Preparing for Quals

You stand in the presence of a (soon-to-be) dissertation candidate of House Peters, rightful heir to sleepless nights, rightful Queen of incipient carpal tunnel syndrome, and bifocals, Protector of my dissertation topic, the Mother of Old English Sheepdogs, the Khaleesi of the housecats, the Teacher, the Seeker of the Ph.D.   

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Bowmer, M., & Curwood, J. (2016).

From Keats to Kanye: Romantic poetry and popular culture in the secondary English classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(2), 141-149.

This case study examined a Romanticism unit within a Year 9 English class in Sydney, Australia. It considered whether popular culture could build connections between students’ lives and Romanticism, and whether the process of remixing ‘high’ Romantic poetry with ‘low’ popular culture could foster student engagement. Thematic analysis of interview, survey, observation, and artifact data revealed three key findings. Firstly, through exploring popular culture texts, students believed Romantic concepts related to their world but not to them. Secondly, the extent to which students understood Romanticism through popular culture was influenced by personal, textual, and educational factors. Thirdly, students felt that the collaborative remixing process promoted freedom of expression. While many teachers are concerned that popular culture will displace canonical literature, this study found that this is not the case: incorporating popular culture is not an ‘either/or’ approach, but it is an enriching, complementary practice.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Page, M. A.  (2012).

Popular culture: The new literacy challenge for English teachers. The English Journal, 102(2), 129-133.

The classroom dynamic has become a competition of whose information is more important: the quickly accessed and popular digital texts or the perhaps less popular print texts. In fact, contending with distracted students who are secretly texting their friends under their desks, while the author persists in teaching the classic print texts, was her daily experience. As if that wasn't enough, she also had to fight the movie versions and the seemingly endless supply of summaries and study guides that students often chose over reading the assigned text. Like so many other literature teachers, including Carol Jago, the author believes students need to unplug their digital devices sometimes and exercise patience and focus with, and even enjoy, books, but not at the expense of other texts. Teaching popular culture in the English language arts classroom will help today's students read a variety of challenging texts and learn to assess the messages they are receiving in their everyday lives.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Vasudevan, L. (2010).

Literacies in a participatory, multimodal world: The Arts and Aesthetics of Web 2.0. Language Arts, 88(1), 43-50.

TJ was an artful storyteller who also possessed a sharp wit, which was evident in his many compositions, including a multimedia treatise on the educational possibilities of our group as a result of being located outside of school; a visual essay about the possible stories that different pieces of trash might hold; and the dialogic cacophony to be found in the spaces between teachers' words and the everyday social practices of youth. Too often, the digital proclivities of youth are framed in the media and curricula through lenses of fear (e.g., cyberbullying), protectionism (e.g., Internet predators), frivolity (e.g., social networking), or appropriation (e.g., uncritically assigning rap lyrics as the medium of math problem solving).

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Skinner, E., Hagood, M., & Provost, M. (2014).

Creating a new literacies coaching ethos. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 30(3), 215-232.

This article examines the case studies of 2 middle grades professional learning communities that focused on teaching and learning with new literacies strategies. The new literacies theoretical lens that frames this study recognizes literacy as multimodal (e.g., print, image, sound) and tied to one's sociocultural identities and subjectivities. Data included 50 hr of field notes and transcripts from observation in the professional learning communities meetings and in classroom teaching contexts. We also conducted exit interviews. Matrix and discourse analyses of participants' enacted identities and subjectivities revealed differential affinity, discourse, and institutional identities and instruction across the 2 case studies: one of mandated participation and the other of voluntary participation. Participants situated their views of literacy in relation to the underperforming schools in which they taught, in which basic, print-based assessments trumped other forms of literacy and learning.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Jacobs, G. (2012).

The proverbial rock and hard place: The realities and risks of teaching in a       world of multiliteracies, participatory culture, and mandates. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(2), 98-102.

