Reading and Writing Differently - NCTE [PDF]

Reading and Writing Differently An Informational Overview produced by the National Council of Teachers of English

In This Issue  Voices on Reading and Writing in the Digital Age  Key Terms

Photo: Thompson-McClellan Photography

 Understanding Reading and Writing Differently  Research-Based Recommendations for Approaching Reading and Writing Differently  Further Resources Online

Voices on Reading and Writing in the Digital Age I never read books. I’ll be honest. I can’t remember the last time I read a book. Nowadays, people are so busy that they need to get summaries of it, like Sparknotes. . . . It’s a legitimate source. It pays enough attention to detail that you can get the assignment right, and you can read the whole book in a matter of pages. . . I’ve actually never read, like, Romeo and Juliet, so I read it yesterday in five minutes. I feel like I’ve kind of cheated it. I kind of feel like I owe it to myself to read some of these books, but I just know I don’t have time. I mean if there were 27 hours in a day, I’d read Hamlet. I really would. But it’s only 24. —Greg Bukata, high school student1 Clarissa, a 17-year-old . . . is an avid online role player and spends most of her time on her favorite site, Faraway Lands . . . a text-based site where members weave long and detailed tales about their characters’ quests and adventures . . . a forum in which Clarissa can be creative and hone her writing skills. This publication of the James R. Squire Office of Policy Research offers an informational overview on a topic that affects teaching and learning, and can be found on the NCTE website at http://www.ncte. org/magazine

In this digital hangout teens are not treated as problem-causing kids, but as legitimate players, artists and writers. Unlike in school where teens live in a world of hierarchical relations—where they are graded, run the risk of getting in trouble, and must obey all sorts of status and age-oriented rules, in Faraway Lands Clarissa is evaluated on her creativity and artistic ability.” —C.J. Pascoe, researcher, Digital Youth project2 Continued on page 16

National Council of Teachers of English  November 2008

Copyright © 2008 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

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[R]eading is an irreplaceable activity in developing productive and active adults as well as healthy communities. Whatever the benefits of newer electronic media, they provide no measurable substitute for the intellectual and personal development initiated and sustained by frequent reading. —Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts3 At the core, the digital age presents a paradox. Most teenagers spend a considerable amount of their life composing texts, but they do not think that a lot of the material they create electronically is real writing.

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The mixture of optimism, urgency, and occasional guilt reflected above characterizes conversations about reading and writing today. Digital and online technologies are changing how we view and value these important skills. This shift brings teachers, researchers, policymakers, parents, and students themselves many challenges—and opportunities. Changes have occurred—and quickly. U.S. students now read for shorter periods of time, when compared with students from other nations, and with Americans of the past. And when today’s young adults do read, they often multitask with other media. About 60% of secondary school students combine reading with TV-watching, computer game playing, emailing, or Web surfing. 5 At the same time, non-school writing—text messaging, social networking sites, and blogs— involves students in social and collaborative processes they don’t experience much in school. Fully 93% of U.S. teens say they write outside of school, and 50% of all teens say they enjoy their extracurricular writing. But less than 20% enjoy or are motivated by formal writing instruction. 6 Moving into the digital age requires educators to make connections: between non-school and school-based literacy practices; and between the interdependent skills of reading and writing. Missed connections will be costly for students and educators alike.7 Building classroom connections with students’ (different) extracurricular reading and writing will prepare them to understand, evaluate, organize and produce multimodal texts. Teachers can and should create these connections.

