What is it to be Literate?

Within the new sociocultural model, to be “literate” means being able to interpret and place communication within its appropriate cultural context using a range of media. This has given us the concept of “multiliteracies”—being proficient at socially recognized ways of generating, communicating, and negotiating meaningful content in a variety of ways.

To remain relevant, English language arts teaching has necessarily expanded to reflect the changing literary landscape adolescents traverse—a landscape that is rich in opportunities to both encounter and interact with text in multiple forms, including graphic novels, picture books, and e-zines.

This volume, a re-visioning of 2000's Young Adolescents Meet Literature, situates literature and literacy teaching within a framework of postmodernism and sociocultural constructivist pedagogy.

Mary Clare Courtland is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University. Her research interests include young adolescents' comprehension as mediated by multimodalities, and teacher education for literacy teaching and learning.

Mary Clare Courtland's profile page

Trevor Gambell is a professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan. His research focusses on language arts/literacy education, particularly on writing processes, response to literature, assessment and evaluation, and curriculum development in English language arts.

Trevor Gambell's profile page

Literature, Media, and Multiliteracies in Adolescent Language Arts will make a major contribution to undergraduate teacher education in Canada by clearly articulating the shifts taking place in curriculum documents and classrooms. Many of the contributors to this text are internationally recognized scholars who have been in research in the field for decades.

Barrie Barrell, Memorial University of Newfoundland