Joining The Literacy Club: Further Essays Into Education

Joining the Literacy Club: Further Essays into Education

"The Literacy Club," Frank Smith's metaphor describing the social nature of literacy learning, has become widely used in recent years. The essays in this collection reflect Smith's belief that we learn from other people, not so much through conscious emulation as by "joining the club" of people we see ourselves as being like, and by being helped to engage in their activities. The general theme holding the essays together is that the most significant people in every learner's life are teachers the formal teachers of the classroom, the informal (and less frequently acknowledged) teachers in the world outside school, and the teachers (scarcely ever recognized) who are the authors of the books we read.About the AuthorFrank Smith has always been fascinated by language. He worked as a journalist in many countries before beginning formal academic studies in Australia. This led to a Ph.D. at Harvard University and further world travel researching, lecturing, and writing on thinking and learning. He has been a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; the University of Toronto; the University of Victoria, British Columbia; and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has published many articles and books.