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The Council Chronicle  November 2008

Digitization: puts information into a digital format (in contrast to analog formats like voice, paper text, or printed photograph). This format (such as a computer file or scanned-in photograph) is compatible with electronic devices. Digitization provides access to multiple users in a fast, dynamic, and mobile format. Digital natives: have grown up surrounded by technology, use digital devices to interact regularly with others, and see immersion in digital technology as the norm. Conversely, a digital immigrant began using digital technology later in life and may use a combination of digital and non-digital technologies to access information and communicate with others.8

To understand the state of writing today among youth, we must also understand the technological sphere that teens inhabit and where writing and technology intersect. To fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of writing instruction today, we must fully understand the role that technology plays in this realm. —Pew Survey: Writing, Technology, and Teens

Key Terms

E-reading: employs an electronic medium, such as a computer screen or an electronic book reader (like Amazon’s Kindle or the SonyReader). Many college students now read journal articles and textbooks online but electronic books (e-books) are not yet mainstream in the U.S. Some students appreciate the lower costs and convenience of e-books while others prefer traditional books.9 Grassroots Video: creates and distributes video clips in increasing numbers, because so many people have easy access to recording equipment, software, and video sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video. Instructors can use this technology by pairing research assignments with digital storytelling, providing illustrations, and reporting student commentary.10 Literacy coaches: support content-area teachers and provide ongoing, collaborative professional development focused on targeted areas to improve literacy skills. As teachers face the complex and changing literacy demands of the twenty-first century, coaches offer expertise and opportunities for understanding texts across multiple media types, topics, and subject areas. Effective literacy coaching is participant-driven, sustained, inquiry-based, and reflective.11 Mobile Broadband: gives portable devices such as audio/ video recorders and players, cameras, web browsers, and document editors Internet access. These mobile devices can support project-based learning and data collection.12 Multimodal Interactions: use multiple, interactive communicative pathways (modes). A multimodal interaction engages different senses through keyboard and mouse interaction as well as voice commands and audio feedback to create meaning. Multimodal literacy involves learning how to negotiate the interaction of different meaning-making systems, such as alphabetic, oral, visual, and others. 13

The James R. Squire Office of Policy Research

Web 1.0: primarily one-way communication from static texts on the Internet; users go to Web 1.0 sites to retrieve information. Web 2.0: means using the Internet to collaborate, share information, and interact with other users; this term does not refer to any technological features.

Understanding Reading and Writing Differently Overview: Dimensions of Reading and Writing Differently Visual culture and the proliferation of multimedia texts have changed literacy practices both inside and outside the classroom. To be sure, some aspects of reading and writing have not changed; reading focuses on making meaning with texts, and writing considers audience and purpose. But reading and writing are also being transformed textually, relationally, spatially, and temporally. Textual approaches to reading and writing acknowledge that new media shape the material forms of literacy practices. Relational views of reading and writing attend to

The interactive approach to texts fostered by Web 2.0 is producing a read-write culture different from the read-only approach.

shifts in the quantity and quality of literacy-focused interactions. Spatial dimensions of reading and writing consider locations and conditions that provide both opportunities and constraints. Temporal perspectives focus on how writers use their composing time.

Reading and Writing are changing textually. The nature of texts changes as writers and readers spend increasing amounts of screen time to produce and consume them. Digital texts include “a linear text in digital format, a nonlinear text with hyperlinks, a text with integrated media, and a text with response options.” 14 Digital technologies—the Web and Video Studio; e-books; electronic distribution systems like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader—modify representations of ideas. z Design is increasingly prominent in texts. Comparison of a textbook from the 1930s, a current textbook, and a webpage, all dealing with the same subject matter, shows the increasing importance of design as writers use images and other semiotic resources more frequently. This change brings both gains and losses: Images provide less specificity, but they offer more generality.15 z Texts are incorporating multiple media. The variety of media used by writers creates synergy among different forms of communication, and it increases interactivity and non-linearity for both writers and readers. Visual representations, in particular, can make content more accessible for students who struggle with written texts.16

Reading and Writing are changing relationally. Writing and reading have long been seen as having a social dimension, but the emergence of new media writing is transforming the relationships among readers and writers and between writing and reading themselves. New media texts increase the interactions of both readers and writers. Furthermore, the interactive approach to texts fostered by Web 2.0 is producing a read-write culture different from the read-only approach.17 Continued on page 18


