Notes from Kajder, Chapter 1

The purpose of this book is “to invite critical discussion around what it means to teach and learn in a digital age steeped in social media while raising ideas about how we leverage that media to foster reading and writing” (p. 2).  I think that's really exciting and overwhelming at the same time; I think this book may raise more questions than provide specific answers.  In some ways, I kind of wish I was reading this book with a class or a group because I imagine the conversation around these ideas would be rich and productive.

Literacies is...

Shifting from thinking about technology—from How to I use this? to What do I want to do this? Embracing possibilities.

Is not a dismissal of traditional literacies, but embracing new literacies and leveraging the new ones to provide access and interest in the old.

Some “big ideas”: 

1.   Kids come to us to multiply literature.   We need to continually work with multiple texts, modes, and media and work to make meaning with them.
2. Literacy is social, active, and connective. Ignoring the social nature of adolescent is crazy—using literacy in a social way helps students to see that their words matter and how reading and writing connects people.      
3. Kids need to be able to answer “We are doing this in order to….”  I mean, this seems like a no-brainer, but of course, it isn’t always clear to us or our students.

Some things to consider:

• The difference in using the term “literacies” rather than “literacy”

• Adding digital literacies under the umbrella of literacy

• Distinction between new literacies (focus on modes) and multimodality (focus on tools)

• Literacies “is not dependent on digital knowledge or prowess” (p. 9)

Thinking about literacy is thinking about “the role of creativity and community in our classrooms; about collaborative inquiry, participation, and what it means to learn with our students; and how we lead students to be serious students of literature and language while also fostering multiple literacies made possible and even required by our increasingly participatory culture” (p. 10-11).