Multiliteracies

Changing Assessments, Changing Teaching

2010-09-03T11:05:00.002-06:00

The NYTimes reports this morning on awards to 44 states to explore new means of testing. I quite like the idea that students would be given a problem to solve rather than a recall question to answer and that test results would come back quickly to teachers. But there are definitely challenges and, as always, the work is on a fast track. It's nonetheless a story worth following. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/education/03testing.html?_r=2&ref=education

Visualizing Data

2010-06-24T09:11:00.002-06:00

Recently I've become intrigued by how data can be presented visually. This video joins the crowd in interesting ways. The beat of the soundtrack keeps it moving, and the stats for Internet use are amazing. I was left wanting more context for the stats, though, such as the pie charts and bar graph that show numbers in relation to each other. Nonetheless, this video is worth your time and thought.

Seamus Heaney Reads "Blackberry Picking"

2010-06-11T13:41:00.002-06:00

From PBS comes this video of one of my favorite poets reading one of my favorite poems. How lucky we are in the 21st century to have resources like this. Just watch his eyebrows and the rest of his face as he reads. Yes, his is only one interpretation of the poem, not the only one, but I'm glad to be able to see him read.

Words and Images

2010-06-05T08:08:00.003-06:00

I'm thinking about an upcoming presentation on imagination and representation in graphic novels so coming across this video (shared by the conference organizer, in fact) was a fine, serendipitous moment. As Gunther Kress says, in what he calls the new media age we need to consider the shifting relationships between words and images--and this video helps us do so, I think. Enjoy.

Stunning Comic

2010-05-31T11:15:00.004-06:00

I read about Looking Up in the Comic News Reporter. What a find! I don't know how much it would interest a broad range of secondary students, but it's a slice-of-life comic that could also serve as a model for their own creations. The book is available in what the publisher calls a "dead tree version" and online.

Guest Blog: Reinventing Assessment for the 21st-Century | Edutopia

2010-05-31T10:02:00.000-06:00

Guest Blog: Reinventing Assessment for the 21st-Century Edutopia

Philadelphia high school teacher Andrew Marcinek offers concrete ideas and a compelling case for the kind of assessment we can and (I think) must do if students are to learn beyond their (test) bubbles.

Looking for Multiliteracies in State Standards

2010-05-31T09:46:00.006-06:00

Colorado educator budtheteacher created this Wordle of the latest Colorado standards. Although we hear they're being revised, I doubt that the word frequency will change much. While reading and writing certainly count as literacies, finding other forms, including visual and media literacies, resembles the visual game of searching for Waldo. The difference? Waldo is actually in the picture somewhere. I'd love to know what you think/find, though.

New Video from Mike Dixon of CSU

2010-01-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

National Day on Writing Testimonials

2009-10-20T08:30:00.000-06:00

National Day on Writing Testimonials

Today the National Gallery of Writing and associated galleries open to the public. Tune in to special events today and read these great comments from well-known writers on why they write. It's not too late to contribute your own writing, either. The galleries will be open through early June. This is a remarkable effort deserving of our support. It's also an intriguing one in its use of 21st century tools for creating and disseminating the gallery while focusing on one of the most important literacies in human history--writing.

Fish Is Fish

2009-09-18T15:05:00.002-06:00

This children's story teaches a lesson about the use of background knowledge.

North Korean Comics

2009-06-23T09:13:00.002-06:00

There's a fascinating review of North Korean comics at this site. Here's the opening to give you an idea of the whole post. I recommend it.

"Our mandate here at Sleep is for the Weak can be generously summarized as “hilariously review the comics and cartoons of the exotic East.” This primarily means that we look at anime and manga coming out of Japan, and maybe the odd Korean manhwa or cartoon that was produced in China.

But there’s one country whose comics (or as they’re called there, gruim-chaek) have pretty much gone unnoticed by everyone. There’s a reason for that. Generally, that’s because the country that they’re from - North Korea - is the most isolated and hidden country in the world."

Senate Bill Supports 21st-Century Skills

2009-06-02T05:59:00.003-06:00

Senate bill supports 21st-century skills

Shared via AddThis

Such a bill seems to have merit. What do you think of the work of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the ideas of this bill? I'd also like to hear from someone in the states that are cited in the article. What do you think of your state's standards regarding these skills?

Language Abuse?

