Jenkins: Multiliteracy and Multitasking

Although Jennifer Powers makes a valid point about the need to re-examine our understanding of literacy in order to come to a more multifaceted and inclusive definition of it, ultimately, her attack of print literacy is exclusive by nature and, therefore, contradictory. In this regard, I believe that Henry Jenkins' view on 21st century literacy is more sound, or at least well-balanced.

In spite of being a fully-embracing-advocate of multiliteracy, Jenkins, unlike Powers, does not reject nor deny the importance of print or "textual" literacy. In fact, when it comes to traditional literacy skills related to the interpretation and production of 'print' text, he still ranks such skills as having a central role in the 21st century which we must expand upon rather than totally replace.

Another interesting point that Jenkins makes is the need for teachers to recognize and facilitate current patterns of multitasking, particularly with regards to homework. Unlike traditional views on multitasking which have tended to see it as a negative interference, Jenkins views multitasking as an important new skill which he describes as "the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details," and which he believes has implications for modern teachers. As he put it, "multitasking enters pedagogical practice when teachers recognize the desires of contemporary students to... maintain what some have called 'continuous partial attention', interacting with homework materials while engaged in other activities."

Two great examples which are quickly catching on of how teachers are making greater efforts to accommodate for contemporary patterns of afterschool multitasking are the use of podcasts and internet games. Some teachers have the luxury and the technological savviness to set up systems where classroom materials and lectures are automatically sent to students Ipods. As he indicates "rather than needing to set aside dedicated study time to practice a foreign language, this allows students to access their homework while walking from classes... or while engaging in other activities." Likewise "homework assignments in the form of online games," such as those from cybernation.net, "could be designed... to facilitate patterns of multitasking."  https://owl.uwo.ca/webct/urw/lc5116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Slam Poetry

Ever since my early undergrad years (perhaps having something to do with the fact that many of my friends were poets) I have taken great pleasure in listening to spoken-word performances. What always blew me away was not so muchwhat the poet said as how they said it. Sure, the content by itself would have been fascinating enough to read. However, for me, would rendered spoken word its unique quality was its power (without a single prop) to give new meaning and life to words, solely conveyed by a poet's voice, tone, facial expression and body language.

In spite of this personal interest in spoken-word, it wasn’t until our in class session this semester that I realized the wonderful potential of slam poetry as an in-class activity. Prior to teacher`s college, I had never heard of Taylor Mali. As a former teacher of English who is currently well known as a poet of slam poetry, he has certainly inspired me to incorporate the practice of slam poetry into the English classroom. With its "dual emphasis on writing and performance" slam poetry is a great way to encourage students to focus on "what they`re saying and how they`re saying it” (http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice069.shtml).

It gets students thinking about how non-verbal elements and delivery of content is equally as important as content. One of the advantages to this is that it can serve as a nice segue into a unit on Shakespeare or any other play, because it gets students comfortable with (an excited about) reading script aloud as it is meant to be read. As mentioned during our session, the oral communication strand of the English curriculum is one that often does not receive enough emphasis but that easily can through activities such as this one.

It would also be a great idea to do slam poetry earlier on in a given course, as it can also serve as a great means to break the ice. As Brenda Dyck put it, slam poetry can bring students to a "kinder, gentler place -- a place where we were free to share our innermost thoughts". Because they are given the opportunity to voice their own joys, concerns and opinions, students (contrary to what one might think) tend to take this kind of activity very seriously.

Here are a few interesting links that can be used as teacher resources if anyone is interested in incorporating slam poetry into the classroom.

Winnepeg Poetry Slam:
http://www.wpgpoetryslam.com/for-teachers.html

Used with an intermediate class:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice069.shtml

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice069.shtml

Government of Canada: Language Portal
http://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/manchettes-headlines/claquement-slam-eng.html

Powers and Student-Centered Learning

While one can certainly argue that Jennifer Powers' article holds bias against, or nearly against, print literacy, her endorsement of multiliteracy certainly deserves credit. What I enjoyed in particular was how rather than just saying that we need to incorporate more technology and media into the classroom for its own sake, or as a way to 'improve' students literacy skills, she really backs her promotion of multiliteracy by validating her students' multiple ways of knowing. As Powers states,

Why is it that many English teachers...seem stuck on print literacy...Today's North American Child is not necessarily a child of the printed word; her or she is more likely a child of television, video, music, and the internet, where an amalgam of words, sounds and images combine together to communicate ideas. This does not mean that these children are limited in their literacy; on the contrary, they employ multiple forms of literacy every day in order to decode the information with which they are being bombarded.

In stating that students already do employ multiple forms of literacy and that it is us educators who are lagging behind in our reluctance to expand on our own foundation of traditional literacy skills, Powers may come off harshly. However, if one gets past their initial feeling of defensiveness, one will see the merit in what she is saying, and one will see how what she is really promoting is a more student-centred instead of teacher-centred approach to learning. By empowering students' ways of meaning-making and knowing, one is ultimately empowering students to take ownership of their own learning. If students' current ways of meaning-making and knowing involve multiple forms of literacy, then, (as she would say) 'so be it'.

