BCTELA

by Krista Ediger

I've been teaching thematically for the nine years I've been in the classroom, but when I heard Jeff Wilhelm speak at the SFU Literacy Continuum Conference last August, his discussion of the importance of using essential questions to frame and focus units led me to reconsider my unit planning. I had been hearing murmurings of backwards design, and was involved in a group planning process two years ago for Humanities 8 which followed many of the principles of backwards design without my being aware of it, and I worked extensively with a partner on English 11 three years ago tackling big assessment questions, but I knew that it was time to explore the process further. The key difference between the unit planning I was used to and backwards design is the piece where, before deciding on instructional activities, teachers articulate the summative assessments they will use to determine whether or not their students have met their stated enduring understandings or learning outcomes.

Last year, I followed much the same program I taught the year before for English 12, and was feeling increasingly ineffective. In February, I decided I needed to plan the rest of my grade 12 course more purposefully, and so enlisted the help of a district consultant, Joanne Panas. In this article, I'll touch on our planning process, and then outline the unit itself, which grew into a multi-faceted, three month unit on story that touched on literary analysis of poetry and short stories, small group discussion, spoken word and personal narratives. Of course there are things I'll change next year when I teach this again, but it's a unit I will teach again, and some of the principles I practised in this unit in both the planning and implementing stages are ones that I am coming to understand as increasingly important in all my teaching: backwards design (identifying clear enduring understandings, essential questions, summative and formative assessments - all prior to the creation of daily lessons), planning with a partner or team, explicit teaching using modeling, gradual release, and differentiated instruction.

Our Planning Process

Before we began formally planning this unit, we had some conversations that focused on materials and activities. In particular, I was interested in a poetry unit Joanne had done last year with her English 10's that used text sets in a literature circle format. I also wanted to incorporate some spoken-word poetry that had been successful with my students in the past. We had a great conversation about how each of us might open a unit on short stories; from this came one of our big ideas: "Why do people tell stories?" After these informal chats, we set up a meeting to plan with a focus on backwards design. To our first meeting, I brought my copy of Understanding by Design, by Wiggins and McTighe; Joanne brought an activity from her staff meeting the day before, which was a boiled-down version of chapter 1 of Wiggins's and McTighe's book.

We began by determining the enduring understandings we wished to address, and these were based on our knowledge of the new ELA 8-12 IRP and its increased focus on oral language. At the same time, we worked out our essential questions. It's important to note that this was something of a back-and-forth process, not a linear one. We wrestled with phrasing, pared down ideas, checked the book, and moved items from one category to another. Once we had these ideas down, we looked at the skills, knowledge, and attitudes we wanted the students to acquire. Though somewhat "old-school," these last three areas are still valid organizers with their practical and concrete nature, but we realized they should come after the enduring understandings and essential questions are determined.

Our next focus was on assessment. For this part, we decided to go back to our two enduring understandings. We created a chart that helped us see how for each of the enduring understandings, we would have a formative piece and a summative piece. We found it easier to divide the enduring understandings up somewhat, as you can see in our final chart. This gave us a good idea of what we would have students do to demonstrate their acquisition of the big ideas. Again, this was not a linear process; we excitedly came up with ideas for instruction and assessment as we chatted, and wrote them down separately for the next section. At times it was hard to keep focused on just the key assessments. As we worked, we realized that we wanted to weave stories and poetry together; from that came the idea of choosing poems for the literature circles that had something to do with the idea of "story," which linked back to our essential questions.

Next, we needed to get a sense of the flow of the unit-how would we instruct and assess students so as to move them toward these final assessments? Actually, it was by then a fairly simple process. I began by sketching out a flow for the unit, incorporating instruction using modeling and gradual release, as well as formative assessment. Together we brainstormed ways to flesh this out, while continually checking back to our big ideas. Once this flow was pretty well set, we went back through it to make sure we were following a clear pattern of instruction and practice, followed by assessment. When we created the chart from our notes, the purpose of each activity was clear.

We met again about a week and a half later; by that point, I had just begun the unit with a class on "stories" - the history of story, their purpose and power, how their roles have changed. We also talked about narrators and points of view and truth and perspective before sharing some of the stories we tell often from our own lives. Then we looked at three short stories: "Man from the South" by Roald Dahl, "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov and "The Chaser" by John Collier, and did a variety of pre/during/post reading strategies, followed by discussion that linked us back to our opening questions and the essential questions of the unit. Joanne and I began our second formal planning session by brainstorming other possible stories for later in the unit. Then we worked on the shift to poetry. We decided to do a "fishbowl" with three teachers, Joanne, me and Gordon Powell, the teacher-librarian at McRoberts, using a new poem for each of my three English 12 classes; in addition, each of the administrators was invited to participate in the fishbowl sessions, and we ended up having an administrator at each one. We also worked on the poetry literature circle idea, and began to think of suitable poems as well as how to make up the text sets. Because we had done so much work last time on getting a clear idea of our focus for the unit, we were able to spend more time on the actual instruction, materials, and student activities we would use. We were also able to take our initial notes from the first planning day and make changes and additions to them to reflect what was happening in the classroom.

This has been a great process, and has solidified for us a few key points: two minds (or more) are better than one; the process of backward design is very practical, but it's not linear; and there is no "one right way" to incorporate the key concepts of understanding by design into your own planning. It doesn't matter what route you take, as long as you get to the desired destination.

 

The following is the result of our initial work with backwards design.

  

Part 1: THE BIG IDEAS
Enduring Understandings

• Students will understand how to engage with and respond to literature and ideas, and to interact with others around those ideas, orally and in writing.
• Students will understand that stories have a variety of purposes in our lives and society, and a variety of effects on us.
  

Essential Questions

• Why do we tell stories?
• What are the ways we tell stories?
• What stories do I (students) want to tell? Skills:

Students will…

• Respond personally to literature and ideas
• Participate appropriately and thoughtfully in small-group and large-group discussions
• Make appropriate choices in diction, language, rhythm, and structure when presenting
• Write analytical paragraphs and essays about short stories and poems

Knowledge: Students will…

• Review and use the elements of literature and literary devices of short stories and poems

Attitudes: Students will…

• Gain an appreciation of the purpose of stories in our lives and culture n Demonstrate willingness to engage in and explore literature and ideas
  

  

Part 2: Assessment

Enduring Understanding	Formative Assessment	Summative Assessment
Engage with and respond to literature and ideas, and interact with others around those ideas, orally…	■ class discussion of rubric for group discussion; students use rubric to evaluate teachers in fishbowl discussion ■ self-assessment and teacher feedback of small-group discussions (first - poetry lit circles and then short stories)	■ self-evaluation of small-group discussions (poetry lit circles)
…and in writing	■ teacher feedback and self/peer-assessment of analytical paragraphs on poems and essays on stories using teacher rubric	■ teacher evaluation of analytical essay on short story
Understand that stories have a variety of purposes in our lives and society…	■ peer/self-assessment of language and presentation skills for group poem written in response to a story or poem, presented to the class	See below.
… and a variety of effects on us	See above.	■ teacher assessment of spoken-word poem (your own story) written by individuals and presented to the class (Poetry Café)

 

Jill Kedersha McClay is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta.

