While I was gone

gjacobs — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:53:24 +0000

I’m in NYC this week for AERA and have been keeping up with what the 418 students are thinking through the Field Experience Forum. There have been some really wonderful postings. I learned the “three postings at three different times” from another professor at Fisher and I like it. It feels as if there is some real thinking going on in the postings rather than a “just get it done” attitude. What everyone is writing also takes on a new meaning as I read from the context of an educational conference. AERA is the largest educational conference in the country. I have no idea how many people are actually here or how many sessions are offered – but it’s a lot. We’re in at least 4 different large hotels in midtown Manhattan.Last night I chaired (meaning facilitated) a session in which the keynote speaker was Hilary Janks. Janks’ work is in the field of critical literacy or looking at how literacy and language use positions us within society but also how we use literacy and language to position ourselves and to transform society. She talked about the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of texts as a way of reseeing and transformation.This morning I attended a session on youth composing across spaces and modes. It was interesting looking at the different ways youth can be producers of text if we acknowledge that text is more than just ink on paper. One of the things that repeatedly came up was the idea of agency.My session went well – one of the things brought up by another speaker was the ways discipline occurs among schools with predominantly African American students and White teachers. This is something I need to follow up more on to share with the 418 students. The presenter made an important point when he said that when disciplining students over something such as wearing hats or a particular item of clothes, the teachers rarely asked the students why they chose to wear that item. They made something a battle ground without really understanding what it is that they are battling. Three sessions tomorrow – two on Friday and then home. I’ll be exhausted and as always will need sometime to think about all I’ve heard. But I’m looking forward to sharing with the 418 students.

Literacy for the iGeneration » conferences

While I was gone