week 15 prompts

hey all,

now that the calmail drama has subsided (for now), here is this week's blog 

prompt. please post a response no later than the final day of class on 
12/1 by 11:59p.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Blog Questions:

Let’s have some fun with this one.

1. Watch Ken Robinson’s animated Changing Education Paradigms (approx. 11
minutes long).

2. Respond personally: First, what do you think of what he has to say?
Second, respond to the question posed by the person before you.

3. Use two references from ANY previous readings to support your
opinion/reaction.

4. Pose a question for the next student to respond to.

week 14 prompts

1. Watch this video entitled "Oppression in Education" by the Forum Theater Troupe (directed by Julian Boal, son of Augusto Boal)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecwFetYMy5Y&feature=related

Next, read the Ayers and Alexander-Tanner comic strip on reader page 961.

What closing thoughts on teaching does the comic strip leave you with? What closing thoughts on teaching does the dramatic performance piece leave you with?


2. Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world. This involves the development of critical consciousness (a process known in Portuguese as conscientização). The formation of critical consciousness allows people to question the nature of their historical and social situation—to read their world—with the goal of acting as subjects in the creation of a democratic society (which was new for Brazil at that time). How (if it all) does Augusto Boal's piece enhance/contradict/complicate our thinking about Freire's original formulations on critical consciousness/critical literacy?

wk 13 prompts

sorry folks! i posted the wrong set of questions last time! luckily there is only one 

response (trinity's response) to the wrong question so far. here are the correct questions 

i would like  the rest of you to answer by monday 11:59pm. thanks and sorry for the 

confusion!  

Multimodality and assessment

Stornaiuolo, A., Hull, G., & Nelson, M. (2009). Mobile Texts and migrant
audiences: Rethinking literacy and assessment in a new media age. Language
Arts, 82 (5), 382-92.

   -  In this article, the authors argue that young people growing up in a
   digitally mediated educational milieu have “wide-ranging opportunities to
   choose how to represent themselves in relationship with others (pp. 383 of
   original text).” Does this argument seem somewhat naïve or romanticized in
   that these very same young people face far greater constraints, where
   identity construction is concerned, i.e., available selves, vis-à-vis their
   more affluent white counterparts?


   - The authors argue for a re-conceptualization of the current
   measurements, which seek to gauge young people’s cognitive
   abilities/capabilities. More specifically, they argue for assessments that
   take into account poor, marginalized students’ multimodal,
   culturally-informed, pre-existent identities. If these types of
   measurements are enacted, what if any, effect do you feel they will have on
   the lives of young people whose lived experiences mirror the students
   highlighted in this paper?

Stein, Pippa.  (2004). Representation, rights, and resources:  Multimodal
pedagogies in the language and literacy classroom. In Bonny Norton &
Kelleen Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (95-115).
Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press.

   - The author argues that: “Classrooms are semiotic [meaning-making]
   spaces in which multimodal texts are constantly being produced and
   transformed by human beings who are the agents of their own meaning-making
   (pp. 98 of original text).” Do you agree with this line of thinking? More
   to the point—are students truly “agents of their own meaning-making” or are
   they identities, in fact, informed and (re)configured by the institutions
   and structures that they are enmeshed within? (This doesn’t have to be an
   “either/or” argument.)


   -  Do you agree with Stein’s argument that language is limited? What
   does she mean by this? Please explain.

wk 12 prompts

1. Hull and Stornaiuolo approach social networking through the lens of
“cosmopolitanism,” which they define as “…a strategy for reconciling the
tensions inherent in a vastly interconnected yet deeply divided world,
where we have ‘obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are
related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of
shared citizenship’ (Appiah, 2006, p. xv)” (p. 792 in reader). How does
this concept further our discussion of literacy? Why should we view
student behavior through this lens?

2. Boyd and Ellison walk us through a history of social network sites and
past research. How can we think of social network sites as spaces for
literacy development? Do you think SNSs have a place in the classroom? Why
or why not?