Searching for New Literacy Classrooms:
An Invitation to Participate in a Research Study

William Kist


I am embarking on a research study to find classrooms across the United States and Canada where new literacies form an integral part of the curriculum and daily life. This area of study has fascinated me for several years. My doctoral dissertation (Kent State University, 1999) profiled two classrooms where new literacies were in action. The goal of this current research project, which has been funded as an AT&T Learning Network Fellows study through the Research Center for Educational Technology, is to find other such classrooms and perform case studies of them during the 2001-2002 school year, and beyond.

two girls at a computer     Increasingly, calls for a broadened definition of literacy appear in the professional literature (see, e.g., Buckingham, 1993; Buckingham & Sefton-Green, 1994; Flood & Lapp, 1995; Kress, 1997; Luke & Elkins, 1998; New London Group, 1996; Technology and Cognition Group at Vanderbilt University, 1994, as reported by Reinking, 1997, online document). Eisner (1997) has offered the following new definition:

In order to be read, a poem, an equation, a painting, a dance, a novel, or a contract each requires a distinctive form of literacy, when literacy means, as I intend it to mean, a way of conveying meaning through and recovering meaning from the form of representation in which it appears. (p. 353)

In the inaugural column in the New Literacies department of Reading Online, Ann Watts Pailliotet (2000, online document) describes new literacies as intermedial:

These new literacies are highly complex, synthetic, and synergetic in nature (Lemke, 1998; Neuman, 1991), involving combinations of visual, auditory, and print information. I define “new literacies” as reading and writing across and with varied symbol systems (Semali & Watts Pailliotet, 1999, p. 6). By “reading,” I mean actively constructing meanings through varied interactions with diverse media; by “writing,” generating texts through multiple media forms and literacy processes.

These writings describing new literacies are quite persuasive. But we don’t often see rich descriptions of daily life in new literacy classrooms. (For one recent example, see Rennels & Taylor, 2001, online document.) How can classrooms honor “cognitive pluralism” (John-Steiner, 1997)? And to what effect? How can teachers emphasize in their teaching that “language is but one of several codes...that constitute human thought” (John-Steiner, p. xvi)? How do events play out in a classroom where equal value is explicitly and implicitly placed on the ability to use different forms of expression in all forms of new media? How can students read these symbols and tools -- these “available designs” (New London Group, 1996) -- and use them to think through problems and express themselves? How do teachers utilize technology in order to broaden their (and their students’) conceptions of literacy?

My study seeks to continue the work of documenting classrooms as teachers begin to embrace new technologies and new literacy. But how will I know that a classroom is indeed a new literacy classroom? Based on a review of relevant literature and my dissertation research (Kist, 1999, 2000), I have identified some characteristics and questions that I hope will get readers thinking about their own classrooms or classrooms they know about:

     two young girls drawing with pencil and paper

New literacy classrooms feature

two boys at a keyboard     I am looking for your help in finding new literacy classrooms throughout the United States and Canada. If you are aware of one or more such classrooms, your own or those of colleagues, please take a moment to complete the survey below. Also, if you have ideas of other outlets for this survey, I would appreciate hearing about them; you can contact me by e-mail at wkist@kent.edu.

The classrooms you nominate may be selected to participate in a case study that will take place during the 2001-2002 school year. My colleagues and I will contact each of the nominated teachers in the near future for a follow-up telephone interview. If the person does not wish to participate in the follow-up interview, he or she certainly doesn’t have to; if someone chooses to participate, he or she can withdraw at any time. By submitting a name through this survey, you are simply nominating a classroom as a new literacy classroom. The online surveys will be destroyed after the data are recorded, and your participation will be kept confidential.

If you want to know more about this research project, please send me an e-mail or telephone me at 330-244-3431. This project has been approved by Kent State University. If you have questions about the university’s rules for research, please call Walter C. Adams, interim vice-provost and dean, Division of Research and Graduate Studies, at 330-672-3012. Thanks to all those who choose to participate.



Nominate a New Literacy Classroom

Note: This survey form was disabled in October 2003.

Part A: Contact Information

1. Your name:

2. Your organization/affiliation:

3. Your e-mail address:

4. Name of the teacher whose classroom you wish to nominate (if this is not a self-nomination):

5. Name and location (city and state/province) of the nominated teacher’s school:

6. Teacher’s e-mail address:

7. Teacher’s telephone number:

Part B: About the Nominated Classroom

Please answer the following questions about the nominated classroom by clicking on the appropriate button:

5 = very frequently     4 = frequently     3 = sometimes     2 = rarely     1 = never


1. Does the classroom teacher allow for student authoring in multiple forms of representation?

A key characteristic of classrooms where a broadened definition of literacy is in place is that teachers embrace and allow for literate expression in forms other than print. In a new literacy classroom, this is not a one-unit stunt, but something that occurs naturally and often. A new literacy classroom is filled with projects completed in music, video or film, visual art, and print.

