iPoetry: Creating Space for New Literacies in the English Curriculum

Abstract

This article explores the use of digital poetry in a secondary English classroom and its implications for adolescents’ multimodal composition and identity development. The authors—an English teacher and a library media specialist—collaborated over the course of three years to design, implement, and reiterate a digital poetry curriculum. Through their work, they sought to infuse new vitality into literacy practices in order to enhance students’ engagement, increase their awareness of audience, and encourage their progressive use of media and technology. After students read, critiqued, and wrote poetry using traditional print text, they then employed digital tools to reinterpret those poems using multimodal elements. The authors argue that if teachers are to successfully implement new literacy practices in their classrooms, they must first establish a community of practice with other like‐minded educators in order to engage in ongoing, critical dialogue around issues of literacy, learning, and technology.

Teaching Poetry Reading in Secondary Education: Findings From a Systematic Literature Review

“…Few studies use a specific theoretical perspective as a tool to view and discuss poetry reading (e.g., Curwood & Cowell, 2011;Stibbs, 2000). One finding is that definitions of concepts such as "poetry" or "poetry reading" are rare.…”

“…Schillinger, Meyer, and Vinz (2010) suggest extended deep genre pedagogy where teachers co-explore poetry with students and encourage a supportive learning community. Curwood and Cowell (2011) suggest composition of multimodal poetry but say less about how one may read multimodal poetry. 3.…”

The Potential of Digital Technologies to Support Literacy Instruction Relevant to the Common Core State Standards

“…Although students may or may not write traditional, text‐only sentences when developing PowerPoint presentations for interpretation or explanation, these presentations can be used to examine and convey complex ideas and information. Further, the development of webpages for projects such as Curwood and Cowell's () encourages students to demonstrate understanding of figurative language (CCSS.ELA‐Literacy.CCRA.L.5) and be knowledgeable in how language works in different contexts to make effective choices for meaning or style (CCSS.ELA‐Literacy.CCRA.L.3).…”

Digital Storytelling in a Place‐Based Composition Course

“…Not only does the multimodal nature of this tool afford adolescents the opportunity to express themselves and their understandings in nonredundant ways (Short & Kaufmann, ) that promote agency and the fostering of author identities (Hull & Katz, ), but multimodal composition also engages students in authentic disciplinary practices. Students draft and revise; access, identify, and reproduce genres; and publish their work for authentic audiences (Curwood & Cowell, ). Recognizing such compositional capacities among students in out of school settings has the potential to improve engagement in traditional literacy contexts (Brass, ).…”