Tara Gutshall Rucker

This book provides an introduction to poststructural and posthumanist theories in order to imagine new possibilities for expanding literacy education. The authors put to work these theories in the context of an elementary school classroom, examining literacy-based activities that occur as students participate with materials in a multimedia writers’ studio. Focusing on literacy processes, the book emphasizes the fluid and sometimes unintentional ways multimodal artifacts come into being through intra-actions with human and nonhuman materials. Because these theories emphasize the unplanned, nonlinear aspects of literacy, the authors demonstrate an approach to literacy that works against the grain of standardization and rigid curricular models. Go Be a Writer! reveals that when educators appreciate the value of unscripted intra-actions they allow for more authentic learning.

This book provides an introduction to poststructural and posthumanist theories in order to imagine new possibilities for expanding literacy education. The authors put to work these theories in the context of an elementary school classroom, examining literacy-based activities that occur as students participate with materials in a multimedia writers’ studio. Focusing on literacy processes, the book emphasizes the fluid and sometimes unintentional ways multimodal artifacts come into being through intra-actions with human and nonhuman materials. Because these theories emphasize the unplanned, nonlinear aspects of literacy, the authors demonstrate an approach to literacy that works against the grain of standardization and rigid curricular models. Go Be a Writer! reveals that when educators appreciate the value of unscripted intra-actions they allow for more authentic learning.