Lesson Plan Redesign: Version 2

ORIGINAL LESSON PLAN:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UdGmfLp1qf_PfC7mCOjJxLd6Uk628jv7SEg2z2t_vgk/edit?hl=en_US#
If I were to redesign my lesson plan, the central change I would make is to incorporate the use of bitstrips into my lesson's central activity. In the original activity, my instructions to students are essentially to get into groups of 4-5, choose one out of four major events that occur during the scene 4 of Godzilla (1987), and finally, report about this event from the perspective of Oshima Japan’s most celebrated news reporter. Because students were given litmited time to complete this task, the only means by which they could report their story was through an oral presentation. Although this medium is a generally effective means for students to demonstrate their knowledge, it is not the only medium. Other equally effective mediums include storyboarding and, as Gregory Anderson put it, "whereas drawing a storyboard by hand in the classroom has recognised pedagogical benefits," using bistrips allows you to "produce a more professional, novel, and seamless storyboard"

http://www.nate.org.uk/cmsfiles/ict/h2t/4_Storyboards.pdf

Another bonus to making this change is that it remedies a factor I had clearly overlooked, i.e., differentiated instruction. By providing students with another option, you are awarding them with another outlet and to demonstrate what they have learned.

IN ADDITION...

By having students do bitsrips storyboards, this would address the specific curriculum expectation (of the media literacy strand) of having students produce their own media text in order to demonstrate their understanding of technique and convention. Like all 'texts', visual texts like bitstrips have their own  'language' and conventions in order to convey meaning. Allowing students the opportunity to produce another type of text other than traditional writing, or storyboards, allows them to explore another type of literacy. In other words, it encourages the notion of multiple forms of literacy, such as digital literacy and visual literacy, as opposed to tradition literacy associated with printed texts. It also helps students better grasp the concept of all media as being constructed to suit particular audiences and to convey particular messages. 

Lesson Plan Redesign

The following is a link to access my original lesson plan. Unfortuantely I could not figure how to upload the original Microsoft Word version. For this reason, all of my images in the Activity Handout section are missing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UdGmfLp1qf_PfC7mCOjJxLd6Uk628jv7SEg2z2t_vgk/edit?hl=en_US#

If I were to redesign my lesson plan, the central change I would make is to incorporate the use of bitstrips into my lesson's central activity. In the original activity, my instructions to students are essentially to get into groups of 4-5, choose one out of four major events that occur during the scene 4 of Godzilla (1987), and finally, report about this event from the perspective of Oshima Japan’s most celebrated news reporter. Because students were given litmited time to complete this task, the only means by which they could report their story was through an oral presentation. Although this medium is a generally effective means for students to demonstrate their knowledge, it is not the only medium.

Other equally effective mediums include storyboarding and, as Gregory Anderson put it, "whereas drawing a storyboard by hand in the classroom has recognised pedagogical benefits," using bistrips allows you to "produce a more professional, novel, and seamless storyboard"  (http://www.nate.org.uk/cmsfiles/ict/h2t/4_Storyboards.pdf)

  Another bonus to making this change is that it remedies a factor I had clearly overlooked, i.e., differentiated instruction. By providing students with another option, you are awarding them with another outlet and opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.

Introductory Survey Redesigned

Comments On Redesigning the Introductory Survey

The most basic, consistent and unexciting change I made throughout the survey was, of course, to swap the word ‘teacher’ for ‘student’ or ‘learner’. Even though it is a simple change, and one which practically everyone in this course made, I think that it’s interesting because it draws attention to something important. I.E. the fact that teaching and learning are inextricably intertwined concepts. It’s no wonder, then, that it was so easy to produce a whole set of new questions by doing a simple swap.


Towards the end of the survey, for the question on literacy, I sort of split the question in two directions. First off, I ask students what literacy means to them. I changed the question this way because I feel that it is more casual and applicable to students in grade nine through twelve, at the applied or academic level. By phrasing my question in such a way as to highlight the fact that I want their opinion, I also think it renders the question (potentially) more inviting and personal. Secondly (as mentioned above) I ask the original question again only swapping the word learner for teacher. I think that it is important to give students a chance to voice what they think a modern teacher should know.


Instead of simply asking what the last book they read was, I also invite them to tell me what the last movie they watched was if they prefer. The main reason I made this change is because even if students choose to share information about their taste in movies, it still reveals something about their taste in narrative and personality as a whole. The other reason is because I figured that any students who are willing to tell me what they last read when given the choice to tell me what they last watched are probably those who read on a regular basis anyway ...and this is also valuable information when getting to know your students. So it is a win-win situation.


For the question “What are some of the things you read on a regular basis? ” I changed it to “What are the types of the things you enjoy reading (whether or not you always get around to it)?” As a forthcoming English teacher, one of my goals is to get students to increase, if not maintain, their reading frequency. By inserting “enjoy,” my intent is clear: I want to know what will engage them. I want to know what kind of text I need to turn to in order to get my students engaged when all else fails. When you have a classroom filled with students at the applied level whose reading preferences are non-existent or (if you’re lucky) difficult to “read”, this kind of information is priceless. Trust me. I learned the hard way. The last thing you want to do, therefore, is scare them off by making “on a regular basis” a mandatory criteria to answer a question about reading.