Real Life Literacy: Classroom Tools that Promote Real-World Reading and Writing

The compelling connection between the classroom and what happens in the world is the basis of Real Life Literacy. It shows teachers how to turn kids on to learning and build skills that will help them function more successfully in the real world. It fills in the gaps often missing from traditional language arts classes and offers a range of classroom tools that promote real-world reading and writing.

Some of the basic literacy topics that are covered include:

• Writing and deciphering messages — from notes and memos to invitations and advertisements;
• Taking the mystery out of labels — from understanding labels on medicine bottles to making sense of food and clothing labels;
• Coping with everyday money management — from completing order forms to writing cheques and balancing a bank book;
• Reading and interpreting specialized text — from finding information in nonfiction books to effectively using phone books, entertainment guides, and bus schedules.

This timely book makes a powerful case for linking genuine, purposeful, and functional in-school activities to the lives of students. It promotes using classroom learning to guide and support students as they strive to make meaning of their world.