2009-04-07T10:07:00.003-06:00

On the Common Craft blog, there's a great post discussing the need for plain English and how the language gets used for obfuscation rather than clarity. I find the comments as interesting as the orginal article. Where will our use of the language lead us? How will the language use in various discourse communities will shape our thinking and be shaped by our participation?

Back(wards) to Tracking?

2009-04-07T09:48:00.002-06:00

URL: Back-(to)-tracking on Student Expectations

While I'm willing to consider the arguments people make for tracking, I still just can't accept that practice as an effective means of ensuring achievement for all students. Thus, this post from Mississippi teacher leader Renee Moore really resonates for me. One of our challenges across American education, it seems to me, is to establish a culture of high expectations for all. How do we do that? Where is it being done?

Reading the World with Graphic Novels

2009-03-08T14:06:00.002-06:00

This is my presentation from the 2009 CLAS Conference. My argument is that we need to be aware of our perception of the world if we are to help students better see it. Literature can help. Specifically, graphic novels can be used to good effect. I also propose "seeing" in a new way by thinking of the term "focalization" as a replacement for the more general "point of view" that we're used to using in literature discussions with secondary school students. Some writers suggest that focalization is a more accurate concept to describe the craft of writing a graphic novel. We ended the session by looking at excerpts from two novels and trying out the questions, "Who sees? Who speaks?" to understand what the authors and illustrators were doing.

Reading the World with Graphic Novels

View more presentations from Louann.

Graphic Novel Intro #1

2009-03-05T12:25:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Graphic Novel Intro #1

View more presentations from bradythecamel. (tags: novels graphic)

Graphic Novels Intro # 2

2009-03-05T12:23:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Graphic Novels Intro # 2

View more presentations from bradythecamel. (tags: novels graphic)

New New New

2009-01-26T12:20:00.001-07:00

It's a new semester with new classes and expanded interests. I'd like this blog to reflect at least some of that. While I will still focus on multiliteracies on occasion, I will also use this blog for the advanced composition class and the methods of teaching English classes this semester. Both of those classes overlap with multiliteracies, of course, and both have distinctive characteristics. I'll try to use the blog for the areas of overlap--visual, print, spatial, audio, media literacies.

Book Glutton

2009-01-03T22:03:00.001-07:00

I just learned about Book Glutton. Do any of you use it? Comments?

We Are What We Share

2008-09-22T13:32:00.001-06:00

Does Charles Leadbeater have it right? Are we, in the 21st century, what we share? He claims that the 20th-century view was we are what we have, which may be one of the valid views. If we believe that he's right about now, then there are serious implications for the future. And, I suspect he's close. What do you think?

Tree Octopus and Critical Need for Media Literacy

2008-03-14T12:48:00.001-06:00

AfterEd at Teachers College recently posted this video. I discovered it the day after we had discussed the tree octopus website in class. If you know that site, or if you're interested in what we must do and can do to educate our students, you may be interested in this video.

Writer Montage

2007-12-14T16:32:00.001-07:00

Writing is definitely a literacy not to be overlooked. This is a great montage, although at times it feels a bit romanticized to me. Insofar as that puts writing in a kind of nostalgic past, that could be a disadvantage. On the other hand, the selection of films might remind people of the joy/pain/exhilaration/frustration of writing. What do you think?

Persepolis Trailer

2007-12-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

I can't wait to see the film! Not only do I love the books, but I'm intrigued by the craft of Satrapi's converting the story--and not just what's confined to one book--to film. I'm eager to have discussions here and elsewhere on not only the content but also the reasons for the choices she made.

Research on How Children Read Graphic Novels

2007-10-25T09:40:00.000-06:00

Neil Cohn refers to a study published in 1986 about how children read graphic novels. This adds an interesting bit to our understanding of reading processes and how they might develop.

Information R/Evolution

2007-10-20T17:18:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Sally, I see that Michael Wesch (who created The Machine is Using/Us) is at it again. There's a lot to consider here, and I hope that people who can make a difference for secondary school students will, indeed, consider it.

Transformative Blogging

2007-09-19T07:56:00.000-06:00

Ryan Bretag provides a list of 50 sites about blogging. I don't know when I'll ever make it through the entire list, but I know I want to go back to it again and again. In Ryan's intro to the list, he makes excellent points about what makes blogging effective rather than repetitive. It resonates with Bud Hunt's column in the September 2007 English Journal, "Linkin' (B)Logs: A New Literacy of Hyperlinks." This is a column well worth reading, too. You can find a hyperlinked version of it on the English Journal Web site that's hosted at Colorado State University.