(Click here to downlaod this article in PDF)

When our two daughters were toddlers, my husband always said that whenever one of them yelled, "Look, Mom! Look, Dad! Look at me!" we were bound to see something we didn't want to see: a little girl dangling one foot off the edge of a cliff, or displaying a mouth full of half-chewed spaghetti and meatballs, or the little one hoisting the older one off the ground in a back-breaking effort. Something to make us cringe, afraid to yell "stop that!" for fear of disrupting the tenuous balance they held. They were testing their newfound strengths and freedoms, and if such testing made their "parental units" cringe, well, so much the better.

Similarly, I see young adolescents testing newfound strengths and freedoms in their literacy world. The difference is that they are not clambering to be noticed, and so we adults may lose opportunities to guide them well. In this article, I want to consider some ways in which young people are engaging in exhilarating, precarious feats of literacy, unsanctioned practices of strength and ingenuity (and questionable taste) that sometimes make adults queasy, powerless, and frightened for them. What opportunities and perils does our literacy world offer to children and teachers? How can teachers encourage today's young people to engage in productive literacy relationships in safety, looking both ways while crossing the literacy streets? To consider these questions, I will highlight ways in which new literacy environments blur boundaries and transform some fairly traditional practices in original ways. Then I will suggest productive ways for teachers and parents to engage in literacy relationships and practices with young people. Such work is, I believe, a moral imperative, not merely a pedagogical one.

Literacy is all about relationships-it always has been and always will be. When Frank Smith (1985) wrote about children's desire to become members of "the literacy club," he understood that people seek out relationships through literacy. The contemporary literacy world offers us new ways to make relationships, in public and in private, with friends, kindred spirits, and strangers near and far. Literacy affords both immediacy and distance in our relationships, allowing us to enter a more expansive temporal frame. We can reach out to the past and future, not only in the grand sense of authors' works lasting for generations, but in a more personal sense of ordinary people holding our moments in time. Even the most immediate and personal of literacy practices-writing a diary-places us in the flow of time. We preserve diaries to re-read on a quiet night in the future and recall, perhaps with a changed perspective and clearer eyes, our self from days past. Personal notes and letters-from surreptitious notes passed in a boring chemistry class to the final draft of a life-changing love letter-are messages sent and received, which, if preserved, enable us to reflect on tangible evidence of our past.

Our literacy practices have always relied on technology, and each generation uses the technology available. The technology introduces some degree of distance into relationships. Such distance is both an attraction and a danger. Because of the technology, we open the door to posers and masqueraders-witness Cyrano's complicit identity theft of Christian in pursuit of the unsuspecting Roxanne. Like Cyrano, we crave opportunities to hide our physical flaws and to reveal our true inner essence. Today, the Internet allows such revelation in anonymity. It allows us to be most clearly ourselves while, as one young man put it, avoiding the "essentializing" categories of gender and age (Tobin, 1998).

So the ability to make relationships with strangers through new literacy technology is not a new phenomenon; nor is relationship via digital technology entirely new. In 1879, Ella Cheever Thayer published a novel, Wired Love, certainly a very contemporary sounding title (Collins 2002). The sub-title is A romance of dots and dashes, and Thayer's protagonist develops a relationship through the dangerous new medium of the telegraph. The novel details the developing romance between two telegraph operators, Clem and Nattie, in frontier towns of the American West. The couple's romance has several turns that are as new as today's blogs: other operators listen in and "flame" them, Nattie attempts to pass as a man online (but Clem "sees" through her ruse), and a flesh-and-blood impostor poses as Clem to a disappointed Nattie-another case of identity theft. Like many contemporary people who form a digital relationship, Nattie and Clem are awkward when they finally do meet in person, tongue-tied and uncomfortable (Jackson, 2005). Clem moves to Nattie's town, but she eventually complains, "I had more of your company on the wire." Their solution is to string telegraph wire between their apartment buildings, and they wire each other late into the nights. As You've Got Mail, and other chick flicks confirm, dots-and-dashes technology has its place for would-be lovers.

Cyrano and Clem notwithstanding, new literacy environments do allow us to make relationships in some new ways, and, as always, the newness is part of the attraction. But certainly many of the old verities are still in place. Young and old meet online, in chat rooms, MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), and palaces, playing with multiple personas and switching genders at will. There are bulletin boards and chat rooms for aficionados of every possible stripe, and support groups for every known interest, malady, or condition. Now, young people are not bound by the isolation of geography or familial and cultural restrictions; they can become members in communities, with these potentially life-saving connections.

 

Blurred or disappearing boundaries

 

New literacy environments allow relationships with unclear or no delineation of conventional boundaries, and many traditional literacy boundaries do not hold in traditional ways. Here I want to consider just two such boundary transgressions: the boundary between private and public, and between child and adult.

The boundary between private and public is now porous almost to the point of disappearance. Cell phones, blogs, and web sites all have a disconcerting habit of being heard and read by other than the intended audience, or, in the turbulent adolescent years, by the audience we intend one minute but not the next. Adolescents and adults alike are caught in disgrace when posting highly personal thoughts on their web sites and blogs. There is a quality of almost magical thinking with which bloggers assume that their blogs will only be read by authorized readers. But as the distinction between private and public gets muddied, young people are also perhaps working this muddiness with a different sense of social acceptability. One young adult commented to me on the benefits of posting on her blog the details of her anger at a friend:

"Well, if she reads my blog, she'll know I'm pissed at her and know why. That way, I don't have to confront her face-to-face and have an argument, but she can stop annoying me if she wants. I think it's a way of being considerate when I'm a little mad about something a friend has done."

It had not previously occurred to me that complaining about one's friend in cyberspace could be conceived of as a considerate act-but then again, I'm not the target demographic. And that is a key point for those of us who attempt to teach children and adolescents about relationships in the new literacy world: young people make their own conventions, and adults need to inquire about their thinking before passing judgments.

