the millenium learner in the era of an Australian English curriculum Presented by Lindsay Williams Wordsmart Consulting Global literacy and…

Anticipatory set Read the lyrics… …write your response on the slip of paper.

About me English teacher 25 years; Head of English 16 years Worked in both state and private sector Immediate past Vice President of the English Teachers Association of Queensland Director of educational consultancy company Presented two day workshop at ASFLA pre-conference institute in 2009 Teach pre-service English teachers (QUT currently) Educational author: a range of articles, reports, curriculum materials (Lockie Leonard materials for the ACTF TV series, Film Australia, National Reading Day 2007, classroom guide to graphic novel version of The Merchant of Venice for Walker Books ), Teachers Notes for newly released Odo Hirsch book Darius Bell and the glitter pool (Allen & Unwin), Teacher Notes for Richard Harland’s Worldshaker and Jameela by Rukhsana Khan (Allen and Unwin) Contributing author to AATE kit, Critical Literacy: Readings and Resources (1996)and Global Learning Centre’s A world of texts (1995); sole writer: Secondary English Teacher: A Survival Manual Winner Peter Botsman Memorial Award for contributions to English in Queensland

Aims To explore the role of literacy in a connected, digital world. To consider the semiotic (signs) and semantic (meaning) implications of new (and old) media. To consider how English might best serve the Millennium learner.

Outline of session Read and respond to lyrics Introductory comments Looking forward: the National Curriculum Time to play: Some thoughts about adaptation A close look at ‘Everybody Hurts’: lyrics, song, video Multimodality, digital connectedness and studying literature (especially ‘The Classics) Closing comments

Looking forward: The National Curriculum

Looking forward: the National Curriculum Aims of the English curriculum include: Understand how Standard Australian English works in its written and spoken forms and in combination with other non-linguistic forms of communication Understand, interpret, reflect on and create an increasingly broad repertoire of spoken, written and multimodal texts across a range of settings Access a broad range of literary texts and develop an informed appreciation of literature (page 5)

Looking forward: the National Curriculum The interrelated, interwoven strands: Language - Knowing about the English language: a coherent, dynamic, and evolving body of knowledge about English and how it works. Literature – Understanding, appreciating, responding to, analysing and creating literature: an enjoyment in, and informed appreciation of, how English language can convey information and emotion, create imaginative worlds and aesthetic and other significant experiences. Literacy – Growing a repertoire of English usage: the ability to understand and produce the English language accurately, fluently, creatively, critically, confidently, and effectively in a range of modes, and digital and print settings, in texts designed for a range of purposes and audiences. (Page 6)

Looking forward: the National Curriculum ‘The goal of teaching grammar and text patterns should be on expressing thought clearly, persuading and arguing more convincingly and reasoning more carefully. The intention is to achieve coherence, precision and imagination in speaking and writing. The overall goal is conversion of ‘knowledge about’ language into a capacity for effective listening, speaking, viewing, reading, writing and creating.’ (page 7)

Snapshots: Kindergarten to Yr 10 P2: Through studying English ‘Students come to an explicit understanding and appreciation of the nature of the English language and how it works to create various kinds of meaning’. Year 3 (Literacy) Identify how some audio and visual technical conventions support narrative and information in a multimodal text Year 5 (Literacy) Analyse how multimodal texts, including film, utilise particular conventions in order to shape meaning, including promoting a certain view Integrate written, oral, viewing and technological skills and conventions in the production of multimodal texts for specific purposes and audiences

Snapshots: Kindergarten to Yr 10 Year 9 (Literacy) Use spoken, non-verbal, auditory, visual, technical and multimodal resources in a presentation and evaluate audience response Year 10 (Language) Construction of multimodal and digital texts involves a knowledge of visual grammar

Snapshot: Years 11 and 12 (mainstream/standard) English Unit 1: Language, texts and contexts Students explore and anlayse aspects of language…in a variety of print, spoken, multimodal and digital texts, including texts from emerging technologies They also analyse how visual elements in texts combine with spoken and written elements to create meaning. Unit 2: Representation Through the creation and presentation of their own multimodal texts, they reflect on their language choices and consider why they present ideas in particular ways. Similar types of comments can be found in Units 3 and 4.