Top 100 Tools

2007-09-17T09:00:00.000-06:00

Jane Hart has published an incredibly useful list of tools for multiliteracies. You must read this report.

Consider Game-Informed Learning Rather than Game-Based Learning

2007-09-16T20:20:00.000-06:00

This annotated bibliography on video games in education is quite informative. Because of our class discussion last week, the second item on the list especially caught my attention. The authors of the article referenced there distinguish between game-informed learning and game-based learning. I really think that Gee is advocating the former rather than the latter. I'd be interested in knowing what others think, though.

What Can You Do with a Wiki?

2007-09-14T10:41:00.000-06:00

I was skimming the blog of good friend and colleague Anna Marie and was reminded of this great post from Dana Huff. One of the questions that always comes up in classes is "Who's using this stuff?" Dana is certainly one who is, and there are a number of comments to her post that indicate others are, too. Check it out to get informed and inspired.

Major Mindset Shift Needed in Schools?

2007-09-14T10:34:00.000-06:00

ESchoolNews reports on a survey of teens, parents, and school administrators that reveals a huge gap between in-school and out-of-school literate practices. While nearly 96 percent of teens report using social-networking sites and tools, more than 50 percent of schools report blocking such activity. For example, about 60 percent block blogging. It appears that this blocking is not a result of evidence of misuse but of fear of misuse. A link to the full report appears at the end of the article. This is reading worth doing if we want to consider how to best teach the students in our classrooms now and into the future.

What Happens to Gay Superheroes?

2007-09-03T13:08:00.000-06:00

This story from the New York Times is about a new young-adult novel, Hero, that offers an answer that is more complicated yet more positive than the ones found in many comic books. The author, Perry Moore, makes a strong case for the need for books such as this one. What do you think? (Warning: you get to watch an ad first. But I think the story is worth waiting for.)

Authority and Authorship

2007-08-31T15:26:00.000-06:00

The other night in class, we were discussing how Web 2.0 may be changing our understanding of what authority is. This is an intriguing question to me, and I don't have any good answers yet. That means that I continue to ponder points I come across, such as this one. What an interesting process to guage and represent trust. Look especially at how the author's reputation is established. What do you think?

Are You Teaching in Ways Students Learn?

2007-08-17T21:04:00.000-06:00

This video is a bit long, but it contains a powerful message. At least, initially it seems powerful. But what do you think? Do we learn anything we didn't know? Should we?

Watchmen, Beowulf Coming to Screens Near You

2007-07-28T14:14:00.000-06:00

News from this year's Comic-Con includes snippets about these two films either in or scheduled for production.

WebTrends Map

2007-07-25T08:08:00.000-06:00

Ryan Bretag finds the best stuff. Spend some time with this WebTrends map of the 200 "most successful sites on the Web" that he posted to his blog (and attributed to his source). I'm curious about what we can make of this, and how we might adapt it to classrooms. What do you think?

Is It Safe to Send Students Into the Blogosphere--and Other Issues

2007-07-20T11:34:00.000-06:00

Ryan Bretag raises important questions and considerations in a post about student blogging. This is well worth your attention, and I'm interested in learning what other teachers think and do on these issues.

The Product and Conversations around It

2007-07-19T13:36:00.000-06:00

Two blog entries today converged for me. First, Will Richardson wrote about an idea he shared in a presentation: "I tried to move the concept of what we can do now into the realm of building sustained, trusted, relevant, safe learning communities and networks in which the products nurture the conversation and the learning. That creating and sharing a movie or a podcast or blog post is important, but it is the connections we make around those artifacts, the discussions and interactions that surround them from the community where the most powerful learning takes place. It’s where the “meta” stuff happens, where the true potential lies."

Then I clicked on Everyday Literacies from Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel and viewed their music video, which I think is a really accomplished product. But what if we take up Will's challenge and see what kind of conversations we might generate around it? What would those conversations look like? Sound like? Where would they take us? I'm intrigued.

The Dark Side of Technology in Schools

2007-07-06T10:09:00.000-06:00

Legal and policy issues associated with student freedom of expression in the Internet age are discussed in "Blogging for Columbine," an article in the American School Board Journal. All teachers and other school leaders need to read this!