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Reading and Writing are changing spatially. New extracurricular literacy spaces—afterschool clubs, text messaging, multiplayer online gaming, fan fiction, ‘zines, and performance poetry—need connections to traditional reading and writing practices. In addition we need to learn more about literacy practices in fluid, continuous on-line spaces as well as spaces throughout the community.20 z Online reading and writing enable adolescents to broaden their spheres. An English language learner can become multiliterate within the context of online fandom. Similarly, fan sites, fan fiction, and online forums engage students in social interactions and letter-writing. Wikis enable students to write collaborative documents for real audiences. Digital video compositions can convey diverse perspectives and tell compelling stories.21 z Reading and writing outside of school can serve both professional and informal purposes. In many communities students engage in spoken word poetry, improvisational hip-hop, drama, political activism, community bookstores and cafes, live radio interviews, and multimedia presentations outside of the classroom context. Institutions like 826 National foster publication in multiple spaces, including bus placards, on-line pages, and magazine-style publications.22

z New media texts foster increased interactions among readers and writers. Both social interaction and reflective conversation with others is increased by the use of digital technologies. Strategies such as using skype to communicate with experts and classrooms across the globe, sharing research with social bookmarking tools, and mobilizing action through smart mobs facilitated by IM and twitter extend interactions into communities beyond the classroom.18 z New media texts support multiple identities. Writers and readers who interact with new media texts frequently take up new and multiple identities. For example, students who composed blogs in an American literature class created various identities for themselves. This self-transformation helped them develop new ideas about the books they read as well as new ways of communicating ideas to their classmates.19

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z Students in high poverty areas have much less access to the Internet than their more affluent peers. Although many people assume that the digital divide has been closed so that all students have equal access to the internet and other digital technologies, research shows that students from high poverty environments have relatively little access to the internet. Such students are neither distracted by or given academic help by electronic media.23

Reading and writing are changing temporally. Instant messaging, social networking sites, chat rooms, and distance education allow students to communicate with teachers and peers without time constraints.24 The time given to reading instruction is being extended beyond elementary school. z Virtual spaces can collapse temporal boundaries. Adolescents in New Zealand and in the United States can chat on two different days. Students can submit assignments electronically to instructors after hours.


Students’ reading achievement is significantly increased in classrooms— elementary, secondary, and post-secondary— where explicit reading instruction, cooperative learning, and mixed-method approaches are used.

Conversations about course materials can occur in chat rooms, on message boards, and via email for days, weeks, and even an entire semester at a time.25 z Reading instruction is not limited to elementary school or to traditional written texts Students’ reading achievement is significantly increased in classrooms—elementary, secondary, and post-secondary— where explicit reading instruction, cooperative learning, and mixed-method approaches (both variation in group size and in media employed) are used. Literacy coaches facilitate reading instruction in upper grades. Furthermore, reading instruction extends beyond reading books to include multiple modes for encountering information. 26

Research-Based Recommendations for Approaching Reading and Writing Differently For Teachers: z Observe and encourage students’ multiple literacies as meaningful, complex, and relevant. 27 z Recognize varying levels of comfort and exposure to digital technologies.28 z Re-examine the curriculum in light of shifting and multi-modal literacies, including the increase in interactivity, visual representations, and non-linearity for both writers and readers.29

z Provide authentic opportunities for Web 2.0 reading and writing, including activities that engage the current read-write or remix culture.30 z Seek and promote literacy coaches who can offer expertise and opportunities for understanding texts across multiple media-types, topics and subject areas.31 z Create activities that allow students to apply literacy skills to real world problems and knowledge building, including opportunities to publish their work to a global audience.32

Further Resources Online Features of Literacy Programs: A Decision-Making Matrix http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEfiles/magazine/ReadingMatrixFinal.pdf Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/reports/coaching. html The 2007 Survey on Teaching Writing http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/8856/ NWP_2007_Survey_Report.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d