This column revisits the concept of multiliteracies as originally proposed by the New London Group. Particular attention is given to the saliency of multiliteracies in light of the technological and educational policy changes and pressures that have occurred since the mid 1990s. The relationship of multiliteracies to participatory culture and the ethos of Web 2.0 is considered. and a brief review of four recent studies provide insight into how teachers can use multiliteracies to prepare students for critical engagement in the world while supporting literacy development. It is suggested that despite political pressures to narrow curriculum to meet accountability measures, ignoring the promise of multiliteracies places students at high risk for further marginalization. (Contains 1 figure.)

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Brown (2014)

Conceptualizing digital literacies and digital ethics for sustainability education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(3), 280-290.

Purpose

- The purpose of this paper is to discuss the need for integrating a focus on digital literacies and digital ethics into sustainability education, proposing a conceptualization of these for sustainability education.

Design/methodology/approach

- The paper draws on relevant literature in the field of sustainability education and in the field of digital literacies and digital ethics. It synthesizes perspectives in both fields to form a conceptualization of digital literacies and digital ethics for sustainability education.

Findings

- The paper conceptualizes "digital literacies" as a capacity to reflect on the nature of digital space in relation to sustainability challenges and "digital ethics" as a capacity to reflexively engage with digital space in ways which build rich discourses around sustainability. Critically reflective and exploratory activities in digital space are a means of developing these capacities.

Originality/value

- The conceptualization allows sustainability education to account for the increased role digital space plays in shaping views of sustainability challenges. It proposes a pedagogical approach to doing this.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

James, C., Davis, K., Flores, A., Francis, J., Pettingill, L., Rundle, M., & Gardner, H. (2010).

Young people, ethics, and the new digital media. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, 2(2), 215-284.

The new digital media are a frontier that is rich with opportunities and risks, particularly for young people. Through digital technologies, young people are participating in a range of activities, including social networking, blogging, vlogging, gaming, instant messaging, downloading music and other content, uploading and sharing their own creations, and collaborating with others in various ways. In late 2006, our research team at Harvard Project Zero launched a three-year project funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The goals of the GoodPlay Project are twofold - (1) to investigate the ethical contours of the new digital media and (2) to create interventions to promote ethical thinking and, ideally, conduct. In the first year of the project, we conducted background research to determine the state of knowledge about digital ethics and youth and to prepare ourselves for our empirical study. In this paper, we explore the ethical fault lines that are raised by such digital pursuits. We argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media - identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, we explore the ways in which youth are redefining these five concepts as they engage with the new digital media. For each issue, we describe and compare offline and online understandings and then explore the particular ethical promises and perils that surface online. We define good play as online conduct that is meaningful and engaging to the participant and is responsible to others in the community and society in which it is carried out. We argue that the new digital media, with all their participatory potentials, are a playground in which five factors contribute to the likelihood of good play - the technologies of the new digital media; related technical and new media literacies; person-centered factors, such as cognitive and moral development, beliefs, and values; peer cultures, both online and offline; and ethical supports, including the presence or absence of adult mentors and educational curricula. The proposed model sets the stage for an empirical study that will invite young people to share their personal stories of engagement with the new digital media.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Lewis, E., & Chandler-Olcott, K. (2012).

Using a text-based verbal protocol to elicit secondary English teachers' perspectives on new literacies. Literacy Research and Instruction,51(3), 196-213.

This article reports on the use of a text-based verbal protocol (Afflerbach, 2000) situated within individual interviews to elicit secondary English teachers’ perspectives on new literacies (Albers & Harste, 2007; Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008). Ranging significantly in their teaching experience and comfort with new media and digital technologies, the 16 participants were affiliated with the English department in a well-respected suburban high school in the northeast United States. Protocol data were supplemented by brief researcher-designed questionnaires and focus group interviews.  The article provides background about verbal protocols; discusses how the protocol for the study was designed; shares patterns from the protocol-related data; proposes adjustments to maximize benefits and address constraints associated with the approach for future research; and discusses the significance of this work for literacy researchers.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Lin, T. -B., Li, J. -Y., Deng, F., & Lee, L. (2013).

Understanding new media literacy: An explorative theoretical framework. (2013). Journal of Educational Technology & Society,16(4), 160-170.

