Scribble Scrabble--Learning to Read and Write: Success With Diverse Teachers, Children, and Families

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Summary: Development, Diversity, and Literacy-Toward Common Ground
Review: The title caught my eye. "Scribble" and writing I understood, but scrabble just didn't fit. Then I read the first chapter. Daniel Meier has been a classroom teacher, teacher educator, and researcher and through his book Scribble scrabble- he has given me back the importance and pride of early literacy efforts. In this ethnographic study Meier presents detailed pictures of children from diverse backgrounds learning to make sense of literacy in a preschool setting. The stories he provides are formed from the very words of children and interpreted by a careful listener and an observer grounded in theory. Scribble Scrabble is important because its purpose is to find common ground between developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive literacy teaching. Meier then wants to communicate those findings to teachers, teachers-to-be, and others interested in understanding and improving the literate lives of children, teachers, and families in urban schools.