Lessons That Demonstrate Classroom Application of Research-Based Suggestions: Audio Listening Practices: Exploring Personal Experiences with Audio Texts http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id =873 Blogging with Photovoice: Sharing pictures in an Integrated Classroom http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view. asp?id=11064 Comparing Electronic and Print Texts about a Civil War Soldier http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view. asp?id=68

This overview was produced by NCTE’s James R. Squire Office of Policy Research, directed by Anne Ruggles Gere, with assistance from Laura Aull, Hannah Dickinson, Chris Gerben, Tim Green, Stephanie Moody, Melinda McBee Orzulak, and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (all students in the Joint Ph.D. Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan), and Evelyn Moody, an English major at Tennessee State. Continued on page 20


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Endnotes

13

NCTE. (2005). Multimodal literacies. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.ncte.org/edpolicy/multimodal resources/123213.htm

14

Dalton, B. & Proctor, P. (2008). The changing landscape of text and comprehension in the age of new literacies. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D. Leu, New Literacies Handbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

1

Dretzin, Rachel (Producer). (2008). Growing up online [PBS Frontline]. Boston: WGBH Studios.

2

Pascoe, C.J. (2007). “‘You have another world to create’: Teens and online hangouts.” Digital Youth Research. Retrieved January 12, 2007, from http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/ node/104

3

National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read: A question of national consequence. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead.PDF

4

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2008). Writing, technology, and teens. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www. pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP Writing Report FINAL3.pdf

5

National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read

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Bezemer, J., & Kress, G. (2008). Writing in multimodal texts; A social semiotic account of designs for learning. Written Communication 25(2), 166-195.

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O’Brien, D., Beach, R., & C. Scharber (2007). Struggling middle

schoolers: Engagement and literate competence in a reading/ writing intervention class. Reading Psychology, 28, 51-73.

6

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2008). Writing, technology, and teens.

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7

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2008). Writing, technology, and teens.

8

Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. (2008). Are all youth digital natives? (March 5, 2008). Retrieved June 27, 2008, from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives/areallyouthdigitalnatives

Yi, Y. (2008). Relay writing in adolescent online community: Relay writing can serve as a new and valuable window into online literacy as well as adolescent literacy practices outside of school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51(8), 670-681.

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West, K. C. (2008) Weblogs and literacy responses: Socially situated identities and hybrid social languages in English classblogs; an informal online discussion of American literature enhanced and deepened these students’ understandings of and engagement with texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51(7), 588-599.

20

Knobel, M., and Lankshear, C. (2001). Cut, paste, publish: The production and consumption of zines. In D. Alvermann (Ed.), New literacies and digital technologies: A focus on adolescent learners. New York: Peter Lang, Retrieved from http://www. geocities.com/c.lankshear/zines.html

Gregory, C.L. (2008). “But I want a real book”: An investiga-

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Kang, S. (2004, August 24). New options for cheaper textbooks; Under fire for high prices, publishers push alternatives; Renting your Chem book. The Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. D.1. Retrieved June 22, 2008, from the National Newspaper Abstracts database. Coyle, K. (2008). E-Reading. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(2), 160. Foster, A. L. (2008, June 24). The wired campus: Survey finds that only half of college students use e-books. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://chronicle. com/wiredcampus/article/?id=3115&utm_source=at&utm_ medium=en 10

The horizon report. (2008). The New Media Consortium & EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http:// www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

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International Reading Association. (2007). Standards for middle and high school literacy coaches. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/reports/coaching. html

12

The horizon report. (2008). The New Media Consortium.

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Lessig, L. (2005). Free culture: The nature and future of creditibility. New York: Penguin.

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Digital Native. Glossary. (February 17, 2008). Retrieved June 27, 2008, from http://www.digitalnative.org/Glossary#Digital_ Native tion of undergraduates’ usage and attitudes toward electronic books. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 47(3), 266-273.

Ranker, J. (2008). Composing across multiple media: A case study of digital video production in a fifth-grade classroom. Written Communication 25(2), 196-234.