With the advent of new media technologies, the role of media in a society has been changed that leads researchers to re-construct the meaning of literacy from classic literacy to new media literacy. There have been continuing efforts to understand new media and promote the importance of becoming new media literate among researchers, educators, and policy makers. Fundamental understanding to what is new media literacy still remains unclear. There is only one paper providing the preliminary work in unpacking the framework of new media literacy. Although the developed framework has its merit, more details and information need to further elaborate and refine. In this paper, we acknowledge the two continua framework and endorse four types of literacy comprising of this two-continua. Moreover, we provide ten fine-grained indicators to reflect these four types of literacy. We also propose another new divide that distinguishes Web1.0 from Web2.0.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Clark, J. (2010).

The digital imperative: Making the case for a 21 st-century pedagogy. Computers and Composition, 27(1), 27-35.

In our nascent digital culture, the traditional essayistic literacy that still dominates composition classes is outmoded and needs to be replaced by an intentional pedagogy of digital rhetoric which emphasizes the civic importance of education, the cultural and social imperative of “the now,” and the “cultural software” that engages students in the interactivity, collaboration, ownership, authority, and malleability of texts. My readings of Yancey, Balkin, Vaidhyanathan, Lanham, and Gee have enabled me to reconfigure my composition classroom as an emerging space for digital rhetoric. Through the calculated and sequenced introduction of ePortfolios, digital stories, online games, Second Life, and blogs, all of which create anew digital infrastructure for my course and assignments, I am working to create a set of practices that work together to explore the ways in which writing instruction can change to meet a new digital imperative; as such, I attempt to use technology in my courses to re-create the contemporary worlds of writing that our students encounter everyday.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Luce-Kapler, R., Sumara, D., & Iftody, T. (2010).

Teaching ethical know-how literary spaces. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(7), 536-541.

The proliferation of digital media and social networking software highlighted the need for scholars to identify what has been coined "New Literacies". This thinking recognizes that being literate in a digitized world means navigating and interpreting multiple contexts and complex interactions of identification as people communicate, interact, and collaborate in online spaces according to their own needs and interests. As with all practices associated with new technologies, literacies and practices developed with previous technologies influence how people engage those emerging technologies. In a media-saturated world where real people's narratives are presented in fictional structures, in what may be called "new literary spaces," readers are responding to those narratives using literary practices without necessarily considering that these are not fictional characters but real people, a situation that demands a different kind of ethic. In other words, people are employing the practices learned through reading fiction and identifying with fictional characters as they respond to stories about real people. In this article, the authors argue that there is a need to bring an awareness of the ethics of such identification to students. They describe an infamous case, the "Star Wars Kid" which elaborates this concern and discuss how to teach ethical know-how in new literary spaces.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Reid, J. (2011)

“We don’t Twitter, we Facebook”: An alternative pedagogical space that enables critical practices in relation to writing.  English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(1), 58-80.

This article explores what happens to interpersonal and power dynamics when tutors use closed-group Facebook pages as a social networking tool in their tutorial groups with first and second year Bachelor of Education (BEd) students at the Wits School of Education (WSoE). It argues that this literacy practice creates an alternative pedagogical space that enables critical practices in relation to writing. These pages create a space that brings students’ out-of-school literacy practices into a domain which normally promotes formal, academic literacy practices; a schooled space; a space where students feel safe enough to make their voices heard; a space where there are some interesting shifts in power relationships, identities, norms of communication and modes of learning. The research analyses the writing of tutors and students on these pages from a critical literacy perspective and makes use of the critical literacy model presented by Janks (2010) to see how this space changes issues of power, access, diversity and design by creating new relationships and new forms of interaction, language and texts.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Karchmer-Klein, R., & Shinas, V. (2012).

Guiding principles for supporting new literacies in your classroom. The Reading Teacher, 65(5), 288-293.

In this article, the authors propose four principles to guide teachers' thinking as they use technology to support teaching and literacy learning in 21st century classrooms. Specifically, teachers must be aware of emerging technologies, recognize the complexities of new literacies, realize tech-savvy students may not be skilled readers and writers of web-based texts, and develop assessments to evaluate 21st century skills. Keeping these principles in mind will help teachers prepare students to become effective readers and writers of digital texts.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Harendita, M. E. (2016).

