Compelling Narratives Aid Students in Reading the Word and the World
Texts that are connected to “real and imagined material and social worlds” (Gee, 2001, p. 716) include the type that many readers have always found appealing: powerfully engaging narratives. Engaging with a compelling narrative is what Morrison (1994) called “radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created” (p. 27). Readers can thus be transformed by their encounters with a story in ways that can alter habits of thinking or living. Consequently, a narrative in the form of a graphic novel can potentially influence students’ lives. Reading these powerful narratives gives students a sense of ownership over these texts through their intellectual and emotional engagement with them. Omega Replica Watches
A multiliteracies pedagogy fosters students’ critical awareness of multimodal texts by using students’ own resources. The development of literacy and critical literacy need not be independent of each other; in fact, they are mutually constitutive in a classroom that emphasizes the need to read the world in which we live. Wide reading of high-interest stories aids literacy development, and a critical literacy approach to these stories on substantive topics also deepens students’ engagement by connecting these stories to students’ own experiences. This can encourage critical reflection, which in turn leads to students’ acknowledging their own power as co-creators of knowledge in the classroom and beyond.
Using a graphic novel like Maus in the classroom to teach how language works both for and against people can enable students to acquire the necessary critical literacy that will, as Freire and Macedo (1987) affirmed, aid them in the important tasks of reading both the world and the word.
Distance education technology is experiencing exponential growth (National Center for Education, Statistics, 2003). Indeed, there is a great deal of optimism about the potential of distance education technology (Johnson, 2006; Larreamendy-Joerns & ileinhardt, 2006) and, until recently, this type of instruction has typically been asynchronous in nature. However, synchronous interaction through online chatting and videoconferencing has made it possible I for students to feel as if they are part of a real classroom learning environment by providing immediate contact, motivation, and clarification of meaning (Steeples, Jones, & Goodyear, 2002).
With the availability of free software programs and the Internet, videoconferencing occurs with no satellite or long-distance charges. Webcams costing less than US$100 facilitate face-to-face meetings with people anywhere in the world. For those who desire audio in combination with video, a headset with a microphone allows individuals to collectively correspond with voice and images. In addition, the audio and visual components can be supplemented with written communication via a chatting module or a chalkboard feature, permitting both people to view messages as they are composed.
As a result, the use of videoconferencing is on the rise. For example, it is used to assist with diagnosing physical ailments and prescribing treatment for people located in areas that do not have medical specialists (Bakalar, 2007; Barthelemy, 2007). The construction industry has used this technology to communicate, monitor, and control building construction (Nuntasunti & Bernold, 2002). Dell (2002) reported that school personnel have used videoconferencing to speak with authors, attend virtual fieldtrips, and facilitate school-to-school teacher partnerships (for information about the use of videoconferencing in schools, see www.gsn.org). In addition, videoconferencing has been used extensively for socialization. For example, the latest research in adolescents’ use of videoconferencing software for social interaction found that 57% of the 1,060 adolescents surveyed used webcams and 32% periodically integrated microphones (Peter, Valkenburg, & Schouten, 2007). Replica Oris Watches
Although videoconferencing is widely used in a variety of professions in various capacities, it has had little application at university-based reading clinics as a means to deliver one-to-one tutoring instruction to students who, to date, have not had the opportunity to access these services.
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