To Teach the Journey, in Comics / Concluding Questions:

1. A question is posed by a student on page 965: “Why does the wheel go around?” In reference to Mr. Quinn’s response, how would you have answered this question if you were a teacher? Has taking this class altered your potential response? Connect the comic strip ideals with Friere’s problem-posing model of education. Give examples from your own educational career.
   

2. Using examples from William Ayers's comic excerpts and other readings, explain how the gap between students and teachers can be bridged.
   

3. To what extent does the literacy of a comic strip differ from the literacy of a case study, for example? Be sure to define your meaning of “literacy.”
   

4. What have you learned about education and literacy practices as a result of this class? Include examples from class discussions, this comic and other readings, and/or your site volunteering experience.

Poetics of the Oppressed Questions

• "There are many languages besides those that are written or spoken." What does Boal mean by this, and how does it tie into the discussions we've had in class about new definitions of literacy? Do you agree with his statement? Why or why not?
• What are the two different kinds of poetics that Boal discusses before explaining the type of poetics introduced by ALFIN? How is the "poetics of the oppressed" he talks about more appropriate for a program like ALFIN designed to teach literacy?
• What is the "technique for breaking repression" that Boal describes on page 150? How is this related to his claim that the theater is "rehearsal of revolution"?

Katz: Growth in motion QUESTIONS

1. As an educator, how would you try to incorporate the idea of embodied learning and various communication modes in the classroom in order to aid all students in engaging with learning material on a deeper level?

2. What do you think is meant when one is “learning how to learn” (reader p. 942)?

3. In what ways can you incorporate more opportunities for reflection in the classroom to understand one’s development?

-- Kathy Shen

Questions for week 13

 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.

Mendelson & Papacharissi QUESTIONS

- Why do you think that women tend to post more photos (and in more settings) than men? How do you think that this statistic applies to/parallels with gender differences in education?

- Photos inside the classroom are rarely posted on networking sites such as Facebook. Why do you think this is? Do you think that frequency of photos appearing in classrooms varies between campuses? Why

- Does the way you define your identity on Facebook reflect the way you act in class? Why or why not? Is there a fear to be portrayed to others (who do not attend your university) to appear ‘smart’ and therefore ‘uncool’? How does this define our personal literacy?

-- Kathy Shen

Hull & Stornaiuolo: Literate Arts in a Global World QUESTIONS

- How do programs like Space2Cre8 parallel having snail mail pen-pals? Is interacting with/meeting people over social networking sites like Space2Cre8 more or less beneficial to having snail-mail pen-pals?

- Using the key activities and processes mentioned, how has your “profile” on social networking sites you use changed as you have grown older? Why do you think your profile has morphed over time?

- What did you think of Monica and Rahim’s conversation and how would you have responded? Would you have acted differently? Why?

- As an educator, how would you incorporate social media/networking sites into the classroom and learning environment?

-- Kathy Shen