Week 2

The DeKalb County School System has recently reconstructed the language arts curriculum in an effort to improve reading scores on the state’s standardized test. The rationale for this new literacy curriculum is based on a scientifically-based research instructional program called SpringBoard. The purpose of this curriculum is to actively engage all students through meaningful, content based, student centered, inquiry based, differentiated instruction by requiring the application of higher level thinking skills across the curriculum to demonstrate greater literacy. SpringBoard is expected to be used on a daily basis in teaching while utilizing the school’s basal series reading textbook as supplemental material. Fortunately, unlike many language arts curriculums, SpringBoard incorporates film viewing in many of its lessons. Students are given the opportunity to view Lion King, Anne of Green Gables, and The Mighty to name a few. Although these films are included in the SpringBoard curriculum, they tend not to extend students learning beyond media participation and introducing communication in multimodal ways. Parents usually perceive media studies as being a waste of time- a waste of very important instructional time. Parents were accepting of the films that were viewed in the SpringBoard literacy curriculum because students took lesson instructions and worksheets home with the SpringBoard stamp of approval. Material that was not prescribed by the researched-based curriculum would be considered irrelevant and a distraction from teaching students the necessary basic skills.

The ideal literacy curriculum that incorporates media studies beyond the SpringBoard curriculum and film viewing would focus on students developing literacy skills to make connections with texts via the use of several media tools. For example, after a viewing of The Mighty, students would extend their literacy connections by visiting the film’s website and accessing other digital texts. Students can explore the themes of friendship, bullying, and otherness by reading reviews and analyzing statistics. Students can discuss their thoughts in blogs that can be shared with classmates and with other students in the school or across the globe. The digital text of The Mighty can also be compared and contrasted with the print text of Bridge to Terabithia to develop the skill of making connections across different texts. Students would exemplify their understanding of the concepts by constructing their ideas in Inspiration created concept map that would include hypertext and visuals that would lead to further thinking.

In addition to focusing on the literacy of making connections, students would also acquire the literacies of problem solving and building social relationships in digital spaces. Students can create game simulations in which the characters from The Mighty and The Bridge of Terabithia join forces and share how friendship bonds cans be used to overcome bullying. Within this simulation, bullies, teachers, peers, and the media would play a role in how the problem of bullying is viewed and solved. Once these problem solving skills are developed, students can present their ideas and thoughts in the virtual space of Second Life. Second Life will provide students with a safe space in which they can alter their identities and comfortably voice their opinions without the hassle or judgment from others.

The value of acquiring the litearcies is that students are learning the necessary skills for literacy competency beyond textbooks and the simple engagement of a film. The curriculum that I propose for my school urges students to become active participants and critical thinkers. Students are reading and writing in multimodal ways while critically evaluating and engaging with texts. I think parents and others who may doubt the academic effects of media studies will be more accepting of this type of learning when it’s evident that students are responding to this type of learning. The use of multiple literacies in language arts curriculum does leave me with one lingering question. What does the implementation of media studies mean for standardized tests that may be unable to test the new level of knowledge that students have acquired. It seems that traditional testing will no longer work since students are no longer learning in traditional ways.