Making Meaning [electronic resource] : Constructing Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning through Arts-based Early Childhood Education /
Narey, Marilyn.editor.
Making Meaning: Constructing Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning through Arts-based Early Childhood Education, is a synthesis of theory, research, and practice that explicitly presents art as a meaning making process. Respected educational theorists from John Dewey to Elliot Eisner argue for a cognitive view of art as creation of meaning. Numerous researchers from a variety of fields promote multimodal views of language, literacy, and learning. Further, while not all practitioners have the background that encourages this multimodal conceptualization, most acknowledge that the arts have a place in the early childhood curriculum, and many express concerns that mandated prescriptive practices and high-stakes test preparation leave little time for arts experiences that were once central to the early childhood curriculum. The multimodal, child-centered understandings of art as a means of "coming to know" presented in this text offer significant implications for young children’s language, literacy and learning and underscore the early childhood education professional’s responsibility to advance the arts in the various settings in which they work. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provoke readers to examine their current understandings of language, literacy and learning through the lens of the various arts-based perspectives offered in this volume; to provide them with a starting point for constructing broader, multimodal views of what it might mean to "make meaning;" and to underscore why understanding arts-based learning as a meaning-making process is especially critical to early childhood education in the face of narrowly-focused, test-driven curricular reforms. To that end, a group of distinguished authors will provide chapters that integrate theory and research with stories of how passionate teachers, teacher-educators, and pre-service teachers, along with administrators, artists, and professionals from a variety of fields have transcended disciplinary boundaries to engage the arts as a meaning-making process for young children and for themselves.
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Beyond Words -- Drawing to Learn -- Creating a Critical Multiliteracies Curriculum: Repositioning Art in the Early Childhood Classroom -- Researching Literacy with Young Children's Drawings -- Studio Thinking in Early Childhood -- Contexts and Layered Texts -- The In-Depth Approach: Young Children's Artistic Learning in the Context of Museum Environments and Other Cultural Settings -- A Circle of Friends: Re-envisioning Art Learning and Individual Difference in the Classroom -- Multiple Modes of Communication of Young Brazilian Children: Singing, Drawing, and English Language Learning -- The Heart of the Arts: Fostering Young Children's Ways of Knowing -- Visions -- Empowering Pre-service Teachers to Design a Classroom Environment that Serves as a Third Teacher -- Rewiring and Networking Language, Literacy, and Learning through the Arts: Developing Fluencies with Technology -- Lighting the Fires Within: -- Learning to See the Boa Constrictor Digesting the Elephant: Pre-service Teachers Construct Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning through Art.
Making Meaning: Constructing Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning through Arts-based Early Childhood Education, is a synthesis of theory, research, and practice that explicitly presents art as a meaning making process. Respected educational theorists from John Dewey to Elliot Eisner argue for a cognitive view of art as creation of meaning. Numerous researchers from a variety of fields promote multimodal views of language, literacy, and learning. Further, while not all practitioners have the background that encourages this multimodal conceptualization, most acknowledge that the arts have a place in the early childhood curriculum, and many express concerns that mandated prescriptive practices and high-stakes test preparation leave little time for arts experiences that were once central to the early childhood curriculum. The multimodal, child-centered understandings of art as a means of "coming to know" presented in this text offer significant implications for young children’s language, literacy and learning and underscore the early childhood education professional’s responsibility to advance the arts in the various settings in which they work. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provoke readers to examine their current understandings of language, literacy and learning through the lens of the various arts-based perspectives offered in this volume; to provide them with a starting point for constructing broader, multimodal views of what it might mean to "make meaning;" and to underscore why understanding arts-based learning as a meaning-making process is especially critical to early childhood education in the face of narrowly-focused, test-driven curricular reforms. To that end, a group of distinguished authors will provide chapters that integrate theory and research with stories of how passionate teachers, teacher-educators, and pre-service teachers, along with administrators, artists, and professionals from a variety of fields have transcended disciplinary boundaries to engage the arts as a meaning-making process for young children and for themselves.
Learning.
Instruction.
Art education.
Child development.
Learning & Instruction.
Creativity and Arts Education.
Early Childhood Education.
Educating the Young Child