Finding a Voice:Freedom through Digital

Literacies

English Teacher, Chenango Forks HS

Doctoral Candidate, Binghamton University

Andrea Gumble

Teaching English can often be…two dimensional

Yet, 21st century learners have a constant desire to examine a three dimensional world.

My motivation…

(Friere and Macedo, 1987)

“Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world…”

“While most modern societies want their schools to produce ‘literate’ people, a democracy demands a specialkind of literacy that goes beyond merely comprehending a word on a page.” John Goodlad (2004)

Bloom's Revised Taxonomyhttp://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/

hrd/bloom.html

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

The implementation of CCSS Reading Standard 10 is at hand:

Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining its meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately.

Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details (PARCC, 2011, p. 6).

Reading complex texts

Reading complex text also encompasses the productive comparison and synthesis of ideas.

Readers use the meaning developed through the analysis of particular words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs to elaborate on the connects among ideas across multiple texts (PARCC, 2011 p. 6).

Reading complex texts

“How can I teach my students to be more fully engaged with the texts I teach?”

How can I encourage them to respond deeply enough to make personal meaning with the texts they encounter?”

We may be asking ourselves these questions:

To allow students to think critically about the reading they engage in, we must broaden the definition of what “text” is.

“Information comes to us not only by words on a piece of paper but more and more through the powerful images and sounds of our multimedia culture” (Martinez, p. 72 ).

Since today’s learners are inundated with visual, audio, and print sources in their daily lives, we must acknowledge these “digital readings” as important to our students and actively incorporate them into our instruction.

We might step away from our role as ‘expert’ and permit students to formulate their own meanings of the texts we ask them to read.

newmediaforlearning.com

Luke (1997) suggests, “Importantly, media production as a way of producing knowledge opens classroom learning explorations of out-of-school culture alongside the study of more traditional text-bound learnings (p. 40).

Asks students to create a new "war" text framed in their own critical thinking and constructed from their own creative contemplations

Explores multiple texts, assigned and student-chosen, ranging from print to sound recordings to visuals such as war photographs and political cartoons.

The Art of War project

Asks students to consider the message, the audience, who the sender is, and how the sender creates his/her message.

Promotes examination of each piece we read, listen to, and view with a critical eye.

The Art of War project

The Art of War project Partners students to create a PowerPoint or

Animoto presentation of modern views of war through active sharing, searching, and collaboration.

Assesses creativity and analysis of texts through formally written essays with proper citation of sources.

Provides opportunity to familiarize students with copyright rules, downloading techniques, and other technical issues.

Provides opportunity to have students present their projects to their peers in order to give and receive constructive criticism.

The Art of War project

Student VideosBoys’ Video

High engagement for students who were otherwise disengaged

Matched oral text (Reagan speech) to other texts

Girls’ Video Centered presentation

of the “Dear John” idea

Struggle with film so they took lines from the movie

Lessons like these can help our students

reach the highest level of critical thinking…

Who is communicating and why?How does it present its subject?What language (visual/print/oral) is used?What stories/themes/beliefs/characters are being told and evoked?For whom is this text intended? What is its purpose? How does the audience understand this text?What do I think or feel about this text? What meanings do I create from it?

Students learn to analyze a variety of texts, to examine word choice, to question camera angles and musical pacing as they synthesize texts into one thematic presentation.

Students can use their own connections to war for greater understanding and deeper connection to

the theme.

Students ask more questions and more readily support their ideas with textual references.

 

“Dear mother” is a personal letter written by Paul William Hills.  Mr. Hills wrote the letter to tell his mother about the response from the German people. In the letter he showed that there was a surprisingly friendly response from the people.    As he details the normal hardships that are being taken on by the Bosche, and the vast contrast between what he expected the country to be like and how it actually is. Hills writes, “The inhabitants are not at all ill disposed and nothing in the world can stop the glorious American high ranking buck private from making friends with everybody and anybody.”  Though he does hint at a more difficult task set forth in the future, he is content to let his mother know that, for the moment, he is fine.  This is one of his many letters to his mother and it shows one of the few moments in which a soldier can have a breath and a break from the terror of war.

They engage more thoroughly with the text and respond more deeply

An analysis of their work demonstrates their critical thoughts on their chosen texts, reflects on how each piece fits with the overall theme of their visual production, and allows them format sources properly.

Atterberg, Hilda. "War Letters: Rochester Writes Home." Letter to Anthony Aratari. 4 Jan. 1944.

WXXI | Go Public. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

  Bennett, Curt. "Poems of Vietnam War by Pilot, Curt

Bennett." WAR POEMS AND POETS OF TODAY AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR.

Curt Bennett. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.   "German Biplane Crashed at Stenay Airport - Rights

Managed - Corbis." Corbis Images – Premium Quality Stock Photography and Illustrations. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.

"My Air Force Life Short Story." Air Force | LIVE WORK PLAY My Air Force Life. Web. 24 Feb.

2011.   Paul Tibbets, Pilot Of Enola Gay And American Hero,

Dies At 92 : Diggers Realm. Photograph. Diggers Realm: Immigration Reform,

Illegal Aliens, Terrorism And Political Ridiculousness. 2 Nov. 2007. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

  Spector, Kyle. "U.S. Air Force Discovers Blogs | FP

Passport." FP Passport | FOREIGN POLICY. Web. 23 Feb. 2011.

"US Air Force Condolences." Web. 23 Feb. 2011.

 "US Air Force Hymn." Hymns. Web. 23 Feb. 2011.

They learn about writing as they learn about the world…

“…reading the word is not preceded merely by reading the world, but by a certain form of writing it or rewriting it, that is, of transforming it by means of conscious, practical work.”

Returning to Freire and Macedo…

Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.

Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.

Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.

Pursue personal and aesthetic growth

The project promotes essential traits for a 21st century learner:

http://www.ala.org

http://

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC470/sp09/5/bloomstaxanomy.html

Student background knowledge is a key component of effective adolescent literacy practice

“When children understand how to connect the texts they read to their lives, they begin to make connections to the larger world. This nudges them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues beyond their universe of home, school, and the neighborhood” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 92).

Goodlad, J. I., Mantle-Bromley, C., and Goodlad, S. J. (2004). Education for everyone. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 

Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Luke, C. (1997). “Media Literacy and Cultural Studies.” In S. Muspratt, A. Luke & P. Freebody (Eds.).

Constructing critical literacies: Teaching and learning textual practice (pp.185-225). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

Martinez, M. (2010). New literacies for a new era. Phi Delta Kappan, 9(3), 72-73.

Resources

For any questions or material, please contact me at

gumblea@cforks.org

Thank you for attending!