what is writing and how should we teach it?
DESCRIPTION
Slides from a workshop given by Andrea Lunsford and Brent Ashley at the Bread Loaf School of English, Summer 2013TRANSCRIPT
What is Writing—and How Should We Teach It?
Andrea A. LunsfordBread Loaf School of EnglishJuly 29, 2013
Ralph Fiennes (and lots of others) say Twitter is destroying English
Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, says his online reading has left him unable to concentrate on lengthy texts as he once did.
My research shows that• Young people are writing and reading more than ever
before
• They exhibit great abilities to concentrate intensely –on things that engage them
• They are social through and through, collaborating online every day, every way
• They do not hold to traditional notions of copyright, preferring to share openly
• They are determined to PRODUCE texts, not simply RECEIVE or consume them, and they are doing so in multimedia, multimodal, multilingual ways
• They are using digital tools all the time
The latest PEW/ NWP study supports some of my findings
A majority of teachers responding said use of technology• leads to greater investment in writing• Encourages creativity and personal expression• Provides a wider audience• Makes writing easier and more engaging• Encourages and allows for collaboration
But the same report reveals tensions and contradictions
• Teachers worry that use of digital tools leads to informal language and style “creeping” into academic writing
• Many say digital tools lead students to take shortcuts and not put effort into their writing
• Many consider “formal writing” and “creative writing” to be writing: but not blogging, tweeting, or texting.
So how should we define literacy today?
“[l]iteracy is the ability to express oneself in an effective way through the text of the moment, the prevailing mode of expression in a particular society. Literacy follows language. To be literate . . is to be conversant in the dominant expressive language and form of the age.
--Stephen Apkon, The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens (2013)
In this literacy framework . . . what is writing??
NOT as formal school writing only, but as an epistemic technology that
• creates and performs lines of thought within conceptual frameworks• draws from and expands on conventions and
genres• uses signs and symbols, drawn from multiple
sources• takes advantage of a full range of media• responds to others and other writing/reading
and reading . . . Begets writing
• Participatory reading is both critical and creative, “ a matter not only of knowing how to respond to a text creatively and critically but also of knowing how to create and circulate content.
• Katie Clinton and Jenna McWilliams call such activity “reading with mouse in hand.” Participatory reading online invites writing—a blogpost, creative fan fiction, commentary, remixing, circulating the text to others (see Reading in a Participatory Culture)
“. . . we would not consider people literate in a traditional sense if they could read and not write; we should not consider them to have media literacy if they are critical consumers but do not know how to produce and circulate media.” --Reading in a Participatory Culture, p. 79
Bread Loafers respond to this challenge!
• Listen to and observe students closely; talk to them about their out of class literacies
• Dive in and learn how to use a new program or tool every term
• Introduce as much choice into the curriculum as possible
• Do the read/write/read/write polka: remixes, mashups, parodies, imitations, visual renderings of texts
• Show how expertise in new literacies can transfer to academic writing
• Use good textbooks when you can find them
• Use digital media to find new ways into literature
• Make classroom and assignments participatory through and through
In short, you are . . .
holding on to the best of the old literacy (the ability to sustain an argument, engage a lengthy text) with the best of the new literacies (the participatory, remix culture).
http://everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com/