A generation ago, a person's diary was sacrosanct, and reading it would be an unforgivable invasion of privacy. But blogs are not only public diaries, they are interactive as well; readers post comments in response to the authors' original entries. Emily Nussbaum (2004) notes the generational differences in expectations and attitudes about private and public writings in her discussion of bloggers:

For many in the generation that has grown up online, the solution is not to fight this technological loss of privacy, but to give in and embrace it....The teenagers who post journals have (depending on your perspective) a degraded or a relaxed sense of privacy; their experiences may be personal, but there's no shame in sharing....If teen bloggers give something up by sloughing off a self-protective layer, they get something back too-a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to. This is their life, for anyone to read. As long as their parents don't find out.

One oddly fascinating interplay of private and public aspects of literacy comes with a cross-over of old and new forms of communication. Frank Warren (2004-06) encourages people to write a secret-something they have never told anyone before- on a post card and mail the card to him. First intended as material for an art exhibit, the collection grows steadily and Warren posts new cards online weekly. The post cards range from the silly and embarrassing to the life-consuming and tragic. People apparently find comfort in telling something intensely private but telling in a way that preserves their anonymity. The way in which this project has grown (now including a conventional print book) is a case study in the boundaries between public and private, as well as in the overlap of old and new media.

The disappearance of the boundary between child and adult audiences and materials is perhaps the most startling and unsettling aspect of new literacy relationships for teachers and parents. Children are now able to enter, unsupervised, the best and worst of the adult world, with no filtering or gate-keeping. They travel faster than we do, often arriving at new destinations before the adults in their lives even know of their existence.

The absence of such boundaries can be dangerous, as children and adolescents are susceptible to predators. Just as in the past, when we could not be certain whom they met inside the movie theatre, now we can't be certain whom they meet inside the chat room. Adolescents have always tested and savoured their power to operate independently of parental supervision, and now this normal adolescent desire combines with their typically superior technological skill to make a chilling danger that can cross from the virtual world to the real. When the Media Awareness Network asks parents if they know what their children do online, most say that they do. When the Network asks children if their parents know what they do online, most say that they don't (http://www.media-awareness.ca/). This divide reminds us that we cannot be present-physically or digitally-everywhere our children roam. It comes down to education and trust. Moreover, when the Network asks young people how long it takes them to determine to their satisfaction whether an online contact is "safe" or not, young people generally indicate a shocking (to adult sensibility) confidence in their ability to make such determinations within a few minutes of online acquaintance.

 

Relationships with new audiences

 

While teachers and parents readily focus on the contemporary blurring of time-honoured boundaries, I want to return to some of the sustaining and encouraging aspects of such blurred boundaries with respect to making new relationships through literacy. The immense popularity of fan fiction sites, for example, attests to some of the positive potential for relationships in online venues.

Not a new development, fan fiction writing became popular among science fiction fans in the days of Star Trek's television popularity. The early trekkie conventions were places where fans could circulate, in costume if they wished, and exchange fan fiction. As these conventions were held in the real world (contrary to appearances, perhaps!), aficionados needed money, mobility, and some independence to attend (Knobel & Lankshear, 2005). In the contemporary literacy world, fans of any particular fiction need only an Internet connection, and they can access an online community to trade analyses and commentary on current episodes of favourite television shows, movies, or novels. More significantly, they can post original fan fiction: their own episodes, spin-offs, or cross-overs. The distinction between amateur and professional is now "obsolete" in online publishing (www.wikipedia.org/fanfiction)

For fans of a particular fiction-in any medium-fan fiction provides a generally supportive environment in which to read abundant offerings of variations on the fictional characters and themes, and, more importantly, to gain a sophisticated readership for one's own fiction. Recently, Raylene, a student in my graduate class, took up my challenge to write fan fiction. A middle-aged elementary school teacher who had not previously known about fan fiction, Raylene gamely wrote a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) episode and posted it with great trepidation. Several weeks later, she reported being genuinely touched and encouraged by the feedback she had received from several readers. They praised her writing, cited specific aspects of the work that they appreciated, and encouraged her to post more episodes. The gentle critiques that accompanied the encouragement were indeed quite constructive, well taken, and given in a generous spirit; responders offered pointers on matters of forensic investigation that are germane to the world of CSI. I should acknowledge here that, as Raylene's writing teacher, I did not have the expertise to offer such in-depth pointers about forensic matters, nor did her classmates.

For young writers, this opportunity to relate to other fans of a particular fiction provides tangible evidence of belonging in this community; they can be accepted and respected for the power of their imagination and knowledge. On fan fiction sites, young writers interact on equal footing with adults who share their passions, giving and receiving detailed pointers for their development as writers of a given genre. The lack of distinction between adult and child audiences seems irrelevant when writers are focused on a shared appreciation of a particular fiction. Needless to say, it also makes such postings a risky business, as young writers are treated as equals and are not allowed much "slack" by other fan writers. Most fan fiction sites have clear rules about positive, constructive criticism, but there is no guarantee of gentle treatment.
Relationships in New Literacies Teaching

As I think about the ways in which new literacies environments offer possibilities for young people to make relationships, some clear implications for teaching arise. Adults sometimes feel inadequate in newer literacy environments and uncertain about the value of such environments; some continue to deny that there is much new or much of value. But one undeniable value is that these are the environments in which our young people are learning about literacy, and, to some degree, learning about relationships. Our place in this environment is vital-as teachers, parents, researchers, and literate citizens-and our experience gives us a role in helping young people navigate this terrain. So the first point about relationships in new literacies teaching is that we must enter into relationships as participants. To teach productively, our participation must also involve respect, attention to security, and broad perspective.

Participation: We need to be in the thick of it with our children and our students. The old traditional-vs.-contemporary debate is irrelevant, because contemporary literacy environments include both traditional and new ways of relating, ways that define literacy for the next generation. We can impose our older definitions of literacy if we choose-for the limited time that we will continue to hold power-as demonstrated by those external assessments that drive teachers' classroom practices. But soon enough the next generation's definitions will take over. It will be more productive for us all if adults have some dialogue with the next generation as they develop their ideas about literacy practices.

A great fuss was raised with the publication of the Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004). While charting a decline in the habits of literary reading in the US, the survey does not include engagements with online literature or other kinds of reading. John Lombardi (2005) recommends that teachers and professors should find out what young people actually do in the online world, noting the wild variety of material available online:

Then I go online. Here I find a complicated world filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Alive and constantly changing, engaged and engaging, requiring my constant decisions about what is worth reading or seeing and what is not. From the lowest pornography to tours of the treasures of the Library of Congress, from the stupidest blogs of the radical fringes, to the most sophisticated discussions of the decline of America's reading habits, everything is there.

