Flows of Reading: Engaging With Texts

While common usage of the word, text, often refers to written or printed matter, literary and cultural theory extends the term to refer to any coherent set of symbols that transmit meaning to those who know how to read them. In an age where ideas may take many forms and be expressed across different media, texts and reading take on new implications.One goal of the Flows of Reading project is to inspire teachers and students to reflect on what can be considered as reading and what kinds of reading they perform in their everyday lives. Flows of Reading introduces an expanded concept of the term, text, and models a new type of readerĺ䁥ŕone who reads across different media and who understands reading as an activity of sharing, deconstructing, and making meaning.We have created a rich environment designed to encourage close critical engagement not only with Moby-Dick but a range of other texts, including the childrenĺ䁥_s picture book, Flotsam; Harry Potter; Hunger Games; and Lord of the Rings. We want to demonstrate that the bookĺ䁥_s approach can be applied to many different kinds of texts and may revitalize how we teach a diversity of forms of human expression.

Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Erin Reilly, Henry Jenkins, Ritesh Mehta

Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns

This curriculum kit helps to teach about the role of media in 28 U.S. elections ranging from 1800-2008. Over 160 media documents are included for decoding, including slides of posters, handbills and political cartoons; audio clips of songs and radio programs; and video clips of speeches, debates, comedy TV and political commercials. Students will learn how to analyze historical documents, the history of presidential campaigns, the crafting and marketing of campaign messages, and the impact of new technologies and new media on presidential campaigns.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Sox Sperry & Chris Sperry

Media Construction of Peace

This kit provides teachers, college faculty and other educators with the materials needed to engage students in a dynamic and constructivist process of learning how antiwar movements have been perceived by the people in the United States and how the U.S. media has constructed that public perception. The subject areas covered include U.S. history, African-American studies, labor studies, Latino studies, media studies, Native American studies, peace studies, sociology and womenŒ_ΏŁ_ studies among many others.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Sox Sperry

Well-Behaved Women [and Men] Seldom Make History

Students read and discuss picture book biographies of women [and men] in history. With their teacher, they build a data chart of information about each woman, highlighting her historical setting, accomplishments, and character traits. Finally students apply what they learn to several writing projects focused on historical context and social change. While the focus of biography is on individuals, students will see they did not, and could not, succeed alone but were supported along the way by others.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Literacy in Science: Word Clouds

8th Grade Science teacher Peter Hill from King Middle School in Maine shares a quick strategy tool and strategy he refers to as "word cloud". The "word cloud" is generated by a computer program that takes words from an article and generates a "cloud" with different sizes of words with the size emphasizing the frequency of the word. Mr. Hill uses this as a quick pre-reading activity to increase curiosity and engagement and to have students anticipate what the article or essay is about and what the main idea is. Teachers might also consider a twist to this idea and have student groups create their own word cloud after reading a selected text.11

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Chemicals in the Environment

This kit is a historical overview of American representations of chemicals from the three sisters to the Love Canal. It compares conflicting constructions about nuclear reactor safety, depleted uranium, Rachel Carson and DDT. Through analyzing diverse historic and contemporary media messages, students understand changing public knowledge, impressions and attitudes about chemicals in the environment.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Case Study, Diagram/Illustration, Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Sox Sperry

Understanding Science: How science really works

The mission of Understanding Science is to provide a fun, accessible, and free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works. The process of science is exciting, but standard explanations often miss its dynamic nature. Science affects us all everyday, but people often feel cut off from science. Science is an intensely human endeavor, but many portrayals gloss over the passion, curiosity, and even rivalries and pitfalls that characterize all human ventures. Understanding Science gives users an inside look at the general principles, methods, and motivations that underlie all of science. This project has at its heart a re-engagement with science that begins with teacher preparation and ends with broader public understanding. Its immediate goals are to (1) improve teacher understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise, (2) provide resources and strategies that encourage and enable K-16 teachers to reinforce the nature of science throughout their science teaching, and (3) provide a clear and informative reference for students and the general public that accurately portrays the scientific endeavor. The Understanding Science site was produced by the UC Museum of Paleontology of the University of California at Berkeley, in collaboration with a diverse group of scientists and teachers, and was funded by the National Science Foundation1. Understanding Science was informed and initially inspired by our work on the Understanding Evolution project, which highlighted the fact that many misconceptions regarding evolution spring from misunderstandings of the nature of science. Furthermore, research indicates that students and teachers at all grade levels have inadequate understandings of the nature and process of science, which may be traced to classrooms in which science is taught as a simple, linear, and non-generative process. This false and impoverished depiction disengages students, discourages public support, and may help explain current indications that the U.S. is losing its global edge in science. Even beyond the health of the U.S. economy, the public has a genuine need to critically assess conflicting representations of scientific evidence in the media. To do this, they need to understand the strengths, limitations, and basic methods of the enterprise that has produced those claims. Understanding Science takes an important step towards meeting these needs.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Interactive, Lecture Notes, Lesson Plan, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Individual Authors

Writing Commons

Writing Commons aspires to be a community for writers, a creative learning space for students in courses that require college-level writing, a creative, interactive space for teachers to share resources and pedagogy. Our primary goal is to provide the resources and community students need to improve their writing, particularly students enrolled in courses that require college-level writing. As mentioned in 'About Us', we believe learning materials should be free for all students and teachers‰ part of the cultural commons. Hence, we provide free access to an award-winning, college textbook that was published by a major publisher and awarded the Distinguished Book Award by Computers and Composition: an International Journal.

Material Type: Reading, Textbook

Image-ing Our Foremothers: Art as a Means of Connecting with Women's History

This is an 8 week experience for the college student that begins by setting a learning context through using library resources, especially online databases, for locating images and art that reflect a chosen research topic and creating a mural that demonstrates the students’ comprehension of the chosen topic. The experience includes conducting research on 3 significant events or people in women’s US history. The written research will be accompanied by images or art that the student has chosen (described) as reflective of, or related to the researched event or person. In order to determine the students’ level of information literacy, the research will include a detailed description of how the students located the images. The students will also draw or describe a personalized sketch of one of the researched events or people. The culmination of the research is the design and painting of a collaborative mural depicting the students' research topics. This Reusable Learning Object (RLO) was created out of the desire to infuse university courses with information literacy or research activities. A traditional research project on significant events or people in history is enhanced with the discovery and analyzing of art and images within the context of history. Analysis not only includes written text but the painting of a mural. The RLO is structured in a way that allows for easy replication and alteration to a variety of subjects and learning levels.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Full Course, Lesson Plan, Syllabus, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Kristi L., Palmer

With Strings Attached: Hollywood's Gift to a Navajo Family

In this lesson, students explore issues of culture and identity and learn about Navajo culture by examining the perspectives of those portrayed in the film, Return of Navajo Boy.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Using Pictures to Build Schema for Social Studies Content

Looking to help students practice "reading" images for a variety of contextual meanings while engaging in content area study? This lesson uses images of the Boston Massacre to deepen students' comprehension of both the event and the effects of propaganda. Students begin by completing an anticipation guide to introduce them to Boston Massacre, propaganda, and British/colonial reactions to the massacre. They then complete an image analysis to make inferences about various images of the massacre. The culminating activity-a presentation about students' observations and inferences-demonstrates students' knowledge of the Boston Massacre and propaganda in a variety of ways. This lesson benefits English-language learners (ELLs) and struggling readers because it involves viewing images, participating in discussions, working with peers, and listening to a read-aloud that reinforces the lesson content and vocabulary.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Maureen Martin