Selected Publications
Books
Purcell-Gates, V. (Ed.). (2007). Cultural Practices of Literacy: Complicating the Complex. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V., Jacobson, E., & Degener, S. (2004). Print literacy development: Uniting the cognitive and social practice theories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jacobson, E., Degener, S., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Creating authentic materials for the adult literacy classroom: A handbook for practitioners. Cambridge, MA: World Education, Inc.
Purcell-Gates, V. & Waterman, R. (2000). Now we read, we see, we speak: Portrait of Literacy Development in a Freirean-Based Adult Class. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people’s words: The cycle of low literacy. Harvard University Press.
Book Chapters
Purcell-Gates, V. (2006). What does culture have to do with it? In B. Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, C.M. Fairbanks & J. Worthy (Eds.), 55th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
Perry, K., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2005). Resistance and Appropriation:
Literacy Practices as Agency within Hegemonic Contexts. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
Purcell-Gates, V., & Duke, N.K. (2004). Texts in the teaching and learning of reading. In J.V. Hoffman & D.L. Schallert (Eds.), The texts in elementary classrooms. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2004). Ethnographic Research. In N.K. Duke, & M. Mallette (Eds.), Literacy research methodologies (pp. 92-113). New York: Guilford Publications.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2004). Family literacy as the site for emerging knowledge of written language. In B. Wasik (Ed.), Family literacy Handbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). La alfabetización familiar: Coordinación entre los aprendizajes de la escuela y del hogar. In A. Teberosky, & M.S. Gallart, (Eds.), Contextos de alfabetización inicial. Barcelona: University of Barcelona.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2002). “…As soon as she opened her mouth!” In L. Delpit & J.K. Dowdy (Eds.), The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language, culture and power.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2002). The irrelevancy and danger of the ‘simple view’ of reading to meaningful standards. In R. Fisher, G. Brooks, M. Lewis (Eds.), Raising standards in literacy (pp. 121-132). London: Falmer/Routledge.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2001). Emergent Literacy is Emerging Knowledge of Written Language Not Oral. In Britto, P.R. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). Young Children’s Emerging Literacy Skills in the Context of Family Literacy Environments. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2000). Family literacy: A research review. Handbook of Reading Research, vol. 3. New York: NY: Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1998). Growing successful readers: Homes, communities, and schools. In F. Lehr & J. Osborn (Eds.), Literacy for all: Issues for teaching and learning. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Peer-Reviewed Journals
Purcell-Gates, V., & Duke, N.K. (2007). Learning to read and write genre-specific texts: The roles of authentic experience and explicit teaching. Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 8-45
Purcell-Gates, V. (2006). Written Language and Literacy Development: The Proof is in the Practice. Research in the Teaching of English, 41, 164-169
Duke, N.K., Purcell-Gates, V., Hall, L.A., & Tower, C. (2006). Authentic literacy activities for developing comprehension and writing. Reading Teacher, 60, 344-357
Duke, N.K., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Genres at home and at school: Bridging the known to the new. The Reading Teacher,57, 30-37.
Purcell-Gates, V., Degener, S., Jacobson, E., Soler, M. (2002). Impact of authentic literacy instruction on adult literacy practices. Reading Research Quarterly, 37, 70-92.
Purcell-Gates, V., Degener, S., Jacobson, E. (2001). Adult literacy instruction: Degrees of authenticity and collaboration as described by practitioners. Journal of Literacy Research, 33, 571-593.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2000, July). The role of qualitative and ethnographic research in educational policy. Reading Online 4(1). http://www.readingonline.org/articles/Purcell-gates.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1996). Stories, coupons, and the TV guide: Relationships between home literacy experiences and emergent literacy knowledge. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 406-428.
Purcell-Gates, V., McIntyre, E., & Freppon, P. (1995). Learning written storybook language in school: A comparison of low-ses children in skill-based and whole language classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 30, 659-685.
Purcell-Gates, V., L’Allier, S., & Smith, D. (1995). Literacy at the Hart’s and the Larsen’s. Reading Teacher, 48, 572-579.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1993). I ain’t never read my own words before. Journal of Reading, 37, 210-220.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1992). Roots of response. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 2, 151-162.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1991). Ability of well-read-to kindergartners to decontextualize/ recontextualize experience into a written-narrative register. Language and Education: An International Journal, 5, 177-188.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1991). On the outside looking in: A study of remedial readers’ meaning-making while reading literature. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 23, 235-253.
Purcell-Gates, V. & Dahl, K. (1991) Low-SES children’s success and failure at early literacy learning in skills-based classrooms. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 23, 1-34.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1990). Can early reading achievement be predicted with traditional learning disabilities tests? A case study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 5, 513-535.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1989). Fairy tales in the clinic: Children seek their own meanings. Children’s Literature in Education, 20 (4), 249-254.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1989). What research into oral/written language differences can tell us about beginning reading and writing instruction. Reading Teacher, 42 (4), 290-295.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1988). Lexical and syntactic knowledge of written narrative held by well-read-to kindergartners and second graders. Research in the Teaching of English, 22 (2), 128-160.