What do young children do with the literacies they have learned at school? This article reexamines traditional notions of literacy by documenting a second grade child's literacy practices in school and out-of-school contexts. Data collected included field notes, interviews, observations of school and out-of-school literacy practices, and artefacts (such as worksheets, constructions and computer screenshots) from the school, home and community contexts. In analysis, literacy practices were traced to show how meanings travelled across contexts and switched modes. Findings show that the focal child recontextualized school literacies in out-of-school spaces and changed them in flexible, playful and technologically contemporary ways. The study offers new knowledge of how school literacy may impact on some children's out-of-school literacies and recognizes that these out-of-school spaces may serve to prepare children more appropriately for the future.
BrunerJHasteH (1987) Making sense: The child's construction of the world, New York, NY: Methuen.
2.
BurnettC (2010) Technology and literacy in early childhood educational settings: A review of research. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy10(3): 247–270.
3.
CarringtonV (2005) New textual landscapes, information, and early literacy. In: MarshJ (eds) Popular culture, new media and digital literacy in early childhood, New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer, pp. 13–27.
4.
CarringtonV (2012) There's no going back. Roxie's IPhone®: An object ethnography. Language and Literacy14(2): 27–40.
5.
DysonA (2001a) Coach Bombay's kids learn to write: Children's appropriation of media material for school literacy. In: CushmanERoseMKrollBKintgenE (eds) Literacy: A critical sourcebook B2 - Literacy: A critical sourcebook, Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, pp. 325–357.
6.
DysonA (2001b) Where are the childhoods in childhood literacy? An exploration in outer (school) space. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy1(1): 9–39.
7.
DysonA (2003a) Brothers and sisters learn to write, New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
8.
DysonA (2003b) Popular literacies and the “All” children: Rethinking literacy development for contemporary childhoods. Language Arts81(2): 100–109.
9.
DysonA (2008) The pine cone wars: Studying writing in a community of children. Language Arts85(4): 305–314.
10.
ForzaniELeuDJ (2012) New literacies for new learners: The need for digital technologies in primary classrooms. The Educational Forum76(4): 421–424.
11.
GaskinsSMillerPCorsaroW (1992) Theoretical and methodological perspectives in the interpretive study of children. In: CorsaroWMillerP (eds) Interpretive approaches to children's socialization, San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass, pp. 5–23.
12.
GeeJHullGLankshearC (1996) The new work order: Behind the language of the new capitalism, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
13.
GillenJ (2009) Literacy practices in Schome Park: a virtual literacy ethnography. Journal of Research in Reading32(1): 57–74.
14.
GutiérrezKRymesBLarsonJ (1995) Script, counter script, and underlife in the classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review65: 445–464.
15.
IedemaR (2003) Multimodality, resemiotisation: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual communication2(1): 29–57.
16.
JewittCKressG (2003) Multimodal literacy, New York, NY: Peter Lang.
17.
KellK (2006) Crossing the margins: Literacy, semiotics and the recontextualisation of meanings. In: PahlKRowsellJ (eds) Travel notes from the new literacy studies, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, Ltd, pp. 147–169.
18.
Kendrick M, McKay R and Moffatt L (2005) The performance of self in children's drawings of home, school and community literacies. In J. Anderson, M. Kendrick, T. Rogers, & S. Smythe (Eds.), Portraits of literacy across families, communities, and schools: Intersections and tensions. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.185–204.
19.
KnobelM (2001) “I'm not a pencil man”: How one student challenges our notions of literacy “failure” in school. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy44(5): 404–414.
20.
KressG (1997) Before writing: Rethinking paths into literacy, London: Routledge.
21.
Kress G (2001) “You've Just Got to Learn How to See”: Curriculum Subjects, Young People and Schooled Engagement with the World. Linguistics and Education 11(4): 401–415.
22.
KressG (2009) Assessment in the perspective of a social semiotic theory of multimodal teaching and learning. In: Wyatt-SmithCCummingJJ (eds) Educational assessment in the 21st century, New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media B.V, pp. 19–41.
23.
KressGJewittC (2003) Introduction. In: JewittCKressG (eds) Multimodal literacy, New York, NY: Peter Lang, pp. 1–18.
24.
Kress G and van Leeuwen T (2001) Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
25.
LankshearCKnobelM (2004) Planning pedagogy for i-mode: From flogging to blogging via wi-fi. Literacy and Learning in the Middle Years12(1): 78–102.