New literacies: Some implications for language teachers. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 17(1), 9-14.

The ever-changing development of digital technology has become a scapegoat that exacerbates literacy. In scrutinising this issue, this article counters the simplistic view on literacy. Instead, it views literacy as socially, culturally and historically constructed. Therefore, the traditional definition of literacy, which is the ability to read and write, may not fit the digital age. This article discusses how digital technologies have reshaped the nature of literacy. After discussing literacy, and the Internet in general and Web 2.0 in particular, this paper presents some implications for language teachers in dealing with the “altered” literacy practices. First, critical literacy should be embedded in classroom practices so as to make students critically evaluate the free-flowing information on the Internet. Second, language teachers should nurture participatory culture of the students by encouraging collaboration among them.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Cumming-Potvin, W. (2013).

“New basics” and literacies: Deepening reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research Journal, 13(2), 214-230.

Purpose –With particular reference to insider/outsider qualitative research, the purpose of this paper is to present new understandings about the concepts of literacy and reflexivity, which go against the grain of technical approaches currently privileged under neo-liberal education systems. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on theoretical considerations and empirical data from a qualitative study in literacy education to examine the concept of researcher reflexivity. With multiple methods such as focus groups, on-line discussions, shared literacy experiences, and researcher’s reflections, the qualitative approach was appropriate to unveil thick descriptions of phenomena. Findings – Information from the literature, theoretical framework and transcript analysis is synthesized to present an innovative way of approaching reflexivity in qualitative research, to acknowledge: theory, power, discomfort; and personal, historical, political and sociocultural influences. Research limitations/implications – Given the small number of participants involved in the case study, results are not representative of the general population. Practical Implications – Deepening researchers’ approaches to reflexivity can lead to cross-disciplinary collaboration in professional fields such as teaching, engineering and nursing. Originality/value – An innovative approach to reflexivity, particularly after the completion of a study, can rupture the comfortableness of qualitative researchers’ reflexive processes. A rigorous concept of reflexivity can be useful to scaffold pre-service teachers during professional internships in schools.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Leu, D., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., & Timbrell, N. (2015).

The New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension: Rethinking the Reading Achievement Gap. Reading Research Quarterly,50(1), 37-59.

Is there an achievement gap for online reading ability based on income inequality that is separate from the achievement gap in traditional, offline reading? This possibility was examined between students in two pseudonymous school districts: West Town (economically advantaged) and East Town (economically challenged;  = 256). Performance‐based assessments were used within a simulation of the Internet developed as part of a larger project. Seventh graders completed two online research and comprehension assessments, which evaluated four skill areas (locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate) and two knowledge domains in science. Students also completed an assessment of prior domain knowledge and a short Internet use questionnaire. Standardized state reading and writing test scores served as measures of offline literacy skills. Results indicated that there was a significant achievement gap favoring West Town students in offline reading scores, offline writing scores, and online research and comprehension scores. A significant gap persisted for online research and comprehension after we conditioned on pretest differences in offline reading, offline writing, and prior knowledge scores. The results of the questionnaire indicated that West Town students had greater access to the Internet at home and were required to use the Internet more in school. These results suggest that a separate and independent achievement gap existed for online reading, based on income inequality. Current estimates of this gap, which rely solely on measures of offline reading, may underrepresent the true nature of the U.S. reading achievement gap in an online age. Policy implications are explored.

[kpeters4stuff-blog]

Leu, D. J., McVerry, J. G., O'Byrne, W. I., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H., . . . Forzani, E. (2011).

The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14.

This commentary explores a central issue for our times, online reading comprehension. It first defines three issues that have largely gone unnoticed as the Internet enters our classrooms: 1) literacy has become deictic; 2) effective online information use requires additional online reading comprehension practices, skills, and dispositions; and 3) misalignments in public policy, assessment, and instruction impede our ability to prepare students for the effective use of online information and communication. It analyzes the Common Core State Standards for Reading and Writing in the U. S. and the Australian National Curriculum in relation to elements of online reading comprehension. It argues that continued misalignments especially jeopardize opportunities for those students in districts that are economically challenged.