Karen Wohlwend
A literacy professor who studies young children's play as an embodied literacy with action texts and everyday imaginaries. Through play, even very young children remake popular media with new technologies in ways that can transform their participation in online spaces and classroom cultures.
Publications
Play
Through pretend play, children help one another learn to read, write, and belong in early childhood classrooms.
Click to see papers
- 2018 Playing to Our Strengths, Language Arts article
- 2017 Who Gets to Play?, Early Years article
- 2015 All Rigor, No Play, No...Learning, Phi Delta Kappan article
- 2014 Paper Pterodactyls..., Literacies around the Globe chapter
- 2013 Literacy Playshop, Teachers College Press book
- 2013 Play, Literacy,...Cultures, Early Childhood Literacy Handbook chapter
- 2011 Constructing the Child at Play, ECEA Yearbook chapter
- 2013 Playing Star Wars Under the Radar, ECEA Yearbook chapter
- 2011 Playing their way into Literacy, Teachers College Press book
- 2009 Squeezed Stretched & Stuck: Teachers and Play, Bank Street College article
- 2008 Play as a Literacy of Possibilities, Language Arts article
- 2007 Chasing Friendship, Childhood Education article
Digital Literacies
Ironically, in a time of rapidly expanding technologies, too many schools are clamping down rather than ramping up.
Click to see papers
- 2017 App Maps: Evaluating iPad Software, Apps, Technology, and Younger Learners chapter
- 2017 Toddlers and Touchscreens, Reclaiming Early Literacy chapter
- 2015 One Screen, Many Fingers, Theory into Practice article
- 2013 (L)earning in Club Penguin, Virtual Play Worlds chapter
- 2012 Play and Digital Media in K-2, Language Arts article
- 2011 Navigating Discourses in Webkinz, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy article
- 2010 A is for Avatar, Language Arts article
- 2010 Critical Engagement, English Language Arts Research Handbook chapter
- 2009 Early Adopters, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy article
Media Literacies
Children are immersed in everyday/everywhere media but are rarely encouraged to produce media themselves.
Click to see papers
- 2014 Literacy, Play, & Globalization, Routledge Research book
- 2014 Cultural Imaginaries in Playshop, Reclaiming Writing article
- 2013 Literacy Playshop, Teachers College Press book
- 2012 Media as Nexus of Practice, Discourse: Cultural Politics of Education article
- 2009 Mapping Discourses in What Not to Wear, LRA Yearbook chapter
Disney Princess, Monster High, and More
Through play with peers, children find ways to pretend their way around the emphatic gender texts in popular media.
Click to see papers
- 2016 Race and Rag Dolls: Lalaloopsy, Literacies and the Body chapter
- 2016 Ghouls, Girls, & Girlhoods: Monster High, Generation Z: Zombies & Education chapter
- 2015 Playing to Belong, Princess Cultures chapter
- 2012 Are You Guys Girls?, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy article
- 2012 Boys who would be Princesses, Gender & Education article
- 2009 Damsels in Discourse, Reading Research Quarterly article
Literacy Assessment
Expanding definitions of literacy require new assessments that recognize a wider range of literacies and more diverse learners.
Click to see papers
- 2012 Spider Charts for Miscue Analysis, Language Arts article
- 2009 Dilemmas and Discourses of Learning to Write, Language Arts article
- 2008 From What Did I Write? to Is this Right?, New Educator chapter
Multimodal Design
Children design to create puppets and toys but also to anchor their fluid storying and collaboration.
Click to see papers
- 2015 Embodied Signs, Handbook of Semiotics chapter
- 2014 Hands On, Hands Off, Mind, Culture, and Activity article
- 2013 Designing with Pink Technologies and Barbie, Children and the Arts chapter
- 2011 Mapping Modes in Play and Design, CDA in Education chapter
Mediated Discourse Analysis
MDA tracks the trajectories of meanings, modes, and actions with toys, tools, and bodies in children's play and design.
Click to see papers
- 2014 MDA: Baby Thinks Magazine is Broken iPad, New Methods chapter
- 2012 Twinkle Twitter Little Stars, Digital Cultures in Education article
- 2011 Paying Attention--MDA for Teachers, Language Arts article
- 2009 MDA: Nonverbal action as social practice, Early Childhood Research article
- 2008 IRA Outstanding Dissertation of the Year, Reading Research Quarterly article
- 2007 Playing to Read and Reading to Play, LRA Yearbook article
- 2007 More Than Work: CDA of Teacher Talk about Play, UCLA Interactions article
- 2007 Friendship Meeting: CDA of Playground Conflict, CIEC article
- 2006 Not an American Girl: CDA of Patriotism & Child Agency, IJEIEC article
In the Media
Links to interviews and podcasts in national media featuring my research on popular films, children's toys, critical media play, and digital literacies
Click to see media links
- 2016 Why is the Internet Obsessed with Disney Princesses?, Mashable.com article
- 2011 NPR Interview: Princess Marketing and Little Girls, Kids These Days podcast
- 2012 Pixars Brave Shoots Arrows in the Princess Ideal, LA Times article
- 2009 Disney Princess Dolls and Literacy Development, Voice of Literacy podcast