Wikipedia and Truth (Whatever That Is)

2007-07-01T07:38:00.000-06:00

Jonathan Dee in today's New York Times Magazine examines the relationships among Wikipedia, news, and the notion of truth. Using recent examples of the treatment of current events such as the Virginia Tech shooting, the death of Jerry Falwell, and the arrest of Muslim men in an alleged plot to attach Fort Dix, he describes the processes by which articles end up on Wikipedia. Interestingly, the process challenges the notion that all news is now subjective. According to Dee, the Wikipedia administrators effectively "police bias" in ways that other news outlets do not. There's a lot to consider here, whether you're an opponent or an advocate of Wikipedia.

What's RSS?

2007-06-09T20:55:00.001-06:00

An essential tool if you're going to actively follow blogs is an RSS reader. Introduced long ago to Bloglines, I read for months before ever creating a blog of my own. Explaining how this works to someone else just became much easier with a video from CommonCraft, makers of the video about wikis (see June 7 post). Thank you, Ryan Bretag, for directing me to this.

Selecting Your Wiki

2007-06-09T17:42:00.000-06:00

Ryan Bretag on engteach-talk posted this link to a Wiki selection tool. Using the Wizard helped me pare down my choices, although I was still left with 13 to compare. The points of comparison, though, will help when I'm ready to select a wiki for class use in the fall. I'm interested in what others of you use and why.

Great Wiki Instructions

2007-06-07T20:47:00.001-06:00

If you've ever wondered about what a wiki is and how it works, you need to see this short video by Lee LeFever. The explanation is so clear and simple, you'll be building wikis for everything. Well, maybe not--but you could. I'm pretty sure we'll have a wiki for class in the fall. Stay tuned. In the meantime, if you have experiences or advice you'd like to offer, I'd love to see it. And thank you to Cindy Adams for posting this link on another list.

A Transliteracies Challenge

2007-04-14T10:24:00.000-06:00

To celebrate the bicentenary of Wordsworth's poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," the Cumbria (England) tourist board has made a video of a large squirrel rapping to the poem. This raises all kinds of questions for me, and I hope you'll consider sending some replies. How should we think about relationships between form and content when viewing/reading this version of Wordsworth? Is classic literature that which can withstand/benefit from/remain unchanged in light of such treatments (see also the Flocabulary Shakespeare Hip-Hop)?

Another way to think about this is to consider what Wordsworth wrote in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800): "I have said that Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes it origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, similar to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on." My source for this quotation, LIT: Literature and Interpretive Techniques asks how this quotation works in the daffodils poem. I wonder how you think it works--if at all--as a comment on the hip-hop version.

Making Teaching Public--Visually

2007-04-10T09:02:00.000-06:00

Two high school English teachers and their classes are featured in this set of videos that both present teaching and question how teaching can best be represented with multiple media. The Making Teaching Public project raises questions we need to consider: What aspects of teaching and learning can best be represented using multimedia? How can those aspects be represented with multimedia most effectively? How can multimedia representations of teaching and learning be used to support teachers’ development?

I might add, in the context of the graduate class that inspired this blog, "What are the multiliteracies of teaching and representing teaching?" If we use James Gee's definition of literacy as the ability to recognize and create meanings in a semiotic domain and we consider teaching English as a semiotic domain, then what do teachers need to know and how can they best learn what they need to know and be able to do?

Visually Representing Facts and Statistics

2007-04-09T06:59:00.000-06:00

At the TED Conference in Monterey in February 2006, this amazing presentation was given. "Debunking Myths about the Third World" dramatically shows that the world may not be quite what we think it is. The link has been making its way onto blogs and listservs. I'd like to know if anyone knows of people who have used the program for their own purposes.

Txt Spk--Delight or Detriment

2007-04-07T15:03:00.000-06:00

This blog post from the Transliteracies project in Leicester, UK provides provocative points about the practice of text messaging and how "text speak" may or may not change the language. What I like about this particular discussion that I haven't seen in others is the discussion of power--who has it and how one gets it. Listen to a new dialect here, too.

Digital Fiction Lesson Plan

2007-04-07T14:51:00.000-06:00

What are digital fictions and how can we use them to help students better understand the relationships between modes and narratives? Find out here by following the story of Inanimate Alice in China. At the end of the 5-minute video, you can read/view two other adventures--one in Italy and one in Russia. What do you think? What potential do you see for your own work with secondary school students?

