Multi-Modal Literacies: I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You

     I found this article really interesting because it allowed me to examine social networking and the ways in which it can affect personal relationships.  I found this article really relevant because it allowed me to examine my own uses of facebook and twitter and the ways in which these websites have ruled my social life.  I thought the article really represented the pros and cons of social networking and the fact that it can allow people to feel close  to others, yet also feel that their privacy is being invaded.  To me, this is a big concern for high school students because I think that social networking provides teenagers with a medium through which they can communicate intimately and in a way that the whole world can say.  I think cyber bullying is probably a bigger problem than many people realize because of the fact that people can send private messages to others. Also, people can subtly post information in status updates or comments that appear meaningless to others, yet hurt one person in particular.  I think parents need to pay more attention to this and teachers should spend time discussing appropriate uses of social networking sites.
     I also thought it was interesting that people panicked when the news feed came out on facebook.  I was really surprised by this because I always knew facebook to have the news feed and I couldn't imagine it without it.  However, it is true that it allows people to know every detail of peoples' lives.  I also thought it was interesting when the article quoted Mark Zuckerberg saying "Facebook has always tried to push the envelope, and at times that means stretching people and getting them to be comfortable with things they aren’t yet comfortable with. A lot of this is just social norms catching up with what technology is capable of.” To me, I don't necessarily think that it's just social norms catching up with technology, because I don't think it used to be in the norm to know so many intimate details of other peoples' lives.  I think facebook and other social networking sites have created new social norms.
     I also think it's really important for teachers to talk about social networking and safety with their students and I think this is a new topic for schools.  Students need to be taught the importance of using privacy features and knowing who  can see things on their profiles and how it can impact their lives.  Teachers could do a mini unit on the importance of internet privacy and teach students skills they will use throughout their lives, so they don't have to learn them the hard way. 
     Overall, I think social networking is a good thing, but I think people need to be careful about how they use it. 

Date a Girl Who Reads

I just found a really cute article.  I thought all you INLA majors would appreciate it. http://themonicabird.com/post/3273155431/date-a-girl-who-reads-date-a-girl-who-spends-her

Multi-Modal Literacies: Great Films and How to Teach Them

     I just finished reading the book "Great Films and How to Teach Them" and I'm left with varying opinions about how I feel about this book.  I like the fact that Costanzo brought up the point that films are unique forms of art and that many films are inspired by books, but they should be treated as their own unique forms of art.  I also liked the fact that Costanzo brought up the fact that so many different elements combine to make a good film.  Camera angle, cuts, music, camera movement, etc. are all elements that create a scene.
     While I thought the whole book was very informative, I thought the last two chapters provided me with the most information.  I really enjoyed the chapter that discussed portrayals of different races on film.  I think this could be a great unit in a language arts or social studies classroom because the portrayal of people on film parallels their place in society historically.  In a language arts classroom, the teacher could have the class read a book such as Native Son depicting race relations in the early twentieth century, then have students study the portrayal of African Americans in film during that time period.  I think this would be a great way to pair up film study along with the study of literature.  Furthermore, I also watched the documentary "The Celluloid Closet" last semester in a class and it taught me a lot about the ways in which homosexuality has been addressed in film throughout the years.  I think this would also be a great resource to use in the classroom, either in it's entirety or just clips.  I've included a youtube clip of "The Celluloid Closet" at the end of this post.
     Finally, I think the most challenging issue this book has brought up is how to include film in the language arts classroom.  The major thing that concerns me is that teachers have so much literature to cover and state tests to prepare for, that I think it would be difficult to find time to fit film into the classroom.  Furthermore, I'm pretty sure there aren't any state standards pertaining to film study so I'm not sure how this could be included in the classroom.  This isn't to say that film isn't important, I'm just not sure it's in the curriculum. Do any of you have ideas about how this could be addressed?  For me, I think one way would be to pair up historical aspects of films with the literature that is being read in the class so that the film can be used as a supplement to the literature.  I'm sure there are many other ways to include film and I would be interested in all of your ideas.

Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools: Jago Chapter 1

So far, I think this book has made a lot of important points.  I like the fact that the author pointed out that students should be reading books that they can't necessarily understand on their own.  This is something that I haven't really thought about before but it's something that I think has a lot of merit to it.  Students learn more from reading books that are challenging.  However, while I agree with the author's point I think it also brings up concerns.  How do teachers deal with students that don't do the assigned reading for homework?  How do teachers teach such challenging books in their classrooms with students who struggle with decoding and reading skills?  Also, could reading such difficult books turn students away from reading on their own?  These are all issues that I think should be considered in choosing what books to teach students.  I really like the idea of pairing young adult literature with the classics.  In this way, students are being exposed to canonical literature, but they're also getting exposed to literature that they can relate to, which I think is important.  I also liked Jago's point about metaphors being everywhere, not just in literature.  I think this point was something that I had never really thought about before, but after I read about it it made a lot of sense.  I think this is a point that we need to teach students so they can see the relevance of the material being taught in the classroom.  I think students will respond better to the lessons in the classroom if they see that it has relevance in the real world.

Multi-Modal Literacies: Pleasure Reading: Monster (Walter Dean Myers)

I finally was able to get the chance to get in some of my own reading and it's been very refreshing for me.  I think it's important for people to read books on their own so they can just enjoy reading and be exposed to a variety of different texts.  Also, as future language arts teachers I think it's important for us to be familiar with a variety of different texts to recommend and discuss with our students.  Last week, I read Monster by Walter Dean Myers.  I think this is a really good book to read for a multi-modal class because it's written in such a unique format.  The book tells the story of a sixteen-year-old boy who is wrongly accused of murder.  The book chronicles the main character, Stephen's experiences in jail and his murder trial.  While the story is interesting enough, it's also written in a unique format.  The book starts out with Steve's diary entries in jail, then switches over to a script of a movie he is writing to chronicle his experiences.  The character uses the movie script as a coping mechanism throughout his ordeal.  The entire book is written in journal entries or a movie script.  There is no strict narrative which makes this really interesting.  This is just another example of how different types of texts influence people in different ways.  I think this would be a great book for young adults to read because it's an example of a different format of literature, and it also has important themes like the goodness in humanity, corruption of the justice system, race issues, etc.  I'm definitely planning on having a copy of Monster in my classroom library. I'm also providing a link to Walter Dean Myers' website for more information about Monster and his other books.  http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/index.html

Multi-Modal Literacies: The Social Network

After reading the article about the history of the facebook, I decided that I wanted to watch the movie "The Social Network" about how facebook was created.  Overall, I thought the movie followed the article really accurately.  Most of the information in the movie seemed to be pretty accurate and only a few things seemed to be added for entertainment purposes.  I was really interested in this movie, because I think it has a lot to offer in the fact that it addresses a lot of important issues in our new media age.  One of the most important issues addressed was the idea of intellectual property.  While watching the movie, I went back and forth between feeling that facebook was "stolen" by Mark Zuckerberg and feeling that he simply expanded on the ideas of others.  I think it's important in this day and age to be conscious of the idea of intellectual property because it's important to respect the work of others.  I think this movie really informed me about the history of a program that I use everyday and I think it's really interesting to know the background of the services I use.  I think it's important for everybody that uses different websites and programs to be familiar with what they're using along with the backgrounds of different programs.  This helps to create a more informed and educated society.  I would highly recommend the social network, it's definitely worth your time.

Multi-Modal Literacies: The Socially Networked Classroom

I just finished reading the first chapter of Dr. Kist's book "The Socially Networked Classroom" and I have to say that so far I'm really interested.  So far in my college career, I've thought of literacy as basically having to do with written material, specifically in print, not on the web.  However, Dr. Kist's book has shown me that the definition of literacy is something that changes along with the times and with the development of new technologies.  I liked the classroom demonstrations he wrote about as well.  In class, we did many of these activities such as counting to ten and the snowball activity.  I thought it was informative to read the rationale for using these activities and I plan on incorporating some of these into my own classroom.  Overall, the main idea that I really like in this book is that students can learn across multiple platforms.  Students can read traditional books, watch films, look at art, write blogs, and participate in online communities discussing the books they read.  I think this is a great way to keep students interested in the class and to provide them with different ways to express themselves.  I particularly liked the lesson about writing multigenre papers.  Students could learn so much from writing a traditional essay about a piece of literature and then transfering those ideas into a news article or an artistic piece.  I think using different platforms of expression can appeal to all learners and increase students' interest and creativity.