Shifting the Way We Teach English
July 9, 2007 by Mary
If you haven’t been an avid reader of English Education, you may not have noticed that the English class you took with Miss. Hardy in seventh grade, the one where you read Edgar Allan Poe and defined “foreshadow” and tried to figure out whether the blank should be filled by “lie,” “lay,” or “laid” doesn’t exist anymore. Or maybe it does exist, but you better keep your fingers crossed that Miss. Hardy and the rest of her English-teaching colleagues have included in their curriculum something academics refer to as “multiliteracy.” What is “multiliteracy?” This concept represents, perhaps, the first revolution in CONTENT in the English language arts. And like every matter of content in this field, it is contested. Every since its inception as a field, WHAT is taught in English class, one of the only classes required EVERY year of a child’s K-12 education, but that is surprisingly unsettled as to what it actually is. Perhaps this is why everyone, from Dick Cheney to Noam Chomsky can agree that THIS is an important class.
But rather than let “multiliteracy” sneak into the ELA curriculum, I want to make a case for its inclusion, and for a radical re-envisionment of the field of ELA in the service of educating the general public—from taxpayers to parents, to students themselves. Multiliteracy is too important to be silent about the matter.
I will argue that multiliteracy is more that a skill. It is an attitude. And that both the skills and the attitude need to be supported in K-12 classrooms for English to be relevant to students and the world they inhabit.
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If you haven’t been an avid reader of English Education, you may not have noticed that the English class you took with Miss. Hardy in seventh grade, the one where you read Edgar Allan Poe and defined “foreshadow” and tried to figure out whether the blank should be filled by “lie,” “lay,” or “laid” doesn’t exist anymore. Or maybe it does exist, but you better keep your fingers crossed that Miss. Hardy and the rest of her English-teaching colleagues have included in their curriculum something academics refer to as “multiliteracy.” What is “multiliteracy?” This concept represents, perhaps, the first revolution in CONTENT in the English language arts. And like every matter of content in this field, it is contested. Every since its inception as a field, WHAT is taught in English class, one of the only classes required EVERY year of a child’s K-12 education, but that is surprisingly unsettled as to what it actually is. Perhaps this is why everyone, from Dick Cheney to Noam Chomsky can agree that THIS is an important class.
But rather than let “multiliteracy” sneak into the ELA curriculum, I want to make a case for its inclusion, and for a radical re-envisionment of the field of ELA in the service of educating the general public—from taxpayers to parents, to students themselves. Multiliteracy is too important to be silent about the matter.
I will argue that multiliteracy is more that a skill. It is an attitude. And that both the skills and the attitude need to be supported in K-12 classrooms for English to be relevant to students and the world they inhabit.
And that’s great to have here, but what about your writing Ms. Mary?
BK BLogger
I am just starting to see that, especially through the writing project. We need to change our attitudes and get on board with this decade!
It’s a great start to your teacher piece! The Multiliteracy Express is one that cannot be missed by educators.
I love this start, but then again, I wrote it! Will I finish it? That is the question. So this is me saying to me that you need to make time to finish it. Just do it. You can.
Move it a bit forward every day. At least open the document. If you are not willing to make that minimal commitment, then…
That was advice I received on writing my dissertation. It was hard to open and not do at least a bit of tinkering.