IL 3013
Critical Readings in Language, Literacy, and Culture: Part II
Spring 2017
Course Instructor / Class meetings on campusLinda Kucan
5113 WWPH
/ January 7 February 4
March 4 April 1
“If it were possible to define generally the mission of education, one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life. Literacy pedagogy is expected to play a particularly important role in fulfilling this mission.”
New London Group, 1996, p. 60
“Knowledge production in the disciplines operates according to particular norms for everyday practice, conventions for communicating and representing knowledge and ideas, and ways of interacting, defending ideas, and challenging the deeply held ideas of others in the discipline.”
(Moje, 2008, p.100)
“The essence of both reading and writing instruction is change. Reading a book changes us forever as we return from the worlds we inhabit during our reading journey with new insights about our surroundings and ourselves. … Today, reading, reading instruction, and more broadly conceived notions of literacy and literacy instruction are being defined by change in even more profound ways as new technologies require new literacies to effectively exploit their potentials….”
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and Cammack (2000, p. 1570)
“As a theory, critical literacy espouses that education can foster social justice by allowing students to recognize how language is affected by and affects social relations.”
(Behrman, 2006, p. 490)
Course Overview
This course is the second of a two-part course sequence that provides opportunities for you to engage in the following important practices of EdD students in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Area of Concentration:
- the thoughtful and critical reading of important texts related to language, literacy, and culture
- the thoughtful and critical writing of academic prose related to language, literacy, and culture
- the identification of a problem of practice that interests you
- a preliminary review of literature related to your problem of practice
Reading
The texts that you will read critically and thoughtfully are listed below. These texts will engage you in addressing these questions:
- What is literacy?
- How do the notions of multiliteracies, disciplinary literacy, new literacies, and critical literacyplay out in my area of interest?
Writing
The academic writing that you will do includes:
- online responses to prompts about the readings
- reaction papers to the readings
- annotated bibliography of articles related to your problem of practice
- PowerPoint about one or two critical readings that are related to your problem of practice
- poster about article that describes new literacies practices that are related to your area of interest
Required Texts
BOOKS
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Graff, G., & Birkenstein, C. (2014). “They say/I say”: The moves that matter in academic
writing (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.
Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus: A survivor’s tale. NY: Pantheon.
ARTICLES/CHAPTERS
Bain, R. B. (2006). Rounding up the unusual suspects: Facing the authority hidden in the
history classroom. Teachers College Record, 108 (10), 2080-2114.
Behrman, E.D. (2006). Teaching about language, power, and text: A review of
classroom practices that support critical literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 49(6), 490-498.
Broderick, D. (2014). Collaborative design: Participatory culture meets multiliteracies in
a high school literary arts community. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 58(3), 198-208.
Chun, C.W. (2009). Critical literacies and graphic novels for English language learners;
Teaching Maus. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy,53(2), 144-153.
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M., (2009). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning.
Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4, 164-195.
Leu, D. J. Jr., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2000). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. B. Ruddell & N.J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1570-1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Matthewman, S., Blight, A., & Davies, C. (2004). What does multimodality mean for
English? Creative tensions in teaching new texts and new literacies. Education, communication & Information, 4(1), 153-176.
Moje, E. B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and
learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107.
New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures.
Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.
Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents:
Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40-59.
Tan, J. P., & McWilliam, E. (2009). From literacy to multiliteracies: Diverse learners and
pedagogical practice. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4, 213-225.
Course Readings
The course readings are organized into foursets.
- The first setof readings focuses on multiliteracies and includes articles by the New London Group (1996), Cope and Kalantzis (2009), Broderick (2004), Matthewman, Blight, and Davies (2004), and Tan and McWilliam (2009).
- The second set focuses on disciplinary literacy and includes articles by Shanahan and Shanahan (2008), Moje (2008), and Bain (2006).
- The thirdset focuses on new literacies and includes a chapter by Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and Cammack (2000) and an article that you will locate related to new literacies your area of interest.
- The fourth set focuses on critical literacy and includes an article by Behrman (2006) and an article that you will locate related to critical literacy in your area of interest. The set also includes the graphic novel Maus and a related reading by Chun (2009).
Course Assignments
Online Discussion Board: 30 points
The Course Schedule indicates when you will post to the Online Discussion Board. Specific prompts are provided for each of the 5 required postings.
- Initial Postings: 3 points each/ 18points total
- Responses to peer posting: 2 points each/12points total
Reaction Papers: 30 points
As indicated on the Course Schedule, you will compose 5 Reaction Papers.Reaction papers 1-4 are 2-3 page double-spaced responses to given prompts and are worth 5 points each. Reaction paper 5 is a 3-5 page double-spaced response to the given prompt and is worth 10 points.
NOTE: The Reaction Papers provide an opportunity for you to craft your academic writing skills at the sentence level. You have only 2-3 pages. Every sentence counts. As the course progresses, your Reaction Papers should demonstrate your ability to make use of the moves described in the text by Graff and Birkenstein.
Annotated Bibliography: 10 points
With the advice of your advisor, you will locate at least 5 articles, chapters, and/or books related to your problem of practice. Each entry must conform to APA-6 style and include a summary (1-2 paragraphs) of the most important ideas as they relate to your problem of practice.
PowerPoint Presentation on Your Problem of Practice: 10 points
You will prepare a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation identifying the topic of your problem of practice and describing how the 5 readings that you have identified are influencing the way you are thinking about your problem of practice. What does each reading contribute to your thinking in specific ways?
Prepare a presentation of your slides of no more than 15 minutes.
Both the content and organization of your slides as well as your presentation to the class will be assessed.
Poster Presentation: 10 points
You will create a poster about an article describing the enactment of new literacies practices in your area of interest. The poster will include:
- article title/author
- description of context and participants
- description of curriculum involving new literacies
- summary of insights from enactment of new literacies curriculum
Prepare a presentation of your poster of no more than 15 minutes.
Both the content and organization of your poster as well as your presentation to the class will be assessed.
Course Policies
Grading
A+ = 99-100 points A = 94-98 points A- = 90-93 points
B+ = 88-89 pointsB = 84-87 pointsB- = 80-83 points
C+ = 78-79 pointsC = 74-77 pointsC- = 70-73 points
Below 70 = failure
Late assignment policy: The nature and pace of this course requires that you do not fall behind in assignments. If an extension is needed for an assignment, this must be arranged before the due date and will be granted for only the most extenuating of circumstances. Points will be deducted for late assignments.
Revising assignments: If your work on an assignment is graded below 80% you may revise and resubmit it one time. Resubmissions must be submitted within 2 weeks of receiving the graded assignment. The highest grade you can receive on a resubmitted assignment is 80%. NOTE: Assignments due the last two weeks of the course cannot be revised.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Academic integrity is a key component of professionalism. It is expected that all candidates uphold the principles of academic integrity in their work during this course as specified on the University of Pittsburgh Office of the Provost. These guidelines are available for download at:
Students who do not follow these guidelines may be subject to disciplinary action.
GRIEVANCE POLICY
The purpose of grievance procedures is to ensure the rights and responsibilities of faculty and students in their relationships with each other. The rights and responsibilities of faculty and students are described in the University’s Academic Integrity Guidelines at:
SPECIAL LEARNING NEEDS
Ifyou have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890 [(412) 383-7355 for TTY], as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.
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