Challenging the tyranny of the five‐paragraph essay: teachers and students as semiotic boundary workers in classroom and digital space

This article addresses several challenges faced by educators and students in English classrooms in the US–Mexico borderlands region that will resonate with educators more broadly. I present how Ms Smith, the predominately Latino students in her high school writing class and I moved beyond what Ms Smith called the “tyranny of the five‐paragraph essay” used for standardised tests so that students were able to make personally and academically meaningful arguments in their writing. I examine how we collaboratively mobilised interests, motivations and diverse semiotic resources across out‐of‐school and in‐school contexts in the process of developing multimodal and hybrid genres and texts. First, I describe how Ms Smith and I crafted hybrid, digitally mediated classroom spaces and essay assignments informed by students' identity and literacy practices within digital networks. Next, I examine how three Latina students used semiotic resources and issues circulating in the different spaces of their lives to confidently argue their perspectives within the hybrid genres we created. From this collaborative work, I suggest that thinking of students and teachers as “semiotic boundary workers” provides a useful framework for practitioners who want to enable young people to draw on their practices and digital tools and engage their expansive, networked and creative affordances in academic contexts.     

Inequitable variations: a review of research in technology,literacy studies and special education

This essay presents the results of a review of research published in the last 10 years on the uses of what we term ‘productive’ digital technologies in special education contexts. There is little overlap between research on productive technologies such as digital storytelling in mainstream contexts and research on technology use to support literacy learning in special education classrooms. Analysis centred on theoretical frameworks, research methods, educational contexts and technologies used with children and youth labelled with special needs. The initial sample of refereed journal articles (n = 1,132) was reduced to 14 studies for review. Results suggest large variations in the knowledge base about why, how, when and to what effects productive technologies might be used with children labelled with special needs. The essay presents further areas for theorising and research in the juncture of these separate fields to address the inequitable variations and social justice issues engendered by current research and practice.     

Sharing personalised stories on iPads: a close look at one parent–child interaction

Little is known about how specific iPad applications affect parent–child story‐sharing interactions. This study utilises a case‐study approach to provide an insight into the patterns of interaction, which emerge when a mother and her 33‐month‐old daughter share a self‐created, audio‐visual ‘iPad story’. Multimodal analysis allowed us to gain insights into the complex interaction patterns orchestrated in this new, personalised story‐sharing medium. We found that the app‐mediated story‐sharing context produced a harmonious and smooth interaction, achieving a coherence that is typical of ‘happy’ oral stories. We suggest that the observed interaction resembles that of experiencing a piece of art, and we highlight the need for a holistic approach to understanding the implications for research and practice of children's interactions during multimedia story sharing.     

Literacy,media and multimodality: a critical response

In recent years, literacy educators have increasingly recognised the importance of addressing a broader range of texts in the classroom. This article raises some critical concerns about a particular approach to this issue that has been widely promoted in recent years – the concept of ‘multimodality’. Multimodality theory offers a broadly semiotic approach to analysing a range of communicative forms. It has been widely taken up by literacy educators, initially at an academic level, and has begun to find its way into policy documents, teacher education and professional development and classroom practice. This article presents some criticisms, both of the theory itself and of the ways in which it has been taken up within the wider context of curriculum change. It argues that, in its popular usage, multimodality theory is being appropriated in a way that merely reinforces a long‐standing distinction between print and ‘non‐print’ texts. This contributes in particular to a continuing neglect of the specificity of moving image media – media that are central to the learning and everyday life experiences of young children. Drawing on recent classroom‐based research, the article concludes by offering some brief indications of an alternative approach to these issues.     