26.
LarsonJ (2009) New literacies studies: Literacy learning through a sociocultural lens. In: Compton-LillyC (ed.) Breaking the silence: Recognizing the social and cultural resources students bring to the classroom, Newark, DE: International Reading Association, pp. 13–23.
27.
LarsonJMarshJ (2005) Making literacy real: Theories and practices for learning and teaching, London: Sage.
28.
LevyR (2009) ‘You have to understand words… but not read them’: young children becoming readers in a digital age. Journal of Research in Reading32(1): 75–91.
29.
LynchJ (2008) Engagement with print: Low-income families and head start children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy8(2): 151–175.
30.
MarshJ (2011) Young children's literacy practices in a virtual world: Establishing an online interaction order. Reading Research Quarterly46(2): 101–118.
31.
MaybinJ (2000) The new literacy studies: Context, intertextuality and discourse. In: BartonDHamiltonMIvaničR (eds) Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 197–209.
32.
McTavishM (2007) Constructing the big picture: A working class family supports their daughter's pathways to literacy. The Reading Teacher60(5): 476–485.
33.
McTavishM (2009) “I get my facts from the Internet”: A case study of the teaching and learning of information literacy in school and out-of-school contexts. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy9(1): 3–28.
34.
MerchantG (2009) Literacy in virtual worlds. Journal of Research in Reading32(1): 38–56.
35.
MilesMHubermanA (1994) Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
MillardE (2003) Towards a literacy of fusion: New times, new teaching and learning?Reading37(1): 3–8.
37.
MollLAmantiCNeffD (1992) Funds of knowledge: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice31(1): 132–141.
38.
NicholsS (2007) Children as citizens: Literacies for social participation. Early Years: Journal of International Research & Development27(2): 119–130.
39.
O'MaraJLaidlawL (2011) Living in the iworld: Two literacy researchers reflect on the changing texts and literacy practices of childhood. English Teaching: Practice & Critique10(4): 149–159.
40.
PahlKRowsellJ (2005) Literacy and education: Understanding the new literacy studies in the classroom, London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
41.
PahlKRowsellJ (2006) Introduction. In: PahlKRowsellJ (eds) Travel notes from the new literacy studies: Instances of practice, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, Ltd, pp. 1–15.
42.
Parnership for 21st Century Skills (2011) A framework for 21st century learning. Available at: http://www.p21.org/ (accessed 25 November 2012).
43.
SchultzK (2002) Looking across space and time: “Reconceptualizing Literacy Learning in and out of School”. Research in the Teaching of English36(3): 356–390.
44.
SchultzKHullG (2002) Locating literacy theory in out-of-school contexts. In: HullGSchultzK (eds) School's out!: Bridging out-of-school literacies with classroom practice, New York, NY: Teachers College Press, pp. 11–31.
45.
StreetB (1993) Introduction: The new literacy studies. In: StreetB (ed.) Cross-cultural approaches to literacy, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–21.
46.
ThibaultPJ (1991) Social semiotics as praxis: Text, social meaning making, and Nabokov's Ada, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
47.
Vygotsky L (1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (Cole M, John-Steiner V, Scribner S and Souberman E, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
48.
WienCA (1996) Time, work, and developmentally appropriate practice. Early Childhood Research Quarterly11(3): 377–403.
49.
WohlwendK (2008) Play as a literacy of possibilities: Expanding meanings in practices, materials, and spaces. Language Arts86(2): 127–136.
50.
WohlwendK (2009) Early adopters: Playing new literacies and pretending new technologies in print-centric classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy9(2): 117–140.
51.
WohlwendK (2010) A is for avatar: Young children in literacy 2.0 worlds and literacy in 1.0 schools. Language Arts88(2): 144–152.
52.
WrightS (2007) Young children's meaning-making through drawing and ‘telling’. Australian Journal of Early Childhood32(4): 37–48.
53.
Yamada-RiceD (2010) Beyond words: An enquiry into children's home visual communication practices. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy10(3): 341–363.
54.
YellandN (2010) New technologies, playful experiences, and multimodal learning. In: BersonIBersonM (eds) High-tech tots: Childhood in a digital world, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 5–22.
55.
YellandN (2011) Reconceptualising play and learning in the lives of young children. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood36(2): 4–12.
56.
YellandNLeeLO'RoukeM (2008) Rethinking learning in early childhood education, New York, NY: Open University Press.