What’s missing from all documents? Linguistic (written and spoken), e.g. staging of information, cohesion, vocabulary (incl. figurative language), grammar, punctuation & paragraphing, spelling, layout, intonation and rhythm Visual, e.g. objects, size, setting, colours, lines and vectors position, direction, camera angle, camera movement, shot type, light, editing Gestural, e.g. eye contact, facial expression, stance, gesture Spatial, location and movement in space Audio, e.g. volume, music, sound effects, silence

Time to play: Some thoughts about…

A potentially illuminating place to start …

Roland Barthes (1977) “ We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author- God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.”

Maria Losada Friend (2004) At the conclusion of a paper on adaptations of a story by Ovid: “These authors and their interest in the Latin poet prove that tradition can be taken not only as a source of inspiration, but also as a way to explore human issues with critical, revisionist eyes. Intertextuality becomes then a useful element to explain their attempts, and to understand their creative processes as a peculiar dialectic confrontation with the original source.”

Susan Hayward (2006) “A literary adaptation creates a new story; it is not the same as the original, but takes on a new life, as indeed do the characters. Narrative and characters become independent of the original even though both are based – in terms of genesis – on the original.” (p12)

Susan Hayward (2006) “Film adaptations are both more and less than the original. More not just because they are in excess of the written word…But more also because they are a mise-en-abîme [reduplication] of authorial texts and therefore of productions of meaning…the notion of authorship becomes very dispersed. Thus, quite evidently, the film is less because the original author is only one among many…But it is also more because of the density of new texts…clustered around the original…” (p14)

Song lyrics… Ray Misson: ‘The lyrics themselves are not the text, and it is not satisfactory to treat them as if they were.’

A close look at…

Onto the main show… A close look at ‘Everybody Hurts’ (as ‘specimen’): Lyrics Song Video (Translation rather than adaptation?)

Federico Fellini’s Eight and a half (1963) Dream sequence

REM and Web 2.0

Multimodality, digital connectedness and studying literature (especially ‘The Classics’)

Okay, but what’s all this got to do with classic literature (if anything)…

Okay, but what’s all this got to do with classic literature… Adaptation, translation and the classics Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Books, including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Seth Graham Smith) and Becoming Elizabeth Bennett: Create your own Jane Austen adventure (Emma Campbell Webster) Movie (incl. Bride and Prejudice) TV series, including recent Lost in Austen Game… And more…

Digital literacy practices… According to Steven Johnson (2010): ‘Yes, we are a little less focused, thanks to the electric stimulus of the screen. Yes, we are reading slightly fewer long-form narratives and arguments than we did 50 years ago, though the Kindle and the iPad may well change that. Those are costs, to be sure. But what of the other side of the ledger? We are reading more text, writing far more often, than we were in the heyday of television…

Digital literacy practices… Steven Johnson continued… …And the speed with which we can follow the trail of an idea, or discover new perspectives on a problem, has increased by several orders of magnitude. We are marginally less focused, and exponentially more connected. That’s a bargain all of us should be happy to make.’

Et tu, Hamlet?

Closing comments

Three key points… Expanding repertoire of (multi)literacy practices required in a multimodal, connected world Impacts of technology on the way we consume and create texts Balancing a central Australian curriculum with local needs of students and communities.

Conclusion “Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.” Jane Austen, Chapter 17 of Pride and Prejudice

References Articles and books ___ (2009) Shape of the Australian curriculum: English. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Barthes, R. (1977). The death of the author. Image, music, text. London: Fontana. Friend, M. (2004). Updating the classics: Ovid, Emma Tennant’s “Philomena” and the Intertextual Link. Retrieved from Hayward, S. (2006). Cinema studies: the key concepts. Great Britain: Routledge. Johnson, S. (June 2010). Yes, people still read, but now it’s social. The New York Times. Retrieved 23 June 2010 from Photo credits Title slide: hurts-michael-stipe.jpg Slide 4: Slide 8: Slide 9: Slide 13: