Literacy Now

Much has been written about the youth experience of literacy learning when they create and share fanfiction online. Previous features on Reading Today Online have outlined what learning looks like for adolescent participants in Hunger Games fan spaces and have shed light on the particular writing practices recruited by sites like Fanfiction.net. However, less is known about the nature of teaching in these online, fan-based, informal learning environments. How do online spaces teach fans the expectations of digital literacy practices such as writing fanfiction? What pedagogical tools establish the curriculum, teaching, evaluation, and social norms of an online fanfiction space?

I explored similar questions in a study published in Learning, Media and Technology about the nature of pedagogy in an online fanfiction space. In particular, I studied adolescent literacy in an online forum called The Sims Writers’ Hangout (The Hangout has since disappeared, but evidence of the group’s creative work still appears on Flickr and elsewhere online). The Hangout was an online space for fans of the videogame The Sims to gather and support each other’s writing of Sims fanfiction—multimodal, digital texts that pair images taken in the video game with narratives authors write (see examples of Sims fanfiction created with The Sims 3). Over its five-year existence, The Hangout had more than 12,000 members, mostly adolescent females, from all over the world who posted over 660,000 messages on a variety of Sims-related and community-building topics to establish an online network of readers and writers.

To better understand the pedagogy of The Hangout, I drew from data collected over two years spent documenting the space through the participation of eight young women (ages 15 - 23) from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Through analysis of virtual interviews, Hangout posts, and the Sims fanfiction my informants shared and the readers’ responses they received, I came to the following understandings about the nature of literacy pedagogy in this online fanfiction space:

• Attention paid to creating social order. Moderators, who themselves were adolescents, wrote numerous posts detailing The Hangout’s expectations. As members join and begin to explore the site’s Welcome area, they are immediately instructed to follow the rules with posts that read, “By reading the rules, you will prove to everyone that you’re an intelligent asset to this community.” Those rules, for example, provided expectations about showing respect and posting in the correct sub-forum. They also detail the following consequences for breaking rules: “First offense: Warning PM from staff. Second offense: Suspension of variable length, dependent on offense. Third offense: Permanent ban.” Throughout The Hangout, members received repeated messages establishing the social norms of this informal learning environment.

• Contests serve as a form of pedagogy. To teach members how to design high-quality images, The Hangout ran contests such as The Hangout’s Next Top Model—a multi-round contest based on the similarly named reality television show. Each round required participants to place their “model” in a different scene and post an image for member voting. The image published with this piece represents a submission for a round which asked contestants to style their model after an iconic actor/actress of their choice. The multimodal combination of images and written narratives is an important feature of Sims fanfiction, and The Hangout communicated expectations for quality in digital image editing in part through contests within the space.

• All reader feedback instructs writers.As with other online writing spaces, The Hangout readers posted comments and reviews of Sims fanfiction shared in the space. Some such posts included specific praise or constructive feedback about an author’s writing or images, as this comment received by one participant: “I liked it Eve, the dancing and the kiss in the rain was brilliant! ...I thought maybe some more description could have been added...” However, most reader response took on a form known as “fangirl” comments. Such comments offered gushing, unspecific praise that left one of my participants wondering, “well okay, but what was good about it?” when she received such comments. Though, all of the Sims fanfiction writers I spoke to shared the opinion that even fangirl comments provide motivation to keep writing. In these ways, all reader feedback instructs writers and encourages them to share.

Moderators who established and enforced social norms, activities that communicated expectations for quality Sims fanfiction, and readers who provided constructive and motivating feedback to writers constructed pedagogy in The Hangout. As literacy educators continue to question how interest-based online spaces can inform classrooms, the case of The Hangout shows us that pedagogy within these sites might be closer to our classroom instruction than we think.  

Jayne C. Lammers is an assistant professor and director of the secondary English teacher preparation program at the University of Rochester. She can be reached at jlammers@warner.rochester.edu or on Twitter at @URocProf.

After studying writing instruction in 20 middle and high schools, Applebee and Langer  found that when technology was incorporated into writing instruction it was often done so in a way that “reinforced” teacher-centered pedagogical practices. In fact, the most common use of technology during writing instruction was students typing their final papers. However, in the instances when teachers did use technology during writing instruction, the writing process became accessible for students and they became more fully engaged.  