(http://insidehighered.com/views/2005/08/23/lombardi)

We need to enter into new literacies practices with our students and our children, not only because it makes good pedagogical sense to do so. We are morally obligated to go there with them. The literacy world requires sophistication far surpassing the sophistication required to develop or delineate a poem's metaphor or to trace the foreshadowing in a novel. These are still valuable analyses and a source of great literary pleasure, but they are hardly sufficient. The very dangers that adults see in the relationships that are forged in new literacy environments make it imperative for adults to engage with young people in these environments. Adolescence is primarily about the making of relationships-with close friends and with the wider world, and it is a time when young people look with sharper, but still inexperienced, eyes at the adult world.

We need to consider how we enter into relationships with young people in these environments. It is imperative to go there with them as fellow explorers, not as authority figures. We certainly are not experts-adolescents and even younger children go faster than we do and are often more adventurous, more interested in exploration for its own sake, and less encumbered by our baggage. They travel lighter. But we can go there in dialogue, negotiating and sharing authority based on expertise. We can draw on their superior knowledge and experience in some aspects and contribute our superior knowledge and experience in others. We have greater perspective and experience in the real world; often, our young people have greater knowledge of the online world. Because they are making relationships in new literacies practices while young, they take these relationships as part of the given world; as the Media Awareness Network notes, for young people, "The Internet just is" (http://www.media-awareness.ca/). Furthermore, the Network notes that "Kids are ahead of their parents - and on their own - in their explorations of the Internet" (http://www.media-awareness.ca/). The disjuncture between what young people say and what their parents say in the Media Awareness Network surveys are all the evidence we need of the imperative to make relationships with our children while they make relationships online. Such relationships must be founded upon respect.

Respect: We need to take a more collegial stance in our literacy relationships with young people, negotiating authority with respect to their expertise. Respect is key, and we can earn it if we give it. In research involving a series of case studies of multiliteracies teaching and learning in classrooms, I have been struck in each of the case studies by one constant: when the teacher assumes a less authoritative stance, the students respond with respect (McClay, 2006). The multiliteracies work that the teachers established in their classrooms gave students many opportunities, as one teacher noted wryly, "to torpedo the project" (McClay & Weeks, 2004). But students did not take advantage of such opportunities; instead, they appreciated seeing their teachers as people who liked to learn new things and were eager to learn with them. Paradoxically, when the teachers assumed the less authoritative stance of "fellow learner," they actually enhanced their authority and credibility with their students.

Security and safety: We do need to help young people to attend consciously and realistically to security and safety issues. They won't see the same dangers that we do, but we can help them to be better attuned to danger in subtle forms. The inclination of too many adults who work with digital literacy environments with young people is to make the environments safe and unproblematic before we allow young people in, so as not to have untidy or inappropriate material barging into our classrooms. But some attention ought to be paid to the untidy, the inappropriate, the vulgar, even (perhaps especially) the downright fraudulent and immoral in order to teach our youth about these aspects. Our warnings and lists of safe and unsafe behaviours are not effective, as we have seen in the headlines and in the Media Awareness Network's surveys. But our discussions with young people when we enter online environments together can be more powerful, more effective, and more grounded in reality.

We also need to be clear in teaching young people about the real limits of their online power. We have had examples of hapless adolescents being arrested because of the content of their web sites and blogs. When children and adolescents enter the adult literacy world, they suffer adult consequences. They need to understand that their freedoms do not extend to posting hateful or libellous comments; the distinction between passing a note to a friend in class and posting the same comment online must be clear to them. These distinctions should become discussion topics of our classrooms.

Perspective: Adults can play a useful role by helping young people to see the old in the new literacies and the new in the old. Young people will decide what to preserve, and how to preserve it. Undoubtedly, they will do so in ways we would not, as in the case of my young friend who used the forum of her blog to complain about her friend. We old folks have the historical perspective, but they have the future. Ultimately, their decisions about standards and conventions will be upheld. Some of their conventions will seem raw or wrong to us, but many will be much cleverer and more useful than we would imagine. Marc Aronson (2003) discusses the need for adults to present young people with complex portrayals of human relationships in books. He considers various conceptions of "brotherhood" in fiction and nonfictions' books, arguing persuasively for a more complex, inclusive portrayal of the human family. He notes a distinction between children's and young adult literature, commenting that in children's books, the reader/child is part of a family. In adolescence, however, the challenge is for young people to become individuals and to leave their families. This challenge is difficult for adults:

"Inasmuch as we-authors, publishers, reviewers, parents, librarians, teachers-want our books for younger readers to pass on our ideals and values, we feel a kind of queasiness about YA books. After twelve years or so of trying to get kids to listen to us through books, we have three years of trying to help them think for themselves. We just don't know how to connect those two opposite agendas" (Aronson, 2003, p.132).

Young people do not only use television and books as references for their developing sensibilities. They also use online resources-at their fingertips they have the full wealth and poverty of the adult world, unfiltered through custodians of the public airwaves or of the publishing industry. As Aronson notes, we adults have a short period of time in which to influence young people as they develop their sensibilities and values. The very unfiltered view of the complete array of the adult world is part of the attraction of digital new literacy. In the environments of new literacy, young people are not mere viewers and readers, voyeurs of the presentations of adult life as we select and present it for their viewing, as they are when they watch television and movies. Online, young people have agency and the ability to act, to connect, to have impact.

There are no boundaries and no rehearsal period on the Internet-a web site posted is public, open to scrutiny and to comment from strangers of varying intentions. The adults who want to be influential in the lives of young people must engage with them in the literate landscapes in which they travel. We do not have many years in which to do so.

 

References

 

Aronson, M.(2003). Beyond the Pale: New Essays for a New Era. Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature, No. 9. Lanham, Maryland, & Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Collins, P. (2002). NewScientist, Dec. 21/22, 2002. pp. 40-41.

Jackson, M. (2005).
http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/balance/archives/121904.shtml Accessed Oct. 4, 2005.

Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2005). "New Literacies: Research and Social Practice In B. Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, D. Schallert, C. M. Fairbanks & J. Worthy (Eds.), 54th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 22-50). Oak Creek WI: National Reading Conference, Inc.

Lombardi, J. (2005). http://insidehighered.com/views/2005/08/23/lombardi Accessed Aug. 15, 2005.

