Kucer and Silva's work is a companion volume to Kucer's (2005) earlier volume, Dimensions of Literacy: A Conceptual Base for Teaching Reading and Writing In School Settings, now in its second edition. In this earlier volume, Kucer argued that literacy should be understood in all its dimensions—cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and developmental—and that to reduce our understanding of literacy to any one dimension alone is to lack wisdom about its total nature. Whereas the previous volume offers a theoretical exposition of these four dimensions of literacy (i.e., content knowledge for teachers), this new work provides answers to the question “Well, now that I am equipped with a multidimensional understanding of literacy, what shall I do on Monday morning?” (i.e., pedagogical content knowledge; Shulman, 1986).
The volume includes four parts: an introductory chapter, two theoretical chapters, strategy lessons, and a concluding chapter. In the theoretical chapters, Kucer and Silva synthesize the theory presented in Kucer's earlier volume, organizing the discussion around the four dimensions of literacy: cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and developmental. Because these chapters summarize complex theory, they are quite dense and include numerous tables and figures. The second part of the volume—its main focus—includes strategy lessons that correspond to three of the four dimensions. The final chapter provides a discussion of literacy curriculum design. Although there is some further elaboration, this chapter essentially repeats the final chapter of the previous volume, positing that there are four literacy curricular components (thematic or inquiry units; teacher reading and student response; independent reading and student response; and independent writing, conferencing, and publishing) and designating certain amounts of time to be devoted daily to each component.
One hundred fourteen literacy lessons form the heart of this work. They are divided into three subcategories focused on teaching linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural dimensions of literacy (e.g., linguistic lessons include “using conventions of written language,” “exploring letters and sounds,” “spelling,” and “features of text” strategies). Each lesson is organized around a concept. The authors list materials to be used for the lesson (often in the form of suggestions) as well as a procedure to be followed. Within the procedure section of each lesson, the authors include what they call “into/through/beyond” the lesson—a sequence that assumes movement from more explicit instruction to guided practice to independent practice. It is through this structure that the authors attend to the developmental dimension of literacy. Finally, many of the lessons include a section with suggested variations to the lesson. Accompanying the lessons are many helpful sample materials, a few of which are replicated from Kucer's earlier work.
Although approximate age levels or developmental appropriateness are not specified for the lessons, they seem designed primarily for K–8 students. Experienced K–8 literacy teachers and elementary teacher educators would be the audience most likely to find this volume useful.
I am unsure, however, just how useful these lessons will be to preservice and early-career teachers. Although the volume does take a developmental stance on literacy, it lacks a developmental perspective on teaching. Reading the volume, a novice teacher might assume that lesson + lesson + lesson = curriculum. However, in the final chapter, the authors propose that a literacy curriculum should be organized into thematic units. If a curriculum is organized into conceptual units, then it follows that some kind of backward planning strategy is needed to break unifying concepts into teachable parts. The overall design of the volume does not illustrate how teachers should work through this process and design units. Although the final chapter briefly presents a model for unit design and narrates an example of an immigration unit, it is not sufficiently elaborated for novice teachers. I suspect that new or preservice teachers would struggle to imagine when and why, in a curricular sequence, the given lessons would be used.
Although there is some discussion of English language learners in the theoretical chapters, the lessons do not consistently address how the lessons would be modified for linguistically diverse students. I was also surprised to find little theoretical discussion and few lessons involving technology or digital literacy practices.
