Review of Suzanne Miller’s “English Teacher Learning For New Times”

Suzanne Miller’s “English Teacher Learning For New Times” describes how urban preservice teachers and practicing teachers implemented a digital video design unit for grades 5-12.  Throughout her description of this design’s effectiveness to enhance multimodal skills and inquiry, Miller argues that “traditional schooling and literacy are not adequate for the 21^st century public, civic, and workplace spheres.  Significant changes will be needed in schooling, in teachers, and, especially, in educational beliefs about the status/design of non-print and print-mixed modes as ways of knowing and communicating (p. 63).”  She contends that teachers (and in this context, English teachers specifically) need various professional development opportunities to learn how to use technology such as digital video design before we may be able to teach our students the same process. 

Digital video composing allows orchestration of visual, kinetic and verbal modes of learning.  We’ve been discussing multimodal learning extensively in this course, thus, I appreciated how Miller framed this idea to Lankshear and Knobel’s (2003) notion of performance knowledge.  Giving students more facility with technological tools enhances performance knowledge: knowing how to find, gather, use, communicate and create new ways of envisioning assemblages of knowledge.  Along with this, design is how people make use of resources available to “realize their interests as makers of a message/text (p. 64).”  When our Urban Education class last semester delved more deeply into technology, we used the word “design” to characterize our practices, and Miller’s article gave me context to better understand why we used “design” as opposed to any other word. 

The digital video composing unit undeniably allowed multiple modes to orchestrate together for productive learning, and engagement for students like Justin who were “floundering.”  As reiterated in an earlier class discussion, incorporating different modes of learning beyond the traditional-linguistic form acknowledges our LD and alternative learners.  Since I myself took a Film class in high school that taught me how to use Final Cut Pro (video editing software), I wondered if this kind of unit would be better suited as an integration with another design or film class.  The English teacher and Film teacher could align curriculum such that students can learn recording and editing techniques in film, and the project for that class can be a prompt that relates to English class.  Off hand, I’m thinking of a film project that asks students to respond to literature. 

The DV class group that responded to Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” and addressed the negative impact ads have on female body image seemed extremely powerful to engage students in the content, but how do we facilitate this?  One of my concerns, which teachers in Miller’s piece echoed is the lack of equipment at school and difficulty with adjusting instructional time for the digital video design piece.  I highly agree that educators need to use multimodal literacy practices to become change agents in spaces beyond the classroom, however, I think that school’s infrastructure don’t have professional development opportunities (not any mandatory ones, at least) that are technology-oriented.  Without a basic foundation of film, for example, figuring out how to implement this kind of unit design can be overwhelming for a teacher who has to negotiate his or her regular responsibilities.  If teachers have this responsibility, they themselves need as much scaffolding and support as possible!

Review of “Weblogs and Literary response” by Kathleen West

“Weblogs and Literary Response” by Kathleen West examined three focal students (11^th grade AP students) and their blog responses to different pieces of literature.  Although West’s research question inquired the nature of literary response via blog, it seemed that towards the end, she was evaluating the productivity of these types of blogs, and how they held weight in standard English and acceptability to most teachers and parents.  This piece reminded me of a group discussion that Tygue, Becky and I had about whether we’d allow “internet language” on online chat boards for students.  With this said, I wonder what others think of the affordances that abbreviation and acronyms have for freedom of expression, and whether this “relaxed stance” disrespects standard English grammar, usage and mechanics.

Because West’s focal students were identified as white, middle-class students who are already in their junior year and elected an AP course, I’d like to believe that they know how to code-switch between their blog language and writing that occurs in more academic scenarios (typing a paper, writing in-class assessments, AP exam, etc).  Thus, I then wonder, if teachers should only allow this “relaxed stance” via internet writing venues if they are confident that their students already have a strong command of standard English grammar?

I appreciated West’s examples of the three blogs, but I don’t think her method of data collection/display and analyses was a good demonstration of how the blog form inspired students to respond to literature in a way that would have been radically different from traditional pencil and paper.  She discussed how Lucy commented frequently (one primary affordance of blogs), but she didn’t share any examples of students commenting on each other’s blogs.  Also, what might have been helpful was to compare these blog responses to “traditional” in-class, written responses.  If allowing students to have a more “relaxed stance” frees their thinking and enhances their engagement with the literature, then I’m all for the blog form.  With this said, I don’t feel that she has answered her own question: does blogging change the nature of student’s responses to literature?

I was, however, intrigued with her notion of a socially situated identity; the example that a student can be apathetic in class but transform into a social butterfly in the halls.  This brings me back again to our discussion about chat boards and whether shy students would step up to the plate.  I can see how responding to literature on a blog does lower the emotional stakes of failing in some sense, thus, I wonder if blogging would indeed encourage academic participation.  

This MUSE tech group is my first experience with a class blog.  If I tried to replicate this in a secondary class setting (to ask students to respond to literature), I’d have to think through protocols like frequency, how/when to respond to peers, etc.

Review of “Classroom Remix”

“Classroom Remix” discusses how two high school teachers, Ms. Smith and Mr. Crane implemented a Powerpoint Poetry Interpetation unit into two sections of a 9^th and 10^th grade “Writing for Publication” class.  The goal was to blend visual, linguistic and auditory composition elements to reconfigure what was to be learned and how it was to be learned.  This article, dated in October 2011, acknowledges that Powerpoint may not remain the best tool to interpret poetry, and I am sure since then, VoiceThread and a myriad of other comparable digital tools have emerged that can fulfill the same purpose.  Thus, I will not focus too much on the digital tool of Powerpoint and its affordances but rather the thoughts that I conjured about my future practice as a result of reading this study.

