pages of contributor/practitioner write-ups of classroom practices (roughly 4 7 pages each/ 30 chapters total) AND 30 pages of front matter + introductory material by the editor with the inclusion of a foreword by a SIG representative. Need Addressed: ISTE published Making Literacy Magic Happen: The Best of 'Learning & Leading with Technology' on Language Arts Mark Gura (Author) and Rose Reissman (Author) in 2001. The book has been popular and has had an impact on classroom instruction. However, as the book is primarily a collection of classroom practitioner written presentations of technology-supported instructional practices that appeared as articles in Learning &Leading between the late 1990s and 2000, much about them is currently out of date and the book is now out of print. The need for such a book, however, remains. This project will produce a book that will serve the same purpose, although for a significantly expanded readership as both equipment and resources, and the attitudes and understandings that drive their classroom use, have increased very greatly since the original Making Literacy Magic Happen book was published by ISTE. Audience: The book will directly address the needs of Classroom Teachers, Instructional Supervisors, Curriculum Experts and others involved in Literacy Instruction in English Languages Arts and across the curriculum and will include some materials for ELL and Special Needs students. CONTENT and FORMAT: This book will be a collection of instructional practices for Literacy Teachers, as well as generalist teachers across the curriculum who make fostering Literacy an important goal. The practices will be written in a collegial, practitioner-to-practitioner voice, making them accessible to many, with the goal of broad replication of important and noteworthy instructional practices developed in real classrooms. The book will present a wide variety of significant practices to foster Literacy learning; including some for all grade and ability levels. Consequently, classroom practitioners of all experience types are encouraged to submit short to medium length chapters. In addition to the practice write-ups submitted by teachers and instructional supervisors, the book will feature an author/editor written introduction to the overall work and to its various sections, contextualizing the practices and providing background that will make them easier to understand and see their fit in the overall mission of k-12 education. The practices (chapters) will all feature the use of technology resources that are common and increasingly available in the typical American classroom. They will address instructional goals and needs as defined by state and local school district adopted curriculum and standards documents. The practices will be immediately useful to in-service teachers as approaches to satisfying the needs of instruction

ISTE Literacy Practices Book

Mark Gura
they are commonly mandated to provide The book will include write-ups of practices in the areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening, as well as practices in which these are combined. Additionally, the book will highlight authentic activities in which students produce real literacy products (e.g. books, magazines, online content items, podcasts, videos etc.) to present to real audiences, as well as Project-based Learning activities in which literacy is a central focus and success factor. Among the sorts of practices sought are: Student publishing projects - Author studies - Social Networking-focused practices that foster collaborative/social learning - Story Telling - Using and authoring of video games and other non-traditional format content - Media-rich practices that involve podcasting, digital video, web-based media resource sharing, etc. Throughout, the implementation/success factor of technology, how it facilitates learning, increases motivation and engagement, and changes the nature of teaching, learning, and how knowledge is applied, will be defining characteristics of material included. Types of Practices to be included: - those that apply technology to classic activities, improving engagement, learning, and relevance - those that bring to the classroom aspects of literacy that have changed because of the emergence and impact of technology - those that establish new content and skills that have emerged as a result of the advent of commonly available digital communications technology. - included practices will not only be based in English Language Arts Standards, but ISTE Standards for Students , and to the greatest extent possible, resonate with 21st Century Skills. Furthermore, among criteria for inclusion, the replicability of the practices will be considered to be of high importance. The editor/author will seek those that not only address important instructional needs, but that are user friendly, that involve the use of the most commonly available equipment and resources, and that are most likely to be successfully adopted and adapted. Thus, the book is expected to significantly impact the field. Relating to this, contributors will be requested to provide (wherever possible) relevant samples and illustrations to be included in the book. The Editor/Author encourages contributors to explain practices in their own voice, but will also provide chapter authors with a format they may follow. Thus, they may be supported in presenting and explaining their work so that readers will be able to inform their own teaching with it. One dimension of this will be to encourage submitters to provide links to video tutorials that explain the how to aspects of the technology use involved in the submitted practice. Another will be to address the possibility of the emergence of an extended community of practice around the content of the submission by establishment and/or use of social networking and similar online resources.

ISTE Literacy Practices Book

Mark Gura
Contributor Compensation: Authors who contribute chapters will receive no monetary compensation, but will be given 2 copies of the published work. Their names and professional profiles will be prominently featured in the book. Role of the LITERACY SIG: In addition to a foreword or other front matter by a SIG representative(s), it is anticipated that chapters will be contributed by SIG members and that (non-author) SIG members will participate in the professional review process of the book. Timeline: The call for submissions will run for approximately 6 weeks. Once their submissions have been accepted, contributing authors will have 2 months to fully develop and write up their chapter submissions. Call for chapter submissions Due Date for chapter submissions Acceptance notices to chapter authors Due date for submitted chapters Manuscript completed and submitted by Editor Early December, 2011 Mid-January, 2012 Mid-February, 2012 Late April, 2012 Early June, 2012

Those interested should send a summary of their proposed chapter. This should describe the instructional practice and touch on: the target student population, grade level(s), area(s) of the curriculum addressed, resources required, classroom organization (if pertinent), student learning outcomes that result from implementation of the practice, etc. and clearly explain why the practice is significant. Summaries should be no longer than a page and a half. Please email to markgura@verizon.net and include in the subject field Summary, chapter submission LiteracyTechnology Book