Unit 2: Defining "MyNewLiteracy"

This unit is the core of the class, and will have three parts that build on one another and overlap. Assignments with overlapping components can seem daunting, perhaps overwhelming, but being able to multitask and handle large amounts of information is part of what it seems to mean to be literate in the 21^st century.  Work together to stay on task, and ask for clarifications whenever you need them.

Situation: This assignment asks you to consider roughly the same problem as Assignment 1, but to consider a wider scope.  Many teachers are pretty sure that students' literacy needs for the 21^st century will be radically different than the literacy needs of students from the 20^th century, but those teachers are still trying to figure out what students need, and how to help students develop the knowledge and skills they will need.  As you research and think about your specific literacy needs, consider how specialized or generalizable those needs are.  If the skill you need is specific, are there general strategies or concepts that will be important to most students? 

Audience and Purpose: Parts one (blogging) and two (stretching) are primarily for yourself and others in the classroom.  I encourage you to share your blogs and notes, and I encourage you to work with others to stretch yourself.  You are certainly welcome to share any of this material with people outside of the course, and I will be reading blogs and your stretch assignments, but your audience considerations for these two parts might be minimal. 

For part three (reflecting and speculating), I would like you to address an appropriate audience: probably teachers (like me, but not limited to me), politicians, or perhaps a "general reader."  Learning to write for an abstract audience is a difficult task—we will spend considerable time talking about this as the assignment due date draws near.  I am asking you to identify and address a specific audience because I believe that students need to play an important role in re-defining literacy education in the 21^st century. 

The Products:

Part One: Blogging or alternative form of collaboration

The first part of this assignment is a logical extension of Unit 1: continue to filter reading material relevant to 21^st Century Literacy (essays, blogs, websites, etc.).  Extend you blogging into reflections on tools you think will be relevant to your 21^st century literacy (literal tools like hardware and software, or conceptual tools like critical thinking, collaboration, and time management).   These blogs should include links if appropriate ones are available. 

If you have concluded in your first paper that blogs are of limited or no value to education, propose to me an alternative means of gathering, storing, and sharing information (e.g. the Blackboard system, email lists, or good old fashioned exchanging notes).  This proposal should be in writing, and will require group consensus.

Part Two: Stretching

In one of the essays you will read, Elizabeth Birr Moje and Josephine Young Peyton conclude that adolescents and young adults need to learn new things, to have new experiences, . . . and to stretch their thinking in order to be successfully literate in the 21^st century.  This part of the assignment gives you an opportunity to stretch yourself by learning how to use software and hardware or other tools that you might have a passing awareness of, but want to learn more about.  Your choice of tools should be related to your overall goal in this Unit—defining MyNewLiteracy.  For example, if you are planning to be an Architect, define (through research) the literacy skills that 21^st century architects seem to need.

You need to start thinking about possible stretch assignments when we begin the unit (Oct. 2), even though we won't turn our full attention to the stretch assignment until two weeks later (Oct. 14). 

In asking you to stretch yourselves, I am not asking you to kill yourselves learning something new, or to master the new tools or skills.  I expect you to:

*     Propose a project to me—in writing.  Explain how this project is a stretch for you, and explain how it relates to exploring "new literacy." 

*     Work with others in the class if you want to work on your collaborative skills (highly recommended).  Describe roles and tasks in the proposal if you work collaboratively.

*     Commit yourself to 15-20 hours (per person) on the project.  Over the span of the Unit, this isn't a huge amount of time. 

*     Determine your own grading criteria (an incomplete project, for example, can still be considered excellent if you come up with a strong outline or model, develop a few components fully, etc.)

*     You provide your own evaluation: use your grading criteria to tell me whether or not you accomplished your goals. While I won't necessarily assign the grade you give yourself, I would like this grade to be negotiated, and if possible, agreed upon. 

You can work on some tools and skills that might be particularly relevant to your future plans (e.g., learn some CAD basics, learn how to use Flash or Photoshop), you can do something that simply seems fun and challenging (make a short movie or home video, make a personal website), or you can get a job—make a website or do some other work for a club or organization you belong to.

Part Three: Definig "MyNewLiteracy"

After you have researched new literacy in part one and experimented with new tools in part two, I would like you to synthesize and reflect on those experiences by doing ONE of the following:

1.     Write a fairly traditional academic paper addressed to an appropriate audience (teachers, politicians, general public, etc.) in which you define "MyNewLiteracy" based on your research into new literacy, the specific demands of the field you plan to study, and your own experience stretching yourself to meet these new demands.  This paper should conform to MLA style-guide rules for citing work; it should include your own perspective and experience, and it might include elements of a proposal argument, in addition to the definition argument I am asking you to write.

2.     Produce a new media essay" (video-essay or web-essay or . . . ) that will illustrate your new literacy skills even as you reflect on them.  If you chose this option, it will likely be an outgrowth of your stretch assignment.  In other words, you will continue with that stretch beyond what you proposed, and you will work towards a finished product.  This option has the potential to be very time consuming, but if you find your stretch assignment to be particularly engaging, I encourage you to try it. 

The first option should be 6-9 pages; the second option is difficult to quantify—talk with me about its scope before you undertake it. 

Graded Products:

Blogs or alternatives: 5 points each, possible 50 points earned.  See Unit 1 assignment for details.

Stretch project: 125 points.

Definition essay: 225 points.

Participation: 50 points. 

I will ask groups to send me short, weekly participation reports, and ask for an overall evaluation of your participation for the unit.