ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The focus in the book is through the lens of curriculum design and articulation for grades K-12 and is addressed to classroom teachers. The author's contention is that there is a need for fundamental revision. Many of the current practices inhibit the effectiveness of teachers and produce some of the factors leading to academic illiteracy. These need to be replaced with more effective approaches. The book attempts to give classroom teachers, many of whom have not had the benefit of special reading training, a set of tools for integrating critical language skills coupled with digital, media, and global literacy capacities into their daily operational curriculum. The needed skills are laid out in a planning model to be implemented in a school or district under the assumption that learning is cumulative and that skills spiral over time.