2. Does the classroom feature a balance of individual and collaborative work?

The work of John-Steiner (1997) demonstrates that creative artists, as they develop, go back and forth between solitary and collaborative work. For children, both conditions are crucial to the development of a creative vocabulary. In a new literacy classroom, some student work should be completed individually and some collaboratively.

3. Does the teacher carry on a meta-dialogue about the use of symbols and the language of thinking, especially in the pursuit of problem solving, inquiry, and critical thinking?

The teacher should serve as a powerful role model, perhaps performing a think-aloud as he or she works through a problem using drawing, choreography, or storyboarding. These multiple forms of representation are then seen by the students as necessary tools in the teacher’s own problem solving, inquiry, and critical thinking.

4. Does the teacher instruct students in a kind of “consumerism” of symbols, of designs that are available to them in certain situations?

In a new literacy classroom, it is clear to students that different symbol systems are available for their use in different situations (New London Group, 1996). Instead of print being the default medium, in such classrooms, there is no default medium. The teacher talks explicitly to students about the different forms of communication available to them as “writers.”

5. Does the classroom feature motivated, engaged students who are self-directed?

Because students in new literacy classrooms often work in their medium or media of choice, it might be expected that they will become deeply engaged in their learning activities.

6. Does the classroom feature a balance of choice and mandatory activities?

A new literacy classroom, by its nature, allows for some student choice over direction of work. In such classrooms, each students voice is valued and can be expressed in a variety of forms.

7. Is classroom work based around projects?

Most descriptions of new literacy classrooms and one preliminary study (Kist, 1999) suggest that such classrooms are organized around ongoing student projects that include both individual and collaborative elements and are sometimes interdisciplinary.

8. Does the classroom feature a transformation of traditional teacher and student roles?

In new literacy classrooms, teachers become colearners with students, participating in the creation of new work in the studio that the classroom has become.



If you would like to send a separate message to the researcher, please e-mail William Kist.




References

Buckingham, D. (1993). Reading audiences: Young people and the media. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
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Buckingham, D., & Sefton-Green, J. (1994). Cultural studies goes to school: Reading and teaching popular media. London: Taylor & Francis.
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Eisner, E. (1997). Cognition and representation: A way to pursue the American dream? Phi Delta Kappan, 78, 349-353.
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Flood, J., & Lapp, D. (1995). Broadening the lens: Toward an expanded conceptualization of literacy. In K. Hinchman, D.J. Leu, Jr., & C. Kinzer (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy research and practice (pp. 1-16). Chicago, IL: National Reading Conference.
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John-Steiner, V. (1997). Notebooks of the mind: Explorations of thinking (rev. ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Kist, W. (1999). Case studies of “new literacy” in practice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, Kent, OH.
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Kist, W. (2000). Beginning to create the new literacy classroom: What does the new literacy look like? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43, 710-718.
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Kress, G. (1997). Before writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy. London: Routledge.
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Lemke, J.L. (1998). Metamedia literacy: Transforming meanings and media. In D. Reinking, M.C. McKenna, L.D. Labbo, & R.D. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 283-301). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [Note: This book is reviewed elsewhere in this journal.]
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Luke, A., & Elkins, J. (1998). Reinventing literacy in “new times.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42, 4-7.
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Neuman, S.B. (1991). Literacy in the television age: The myth of the TV effect. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
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New London Group, The. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Education Review, 66(1), 60-92.
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Reinking, D. (1997). Me and my hypertext :) A multiple digression analysis of technology and literacy (sic). Reading Teacher, 50, 626-643. Available: www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=hypertext/index.html
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Rennels, D.H., & Taylor, J.F. (2001, April). Teacher’s palette. First Monday, 6(4). Available: firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_4/rennels/index.html
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Semali, L.M., & Watts Pailliotet, A. (1999). Introduction: What is intermediality and why study it in U.S. schools? In L.M. Semali & A. Watts Pailliotet (Eds.), Intermediality: The teachers’ handbook of critical media literacy (pp. 1-30). Boulder, CO: Westview.
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Watts Pailliotet, A. (2000, July). Welcome to the New Literacies department. Reading Online, 4(1). Available: www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=wattspailliotet1/index.html
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About the Author

portrait of the author     William Kist is an assistant professor at the Stark Regional Campus of Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA, where he teaches middle childhood literacy courses. He has been a junior high and high school language arts teacher, a language arts curriculum coordinator, and a consultant. His current research interests include the new literacy movement, and his background reflects his own work in multiliteracies: he is the recipient of an Ohio Educational Broadcasting Network Commission (OEBIE) Honorable Mention and a regional Emmy Award nomination for outstanding achievement in music composition for the documentary series Our Family. His article “Beginning to create the new literacy classroom,” published originally in the International Reading Association’s Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, was also selected for inclusion in IRA’s recent book What Adolescents Deserve.

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Citation: Kist, W. (2001, July/August). Searching for new literacy classrooms: An invitation. Reading Online, 5(1). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/kist/index.html

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted July 2001
© 2001 International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232