McClay, J. K. (2006). Collaborating with Teachers and Students in Multiliteracies Research: "Se have camino al andar". Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 52(3), 182-195.

McClay, J. K., & Weeks, P. (2004). Ensemble Improvisation: Chats, Mystery, and Narrative in a Multiliteracy Classroom. The International Journal Learning, 10.

Nussbaum, E. (2004).
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/11/magazine/11BLOG.html?ei=1&en=36132f7693f2b Reading at risk: A survey of literary reading in America. (2004).). Washington DC: National Endowment for the Arts.

Smith, F. (1985). Reading Without Nonsense. New York: Teacher College Press.

Tobin, J. (1998). An American Otaku: (or, a Boy's Virtual Life on the Net). In J. Sefton-Green (Ed.), Digital Diversions: Youth Culture in the Age of Multimedia. London: UCL Press Ltd.

Warren, F. (2004-06).
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/; http://www.media-awareness.ca; www.wikipedia.org/fanfiction

This list was started by Susan Ma and Celia Brownrigg.  It is meant to be open-ended and we hope it will enjoy many contributers.

 

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

- a great book to have.  McCloud acknowledges and tears down so many of our prejudices when approaching the graphic novel medium: comics.  The explanation of active readership (what goes on the our head when we read a graphic text) is easy to understand and integrate in to planning and instruction.  This is an excellent book for a novice in the graphic, or comics, form to start with.  It is written in the comics medium which facilitates McCloud's descriptions of the graphic form as well as subliminally reinforces the stance that "comics" is a medium suited to many types of content; don't mistake it as simply the message (sorry Marshall). This resource is a must-read for any teacher considering using graphic novels or other comics in class.

 

Panel Discussion: Design In Sequential Art Storytelling

Interviews with Masters of the Craft!  What's talking about graphic
novels without talking to the creators and storytellers?  The
interviews are very insightful.

 

 Graphic Novels in Your Media Library Center  by Allyson and Barry Lyga

This resource is notes from a teacher-librarian int he USA who uses graphic nevels in her classroom.   The Lygas' variety of grade coverage is good, covering grades two through ten, as well as their cultural coverage of both "eastern" and "western" graphic novels.  Check out their activity ideas too!

 

In Graphic Detail by David Booth and Kathy Gould Lundy

This resouce is exclusivly available to educators through Scholastic Education.  The approach in this book is particular to using comics in classroom activities.  While some of the examples used could be better, both authors are well-known educators and have great experience working with Canadian teachers and librarians.

Gemini Cheng holds a degree in English Literature and when she isn't busy reading books, she is selling them at Vancouver Kidsbooks.

When I Was A Soldier by Valérie Zenatti

When Valérie Zenatti was thirteen, she and her parents moved from France, her home country, to Israel. After finishing school and writing the baccalauréat in her advanced school program, Zenatti went the way of other eighteen-year-old Israeli girls and joined the army for two years of national service. Her experiences and coming of age in the Israeli Defense Force prompted her to write this book. It is not a traditional memoir. This is not Zenatti's autobiography, but simply an insight into the mind of an eighteen-year-old Israeli girl using her own personal history.

Those who like stereotypical teen girl books may tend to shy away from this one. Don't let that happen. This is an important story with no fluff, and some girls find that intimidating, boring, or hard to identify with. Don't worry, for our protagonist is very easy to befriend. In fact, many younger teen girls may be pleasantly surprised by how much they have in common with Valérie. After all, she is just trying to pass her exams while working part-time at the local pharmacy, and most importantly, she is trying her best to forget about her ex-boyfriend.

When I Was A Soldier is not suitable for a class on military operations. Zenatti is careful to tread lightly on heavy topics. This book is not a political statement but a traditional coming of age story with classic themes found throughout literature. Valérie is a young woman striving for achievement, but her weekends at home temptingly give question to her loyalty. With a friend who is already a deserter, her own devotion to the army wavers when she gets a chance to reunite with her ex-boyfriend in Jerusalem. Valérie finds herself homesick and longing for her mother's cooking, not unlike every student who has left home for their first year at university. One of the most hurtful situations she experiences has nothing to do with her service; rather, it occurs when she finds out her ex-boyfriend has found a new girl.

This is a great novel for grade nine and above, offering a unique view to students who have never been exposed to this kind of life, whether because of the geographical setting or the idea that when you reach a certain age, your country expects something of you that is not just voting or driving. When I Was A Soldier paints a solid portrait of one face, one girl, to represent all. Military service is something that everyone in Valérie's life has been required to face at the same age, but becoming a woman is something Valérie must achieve on her own terms.

Ashley House  

Ashley teaches Intermediate French Immersion at Trafalgar Elementary School. She is currently completing her Masters of Arts in Curriculum Studies at UBC with a focus in critical pedagogies and collaborative research with youth.

 

I believe that one of the most inspiring aspects of teaching is the brilliant questions and comments that students make throughout the day. In my six years as a teacher and through my graduate research with students in intermediate elementary, I have found a knowing, humour and insight in these questions and comments such as:

Are we going to study depressing topics all year? If this is going on then why isn’t anyone stopping it? If our actions didn’t stop the problem, why did we do it? I guess I kind of divide the world into the school world and the real world. Do what you think is right, even if it’s not right.

The comments and questions that are voiced in the classroom underscore how students demonstrate not only the ability to critically consider the world, but also a willingness and capacity to act in ways that seek to address issues they find meaningful. The focus on metacognition in the new English Language Arts Integrated Resource Package (IRP) is a hopeful springboard for thinking about thinking in the socially just classroom. In this article I will describe a social justice pedagogy founded in inquiry, criticality and praxis (ICP) that meets the curriculum goals and description of a “good thinker” represented in the new English Language Arts IRP. The social justice pedagogy I am proposing places student wonder questions and interests at the center (inquiry), focuses on developing critical thinking skills and awareness of how who we are influences how we see the world (criticality)and fosters student activism and reflection on the action throughout the unit (praxis). In my experience, when we, students and teachers, practice inquiry, criticality and praxis, inspiring, transformative and brilliant thoughts and actions emerge from the classroom.

