Download - Nipissing Workshop Activity 4
Working Towards a New Literacy
in the English Classroom:
Rethinking Concepts about Reading
Goals and Objectives
• to reframe thinking about reading skills in the English classroom through research
• to reframe notions of what a text is through activities
• to provide an opportunity to plan or rework existing lessons with new literacy in mind
• to provide teachers with resources on the new literacy
“...most young people need much more experience than they currently get in the use of visual images as means of expression, communication, and exploration.”
Paul Messaris, University of Penn.
Why are we Rethinking Ways of Reading?
• because traditional concepts of reading involve the printed word
• and print media are becoming less important in the communication of messages for our students
• and communication is primarily a visual system
Reading the Traditional Way
Activity: With your copy of William Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and the
Fury, begin reading Chapter 1 making note of the meaning.
Be prepared to discuss what is happening in the narrative.
Reading in Hypertext
• Activity: at your computer, go to http: www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/ and read the same text of Chapter 1
• What happens to your reading of the traditional print text compared with the same words in this hypertext?
Reading a Short FilmActivity: At your computer, watch the following narrative, a short film, and for discussion purposes focus on the way the narrative develops. “How They Get There” by Spike Jonze
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2480132/artist/240829
Post-Reading Discussion
How does the narrative of this text develop?What is the message or the theme of this text?Comment on the similarities and differences of reading a traditional print text, and reading this film.
Break Time
Changing Concepts of Reading and Writing
Activity: At your computer, read the articles at following sites, and be prepared to discuss your reading.
http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2007/05/10/interview-with-jaime-alejandro-rodriguez-ruiz/
http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2007/04/28/ficlets-literary-lego/
The ways in which language is used changes with the form of the
medium, or the container of the message.
Technological change has created new containers of language.
Evolving Thoughts Towards a New Literacy...
Implications of a New Literacy on Teaching
If language use has changed, and the containers of language have
changed, then the skills required to read that language must also have
changed.
A Slide show within a Slide show......
Activity: At your computer, watch “Literacy (r)evolutions” by Jess Laccetti @ http://www.slideshare.net/JessL/literacy-revolutions-jess-laccetti-slideshare. Stop before viewing the concluding short film, “Web 2.0...”
• Discuss and critically evaluate your reading of this text with the whole group.
“Literacy (r)evolutions”
Lunch Time
The New Literacy in a Short Film
Activity: Before viewing “ Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us” complete the Previewing Questions on your
handout. At the conclusion of “Literacy (r)evolutions”, click on this film, then complete the post-viewing
questions, and be prepared to discuss your reading of the film.
Towards a New Literacy in the English Classroom
The containers of language have changed, so the conventions of communication have changed to include visual representation.
Readers need to understand how to
critically read visual content. They need
instruction in visual literacy.
What do you read from this visual text?
Reading as a Visual System:
Visual Literacy in theEnglish Classroom
In groups of three, divide the reading of: “The Visual Literacy White Paper”“Through a Class Darkly: Visual Literacy in the Classroom”“Visual Communication as a Primary System”.
• skim the articles
• discuss and summarize interesting points
• brainstorm ideas for ways to incorporate visual literacy into an English class
• present your ideas to the whole group
Visual Literacy in Your Classroom
Activity: At your computer visit some of the following sites, and develop a personalized plan to implement visual literacy according to your current lesson plans and comfort level.
• http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/visual.html
• http://www.fno.org/PL/vislit.htm - a student lesson online
• http://www.ivla.org/portal/intro.htm - a collection of links from the International Visual Literacy Association
• http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vlehome.html - an online exercise for professionals
• http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/vlintro0602
Web sites on Visual Literacy
The New Literacy from a Post-Secondary Perspective
Activity: With a partner, visit the following site and click the mouse to move from frame to frame, reading as you move.
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/talks/usc/index.htm
How many popular culture references, or allusions that can you identify in this text?
Ending at the Beginning:
Concluding Thoughts on Moving Towards a New Literacy
in the English Classroom
As teachers of language, we need to rethink the use of language in
order to give our students the skills to read the past and the present.
The conventions of language have changed with new containers of
communication.
Reading in hypertext is not the same reading skill as reading a
book.
Films and photographs are texts that need to be read.
Visual Literacy is a skill that moves students towards the new literacy, toward the critical reading of the
world around them.
“Our habit of thinking of communication as consisting
exclusively of language has delayed the study of communication.”
Sebeok, 1991
Artwork by Jayne Wilson,
“Do you say it best when you say nothing at all” 2005
Thank you for viewing, for listening, and for reading as we move towards
a New Literacy both inside and outside the English classroom.
By Melanie White
Prepared for Nipissing University, Honours Specialist English: Supervisor, Robert Brady