Art is Art is Art is English is Literacy

I like this, but it scares me. I'm no artist. However, I see myself as someone who thinks like an artist. We all have Bachelor of ARTS degrees...so hey, maybe the experts are right; English language is an art after all!

Of course there has been much research done out there to determine that literary thinking taps into the creative realm. Look at this--there's even a degree out there dedicated to the synthesis of art and literature! http://www.reading.ac.uk/Study/ug/ArtEnglishLitBA.aspx

So the connection is quite clear: there is much overlap in these worlds. But then, the problem arises, do we technically need to become experts in both in order to fairly and equally assess students when we deem it relevant and useful to incorporate one within the other for an assignment and performance of understanding? I took some time to read and think about this from the NCTE reading:

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to

• Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
  
• Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
  
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
  
• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
  
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
  
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.

 
In the third bullet point, I think the language makes much sense to me... "...to meet a variety of purposes." It's pretty broad in terms of phrasing; I see it as open interpretation for the entire spectrum spanning from objective to subjective assessment. For example, if I have students create a podcast, the "purpose" might be to give a book talk on The Giver. My rubric might include just the understanding of the theme and plot. There is no getting around that subjectivity in the teaching of ELA, but just because one student understands enough technology to create a cool sound background and add some Giver-inspired sound effects (not even sure what those would be...?), does that mean they understood the book more? I don't know the answer to that. BUT what I DO know is that based on what I just explained, and on the purpose I originally gave, I'm not grading the podcast based on those sound effects. Cool? Yes. Necessary for this specific purpose of assignment? No.

I think if we present students with our guidelines in the beginning, that can certainly help. Not that we don't do that anyway, but for the incorporation of new media, I think we need to be even more explicit in terms of our expectations. They're used to the expectations we teachers have for essays. There is, of course, some varying degree of assessment with the different teachers students encounter, but basically it's on a somewhat similar level of framework. But this...this newer style of learning/teaching; the incorporation of new media technology and the understanding, for both teacher AND student, that learning literature (and all things ELA) has multimodal possibilities, is less ingrained in them in terms of the teacher's assessment procedures. If we say at the beginning, "I will be grading you on creativity. No pencil. All must be done using Adobe Photoshop. You must incorporate color. Must be aesthetically pleasing," yes, there is certainly some subjectivity in there, but at least the students know it's there.

It's also an ongoing process. I think we need to take time to make the new media assignments part of the classroom activities instead of assigning them and leaving students to their own devices. They need to learn these 21st century learner habits now so that they're prepared to utilize them in college and careers in the future. If we set them up with highly detailed expectations for the assignment and then work through it with them, it makes them more comfortable with the entire process. They end up seeing more value in it rather than just busywork that is "just another PowerPoint," which I do everything in my power to avoid! I think the basic explanation of the purpose is so valuable (in general) while teaching and assessing new media. The students' ownership is vital as we move forward with these new technologies.

.................Of course, they know it already; we're the ones who probably need to be taught to feel more comfortable with technology, right? Sigh. Full circle!