This unique approach to teaching core literacy skills offers step-by-step planning frameworks and an appendix of activity ideas to show teachers how to engage students in the process.

Kieran Egan is Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, as well as founder and director of the Imaginative Education Research Group (www.ierg.net). He has authored and edited over twenty books, many of which have been translated into European and Asian languages. In 1991, he won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Education for his book, Primary Understanding: Education in Early Childhood.
Born in Clonmel, Ireland, Kieran Egan was raised and educated in England. He graduated from London University with a B.A. in History, and from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in Education. In 1993, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. He is a foreign associate member of the National Academy of Education and holds a Canada Research Chair in Education. 

Preface
Two Sources of This Approach
Cognitive Tools in Everyday Teaching Practice
Literacy Learners, Young and Old(er)
The Cognitive Tool Kits of Language and Literacy
Planning Frameworks Using Cognitive Tools
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Part I: The Cognitive Toolkit of Oral Language
1. Using the Story Form: Meeting Objectives by Engaging Feelings
Stories and Feelings
Stories in the Classroom
Inventing Comic Characters
Personifying Elements of Language
Creating a Literacy Adventure
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
2. Images We Care About: Too, Two, and To
Images Aid Memory and Understanding
Tying Concepts to Images
From Images to Letter Representation
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
3. Binary Opposites: Goldilocks and Civil War
Using Opposites to Expand Upon Understanding
Mediating Binary Opposites
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
4. Literal and Metaphoric Talk: "Like a Spring-Woken Tree"
Recognizing and Reflecting on Language
Similes
Metaphors
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
5. Jokes: Drawing the Drapes
Joking and "Seeing" Language
Humor in Amelia Bedelia
Reading Puzzles
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
6. Rhyme and Rhythm: Mickey Mouse's Underwear
Echo Rhymes
Rhyme and Rhythm: Ring, Rang, Rung
Nursery Rhymes
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
7. Living Knowledge: Barbie and The Matrix
Embedding Knowledge in Students' Lifeworlds
Children¿s Lifeworlds
Conclusion to Part I
Part II: The Cognitive Tool Kit of Literacy
8. Extremes: The Queueing Subbookkeeper
The Strange, Exotic, Different, and Wonderful
Fascinating Reality
Metalinguistic Awareness
Exploring Extremes
Wonder in the Classroom
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
9. Everyday Heroes: Spiderman and the Comma
Heroizing Literacy Tasks
Heroes in the Classroom
Heroic Experiences
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
10. Human Contexts: John Montagu, The Earl of Sandwich
Knowledge in a Meaningful Context
Linking Language With Purpose
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
11. Collections and Hobbies: Alphabets and Beanie Babies
Collecting Letters and Words
Literacy as a Hobby
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
12. Graphic Organizers: Lists and Flowcharts
From the Ear to the Eye
Visual Tools
Teachers, Try It Out
Final Words
Conclusion to Part II
Part III: Planning Frameworks
13. Framework 1
Mythic Planning Framework
Example: A Lesson on Homonyms
14. Framework 2
The Romantic Planning Framework
Example: A Lesson on the Comma
The Frameworks and You
Conclusion
Appendix: Responses to the "Teachers, Try It Out" Questions by Gillian C. Judson
References
Index