Changing Horizons

Finding a cliff by the sea

// September 26th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Literacy, Technology, Work

Thank you to everybody who sent really great feedback about the Brer Rabbit critical literacy project I really appreciate it. I’ve also heard that it was being talked about at the Decatur Book Festival after The Wren’s Nest (the birth place museum of Joel Chandler Harris in the USA) picked up on the project. All of this really helps raise the awareness of critical literacy with real-world texts.

As soon as the Brer Rabbit project was over I started to think about other big projects that I could build into our curriculum.  This blog post brings together some of my threads of thought for the new project.

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Creating Space for Critical Literacy

// August 15th, 2009 // 10 Comments » // Literacy, Technology

A few months ago I wrote about using texts of popular culture as a means of exploring issues of racial prejudice within a critical literacy framework. I then said I would reveal more about a project I was planning based around the issue. With a hectic workload and conferences to attend, I completely forgot… so now that the project is actually over I am able to give more detailed account.

I really enjoy reading Jackie’s blog and remembered when she wrote about Disney’s track record of racial insensitivity and in particular a website she referenced which listed the most racist Disney characters. According to the site the second most racist character is Uncle Remus from the Song of the South. The film includes animated segments of stories of Brer Rabbit and friends as well as featuring aspects of life on a Southern USA plantation. Disney have never released the film on home video or DVD in the US in its entirety because they fear its portrayal of slavery, and some of its content, may be misconstrued. The character of Uncle Remus is a fictional storyteller created by Joel Chandler Harris who collected and published the stories after hearing them from slaves he met on his travels. The movie does clearly portray, maybe unintentionally, the racial segregation after the American Civil War. Does this make it racist? Is the portrayal of Uncle Remus racist? Does this prevent us from watching it or even talking about it (something Disney is currently doing)? Should space be created to talk about such issues, especially in the classroom? (more…)

Multiliteracies from MultiMartin

// July 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Literacy, Work

I have finally got around to uploading the paper I presented at the UKLA Conference earlier in the month. It was presented as part of a symposium about integrating digital worlds in the classroom with Lynda Graham, Angela Colvert and Jackie Marsh.

The paper explores some of the work that Orange Class has completed over the past year in relation to film making, animation as a critical practice and the use of Twitter as a means of evaluation and reflection. All of the examples are linked to the work of key literacy figures and call upon theories of multiliteracies, multimodality, critical literacy and popular culture.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER

UKLA International Conference 2009

// April 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

I will be presenting at the UKLA International Conference in July, held at Greenwich University. I will be speaking as part of a symposium with Lynda Graham, Angela Colvert and Jackie Marsh about teachers and children shaping digital worlds. Here’s my abstract:

Multiliteracies and meaningful learning contexts in the primary classroom

Martin Waller
Primary School Teacher
Lead Researcher for the Multiliteracies Learning Initiative

Digital technologies provide a range of modes of meaning, which allow learners to communicate and share information in a range of diverse ways for different purposes and audiences. During this presentation I will report findings from ongoing action research in my Year 2 classroom. Multiliteracies, multimodality and critical literacy are at the heart of our curriculum through projects centred on meaningful learning contexts with real-life purpose. Influences of popular culture are embedded in what we do through projects based on film, animation and other new literacy practices. During this presentation I will share work based on a Japanese anime where the children in my class created their own storybook world using digital technologies. The children subverted the original text to incorporate elements of western fairytales and produce their own ‘cross-cultural’ film text. I will also talk about the innovative structures I have developed to aid children in their multimodal analysis. In turn this has had deep effects on writing achievement as the children reshape, reconfigure and combine modes to make new meaning with real audience and purpose in mind.

 Hope to see some of you there!

Consumers or Producers?

// February 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Life, Literacy

I first started video editing when I was fifteen. One of my first big projects was to rework the video introduction of the TV programme Survivor to include teachers for my school intranet. On reflection this practice links with Barbara Comber’s work on critical literacy (Comber, 2001). She talks about subverting texts and redesigning them for real-world use to have a particular effect – this appears to be what I did at the age of fifteen.

A quick search on YouTube shows that others have also chosen to do this. ‘Scary Mary’ and ‘Shining‘ are two such examples. These users (and I include myself) are influenced by texts of popular culture and subvert them to add their own mark. What I find interesting is this is an increasingly frequent technique used by advertisers especially the UK television channel E4. Above is a video of an advertisement for the film ‘Entrapment’ where they have chosen select clips and a sarcastic narration to present the actor in a completely different way. Advertisers try to influence our decisions, but are we starting to influence theirs?

A High School Grumble

// February 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life, Literacy

I have never subscribed to the notion of popular culture and new technologies bringing about a ‘toxic childhood.’ I have always believed (and still do believe) that schooled literacy should take account of new and varied literacy practices so that children can make meaning through the modes that society provides.

However, yesterday I visited ‘Toys ‘R Us’ (a different story) and was greeted by a huge multimodal display that incorporated the brand of High School Musical. I have nothing against this as a film (in fact I actually enjoyed the first one a great deal) but something struck me as slightly concerning about the multimodal advertising techniques being used. I then recalled how my class are boreding on obssession with this particular ‘brand.’ What started as a simple TV movie has escalated into a brainwashing corporate cult. I even saw branded make-up accessories for children… let’s not even go there.

This reminds me of something I read in Eve Bearne and Helen Wolstencroft’s book about how although children engage with multimodal texts at home they only have a subconscious understanding of them and accept their meaning at a superficial level. This appears to be the case with ‘HSM.’ If ever there was a need for Critical Literacy in schools… it is now!