Additional research supports the critical need for technology to be effectively integrated into the writing classroom.  Even young adults have strong opinions of the writing instruction they need to be effective writers. The Pew Internet Organization found that while only 50 percent of teens say they are required to write everyday, 82 percent of young adults feel more in-class writing would improve their abilities. And when it comes to technology, 78 percent of young adults think their writing would improve if technology-based writing tools were integrated into their classroom.

Writing teachers have long been advocates of writers’ notebooks. Ralph Fletcher  said the writer’s notebook gives the writer “space to record and explore what amazes, delights, disgusts, or appalls [him].” Writer’s notebooks can provide a space for students to:

• Document their lives
• Ask questions
• Brainstorm new ideas and writing topics
• Record meaningful thoughts
• Experiment with new genres
• Take risks in their writing

Teachers should also consider keeping a writer’s notebook as a way to model writing and share their writing with students. Some great sources of ideas about what you might include in a Writer’s notebook include Mrs. Madison’s ideas for organizing a notebook with elementary aged students, a fifth grade teacher’s summary of examples, Stacey Shubitz’s examples of Writing About Reading in the Writer’s Notebook, and a Pinterest collection of assorted notebook examples and writing prompts.  

While I have always used traditional print-based writer’s notebooks with middle school students, high school students, and pre-service teachers, I now use digital tools to facilitate digital writer notebooks.

If you are interested in exploring digital tools for writer notebooks, Penzu, Little Memory, and Penmia are just a few of the online journal applications. While there are differences between these particular digital tools, there are many similarities. Each
journaling tool allows students to not only write entries, but to also organize and categorize their writing using tags. For example, a student could have tags, such as “brainstorming ideas,” “topics I want to explore,” and “creative writing entries.” 

Students can also customize their notebooks with themed backgrounds, highlighting features, and various fonts.  Penzu, Little Memory, and Penmia also allow students to upload photos and clipart to their journal entries. In addition, each tool allows for students to share their writings with others. For example, Penmia is integrated with social media outlets, such as Twitter and Facebook. Students can also share by inviting others to read only certain entries.  Finally, there are upgrades. Penzu also offers Penzu Classroom, which provides additional features such as collaborating and grading options. 

While teachers can select which digital tool would best fit their classroom needs, it’s important to remember that choice is tied to ownership. A teacher might present all three tools and allow students to select the online journaling app they like best.

The benefits of using digital notebooks are many, including if a student begins writing at school, and wants to finish, revise, or edit at home, it is possible with this app. In addition, many digital notebook applications can be used with computers and also mobile devices providing more options for teachers and students. 

You might also be inspired by Kate Messner’s mini-lesson about what to put in a writer’s notebook and some examples of Monday Morning warm-ups provided by freelance writer Jo Knowles as you think of ways your students can use their digital journals in your class. 

 

Kristine E. Pytash is an assistant professor at Kent State University. She can be contacted at kpytash@kent.edu.

 

History comes in many forms: oral stories passed down from generation to generation, images capturing a specific time and place, documents representing written thoughts, and video clips revealing the sounds and motion of real people and events. Each form provides artifacts of the past for historical inquiry and interpretation. For decades, historians have engaged in online historical inquiry by conducting research with multimodal sources (audio clips, still images, video) to create a visual interpretation of the past through documentary film. Since access to digital archives and free video editing software has increased, it is exciting to think about how we might engage students in the online historical inquiry practices used by professional historians.

When implementing digital video composition in history classrooms, students first analyze and interpret sources by repeatedly entering online archives to select or reject sources that will answer their questions. Then, they shape their narrative for the purpose of representing the past through a short student-created documentary. Take a moment to watch the winning student-created documentary for the 2014 National History Day competition.

According to Kathy Swan and Mark J. Hofer, online historical inquiry is most effective when educators scaffold the digital video composition process through four stages: research, documentary treatment, storyboard, and film production. Additionally, providing formative assessment during all four stages through informal conferences and formal rubrics supports students’ historical thinking.

Research—Students enter online digital archives to select and interpret multimodal sources and then take detailed notes to document their interpretation of different historical perspectives. Throughout this stage, the teacher is modeling how to conduct a close reading with annotations and showing short clips of documentaries to analyze the digital video composition process. Educators can access most of the National History Day documentaries for free on YouTube.

