CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Storying the Pre-K East Classroom 3 The Journey 6 Part I: "How Do Stories Come into Our Class?": Laying the Foundations 11 1. The Classroom and Its Practices 13 Small Moments and Everyday Stories Lead to Big Curricula 15 Building Blocks for Constructing Literacy Curricula in the Early Childhood Classroom 17 The Classroom and Its Practices: Conclusion 22 2. Storying in Play: Investigating the Purpose of Authoring 24 Making Sense of Play-Based Authorship 25 Understanding Authorship in the Pre-K Classroom 28 3. Investigating the Purposes of Writing and Publishing with Young Children 32 On the Pressure to Read and Write Earlier and Earlier 33 Asking Questions: A Pathway for Investigating and Learning 34 Young Children Speak, Read, and Author with Purpose 37 Part II: "But How Can Our Stories Turn into a Book?": Planning and Making 43 4. Creative Writing and The Book Project 45 What the Children Already Knew About Books and Stories 47 The Authoring Process: Writing The Whole Pre-K East Book 49 The Book Project: Children as Authors, Play as Authorship 52 5. Investigating the Body of the Book: Unveiling Children's Knowledge About Books and About Print 57 Honoring Children's Conceptualization of Publishing 58 Rethinking the Roles of the Teacher and the Curriculum 60 Teachers as Learners, Emergent Curriculum as Meeting Expectations 63 6. Science, Mathematics, and The Book Project 67 Science and Mathematics in Paper Airplane Flying and Story Authoring 68 The Investigation: Reading and Writing Toward Acquiring Information 72 From Experimenting with Paper Airplanes to Authoring "How-To" Books 77 7. Observation, Language, Poetry, and The Book Project 81 On the Importance of Circles 84 Children's Observations: Reading the World 85 Poetry as a Language Art: Making Meaning and Making Sense Through Art 87 Reflecting on Children's Language and Literacy Development in and Through Poetry 96 8.

 Social Studies and The Book Project 98 How Social Studies Comes to Life in the Pre-K Classroom 98 Families at the Heart of the Social Studies Curriculum 102 Authoring Our History as a Community 107 Conclusion of This Chapter and of Part II 115 Part III: Reflecting on The Book Project in the Larger Context of Teaching and Learning 117 9. Perspectives and Insights on Authorship in an Emergent, Child-Centered Classroom 119 Exploring Children's Development of Traditional Literacy Skills 123 Understanding the Development of a Learning Community 129 10. "Look at Us! We're All So Different!": Remembering and Reflecting 3 Years Later 134 References 141 Index 147 About the Authors 153.