Make Your Own Google Maps

2007-04-07T14:29:00.000-06:00

This post is making its way from blog to blog, but in case you haven't seen it, I want to include it here. You can make your own maps on Google. Think of the teaching possibilities. In fact, you can see what some teachers suggest in the responses to Will's post. Try it out and then let me know what you come up with!

Participatory Media

2007-04-07T14:19:00.000-06:00

The proliferation of social networking sites, blogs (both print and video), wikis, and so on--participatory media--are changing our view of the world. What we know is shaped by how we know it--that's always been the case--but it is also true that new forms of media can displace or replace older forms. Look at newspapers, for example. If you're interested in what's happening and what may happen, try the participatory media literacy site. I recommend the link to a chapter on participatory media as a place to start exploring. You may end up with more questions than answers, which may or may not be a good thing.

Resources about Blogging

2007-04-07T14:16:00.000-06:00

I continue to be curious about the potential and pitfalls of blogging, even though I know that there are other media of interest to focus on--and I will. If you're interested in blogging, too, beyond just doing it, you might find this page of links intriguing.

Should Graphic Novels Be Eligible for Book Awards?

2007-03-28T08:05:00.000-06:00

Are graphic novels books in the same sense that novels are books? This is a question that Tony Long of WIRED had definite opinions about when he wrote about American Born Chinese before it won the National Book Award in its category. Gene Luen Yang, the author of ABC, responds here. Because he's a teacher, I especially wanted to know what he had to say. It was worth the time.

Graphic Novels and Scriptural Interpretation

2007-03-28T07:52:00.000-06:00

Looking for a new angle on graphic novels? This article from the Society of Biblical Literature describes in detail a graphic novel about Samson. While that is informative, what I found really intriguing is the commentary on interpretation. The following quote gives a sense of what I mean about the commentary:

"Since the process of movement from narrative text to the graphic novel format is very much akin to that of book to film, requiring much more detail about the characters, more dialogue between them, etc., than the biblical text gives, midrashic thinking may be the key to uncovering that deeply implicit detail. The challenge for exploring midrashic thinking as part of the process for transferring Scripture in GN formats will be "how to put into place the necessary constraints and parameters" [21] so that there are controls for "midrashic extractions" of detail or dialogue embedded in the canonical text. This need for care and balance and restraint is underscored by the many extant ancient examples of forced meanings derived by midrashic applications."

I would like to know what others think about this topic or any other aspect of the article.

Have You Read These Graphic Novels?

2007-03-28T07:37:00.000-06:00

Time magazine published a two-part series on graphic novels. In the second part, the writers list 25 graphic novels that a well-rounded collection should include. I'm interested in knowing more about these from readers of them. I'd also like to hear from teachers who would recommend, perhaps, a list of 25 or more that secondary school students could or should read.

Will the Next Generation of Teachers Make a Difference?

2007-03-21T20:26:00.000-06:00

Will Richardson discusses his visit with a graduate class in New Jersey. I'm interested in how the graduate students in our class will respond. Is he right? Are you not interested in the challenge of incorporating technology? Can you think of more "yes buts"? Is your experience with technology and pedagogy the same as that of the New Jersey students? Do you think that's about the right amount or not?

Test-Prep Triage

2007-03-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

Today the "window" opens for the state testing in Colorado to begin, and other states assess the year's work in March, as we do here. Thus, it seems particularly fitting to share this story from Maryland about a test-prep method that may or may not be ethical. No one disagrees that the stakes are high. Reasonable people might disagree about the methods this principal allegedly used--but we also know only the parts of the story revealed here. What do you think?

Troubling Questions about Identity, Safety, and Blogging

2007-03-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Bruce Schauble uses an incident at his school to raise important questions about blogging. Sure, sharing work and getting wider feedback can be a motivator for student writers but at what cost? Do they reveal so much that people can identify and then target them for illicit or illegal purposes? How do we determine what the problems are and what role blogs might play in them? And, finally (or maybe just the last question for now), how can we best achieve all of our goals in education of providing a safe environment in which students can become critical thinkers and independent learners?