Documentary Treatment—Students synthesize their notes into a script to facilitate corroboration and contextualization of sources. Educators may want to scaffold this process by having students work on one section of the script each day (the opening, the events, the defining moment, the conclusion, the resolution). After creating a script outline, students present their documentary treatment with the intention of receiving formative feedback about their main thesis and scene-by-scene overview.

Storyboard Phase—Students create a storyboard by aligning multimodal sources with the script. Next students blend music and recorded narration with filmmaking effects. There are numerous video-editing tools available for composing student-created documentaries that are software-based (iMovie, Garageband, Final Cut Pro, Photo Story 3 and Movie Maker) or Web-based (Animoto, PrimaryAccess, Weavly, Wevideo).

Film Production—Students take their digital video composition from private to public by presenting their work to their peers or outside audiences. By entering student-created documentaries in national contests or uploading their documentaries to public websites like YouTube or TeacherTube, students have the opportunity to add to the general body of historical knowledge.

Repurposing online historical inquiry to include digital video composition may serve as an innovative way to address several academic standards. Creating meaning from multimedia sources are increasingly important learning outcomes as defined by English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS), College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, and National Council for the Social Studies Guidelines (NCSS). Students are expected to analyze how visual elements contribute to the meaning of a text and encouraged to include multimedia components in their presentations. Additionally, there is a stronger emphasis on embedding English Language Arts standards within history classrooms. In today’s high-stakes testing environment, educators do not have the freedom to ignore learning outcomes defined by state and local academic standards, nor do educators have time to teach them in isolation. Since online historical inquiry involves conducting research, asking questions, and analyzing multimodal sources, social studies classes may provide the ideal context for integrating digital video composition to develop 21st century skills and discipline-specific skills simultaneously.

Julie B. Wise is a doctoral student at the University of Delaware. She can be reached at jbwise@udel.edu.

When we talk about dyslexia, we often talk about intervention, but an equally important part of helping a student with dyslexia is providing accommodations. Accommodations are not meant to replace intervention, but are meant to provide the student access to the materials they are capable of understanding, in a format other than eye reading. Three of the five apps described below are considered accommodations, one is a great game to help improve the skills that those with dyslexia often need to strengthen, and one is to help students understand English orthography.

Dyslexia Toolkit: This app is made for those with dyslexia by those with dyslexia. It is meant to provide practical, everyday assistance to those who struggle with day-to-day activities. Take a picture of a piece of writing and the app will read it aloud. For those who need some assistance with menus, directions, and reading what comes up while out and about, this is a perfect solution. As a special touch, backgrounds are optional. The user does have to pay for this service with purchased tokens.

Learning Ally (previously the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic): This is an enormous selection of audio books that can be downloaded to any device. Learning Ally provides books from K-12 curriculum as well as pleasure reading books. They set themselves apart by having humans read the books instead of a computer voice. Learning Ally also provides services for parents and the community. They do require a nominal yearly fee and the user needs to have a documented print-based disability.

Bookshare (Read2GO): Like Learning Ally, Bookshare is a place to go for audio books. They have a vast collection of curriculum and pleasure reading books and you can control the speed of the audio, as well as choose to highlight each word as it is being read. Bookshare is free to those who have a documented print disability.

Etymonline: While this is a website, not an app, it is an important tool to use as we need a place to go to find out why words are spelled a particular way. This website provides the history (etymology) of words. If you have students who are having trouble remembering how to spell  the word “people,” take a trip to Etymonline and you will learn it is related to the word “population” and voila, the “o” in people makes sense. Along with learning about spelling, your students will learn how history, Latin, Greek, French, and Old English have helped our language evolve. It’s far more than just a spelling lesson.

Dyslexia Quest: This is a fun, fun, fun game those who are struggling with reading will love. The idea is there is a Yeti at the top of the mountain and to get there you have to complete five reading skills activities including phonological awareness, working memory, processing speed, visual sequential memory, auditory sequential memory, and visual memory. The game also tracks progress and differentiates the game based on age.

Accommodations in the form of apps and websites are tools allowing those with dyslexia to access information they need to succeed. They can be successful in anything they choose to do, with the right set of tools. These apps are just a few to get started.