Steinkuehler, C. A. The new third place: Massively multiplayer online gaming in American youth culture. Tidskrift: Journal of Research in Teacher Education 3, 17-32. Leander, K. M., & McKim, K. K. (2003). Tracing the everyday “sitings” of adolescents on the Internet: A strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces. Education, Communication, and Information 3(2), 211-240; (Studying Youth Networks across Timespace, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace/ Synchrony/index.html) 21

Black, R. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fiction. E-learning 3(2), 170-184.

Carrington, V. (2005). Txting: The end of civilization (again)? Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(2),161-175. Steinkuehler, C. A. (2007). Massively multiplayer online gaming as a constellation of literacy practices, E-learning, 4(3), 297-318. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2007.4.3.297


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Adams, L. The write stuff: From cult to culture, Dave Eggers and co. are taking their idealism to the streets. American Prospect 14(2), 39-41. Retrieved February, 2003, from http:// www.826national.org/

Fishman, J., Lunsford, A., McGregor, B., and Otuteye, M. (2005). Performing writing, performing literacy. CCC 57(2). Fisher, M. T. (2006). Earning “dual degrees”: Black bookstores as alternative knowledge spaces. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 37(1), 83-99. Morrell, E., & Rogers, J. (2006). Becoming critical public historians: Students study diversity and access in post Brown v. Board Los Angeles. Social Education, 70(6), 366-369. 23

Moje, E.B., Overby, M., Tysvaer, N., & Morris, K. (2008). The complex world of adolescent literacy: Myths, motivations, and mysteries. Harvard Educational Review 78(1), 107-154.

24

Lujan, H.D. (2002). Commonsense ideas from an online survivor. EDUCAUSE Review, 37(2), 28-33.

25

Gee, J.P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

O’Brien, D.G., & Bauer, E.B. (2005). New literacies and the institution of old learning. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(1), 120-131. 26

Slavin, R.E., Cheung, A., Groff, C., & Lake, D. (2008). Effective reading programs for middle and high schools: A best-evidence synthesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(3), 290-322.

Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (2001). Cut, paste, publish: The production and consumption of zines. In D. Alvermann (Ed.), New literacies and digital technologies: A focus on adolescent learners. New York: Peter Lang, Retrieved from http://www.geocities. com/c.lankshear/zines.html. Steinkuehler, C. A. (2005). The new third place. Leander, K. M. & McKim, K. K. (2003). Tracing the everyday “sitings” of adolescents on the Internet: A strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces. Education, Communication, & Information 3(2), 211-240.; (Studying youth networks across timespace, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace/ Synchrony/index.html) Black, R. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fiction. E-learning 3(2), 170-184. Carrington, V. (2005). Txting: The end of civilization (again)? Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(2), 161-175. Steinkuehler, C.S. (2007). Massively multiplayer online gaming. 28

Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. (2008). Are all youth digital natives? (March 5, 2008). Retrieved June 27, 2008, from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives/areallyouthdigitalnatives

29

Ranker, J. (2008). Composing across multiple media.

30

Yi, Y.(2008). Relay writing in adolescent online community: Relay writing can serve as a new and valuable window into online literacy as well as adolescent literacy practices outside of school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51(8), 670-681.

31

International Reading Association. (2007). Standards for middle and high school literacy coaches. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/reports/coaching. html

27

Yardi, S. (2008). Living out their social lives online. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/ node/113.

West, K. C. (2008). Weblogs and literacy responses: Socially situated identities and hybrid social languages in English classblogs; an informal online discussion of American literature enhanced and deepened these students’ understandings of and engagement with texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51(7), 588-599.

32

NCTE (2005). Multimodal Literacies. Retrieved from http://www. ncte.org/positions/statements/123213.htm

©2008 by the National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder. Additional copies of this publication may be purchased from the National Council of Teachers of English at 1-877-369-6283. A full-text PDF of this document may be downloaded free for personal, non-commercial use through the NCTE website: http://www.ncte.org (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).


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