Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A Broader Literacy
I have been guilty of the attitude that David Buckingham is detailing in Chapter One of Media Education. He says, "All these media are equally worthy of study, and there is no logical reason why they should be considered separately. The claim that we should study 'literature' in isolation from other kinds of printed texts, or films in isolation from other kinds of moving image media, clearly reflects broader social judgments about the value of the different forms..." (4). I defined my desire to be a teacher by wanting to teach literature. And what I meant was the classic books that I love to read. Only in the latter half of my career at CSUN have I realized that literacy in today's world means so much more than classic books, it means contemporary works as well as other media. I agree with Buckingham that educators need to stop trying to moralize about the media because as he says, they "are at least redundant, if not positively counter-productive (33). Educators used to be upset about paperback books. They assumed that if it is a cheap mass market book it must be sleazy. Now paperbacks are ubiquitous and are published in all types of titles, from classic books, historical and philosophical books, to contemporary books. It seems funny to us that paperbacks were considered inappropriate reading material for children. This mindset is again enacted in the idea of different types of media being appropriate, and beneficial, to students. Intertextuality and transmediation help foster creativity and build critical thinking skills. By broadening the minds of our students, they will be able to use the analytical skills they have developed to decide if the input they are receiving is of value or not. Teachers need to not hinder this process, after all, this is the purpose of teaching. Technologies and other types of media are not going to go away. It is time for educators to embrace them and use them to teach kids a deeper, more practical kind of literacy. Buckingham says, "For literacy clearly involves both reading and writing; and so media literacy must necessarily entail both the interpretation and the production of media" (49). This is hard for me to accept, but ultimately I want to be an effective teacher, and to do that I have to embrace what is going on in our world and form my students to be literate in all kinds of ways so they can be a participating member of society.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Coyote Provides Fire
This myth is very well known and not created by me. I only took a portion of the short story for the purpose of our group's facilitation. Again, I am not taking credit for this myth!
Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze.
But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter.
Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck.
"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter."
Coyote, overhearing this...
Based on the elements of the "Trickster" we have discussed so far, come up with your own unique conclusion by yourself or with your row to this short story. It is completely open ended; just use the elements we have mentioned as guidelines to how you think the rest of the story goes. Post your final product with an original title onto your blog when you are finished!
My part begins here: The beginning is from the group presentation.
Coyote sympathizes with the need of humans for warmth because they lack fur. First he gives them fur, but this causes anger amongst the other animals because he took the fur from them to make human clothing. This makes Coyote ostracized and he feels hurt because he had tried to help the humans, but at the expense of others. He calls out to lightening to avenge him and causes fire to follow him as he runs which the humans are able to grasp for their use, but the animals get burned out of their homes, and Coyote is forever banished from the community and has to live on the edges of society.
Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze.
But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter.
Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck.
"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter."
Coyote, overhearing this...
Based on the elements of the "Trickster" we have discussed so far, come up with your own unique conclusion by yourself or with your row to this short story. It is completely open ended; just use the elements we have mentioned as guidelines to how you think the rest of the story goes. Post your final product with an original title onto your blog when you are finished!
My part begins here: The beginning is from the group presentation.
Coyote sympathizes with the need of humans for warmth because they lack fur. First he gives them fur, but this causes anger amongst the other animals because he took the fur from them to make human clothing. This makes Coyote ostracized and he feels hurt because he had tried to help the humans, but at the expense of others. He calls out to lightening to avenge him and causes fire to follow him as he runs which the humans are able to grasp for their use, but the animals get burned out of their homes, and Coyote is forever banished from the community and has to live on the edges of society.
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