Social justice is a term that is used so often in our work that its meanings are abundant and therefore nebulous at times. In my mind, the social justice classroom values students’ lived histories, experiences and knowledge. The social justice classroom is hopeful, kind and visionary and has as a priority the development of skills for meaningful interpersonal and intrapersonal interactions within a community of caring. This learning space demonstrates active redress of intolerance, prejudice and discrimination. One goal of the social justice curriculum is the nurturing of students’ ability to talk back to the world through a justice orientation with personal, local and/or global foci. Teaching through social justice creates a community of inquiry and is activist oriented. Finally a social justice curriculum underscores the complexity of issues while ensuring an awareness of possibilities for transformative action directed at the historical, social, economic and political systems that support injustice (Bigelow et al., 1994; Kumashiro, 2004; Meyers, 1993; Westheimer, 2005). I believe that to begin teaching for social justice we need to think about our thinking, and further, that the new ELA curriculum offers possibilities for this work. I think that a social justice pedagogy framed through student inquiry, criticality and praxis meets not only the goals of the English Language Arts IRP, but also offers possibilities for students to engage in meaningful and authentic learning wherein, as Ghandi advises, they can be the change they see in the world. The table below demonstrates the parallels between a social justice pedagogy founded in inquiry, criticality and praxis(ICP) and the IRP’s description of the curriculum goals as they relate to “good” thinking.

Initiating the Butterfly Effect

The project “In Search of the Butterfly Effect” and the activities described below seek to promote student inquiry, criticality and praxis through engaging students in critically considering the world, identifying a social justice issue that is meaningful for them, questioning their relationship to the issue, imagining actions that may transform the issue, initiating the actions, and reflecting on their outcomes. The skills associated with the “good thinker” and the curriculum goals described in the English Language Arts IRP create opportunities for students and teachers to practice inquiry, criticality and praxis. This project has resulted in actions ranging from bake sales, to silence-a-thons, to jewellery and bubble tea afternoons, to origami challenges, to garage sales, all with the intention of raising awareness and funds to support initiatives that students support. It has included the creation of hundreds of book marks, letters to the editor, petitions to the government, newsletters, websites, surveys, conversations and skits to raise awareness in federal, local and school communities. The following is an example of a possible sequence of lessons for a unit practising the ideals of a social justice classroom and the skills of a “good thinker”.

In Search of the Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is a meteorological theory created by Edward Lorenz, which proposes that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Texas could produce a hurricane half way around the world in Brazil. This metaphor represents a world where everyone and everything is connected. The actions of one individual can stir up global change of hurricane proportions in the world. Following is an outline of essential questions for the unit. The unit was not limited to these questions alone. Further the essential questions were not posed following this sequence but were posed and revisited throughout the unit.

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Goethe

In this term-long unit, we begin by building community through team building activities, creative writing assignments and the identification of our common values as a classroom community. Following this stage we develop our understanding of the Butterfly Effect through studying examples of youth who have acted to change social injustice. Next we practise criticality and reflection through critical reading of text and self. Finally, we get to what students refer to as the “juicy” part and social justice actions are planned and initiated. Student and teacher practise praxis throughout the project by actively reflecting on our reading of the world, our understanding of ourselves and our social justice actions.

Inquiry

The inquiry-based approach is a teaching technique where students are challenged to generate questions that direct the curriculum. Lessons are designed so that students make connections to previous knowledge and experience, bring their own questions to learning, investigate to satisfy their own questions through all subject areas and design ways to try out their ideas and possible solutions (International Baccalaureate Program, 2006). Farr-Darling and Wright’s (2004) description of a community of inquiry demonstrates the critical component of a reflective inquiry-based approach. They suggest that in a community of inquiry, there is: an acceptance that knowledge is subject to change, an awareness of and empathy for alternative points of view, a tolerance for ambiguity, a required scepticism of text, and an openness to questions.

Hursh and Ross (2000) suggest that when “students and teachers together raise questions about issues important to their lives – such questions about student racial, gender and class identities or about local community issues” – greater social, historical and political issues in the world gain importance (p.10). Through a reflective inquiry-based approach, curriculum is not only relevant and appropriate for the unique identities and realities of the students we work with but also to the worlds within which we live.

In the classroom, student inquiry may take the form of discussion, wonder questions, collaborative brainstorming and creative writing to determine where student interest and experience lie. The curriculum goals that are described as promoting student comprehension and response to oral and written language in critical, creative and articulate ways; student development of a continuously increasing understanding of self and others; and student communication of ideas, information and feelings in critical, creative and articulate ways (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006, p.10) may all be addressed through an inquiry model. Examples of creative writing prompts that have supported our explorations of identity are described at the end of this article in the appendix Teacher Guide #1 – Creative Writing Exploring Identity.

Criticality

I suggest that teaching for criticality and “good” thinking are not only important aspects of literacy but also ensure that educational institutions move beyond a passive prescribed learning model towards thinking strategies founded in crisis, collaboration and caring. Kumashiro’s (2004) notion of crisis calls for an abandonment of neutrality and argues that knowledge must be made problematic, disrupted and acknowledged as partial. Kumashiro states that only through discomfort or resistance will we grow and learn. I interpret the new English Language Arts IRP as reflecting this priority in its description of a “good thinker” as being honest with self, identifying assumptions and points of view that shape our thinking and looking for both connections and inconsistencies among our ideas.

Henderson and Kesson define the two additional elements that contribute to my understanding of criticality as applied in a social justice pedagogy: collaboration and caring. Collaboration represents the need for whole schools and communities to dialogue and encounter differences meaningfully. Finally, caring means framing classes as inclusive and non-competitive. If we are to practice the reflective honesty and critical thinking required for this work, collaboration and caring are essential components of learning communities that can work together to initiate the change they require for their worlds.

In a classroom this may involve critically reading texts, reflecting on our identities, deconstructing text and looking for relationships between who we are and where our interests lie. We practice critical reading of fiction in order to begin to converse about the complex nature of identity. We apply critical reading strategies to non-fiction in preparation for researching the social justice issues that form our Butterfly Effect project. Finally, we explore the relationship of our identities to the social justice issues that we have chosen.

Following this article are examples of some of the activities we employed in class to critically engage with our work. The first entitled Student Handout #1 – Multiple Identities, Student Handout #2 – Critical thinking about… and Student handout #3 – Deconstructing Text are used in class to foster discussion and reflection on identity, student and teacher assumptions about the social justice issues that are being researched and critical reading of the texts that provide information on the issues in question. Student handout #4 - The problem we will unleash the Butterfly Effect on is… has as a goal to provide opportunities for students to explore how the issue they have chose relates to their lives and who they are. The intention is to further uncover assumptions and relationships to the issue in an attempt to underscore how local and global issues affect all people.

Praxis

Freire (1977/2000) defines praxis as “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (p. 51). Reflection entails inquiry and criticality to determine what is meaningful to us, how we are positioned relative to social justice issues, and how we understand the discourses that surround them. Henderson and Kesson (2004) state that praxis is almost always identified in the doing. … In education the word praxis is usually used to signify the integration of critical inquiry into teacher’s reflective practice. Critical inquiry involves looking at the big picture, the social, economic and political context of issues (p. 52).

