This document provides an agenda and discussion for a class on building a learning environment to support multiliteracies. The agenda includes reminders about blog posts, discussing an article by Kajder, questioning techniques, returning to the 4 Resources Model of literacy and briefly looking at the 3D Model. It then covers discussing the Kajder article in groups by generating discussion questions. The rest of the document goes through the 4 Resources Model which looks at literacy from the perspectives of code breaker, meaning maker, text user, and text analyst. It provides examples and questions for each perspective. It concludes by asking students what other questions they have.
2. Agenda
Reminders about blog posts
Discussion of Kajder article
Questioning techniques
Return to the 4 Resources Model (and briefly look at
3D Model)
Questions for next week?
3. Kajder Article
Discussion Technology
Situating the Conversation: New Literacies,
and Learning in the English Language Arts Classroom
At your table, generate one or two discussion questions that you
could use to engage in meaningful conversation about the article
with another group of students in this class.
•Jassar’s story
Areas of focus:
•Teaching in a “New English Classroom”
•Unpacking
Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research Brief
•Reseeing Jassar’s story
•Reseeing the Classroom through Theory and
Research
9. Code Breaker
How do I crack this text?
How does it work?
Is there more than one
semiotic system operating
here?
If so, how do they relate?
What are its (their) codes and
conventions?
How do the parts relate singly
and in combination?
10. Code Breaker
Read this passage and answer the questions. At your
table, have several people to read it aloud; see if they
pronounce the words in similar ways.
The tok gorded the bick and then rambushed the smole
because the smole was a ringlebeck.
11. Code Breaker
1) Why were several people able to read this aloud with
fairly similar pronunciation? Think about your knowledge
of letter and sound combinations (graphophonic cueing
system).
2) Were you able to answer the questions successfully?
What was it that helped you with this? Think about your
knowledge of the order of words in a sentence (syntactic
cueing system).
3) Do you have any idea what this text isabout? That is,
do you know what a ‘tok’ is, or a ‘bick’ or ‘smole’? What
does ‘rambushed’ mean? (Semantic cueing system.)
12. Code Breaker
The code-breaking practices applicable to the
alphabetic characters of the printed word are
necessary—but not sufficient for reading the texts of
today and the future.
Reflection: What other types of code-breaking
practices do today’s and tomorrow’s students need?
13. Meaning Maker
How are the ideas in this text sequenced—
do they connect with one another?
Is the text linear or nonlinear; interactive or
non-interactive?
How does this affect the way I make
meaning?
What prior knowledge and experiences
might help me make meaning of this text?
How will my purpose for reading, and the
context in which I am reading, influence my
meaning making?
Are there other possible meanings and
readings of this text
14. Meaning Maker
Consider these two beginnings to a text:
1 Once upon a time there was a king called Richard whose lands
extended from one great ocean to another …
2 In the late 14th century, King Richard had charge of the lands
from the English Channel to the Irish Sea…
Write down your predictions about these two texts. What is their
purpose, the context in which they might be used, and the
genre? How do you predict each text will unfold? What content
do you expect?
15. Meaning Maker
What social, cultural and reading knowledge and
experience did you draw upon to make these
predictions?
Could your students’ prior reading experiences make it
difficult for them to read these texts?
16. Text User
What is the purpose of this text, and what is my
purpose in using it?
How have the uses of this text shaped its
composition?
What should I do with this text in this context?
What will others do with this text?
What are my options or alternatives after reading?
17. Text User
List and compare the reading tasks associated with
shopping online and over the counter.
Consider the reading tasks in each setting in terms of
the code-breaker and meaning-maker resources used.
Now consider the text-user resources used. How do
the structures of the texts encountered in these two
settings reflect their respective purposes and uses?
How did your social behaviour and the use of other
modes vary between the online and face-to-face
shopping experiences?
18. Text Analyst
What kind of person, with what interests and values,
produced this text?
What are the origins of this text?
What is the text trying to make me believe and do?
What beliefs and positions are dominant in the text?
What beliefs and positions are silenced or absent?
What do I think about the way this text presents these ideas,
and what alternatives are there?
Having critically examined this text, what action am I going to
take?
19. Text Analyst
Consider the following clip:
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
20. Text Analyst
What beliefs and positions are dominant in the text?
What beliefs and positions are silenced or absent?
What do you think about the values and ideologies
conveyed in this text?
22. 3 D Model
Similar to 4 Resources but
describes three “dimensions” of
literacy, whereas the 4 Resources
model looks at the types of
resources of skill sets that readers
must have.
23. Questions
What’s left? What do you want to know? If I don’t have
the answer I’ll try to bring in someone who does.
24. For next week:
Please read:
Jenkins, H., with Clinton, K., Purushotma, R.,
Robison, A.J. & Weigel, M. (2006) What should we
teach? Rethinking literacy. In Confronting the
challenges of participatory culture: Media education
for the 21st Century. p. 19-56 (whitepaper)
Notes de l'éditeur
A competent reader approaches reading as a selfmonitoring, problem-solving activity where the context and purpose of the task are analysed, a plan of action decided and appropriate resources are identified and accessed. These aren’t skills that necessarily come naturally to all readers, especially struggling readers and need to be considered in a balanced literacy approach. The implications for teaching are that teachers need a way of identifying the different reading purposes that might be encountered, and the resources that a reader might need for each purpose. Teachers also need to identify pedagogies that teach students to analyse tasks, problem solve, identify resources and self monitor in real life contexts. Reading pedagogy must be socially situated. Last week I posted a chart for you to have a look at that is a suggested method for analyzing texts. That chart is based on the 4 Resources model which is an framework used to help create a balanced approach to teaching reading. I’m going to just introduce you to this model now and we will return to it throughout the course.
One of the jobs that competent readers do is break the codes of semiotic systems used in texts. They have to draw on resources that help makes sense of text, but don’t think of texts exclusive as words on the page, they can also include illustration, video, and sound. These are some of the questions that a reader might ask when engaged in code-breaking. (Model this with Rodd’s blog doing a thinkaloud.)
When we’re making meaning of texts, we’re making meaning at both the literal and inferential levels. Readers have to use their code-breaking resources and draw on all their previous social cultural and reading experiences in order to make connections and form conclusions. Model this for blog doing a think aloud. It’s important to understand that different social and cultural backgrounds will change how a reader makes meaning. eg/ literacy test example.
Most reading, even reading for pleasure is pragmatic. There is a purpose for it. The purpose for reading affects the way that we interact with a text. For example, if you’ve been assigned a text book reading for a course, there are certain pieces of information you’re going to focus on more than others while, if you’re reading for pleasure, you might focus on the way in which a character is developed or the beauty of the language.
Texts are social products. They are not neutral. These questions are the kinds of questions we have students ask when we want them to engage in what’s commonly called critical literacy. 19th century students were expected to accept at face value the ideas presented to them in texts, but consider for example Film and video similarly promote particular values and ideologiesabout the world through characterisation and setting; by associating particular behaviours and attitudes with certain classes, races or countries; or by adopting unexpected twists of the plot, such as the ‘bad’ character ultimately ‘winning’.