I enjoyed how Callahan and King mentioned all the push-back that was in response to their implementation of the Powerpoint Poetry unit.  Overall, it seems that there’s a dichotomy between their vision of remixing learning and the traditional notions of writing-based instruction that is primarily linguistic.  It was interesting to me that they mentioned how an AP class, for example, might not want to spend 4 weeks on this kind of a unit because of all the test stimulation instruction students would expect.  “Traditional learning” is such a vague term, and I wonder how our conception of it will change as technology and other facets of society evolve (or cease to). 

One of the largest benefits of implementing technology-based units that incorporates many elements of learning (visual, linguistic and auditory composition) is that it could decrease the participation gap between students who have high access to digital tools and those who do not.  A salient example that the authors mention is that this type of unit encourages students with learning disabilities to participate, as they might not feel that their “traditional” linguistic abilities are that strong.  Conversely, students who know how to “do” school and are complacent with the written and linguistic-oriented assignments will be pushed outside of their comfort zone.

I think this piece really allowed me to realize how using digital tools could help me reach out to a wider variety of learners, and how I could be afforded opportunities to collaborate with educators from other departments like music and visual arts.

Project 1: Audacity - audio, literature and narrative

Our project’s start stemmed from our interest in integrating Audacity (a free digital audio and recording program) in the English classroom.  We knew that we would have to create an audio file on Audacity ourselves before we could structure the assignment for imagined students.  We decided to use one of our current units as a starting point for the project, since it was helpful to have a concrete literary text in mind.  We knew that we wanted the audio project to contain oration of original writing (about The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the essential question regarding the role of education in human freedom) layered over, or juxtaposed with natural sounds.  We decided to encourage other musical sounds such as drum samples from the internet but to put the emphasis on environmental sounds from a school environment.  We also decided that the assignment would be most beneficial as a collaborative group effort.

 
We recorded sounds at our school sites, such as class discussion about Frederick Douglass, lunch murmur, noise in the hallway during passing period, students rustling paper in class, etc.  In terms of narratives, we recorded our take on the essential question, and that of two other classmates (Bianca and Arianna).  In summary, we started the audio with the sound of hall murmur and music, Eric and Bianca’s narratives, then our introduction to students at the San Francisco Academy, and then we concluded with more commentary from Eric, Arianna and Thoai before concluding with the same hall murmur and music from the beginning.
 
In terms of technological usage of Audacity, we used our smart phones to record all clips and then we inserted them as individual “tracks” into Audacity.  We mainly used the copying/pasting features, time-selector tool (to move tracks into earlier or later intervals of the larger project), and the “fade in” and “fade out” effects to transition clips.  As a result, we mainly emphasized/encouraged students to use the same basic skills and effects for the assignment prompt.

After we exported the file as .mp3 and uploaded it into soundcloud for digital sharing, we created the assignment prompt; in the introduction to the assignment, we stated that the audio project should be done in groups of 3-4 and that the culminating clip should be 2-3 minutes (even though our actual sample was close to five minutes).  We explained some of the affordances of the technology, shared a few resources for the aforementioned basic functions, listed the overarching “to-do list” for students, and gave them a heads up on the four dimensions of grading: oration of writing, content of writing, basic command of Audacity, and Text/Audio Integration.

Here is our example model.
Here is the link to my project folder, which has the assignment prompt, the write-ups and rubric.


We are hoping that if actually implemented in a future classroom, students would be able to learn a digital tool, and in the process, enhance their associative logic skills.  Since this assignment prompt was inspired by an actual essay prompt we recently created (and distributed in a class), we hope that this type of multimedia assignment could engage students while still achieving the academic aims of a literary essay.

Review of “…MySpace as a Contemporary Framework for Literary Analysis”

              Elizabeth Lewis’ MySpace study examines how two experienced teachers, Caitlin and Barb, asked their English students to create a multimodal literary analysis of a character via a print-based MySpace page (back in 2007!).  Of course, MySpace isn’t trending like it used to be, and its analog – Facebook – might cease to trend in the near future.  What this study brought to light is not so much the importance of MySpace as the placeholder-digital tool but the pedagogical risks that English teachers take when they engaged in transformed practice (transfer and recreation of Designs of meaning from one context to another).

             What immediately struck me with this design is that because the school district blocked MySpace as a website, Caitlin and Barb asked students to create a print-based version of a MySpace page.  To their surprise, students retained an “academic voice,” which they presumed had to do with the pen and paper association of school, and digital devices with their personal lives.  At first, I thought it was clever that the instructors used the digital practice as a springboard to adapt the assignment.  That way, they could still contain project work in the class, and didn’t have to move students to a computer lab, if available.  This study is a good example of what gets “lost” with transformed practice, especially when the redesign is not a digital-to-digital transformation. 

    
             Back to the topic of trends, I think we have to be careful that we’re not implementing assignments just for novelty’s sake.  For this reason, it might have been difficult to dissect whether students were more engaged because they got to employ a “new” literacy, or if it was because they had a reprieve from more traditional assignments.  Of the pedagogical tensions that stemmed from this study, I thought it was intriguing that the instructors did not learn to navigate MySpace themselves, as they assumed all students had facility with MySpace.  Whether an instructional practice is digital or paper-based, it’s critical that English teachers become versed in the format before asking students to use the form.  

             With this said, I appreciate how Lewis characterized MySpace as a “digital diary/self-portrait/communicative “device.”  Adolescents are going through a developmental phase where they think everyone is concerned about them, so they are especially interested in the “profile.”  In this way, social media platforms (whichever one is most trendy at the time) might be useful for character analysis assignments.  I’m not sure though that I would ask any of my students to use something as personal as their actual Facebook account to complete an assignment.  This article did open my perspective to adapting digital tools for work that does not require computers.