Praxis moves us from the initial step of reflection toward the essential component of action in order to achieve transformation. In praxis there is always a return to reflection post action. This approach seeks to ensure that learning is ongoing and does not come to a close with the completion of a project. To this end, there is an ongoing reflection during the work of the Butterfly Effect project and following its completion. Student handout #5 - Check-In and Student handout #6 - Check-In in the appendix are examples of the reflections the students complete.

Assessment

The nature of a social justice approach to teaching requires just assessment practices. Fragnoli and Mathison (2006), Case (1999) and Singer (1997) argue that good assessment includes both performance and authentic forms, engages students in self-assessment, and develops motivation and metacognitive strategies that foster self-reflection and decision making. For the purposes of this unit my framework for assessment was largely informed by these theorists and is described in Case's (1999) four principles of assessment. The four purposes are focussing on what really matters, providing valid indications, using assessment to support learning and using teacher time efficiently. Case defines authentic assessment as measuring the real, actual or genuine thing. He argues that educators should seek:

• To achieve greater authenticity ~ assessment should measure the educational goals that are most valued (critical thinking, problem solving) as opposed to what is easiest to measure.
• To support learning ~ assessment should be used to determine how to best support student learning. For example, student generated criteria, self and peer evaluation.
• To ensure fairness to all students ~ provide students with an opportunity to show what they know as opposed to what they are expected to recall.
• To use teacher time efficiently ~ assessment should be efficient and take a reasonable amount of time.

In our classroom, assessment tools included the BC Performance Standards for Writing, the Assessment of Critical Thinking Challenge as seen in the appendix, self and peer assessments of group work and the Check-ins presented earlier. Assessment was framed as an opportunity for feedback and celebration of work. These tools were presented in either a partial form and then completed in discussion with the class or generated with the class. For example, students received a copy of the Fully Meets Expectations column of the performance standards and in small groups and then as a class were asked to complete the Meets Expectations and/or Exceeds Expectations column. Alternatively, the development of the assessment tool for group work resulted entirely from class discussion. The check-ins and work on identity were not assessed as they represented personal and at times anonymous reflection. In the interest of formative assessment and maintaining consistency with Case’s purposes, the assessment tools and the form of the final demonstrations of learning were diverse and developed in collaboration with students. Further, the assessment tools are used multiple times and were employed by the teacher, peers and self throughout the project.

Final Thoughts

The problem of how to live and teach for social justice is relevant to our educational systems because the choices we make as educators ultimately determine the kind of society we will help to create. If our classrooms are to be spaces where citizens engage in imagining, realizing and rethinking social injustice then a curriculum focussed on teaching to “good” critical and reflective thinking is in my estimation useful and hopeful. A pedagogy framed in inquiry, criticality and praxis invites students to ask troubling questions and analyze their locations and the societal structures relevant to them through a social justice framework. In nurturing “good thinkers”, spaces are generated in the curriculum where students may engage in social justice actions that are meaningful and authentic.

The activities and projects listed here are not intended to be recipes for teaching and may represent, for many, ideas that have long been established in pedagogy. However, my hope is that they are productive in generating conversations regarding how, as educators, we can use this new curriculum grounded in thinking about our thinking to foster student inquiry, critical consideration of the world and reflection on actions that seek to transform the world. The English Language Arts Integrated Resource Package represents an opportunity for working from within the curriculum to challenge our position, assumptions, and thinking so that schools and classrooms might become “laboratories for a more just society” (Bigelow, 1994, p. 4). I believe that this is the single most significant reason for education.

Appendices

Teacher Guide # 1 - Creative Writing Exploring Identity

These writing prompts explore student identity and provide an opportunity for the teacher and student peers to learn about and honour each other. For each writing prompt we use a creative writing process. The process is a compilation of writing ideas from Liisa House, Linda Christensen and Nanci Atwell.

An abbreviated description of the process is as follows: Initially students brainstorm ideas about the prompt and share them with a peer. Next, they free write in response to the prompt. Following completion of the free write, students highlight their 10 -15 most powerful lines and share them aloud in the class through a voice collage. Next, the students write each powerful line on its own line on a sheet of paper. This is known as the skeleton. The students then add sensory detail, similes and metaphors. After peer editing sessions, the students have an “Oooh, I’m good!” Gallery Walk, at which point their work is posted around the room and their teacher and peers write compliments on post it notes. The students are then asked to reflect on their pieces and the pieces of great writing they have read in the gallery walk and are assigned a final draft of their piece.

 

WRITING PROMPTS

1) I AM FROM – Students might use the line ‘I am from’ to consider what items, memories, historical events, family members or friends have formed who they are today. This writing prompt draws on the use of metaphor and hyperbole. They are encouraged to make the piece sound like home. Previous student work has focused on:

- geographic origins representing the journey travelled to come to Canada.

- items found in their yard or neighbourhood (dog bones, plants, forts...).

- names of relatives or friends.

- memories, events, daily habits.

- sayings that they have heard throughout their childhood.

- foods or dishes that represent their lives. - objects representing personal histories.

- languages spoken. - personal or family traditions.

Adapted from Christensen (2001)

2) THE POWER OF A NAME – Students consider how names have power, tell a story and may reveal power relationships through detailing how they were named. I begin with asking students to consider geographic locations and how the naming of them tells their story. For example – The Queen Charlotte Islands now reclaimed as the Haida Gwaii tells the story of colonization and the endurance of the Haida culture. Previous student work has focussed on:

- the meaning of student names.

- the source of the name be it geographical, a friend or family member or a coincidence.

- the rationale for choosing the name.

- the sound and/or shape of a name. Adapted from Christensen (2003)

3) MAPPING MEMORY – Students generate a map of their neighbourhood, head or hearts as a brainstorming approach to writing creatively about self. They share three stories from three locations on their maps with a peer and choose to write a free verse poem addressing one. This creates an opportunity for students to share a memory or personal story with the class.

Adapted from Liisa House and Nancie Atwell

Professional Resources

Social Justice ■ www.rethinkingschools.org ■ www.bctf.ca ■ www.investinakinderworld.com ■ www.actsofkindness.org/

Poverty ■ www.fosterparentsplan.ca (global poverty) ■ www.unicef.org/voy (global poverty) ■ www.oxfam.ca (fair trade + poverty) ■ www.freethechildren.com (child labour + poverty)

Human Rights ■ www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/index_e.cfm (diversity) ■ www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/ online_hate/protect_child_hate.cfm (racism) ■ www.chrf.ca  Canadian Human Rights Foundation ■ www.unac.org United Nations Association of Canada ■ www.amnesty.ca Amnesty Canada ■ www.equalitytoday.org Equality Today Electronic Magazine, Young People’s Press ■ www.hrw.org Human Rights Watch

Environment ■ www.cida.ca Canadian International Development Agency (Geography + International Development) ■ www.davidsuzuki.org David Suzuki (The Nature Challenge) ■ www.eya.ca - Environmental Youth Alliance ■ eartheasy.com/article_enviro_sites_kids.htm (list of environmental websites for kids)

Climate Change – 45 second video ■ https://webmail.vsb.bc.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL= whatcounts.com/t?ctl=190CD0C:54C20EC0780B6DD1 DF5C930127F6316CFDF24EE4C9629B8B

Portraits of Mass Consumption – Chris Jordan ■ https://webmail.vsb.bc.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL= http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

Sites featuring social justice initiatives by youth

■ www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17665.htm (Severn Suzuki) ■ www.vancourier.com/issues02/052102/ news/052102nn10.html (Vantech Secondary) ■ www.vsb.bc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/8B3DD43E-C8EC-472D- 8F47-C1D2D6CCF571/0/CitySchoolsspring2006.pdf (King George Secondary, Dickens Elementary, Point Grey Secondary and VSB) - GO to page 4J ■ www.freethechildren.com/aboutus/index.html (The Kielburger Brothers) ■ myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp? hero=Iqbal (Iqbal Masih) ■ www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp? hero=htaylor_canada_06 (Hannah Taylor) ■ myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp? hero=RYAN_HRELJAC (Ryan Hreljac)

 

Student Resources

Environment

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss The TRUAX by NOFMA Woodflooring Manufacturer’s Association available free online at www.nofma.org

Gender, Self Image The Sissy Duckling by Harvey Fierstein (story book) The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch (story book) Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (novel) Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (novel) Dove evolution film http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

Children’s Rights Hanna’s Suitcase by Karen Levine (novel) Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (short novel) White Jade Tiger by Julie Lawson

Poverty If the World were a Village by David Smith (picture book) Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo (novel) The Arrival by Shaun Tan (graphic novel)

 

References

Atwell, N. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2006). Orientation to the English language arts K to 7 IRP. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/elak7short.pdf

Bigelow, B. (1994). Creating classrooms for equity and social justice. In B. Bigelow, et al. (Eds.), Rethinking our classrooms: Teaching for equity and justice (pp. 4-5). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools Publications.

Case, R., & Clark, P. (1999). Four purposes of citizenship education. In R. Case & P. Clarke (Eds.), The Canadian anthology of social studies (pp. 17 - 40). Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University Press.

Christensen, L. (2001). Where I'm from: inviting student's lives into the classroom. Rethinking our Classrooms. Willinston, VT: Rethinking Schools. Ltd.

Christensen, L. (2003). Writing Up, Rising Up. Willinston, VT: Rethinking Schools. Ltd.

Farr Darling, L. & Wright, I. (2004). Critical thinking and the "social" in social studies. In A. Sears & I. Wright (Eds.), Challenges and prospects for Canadian social studies. (pp. 247 - 258). Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum. (Original work published in 1977)

Harrison, J., Smith N. and Wright, I. (1999) (Eds) Critical challenges in social studies for upper elementary students. Richmond, BC: The Critical Thinking Cooperative.

Henderson, J., & Kesson, K. (2004). Curriculum wisdom: Educational decisions in democratic societies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

House, L. (2004). In my backyard: Stores of identity, community, and curriculum through creative writing. Unpublished master's thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Hursh, D. W., & Ross, E. W. (2000). Democratic social education: Social studies for social change In D.W. Hursh & E.W. Ross (Eds.), Democratic social education: Social studies for social change (pp. 1-22). New York: Routledge Falmer.

International Baccalaureate Program. (2006). Inquiry at the IB middle years program. Retrieved on November 6, 2006, from www.ibo.org/myp/slidec.cfm

Kumashiro, K. (2004). Against common sense: Teaching and learning toward social justice. New York: Routledge.

Meyers, M. (1993). Teaching to Diversity: Teaching and learning in a multi-ethnic classroom. Toronto, ON: Irwin Publishing.

Westheimer, J. (2005). Democratic dogma: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to schooling for democracy. Canadian Issues Magazine. September, 25-39.

 

 

After publishing the annual Wordscapes: British Columbia Youth Writing Anthology for the past six years, Ripple Effect Arts and Literature Society (REAL) will be relaunching the publication as the new Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal in March 2008. In addition to publishing nearly 50 talented high school writers and visual artists each year, the journal will also have a Contemporary Writing section with writing samples by established authors from Canada’s literary community. REAL is excited to have lined up a number of excellent writers to appear in the first three issues in 2008, including: Douglas Coupland, Christian Bök, Wade Compton, Rachel Zolf, Janina Hornosty and Billeh Nickerson.

The journal will be published three times a school year, and each issue will focus on one writing genre – fiction, poetry, and personal essay. The always topical and engaging youth writing and cover art in the journal is by the winners of REAL’s annual BC Youth Writing and Design Contest, now in its seventh year. All students who enter the contest receive a one year subscription to Wordscapes and a chance to win $100-$500 and publication in the journal. (The next deadline for student and school entries is May 31, 2008. See www.rippleeffect.ca in the new year for details.)

REAL believes the new Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal will give students a unique opportunity to read and be inspired by current writing practices as exemplified by their student peers and Canada’s diverse community of authors. For teachers, the journal will provide an enhanced classroom resource that sets a benchmark for provincial writing and motivates students with contemporary literature they are not normally exposed to through standard curriculum resources. Students whose teachers introduce them to Wordscapes in class generally demonstrate higher literacy and write more mature and accomplished pieces.

In order to give teachers an opportunity to see firsthand the quality and teaching potential of the new Wordscapes Youth Arts Journal, REAL is planning to donate 1000 copies of the first two issues to be published in February (Fiction) and March (Poetry) to BC school libraries and teachers. I’ve arranged it so that all BCTELA members who are interested in receiving a free copy just have to email REAL Society at info@rippleeffect.ca and write “BCTELA Wordscapes copy” in the subject line, and your Name, School, Position, and Mailing Address in the email.

I highly recommend all members take a few seconds to take advantage of this offer and check out this high quality publication. It will be a good read for both students and teachers!