Kelli Sandman-Hurley (dyslexiaspec@gmail.com) is the co-owner of the Dyslexia Training Institute. She received her doctorate in literacy with a specialization in reading and dyslexia from San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. She is a trained special education advocate assisting parents and children through the Individual Education Plan (IEP) and 504 Plan process. Dr. Kelli is an adjunct professor of reading, literacy coordinator and a tutor trainer. Kelli is trained by a fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy and in the Lindamood-Bell, RAVE-O and Wilson Reading Programs. Kelli is the Past-President of the San Diego Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, as well as a board member of the Southern California Library Literacy Network (SCLLN). She co-created and produced “Dyslexia for a Day: A Simulation of Dyslexia,” is a frequent speaker at conferences, and is currently writing “Dyslexia: Decoding the System.”

The most recent Keeping Pace report of online and blended learning published by the Evergreen Education Group indicates that blended and fully online modes of learning have moved to the mainstream for K-12 students in the U.S. More than 740,000 students nationwide are enrolled in publicly-funded virtual schools. Blended schools that provide a mix of online and face-to-face instruction exist in 24 states and almost every state offers supplemental online learning options for their students. Four states—Alabama, Florida, Virginia and Michigan—even require an online learning experience for high school graduation.

Importantly, however, these “official” numbers do not reflect the number of teachers who, like Jeff Gerlach, self-publish websites to support their face-to-face instruction, or use free, subscription-based content management platforms such as Edmodo, Google Classroom or Haiku to support their face-to-face students’ learning. Fueling some of this classroom-based blending is the popular flipped classroom model that moves content learning to the online space and reserves class time for problem solving, inquiry and discussion. For Gerlach, who taught for eight years in public school classrooms before transitioning to an instructional design role, a flexible blended model that weaves a learning tapestry of online and face-to-face experiences is the most powerful instructional approach.

“I really always wanted to understand how my students interacted with the online learning objects that I created for them,” Gerlach said. “And I think that informed my designs because learning how a student interacts with a thing naturally helps you to come alongside their natural tendencies. That’s something that I was always cognizant of. I found that I just, I was more thoughtful and reflective as an educator when I utilized online spaces appropriately. And, really, my guiding principle was always to make learning better. I was always thinking, ‘what can I do to make this authentic, and engaging’ and just – that’s why you get into education in the first place, to reach students. I mean, that was the intention.”

Reflecting on his growth as a "blended teacher," Gerlach said he knew he was becoming more effective when he moved beyond forcing students to engage in a certain way. Eventually, he stopped telling students to “post two thoughtful comments in an online discussion” and he just started getting students to create, organically.

But how does one do that? To successfully design and then weave a tapestry of blended learning experiences that make the most of face-to-face and online affordances, teachers must tie together a complex array of thread. The technical, logistical, pedagogical, curricular, disciplinary, developmental, cultural, and contextual threads shape what’s possible for their students’ learning. Jeff noted his best choices for blended learning empowered his students to be in control of their own learning choices. Often, this meant thinking about the most seamless and accessible way for his students to get into the learning—and being willing to abandon a great idea when it became clear it wouldn’t work.

“There were several times where I would be trying out a submission process or a new skill that I wanted students to use around the social studies content,” Gerlach said. “I had the pedagogy that I wanted to go with it, and the tool was cool, and then I’d be making a tutorial showing them how to use it, and I’d realize there were 25 steps and I abandoned making the tutorial and tried to find a different solution because, it just wasn’t within the zone of proximal development for them.”

Based on my conversation with Gerlach, and other exemplary online and blended instructors, I’ve put together a list of key questions that seem to guide their design processes. Which of these are new to you? Which of them could help you weave a richer tapestry of learning across online and blended teaching contexts?

• What skills do my students need to have mastered to benefit from this learning experience? How can I teach them?
• What literacies will enable my students to construct meaning and participate fully in this work? How can I scaffold these?
• How does the sequence of learning need to change in a blended or fully online course? What parts of this activity will work best online? Which parts would work best in class? Why?
• To what extent does the digital context limit participation? To what extent can it expand participation? For whom? Why?
• Online, how can I approximate or even extend the levels of scaffolding and collaboration that would occur for students in my face-to-face classroom?
• What does this digital tool or set of tools offer my students in terms of supports for learning? To what extent can the technologies I’ve chosen enable learning that could not otherwise happen?
• By crafting an online version of this learning experience, what are the risks to learning outcomes? Is it likely for students to get lost? Overwhelmed? How can these risks be mitigated?
• How does this design empower students to regulate their own learning?

Michelle Schira Hagerman, teaches and designs online learning experiences for students in the Master’s of Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. She also coordinates MSU’s Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning.