Language and Literacy (Journal)
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“Such Tweet Sorrow”: The Explosive Impact of New Literacies on Adolescent Responses to Live Theatre
No full textTrips to the theatre are a regular feature of many high school language arts programs, and yet the experience of watching a play is often significantly different for a teacher than it is for a student. Placing “theatre literacy” within the context of the New London Group’s definition of multiliteracies, and drawing on the work of Lankshear and Knobel as well as audience studies theorists, this article compares how a 17 year-old girl and a 43 year-old English teacher respond to a series of plays, and considers how growing up in a wireless world shapes adolescents’ understanding of live theatre
Teachers as Moral Compasses: Exploring Critical Literacy through Digital Social Justice Book Talks
No full textA classroom-based study aimed to scaffold preservice teachers’ critical literacy through an exploration of trade picture books. The paper discusses preservice teachers’ shifting views of critical literacy and the place of critical literacy in the language arts classroom. It also assesses the usefulness of digital book talks for engaging preservice teachers with social justice issues. The book talks provided novice teachers with opportunities to question and challenge assumptions, evaluate their own actions and attitudes toward accepted moral standards, and to engage in positive social action. The preservice teachers’ responses to the assignment suggest a number of ways in which teachers can effectively use new media to explore social justice and equity issues with young students
Expanding Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions of Texts, Readers, and Response Through Multimodal Response
No full textThe author conducted a qualitative study of multimodal digital response to children’s historical fiction that his 23 pre-service graduate students read in book clubs. Grounded in sociocultural and multimodal theories of literacy, the study addresses the following two research questions: What influence did sociocultural and multimodal engagements with text have on students’ meaning-making? What influence did these engagements have on their conceptions of texts, readers, and response? Findings show how social negotiation of meaning and robustness of design work expanded participants’ understandings of texts, readers, and response that challenge current autonomous, verbocentric conceptions of literacy that predominate in schools
Watercolors Awash in Crayoned Responses: Teaching Narrative in Arts-based Praxis
No full textI work in literacy education, encouraging teacher candidates to experiment with the arts to make a novel come alive for adolescent readers. Part of my research agenda, which is intertwined with my teaching, seeks to make sense of the question: What are the effects of arts-based learning on the teacher candidates’ theoretical and classroom practices? To firstconsider the above research question from my own pedagogical perspective, I draw on my earlier recollections (Adler, 1958) of arts and classroom living using the methodology of narrative inquiry—the study of the ways humans experience the world via the construction and reconstruction of their own stories (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Informed by my teaching narrative, crafted in the backdrop of remembered times, I venture forth to address the effects of arts-based learning on the teacher candidates’ theoretical and classroom practices. A more informed construction of our recurring narratives, rekindled by the illumination of early recollections, will play an integral role
A Nested Model of Academic Writing Approaches: Chinese International Graduate Students’ Views of English Academic Writing
No full textAdopting Lea and Street’s (1998) three models of academic writing (i.e., the study skills, academic socialization, and academic literacies), this qualitative study explored 10 Chinese international graduate (CIG) students’ perceptions of differing literacy practices in a different academic milieu and in various disciplines at a Canadian university. The findings reveal how different epistemologies in different cultures and disciplines have impacted these CIG students’ English academic writing. This paper acknowledges the limitations of the exclusive use of skills study and academic socialisation orientations in writing support for international students. It recommends a nested model of writing support, which is more inclusive and transformative in nature
Literacy in an Extended Family Household in Kabul: A Case Study
No full textThe following case study is drawn from a Pashtun family of 31 people living together in a house in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, and was collaboratively researched with a member of the household. Afghanistan has one of the world’s lowest literacy rates, at 28.1 % literacy (UNICEF, 2004). Finding a way to take into consideration “the symbolic and material transactions of the everyday provide the basis for rethinking how people give meaning and ethical substance to their experiences and voices” (Giroux and Simon, 1989), rings true in the context of Afghanistan, where an ambitious agenda for raising access toeducation and literacy must find roots in the existing culture, coping mechanisms used by families, and the limited literacy and learning resources to which they have access. The issues brought to light in this case study suggest that validating Afghanistan’s literary traditions holds potential for empowering new learners, tapping into literacy practices supported by family networks
For the Family: One Teen’s Self-Selected Digital Literacy Practices
No full textAs technology becomes a basic necessity in the lives of American families, populations who in the past have not had access to technology, will begin to engage with it as part of their daily functions. Consequently, the way that these families, and especially the children take hold of digital literacies, will depend on their cultural ways of knowing and their economic needs (Browning- Aiken, 2004; De La Peña & Orellana, 2007). In contrast to studies that document the limited access to technology in minority populations because of economic pressures (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004; Kupperman & Fishman, 2002), this paper focuses on one Mexicano teen’s active participation with technology outside of school. It shows how economic need in the family served as the driving force for the purchase and use of the computer
Shifting identities, literacy, and a/r/t/ography: Exploring an educational theatre company
No full textThis article explores an emerging educational theatre company in Vancouver, British Columbia by investigating how the creators embrace their multiple roles as artists, researchers, and teachersin their effort to promote literacy in schools. The authors begin by exploring notions of identity within an a/r/tographic framework. They then define their understanding and usage ofa/r/tography—a practitioner-based methodology that emphasizes living inquiry and reflective practice. They conclude with a dramatized dialogue about the process of researching, creating, and producing two touring theatre shows about literacy for young children. Using a/r/tography as a methodology allowed the authors of this paper to observe and pay close attention to the research data while still honoring the creative process of making theatre
Inviting Connection Through the Gap in Haiku
No full textMy M.Ed. research focused on using haiku poetry as a way of connection with persons with dementia within an established spiritual care setting. As foundation for this research, I exploredthe connection-building capacity of the gap created by the juxtaposition in haiku. Seventeen experienced haiku poets (including myself as both researcher and poet) responded to surveyquestions about the intuitive process of writing and reading haiku. The responses illuminate how the simplicity of haiku can paradoxically hold profound meaning through the connections withself, other, and environment. Haiku may have potential in curriculum beyond language arts into environmental studies
Digital Literacy in a Grade 8 Classroom: An E-zine WebQuest
No full textThe WebQuest (www.webquest.org) was the context for a study which explored the ways in which digital literacy mediated young adolescents’ literacy learning. Data were collected through participant and nonparticipant observations, informal interviews and analysis of documents such as a blog, journal entries and Canteen, the teen e-zine created by the grade 8 students. The findings in this study contribute to literacy researchers’ understanding of theimplementation of multiliteracies pedagogy in classrooms and research into young adolescents’ engagement with and response to digital texts