The digital reading path: researching modes and multidirectionality with iPads

This paper reports a study that examines the integration of tablet technologies such as iPads into literacy lessons to investigate how reading and meaning‐making occur within this digital medium. Specifically in this paper, we discuss the concept of reading paths as applied to physical and cognitive planes of meaning‐making. The paper reports on data collected as part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project involving researchers from Canada, the United States and Australia. The study is currently under way in schools in the three different countries where the researchers are observing students in classrooms in primary and secondary schools. The research is designed with a mixed methods approach coding video footage of dyads to enable close study of their interaction during literacy tasks incorporating iPads. Our findings show that the affordances of touch technology allow for multimodal, multidirectional reading paths. By tracking students' interactions with the digital platform through touch, it is possible to see navigation as evidence of the relationship between material and cognitive processes, which fosters metatextual awareness. These aspects of modes and new literacies construct a dynamic materiality for students' reading and writing. As a result, we propose that current awareness of the mode of gesture needs to be expanded to take into account haptic ways of learning.     

The 'screen-size' art: Using digital media to perform poetry

In this paper, I examine the immersive and performative potential of new media for reading, writing and representing poetry to encourage an exploration of the relationship between text, image and sound and discuss how these are used to mediate meaning making. Based on the premise that poetry is meant to be lifted from the printed page and experienced in multimodal ways, the research explores the notion of poetry as digital performance.     

Teaching poetry: writing poetry — teaching as a writer

This paper considers the ways in which the authentic strategies and struggles of the creative writer in formulating a text, can be translated into classroom activity. It explores four activities which derived from my own practice as a writer, and demonstrates the process of adapting, trialling and evaluating them in a range of different classroom settings. The paper attempts to answer the questions: w ere these ‘real‐life’ processes successful as a basis for learning activities? How did the learners respond and what can we learn from heir responses? The paper concludes with the premise that being congruent with one's own ‘real‐life’ strategies can indeed lead to valid learning activities, and that these activities help us to deconstruct many of the myths about what it means to be creative.     

The Story Engine: offering an online platform for making ‘unofficial’ creative writing work

This article describes the outcomes of a research project conducted at the Ministry of Stories (a London‐based writing centre) which sought to develop an online, mentor‐assisted, writing platform. Across a 3‐month period, at four different sites across the UK, more than a hundred Year 7 pupils took part in the project, using the platform to write stories and get feedback from mentors who came from a variety of backgrounds. For reasons of space, pupil/mentor interactions are not discussed extensively in the article; however, these stories were collected and analysed alongside a range of other survey and interview data to establish how creative writing might be developed through online mentoring, the use of an online interface and the intersection of both these tools. The article seeks to answer some questions raised by the data collected in the project, and in turn, uses both the questions and the data to interrogate some of the discourses which surround the teaching of creative writing both in and outside the classroom, and in particular the tensions that occur between the teaching of writing skills, ‘official versions’ of writing in the classroom and children's use of their own cultural resources in creative writing.     

The evolution of reading in the age of digitisation: an integrative framework for reading research

In the course of digitisation, the range of substrates for textual reading is being expanded to include a number of screen‐based technologies and reading devices, such as e‐readers (e.g. Kindle) and tablets (e.g. iPad). These technologies have distinctly different affordances than paper has. Given that textual reading is at the same time likely to remain important as a cultural practice, and is undergoing massive change as digital screens are supplementing paper – with the potential to replace it as the dominant substrate – there is an urgent need to investigate what effects such change might have on the reading of different kinds of texts, for different purposes. This article proposes the need for an integrative, transdisciplinary model of embodied, textual reading accounting for its psychological, ergonomic, technological, social, cultural and evolutionary aspects. The envisaged model aims to be partly explanatory, in the sense that it aligns and integrates existing knowledge, and partly exploratory, in the sense that it points to blank spots in our knowledge where further research is needed. The model will thus serve to guide the planning of such further research, and to make research more compatible and research outcomes more widely useable.     