Film--Viewing and Creating

2007-03-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Students are interested in both creating and viewing films, it seems. This story from an EdWeek blog provides some food for thought, especially in light of Tuesday's graduate-class presentation by Shirl Chumley, who team-teaches a high school film class, and the film work that Anna Marie is doing. What are some of the many ways that teachers are working with film in school now? What can we learn from them? What possibilities lie ahead of us? I'd like to know more.

Powerful Uses of Film

2007-02-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Bruce Schauble writes on his blog today about the work of Marco Torres. You really must see Bruce's description of Torres's work with Latino youth and film and with film and education. I want to know more and plan to spend quite a bit of time viewing the videos on Torres's I Can Film site.

Do Comments on Blogs Matter?

2007-02-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

As we continue to explore the potential of blogs, some of the graduate students and I have discussed the difference comments do or could make. Blogs can seem to be just a platform for announcements of information or opinion rather than a space for thoughtful conversations. Maybe conversation is better achieved in another form? At any rate, I was pleased to see this comment from Alan on Bud Hunt's site. What a good idea this could be. I wonder if it's equivalent to listening more carefully and attentively in live conversations? I wonder if it would make any difference to the discourse on this Multiliteracies site if more visitors commented on the blogs on the blogroll to the right and if we all made a greater effort to talk with each other this way? Perhaps our face-to-face meetings once a week would be changed also? I'm interested in hearing from people with thoughts on these questions. Although the questions arise from our class, I don't think they're limited to it.

Film, Media and Edutopia

2007-02-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Edutopia in print and online for more than a year and I always find something of interest there. Tonight I found many articles that have something to do with the focus of our class and of this blog. Did you know that if you're a middle school teacher you can get curriculum materials for teaching To Kill a Mockingbird? But if you aren't a middle school teacher, you can still benefit from the Story of Movies site. In a different story, "filmmaker and George Lucas Educational Foundation chairman George Lucas thinks it's time to change 'English' class into 'Communication' class, where students learn the grammatical rules of graphic arts, film, and music along with English grammar. 'It shouldn't be taught as some esoteric, arty thing. Communication skills should be taught as very practical tools that you use to sell and influence people, to get your point across -- especially in this age, where kids are, more and more, using multimedia.'"

I'll stop there, but I'd like to know what others think of this resource, and I'd invite anyone interested in visual literacy and media literacy to spend a lot of time here. You'll be well rewarded.

Blogging in Schools

2007-02-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

I just came across the National Writing Project's blog site. Here are links to blogs created by teachers and students for classroom use. I haven't yet explored all the links, but I intend to because I think doing so might help me better understand the value people find in blogging. This continues to be a question in our class, and I think it's an important one to explore.

Where Does This Bridge (Argument) Take Us?

2007-02-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

We're beginning to discuss graphic novels in class. One of the topics that always comes up when I discuss them with a group of educators echoes some discussions of adolescent literature: "Well, it's fine for kids who won't read anything. Maybe it will get them reading. But kids who read well need something more challenging." There are also really fine books that explain how to use adolescent literature as a complement or a bridge to classic literature. I see the same arguments given for using graphic novels in class. "I would never give them to kids who read anyway, but maybe they would be a good bridge to classic texts for the others."

This bridge argument, while offering one benefit, troubles me. Besides the implicit attitude toward students that such an argument reveals, I wonder when a book (or other text) gets to stand on its own? Is the bridge argument a kind of deficit thinking about text? Why are we willing to get The Kite Runner on the district's approved book list but not Persepolis? Or, if we do put Persepolis on the list, do we treat it the same way in class? If not, why not? I guess the big question is what texts get the higher status in our selection and teaching and why? This isn't a new question, but new-ish media such as graphic novels seem to make us ask it all over again.

Another Look at a Book in the Hand

2007-02-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

This YouTube video gives us another way to look at the "book question" that Bruce Schauble raised and that I wrote about earlier. While I really enjoy the video, I wonder if there's a way to know about the creator and context. Call me an English teacher, but I want to know those things. Otherwise, my knowledge feels incomplete, and I'm hesitant to pass on something that may have connections or implications I'm not sure of. I think that there may be some grounds for discussion of the implications of distributed knowledge and even what constitutes knowledge, but watch the video and let me know what you think.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Bud Hunt shared a transcript of the text of this fascinating video. If you haven't seen the video, view that first, and then tell me what you think of the experiences of viewing the video and reading the transcript. I'm going to post my initial opinion on Bud's site, but I am interested in knowing what others think and invite you to comment here.

Video Games and Multiliteracies

2007-02-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have been intrigued by the idea of PeaceMaker, a video game just released, since I learned in October about its development. Read this review from Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070131/adams_01.shtml#) to see why. I haven't played it yet, but I plan to try it out as soon as I can. I'm curious to know what you think after you look at the review and see a demo of the game.

Why Not Blog?

2007-02-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

This title is deliberately ambiguous. I hope to play on the dual ideas that blogging may not be for everyone (it certainly doesn't serve every purpose we might have) and that blogging is an easier, more effective way to communicate some things to some audiences. An online bibliography of articles about blogging could be a useful resource for our thinking about the possibilities and limitations of blogging. Check it out. I'm also interested in knowing what you're thinking now about how blogging might be used/useful in your personal and/or professional lives.

Why Blog?

2007-01-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

One of the important questions in class so far has been why anyone would want to blog anyway. I think it is always important to question received assumptions (even when, as in this case, the assumptions being questioned are mine!), so I'd like to explore this a bit and get input from others who are new to or committed to blogging. Greg Van Nest and Cindy O'Donnell-Allen are good friends and colleagues who both vowed to start the blogging habit within the last year. I've enjoyed reading what they write because they help me better understand and consider what I do. But they are not strangers. Reading their blog is, for me, another way to get some quality "conversation" time with busy people who, in Greg's case, are not geographically nearby.

The blog of Bud Hunt, also a good friend and colleague, serves a little different purpose because Bud is so well connected. I like to tap into his networks occasionally (as well as his thinking), and his blog helps me do that. Likewise, the blogs of Will Richardson and Bruce Schauble appeal to me because I can connect to conversations I wouldn't otherwise be part of. So maybe that connectedness is a third reason to blog.

What else should we be thinking of?

Throughlines: A Book in the Hand...

2007-01-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

Throughlines: A Book in the Hand...

Debates about the "death of the book as we know it" occur frequently. This one is more thoughtful than many, I think. Once you read what Schauble and Richardson and others have to say, I'd be interested in knowing what you think. Is reading on the web "just different" or is it so different that new generations of readers will not be able to compare their web-prevalent reading to book-prevalent reading (as their predecessors perhaps can), resulting in an ultimate loss?

Throughlines: Thinking: Standards

2007-01-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Throughlines: Thinking: Standards

I like the work of Richard Paul, so I was intrigued by what Schauble would do with it.

What do you think about his comments as a way of thinking about standards? Can you imagine ways that we could use the criteria he's listed in this blog when we ask students to produce and consume texts? What connections might there be to multiliteracies?

Reading, Teaching, and Juxtaposition

2007-01-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

Throughlines: Juxtaposition III

As I read this thoroughly interesting post and the responses, I was struck by a theory/practice connection. Of course, I already want to believe that theory and practice are always implicated in each other, so I might be more inclined to find or create connections that no one intended.

Nonetheless, look at how the ideas of juxtaposition and intertextuality lead to ideas about the art of teaching and the necessity of flexibility. While we can get lost in following the paths that these ideas suggest (see "Planning"), I think we learn the most when we're exploring with students "where the new track is leading."

Graphic Novels about the Iraq War

2007-01-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Slate recently published a slide show review of graphic novels about the Iraq war. I thank my friend Laura Thomas for directing me to it and for sharing the idea that this could be a great model for a different kind of book review. Multimodal? Requiring multiliteracies? I think so. What do you think about these novels, if you've read any of them, and what do you think about the teaching idea? Here's the link: http://www.slate.com/id/2156307/slideshow/2156344

Welcome

2007-01-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

As a new semester and a new class begin, I'm ready to try yet another new thing--blogging with a class. This move seems particulary appropriate for the graduate class I'm teaching this semester: Visual Texts and Textuality. Within the larger topic of New Literacies or multi-modal literacy, we will explore graphic novels, videogames, films, and other visual texts to understand how theories of "reading" and "writing" texts may or may not apply to visual texts. All of this exploration, of course, will occur in the context of teaching and learning in secondary school English.

I would like to use this blog as a place for us to raise questions, reflect on emerging ideas, and elicit feedback from teachers and others who can help shape our knowledge. Some of the content will be class-specific, but there should be much that will be general enough--I hope--to engender lively discussion.

Please join us.