2. Today’s Agenda
Loose ends (back to the lab)
Discussion of readings
Brevity is the Soul of (t)Wit
Semiotic Systems
Semiotics Jigsaw
Discussion of due dates/blog
3. Learning Goals
Understand the diversity of language forms students may
encounter
Understand that texts are constructed from a variety of semiotic
systems and that readers need to understand codes and
conventions in order to make meaning.
4.
5. Loose Ends
If you’ve posted your survey, written a reflection on it, and sent
me the url for your blog move on to the next step (if you’re still
here, that’s okay.)
Comment on your classmates’ redesigned surveys. This url will
take you to all the blogs I have so far: http://bit.ly/5452Sblogs
11. Semiotic Systems
auditory (for example, music, sound effects, silence)
gestural (for example, facial expression, body language)
linguistic (for example, vocabulary, grammar)
spatial (for example, environmental and architectural spaces)
visual (for example, still and moving images, page and screen
layouts).
12. Jigsaw!
I will be grouping you into home groups
You will “number off”
You will view a text based on the number you’ve chosen
You will discuss the text with those who had the same number as
you
You will report back to your home group.
13. Texts
Dove: http://www.dove.ca/en/Social-Mission/
Short film: Validation (search on Youtube) or http://bit.ly/
validationmovie
Interactive Telltale Heart: http://bit.ly/knowingpoe
Selection from: Spiegelman, Art. Maus. 1st ed. 1-2. Penguin
Books, 1993.
14. Questions to discuss:
Identify the codes and conventions used to convey meaning
Did your text use more than one semiotic system? How did that
affect your reading and viewing?
Were you more proficient with some systems than with others?
Which ones? Why?
15. Blogging
Your blog is your digital portfolio for this course
At least 5 posts throughout the course (including assigned posts)
Commenting
URLs for the class blogs http://bit.ly/5452Sblogs
16. Creating an RSS feed
Real Simple Syndication
The information comes to you
Google Reader, Feedly, Pulse
17. For Next Week
Brown, J. (2010). The case for comics in the classroom.
TEDxOntarioEd Event (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PpCiH_aBlLQ
McCloud, S. (2005). Scott McCloud on comics. TED (video). http://
www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html
Young, N. (host) (2009, November 19). Full Interview: Jenna
McWilliams on new media literacy [podcast]. Spark. http://www.cbc.ca/
spark/2009/11/full-interviewjenna-mcwilliams-on-new-media-literacy/
18. For Next Week
Comment on two or three of your classmates’ blog posts.
Comments should attempt to “extend the conversation” in some
way. Ask a question, share a suggestion, etc. Be constructive and
polite.
19. Lesson Redesign
Choose a lesson from your first practicum placement (doesn’t
matter if it wasn’t English) and revise and redesign it using a text
selection or literacy practice that was not integrated in the
original form.
Share this redesign on your blog. Be sure to credit sources/
original creators.
Due date: (We will decide on this as a class today)
Editor's Notes
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Welcome back! We’ll start back in the lab to wrap up any loose ends from last week. If you had trouble completing your survey, embedding your survey, or sharing your url, we’ll take care of that. Please make sure you sign the attendance sheet that’s going around. We’re going to start here and move over to the lab for the rest of class. \n
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How not to teach.\n
We will spend approximately 15-20 minutes on this. \n
Give one get one: I’m going to show you a strategy that I sometimes use with my students for discussions or for brainstorming. We’re going to watch this one more time just to review the key ideas. Please write down one or two facts that you found surprising/exciting/scary in this video. Be prepared to share these ideas with your classmates. Reflection: how could you use this activity in your classroom?\n
Go through presentation. Key points: our students are part of a remix culture. Creative Commons bridges the gap between public domain and all rights reserved. By licensing our own work we control how we allow others to use what we produce. Rodd’s presentation on Creative Commons asks teachers to model “creative integrity” with the material we create and remix. TPS: what are the implications for educators based on either of these presentations. (half the class do CC half do DYK)\n
Today we’re talking about diversity of language forms. As English teachers in Ontario, you just have to take a look at the curriculum documents to see that we are expected to cover a huge range of types of texts and modes of communication. Literature is only one part of that, which can be a bit daunting if you are an English major since it’s likely that literature was your whole world in university. If we want to teach our students how to navigate through diverse texts and modes of communication effectively and critically, I think we need to model those practices ourselves. So I wanted to show you something I’ve done this year to give this idea some context. It’s not about replacing literature with technology. It’s about exploring opportunities made possible by different those tools. Our goal: I wanted students to think critically about the different roles of the characters within the play, to think of the voices that were silent within the text. I also wanted them to have the experience of being completely immersed in a text. As we read, I asked them to think about how the events of the scene would affect their characters. They discussed ideas with each other and then tweeted in character. That doesn’t mean we didn’t do close readings of the text, but it was a way to use modern tools to play and experiment with a classic text. Talk about skyping with class in Kitchener and how they critiqued and questioned the role play. \n
The world is changing: \nSocially: • changing societal structures in a shrinking world • increasing social and cultural diversity • increased marketing of ideas and products through multimedia\nTechnologically: globalisation of economies, cultures and workplaces • new information and\ncommunication technologies • literacy is no longer print-based • media influence reaching\ninto homes, leisure sites and workplaces • increasing use of still and moving images and\nother semiotic systems\nEconomically: • multiple occupations throughout one’s working life • changing demands\nupon literacy skills and behaviours • knowledge economy\n We need to equip students with the ability to combine and recombine existing and new literacy skills in different ways, for new purposes and\nwith new technologies.\n
Texts are constructed from a variety of semiotic systems, that is, systems of signs that help members of a society and culture share meaning. Meanings are made using the codes and conventions of oral, written and multimedia texts. Each semiotic system has its own particular codes and conventions that serve ideological, social and textual functions. The following classification (one of several) identifies many of the codes that readers use:\n
A reader may need to process several of these codes, acting together and interacting with others, to construct meaning. If you look at our current English curriculum documents in Ontario, these semiotic systems are equally distributed.\n
texts: graphic novel, web page (Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), short film (Validation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao) Knowing Poe (http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/writer/telltaleheart.asp)\n
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You will be required to post five times throughout this course--throughout this course, not at the end--Two of the blog posts will be assigned topics eg/ your literacy survey and your lesson redesign, leaving the rest open to you. You are encouraged to collect, select, and reflect in ways that support your individual learning goals as they relate to English Language Arts teaching and learning;\n• Students will also comment on at least five of their classmates’ blog posts\nthroughout the course. URLs for blogs will be collected and shared via RSS feed\n