Building the mobile hub: mobile literacies and the construction of a complex academic text

This paper contributes a definition of mobile literacy. This is worthwhile because although mobile, internet‐enabled devices are increasingly prevalent in many people's lives, mobile literacy appears to be under‐theorised and lacking definition. After giving an overview of the scale and nature of mobile device use, the paper develops the definition through building on an existing body of work which seeks to define literacies, digital literacies and mobile learning. The definition takes account of the mobility of technology, of learners, and of learning. A systematic multimodal analysis of a complex undergraduate text, in the form of a conference‐style poster, is then undertaken in order to exemplify the definition offered. The analysis attends to both the semiotic resources exploited by the text's author and the wider context the text is created within. Interview data complements that constructed through analysis of the text itself. Combining these two data sources reveals the ideational, interpersonal and textual/organisational meanings communicated by the text, and how mobility is a contextual factor which is fundamental to the literacy practices employed by the author to convey these meanings.     

The literacy practices of vocational training in Carpentry and Automotive Technology

Prior studies indicate that vocational students’ literacy practices are more demanding than is generally recognised. Employing a view of literacy acquisition as socialisation, we investigated the literacy practices of trades training in Carpentry and Automotive Technology, by interviewing tutors and examined course books and student writing. A register of spoken language was identified, which differed from everyday language in being highly technical, reflecting specialist knowledge and indexing an identity as a member of a trade. Students were found to read a wide variety of texts, including complex professional texts such as Building Standards, Specifications, Codes and manufacturer’s instructions, as well as tutor-produced course books. Writing was less prominent and included assignment questions, and tests and some preparation for professional writing. Further research into the oral practices of vocational study, based on observation of pedagogical practice, is suggested. Implications for vocational pedagogy include a focus on support for reading.     

Poetry education research as an anchorage of thought: using poetry as interview stimulus material

Interviews in qualitative research may sometimes employ stimulus material as a means of eliciting richer data. However, scant consideration has been given to the use of poetry for this purpose, especially within the field of poetry education research. This article seeks to address the gap in the literature by illustrating how the use of poetry as interview stimulus material can help poetry education research to clarify the connection between teachers’ and students’ beliefs and practices in relation to poetry and pedagogy. Depending on the nature of their inquiry and context, poetry education researchers can choose relevant poems that have the potential to stimulate a discussion about specific beliefs and practices.     

Railways,rebellions and Rage Against The Machine: adolescents' interests and meaning‐making in the creation of multimodal identity texts

This paper draws on a Canadian qualitative case study grounded in multiliteracies theory to describe the meaning‐making processes of four students aged 13‐14 years as they created history projects. Students were invited to explore curriculum content in self‐chosen ways and to produce presentations in a range of formats. The data we present and discuss were collected through participant observation and in‐situ interviews with four students who selected digital formats. We examine these data using multiliteracies concepts: specifically multimodality and identity texts. We argue that multimodal literacy practices have potential to bridge gaps between students' in‐school and out‐of‐school lives and underscore the importance of allowing students to draw on their out‐of‐school identities and interests to guide explorations of curriculum content.     

Powerful students,powerful words: writing and learning in a poetry workshop

A poetry workshop can present opportunities to integrate students' knowledge and perspectives in classroom contexts, encouraging the use of language for expression, communication, learning and even empowerment. This paper describes how adolescent students respond to a poetry workshop in an English classroom centred on teaching writing that is based on their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of events beyond the classroom. Informed by New Literacy Studies and third space theories, ethnographic methods of participant observation were used to document an eighth‐grade urban public school classroom where a community member implemented a weekly programme using music lyrics and poetry for an entire school year. Findings illustrate how the poetry workshop encouraged students to contribute to the classroom learning context and engage critically with ideas that were relevant to their lives. Collaborating with a community member and tapping in to the powerful ways of using language to communicate led to important learning opportunities for students in this classroom. Poetic devices such as rhyme, rhythm, metaphor and wordplay enhanced and supported students' own language practices; students used these sophisticated writing strategies as they worked to convey their ideas, experiences and opinions.     

