“Developing New Literacies Lessons for the 21st Century Classroom” Kansas Reading Association Conference, “Campaign for Literacy” Dr. Amanda Lickteig Monday, October 3rd, 2016
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2:15-3:00
About this Session & Background This session addresses ways to use new literacies as bridge texts to create engaging—and often interdisciplinary—21st century lessons that engage students in the consumption and creation of both new literacies and disciplinary literacies.
What are… …literacies (multiple) …21st century literacies? …new literacies?
…texts? …bridge texts? …text sets?
Literacies (Yes, Plural) What are literacies and what does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? Let’s turn to NCTE:
“Research over the past few decades shows that literacy is not a single or monolithic entity. Rather, it is a set of multi-faceted social practices that are shaped by contexts, participants, and technologies. [….] The plurality of literacy extends beyond the print-only world of reading and writing to new and developing technologies, along with visual, audio, gestural, spatial, or multimodal discourses. It is much more accurate, then, to adopt a perspective of plurality, to focus on literacies, recognizing the multiple values and meanings along with the ways literacies are inflected by different contexts” (NCTE, 2011).
21st Century Literacies …Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology; Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought; Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes; Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information; Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts; Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.
Updated February 2013 (Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008)
What About New Litearcies, Then? “We think that what is central to new literacies is […] that they mobilize very different kinds of values and priorities and sensibilities than the literacies we are familiar with. The significance of the new technical stuff has mainly to do with how it enables people to build and participate in literacy practices that involve different kinds of values, sensibilities, norms and procedures and so on from those that characterize conventional literacies. […] New literacies are more ‘participatory,’ ‘collaborative,’ and ‘distributed’ in nature than conventional literacies” (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007, pp. 2-17).
What Constitutes a Text? A text is any display that we “read” or “analyze.” Therefore, a text can include traditionally-defined texts (literature, articles, reports, etc.) as well as performances, simulations, graphics, numerical data, films, musical scores, plays, artwork—paintings, drawings, sculpture, etc.—diagrams, photographs, videos, etc.
Reading, then, is “a process that involves strategic examination of some array of information to achieve an understanding. We read to make sense of what we are observing” (Buehl, 2014, p. 3). Consider: what kind of “texts” are used in your classroom; what displays do your students analyze/examine?
So what’s a Text Set? Text sets are a compilation of resources centered on one theme that are comprised of various materials ranging in reading level, genre, & media. Due to the variety in resources, the materials in a text set appeal to all learning styles and serve as “bridge texts” or access points—a “way in”—to a more complex anchor text. Through the collection of these varying resources, teachers also provide students with additional perspectives and points of view. Furthermore, when text sets include new literacies, students are also engaging in 21st century literacy practices that are pivotal to their success as active participants in this global society.
Consumption vs. Creation?
Content consumption is not bad, but to thrive in today’s society our students need to learn how to create information as well.
What Would This Look Like? STEPS TO DEVELOPING A TEXT SET: 1.
Identify an anchor text
2.
Establish your line of inquiry/essential question
3.
Locate texts around the topic/theme
4.
Evaluate materials a.
5.
See Quantitative Measures
Ongoing: add/evaluate/distribute your set to students & colleagues
New Literacies & the Common Core “How can we hope to prepare our young people to thrive in today’s society—in which people are connected 24 hours a day by media and coworkers may well live in different countries—without giving them some practice with new media at school?” (Kist, 2013). Give students practice reading screen-based texts Give students practice in digital writing Give students practice in collaborative writing Give students practice working with informational texts
1. Give Students Practice Reading Screen-Based Texts Consumption Examine nonprint texts through close reading. Evaluate content using Inquiry Charts (Buehl, 2014).
Relevant Common Core Standards: Reading Standards for Literature, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Standard 7, Grade 7. Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (for example, lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film). Reading Standards for Informational Text, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Standard 7, Grades 11–12. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (for example, print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
Creation Ideas Develop a musical compilation that evokes the same tone as the text. Create an artistic representation that illustrates the theme of the text. Design a multi-media video production that highlights supports your response to the essential question.
1. Give Students Practice Reading Screen-Based Texts (cont.) Consumption “Zoom In” Activity with The Declaration of Independence. Painting by John Trumbull. Describe what you see. What tone is this setting?
What new aspects do you notice? Make a hypothesis about where and when this image takes place. Explain the clues that led to your estimation. What’s the big picture? How is this picture significant? Describe one or more details you are seeing in the art related to composition, color, light, point of view, brush strokes.
1. Describe what you see. What tone is this setting?
2. What new aspects do you notice?
3. Make a hypothesis about where and when this image takes place. Explain the clues that led to your estimation.
4. What’s the big picture? How is this picture significant?
Describe one or more details you are seeing in the art related to composition, color, light, point of view, brush strokes.
2. Give Students Practice in Digital Writing Consumption When does adding hyperlinks assist/distract the message? How do graphic design and layout impact the reading? Does the presentation platform (Prezi, Voicethread, Spark, etc.) matter?
Relevant Common Core Standard: Reading Standards, Craft and Structure, Standard 5, Grade 8. Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Creation Ideas Create a ThingLink product where text is strategically tagged on the image.
Develop a webpage on a central topic that would serve as a resource to future students and scholars. Contribute to a blog or wiki where content has been linked to verified content posted by peers. Assemble a multigenre presentation.
2. Give Students Practice in Digital Writing
3. Give Students Practice in Collaborative Writing Consumption The expectation that students will work collaboratively shows up in curriculum documents world-wide.
Relevant Common Core Standard: Writing Standards, Production and Distribution of Writing, Standard 6, Grade 8. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Creation Ideas Flat Classroom Project One classroom provides raw video footage that relates to the assigned topic/theme while another classroom across the globe takes that footage and edits it into meaningful video. After small groups of students read an excerpt of text, they circle interesting words they find and then collaboratively write a poem together, based on the words they’ve found.
3. Give Students Practice in Collaborative Writing (cont.)  Move into pairs or triads and, using the pages provided, read the passage and circle interesting words. Then collaboratively write a poem based on those words.
4. Give Students Practice Working with Informational Texts Consumption Students need practice interacting with an analyzing information texts across the disciplines.
Relevant Common Core Standard: Reading Standards for Informational Text, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Standard 7, Grades 11–12. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (for example, visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Creation Ideas Draft an eTextbook chapter*
Why Text Sets? Supported engagement with multiple literacies increases student success and motivation. Multiple literacy practices are embedded in social understandings, and students may need help seeing themselves as readers and writers. Student choice and active participation increases adolescent literacy motivation. http://www.ncte.org/policyresearch/wwk/multipleliteracies
Applications? What is an upcoming unit? What would be your anchor text? What would be your essential question? Consumption: What kinds of traditional and new literacy texts could you integrate? Are there any potential interdisciplinary connections? Creation: What could students do to practice 21st century literacy skills and demonstrate mastery of the content? Do you have a content colleague you could partner with and split the work? Which standards come to mind that you would address in this unit using new literacies?
Contact Information Questions? Dr. Amanda Lickteig Associate Director of Middle & Secondary Teacher Education 620.341.5096 alicktei@emporia.edu
Presentation: http://tiny.cc/5cvgfy