Creativity in events and practices: a lens for understanding children's multimodal texts

This article argues that it is possible to look at children's texts in relation to the lens of literacy events and practices from the New Literacy Studies, and apply this perspective to an understanding of creativity. Teachers can then use the possibilities within a text to ask children different kinds of questions. Drawing on a 2‐year ethnographic study of a partnership between a group of artists and teachers in an Infants School in England, and their impact on children's text‐making, the paper seeks to understand the ways in which such a text can be identified as creative. A detailed analysis of one child's text is offered as evidence of this argument. This account is set within a project to map children's play in a Foundation classroom.     

A boy who would rather write poetry than throw rocks at cats is also considered to be wanting in masculinity: poetry,masculinity, and baiting boys

This paper draws on research on masculinities to examine poetry as a socially and culturally gendered genre. Situated in the context of the current ‘crisis’ around boys’ underachievement in school, attention is drawn to the problematic understanding of poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. Attention is further drawn to the way in which poetry, when offered up to boys, is often imbued with traditional and outdated definitions of masculinity. We illustrate the extent to which hegemonic versions of masculinity are implicated in discourses about poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. This is accomplished by undertaking a critical analysis of various sources such as Odean's (1998) Great Book for Boys, and Scieszka's (2005) Guys Write for Guys Read, as well as Iggulden and Iggulden's (2006) The Dangerous Book for Boys. Historical perspectives which highlight the role of sexologists in forging an association between poetry and effeminacy are also used to illuminate the legacy associated with the treatment of poetry somehow discordant with dominant understandings about boys’ developing masculinity. In this way, we provide a richer understanding of poetry and its discursive relationship to masculinity.     

李益诗歌创作心态浅析

李益是中唐前期著名的诗人。经历"安史之乱"的中唐社会在社会状况和时代精神方面都发生了巨大变化,李益在社会环境的影响下,诗歌创作表现出复杂的心态,带有明显的时代烙印。     

时代精神碎片的整理方式 --20世纪90年代诗歌简论

20世纪90年代以来的诗坛主要活跃着四个写作群体：主旋律诗歌写作群体、“知识分子写作”群体、“民间写作”群体和“边缘性写作”群体.在历史总体性解体的情势下,诗歌写作的题材一步步转向边缘的、幽暗的、具体的、形而下的领域,具有碎片性质.为了整合新的写作资源,诗人们纷纷调整自己的写作立场和诗学趣味,开始以个性化的抒情方式介入复杂的现实生活,使得当代诗坛呈现出一种诗歌美学形态多元共生的繁复局面.西川、王家新、欧阳江河、伊沙、侯马、臧棣、沈苇、冉冉、杨晓民等的诗歌则在不同的向度上展示出了90年代以来的诗歌写作实绩和特征.     

Student planners in school and out of school: who is managing whom?

This paper examines the use of student planners (agendas) with elementary school students. It asks how teachers, students and parents in two classrooms engage in the literacy practice of using student planners. A literacy object originally introduced to manage schoolwork in and out of school for students with learning difficulties, planners are now used widely in school districts across North America. In this cross‐case analysis, planners are shown to be used for a number of functions beyond organising students’ schoolwork. The student planners were tools through which teachers, parents and publishers extended their spheres of influence – objects used to manage others when an individual was not physically present to do so and objects used to gain entry to the classrooms and homes for particular purposes.     

Exploring ‘learning lives’: community,identity, literacy and meaning

This article explores the term ‘learning lives’ by reporting on three research projects conducted by members of the Oslo‐based research group TransActions. By stressing the term ‘learning lives’ within a range of social ‘educational’ contexts, the article aims to look at learning within and across different learning sites exploring the positioning and repositioning of learner identity across these different ‘locations’. We emphasise how the individual learner relates to other people and objects, drawing on deeper trajectories or narratives of the self as it exists within and outside the immediate learning contexts. We pay attention to processes occurring between people which we find significant for the individual's identity, literacy and learning. By doing so we hope to make explicit the mobilisation of resources within and across specific contexts, in the ‘learning lives’ of Norwegian youngsters.