Family [7th grade]

In this unit, students will explore the different forms and meaning family can take. Throughout, there will be an emphasis put on a fluid definition of family. From the traditional mother-father-children to friends who are like brothers to a woman caring for her aging boss, this unit will use age-appropriate literature to guide an exploration of what family can look like. In turn, there will also be opportunities for exploration of how families choose to represent and define themselves. Additionally, there will be study of the importance of point of view. A story and a situation--can change dramatically depending on whose eyes are seeing it. Students will be given opportunities to turn the established and familiar around, looking at it from an unconventional or new point of view. One of the performance assessments will give the students an opportunity to interview various aged people about family, which will allow the students to see how opinions and definitions of family can grow, expand, and shrink as people age

Mapping rural literacy sponsorship networks : literacy infrastructures and perceptions in Abbyville.

Recently, the academy has become aware that rural students are choosing to attend institutions of higher education less often than their urban counterparts. Rationalizing why this particular population remains underserved by institutions of higher learning is a new conversation for higher education. And yet, in literacy studies, the perceived urban/rural divide in terms of national politics sometimes seeps into conversations about the perceived “literacy” or culture of rural peoples. This polarization, unaccompanied by detailed portraits of rural community literacy sponsorship, means that rural areas do not benefit from the consistent attention paid to their urban counterparts in New Literacy Studies. In this project, these larger issues of rural representation are meshed with recent calls for more research into literacy sponsorship networks: in particular, calls more detailed pictures of the networks of literacy sponsorship in which those sponsors are located. This pilot project responds to both of the issues above by offering a concrete mapping methodology in the hopes of encouraging replication by other scholars. In particular, the project forwards research by providing a specific, multiple-methods study focused on mapping the literacy sponsorship network in a single rural community located in the mid-South. Chapter 1 grounds the study in New Literacy Studies, rural contexts, and complexity theories; Chapter 2 details methodological setup, researcher positionality, and visual mapping elements. Chapter 3 paints over the initial visualization by emphasizing narrative detail of current collaborative literacy sponsorship activities in the community of study. Chapter 4 complicates these collaborations, detailing how multiple cultural aspects affect the operations of community collaborations, particular in terms of access to literacy sponsorship roles. Ultimately, this study advances research in literacy sponsorship networks, proposing a new concrete methodological approach for mapping the complexity of an individual literacy sponsorship network and providing a more detailed portrait of a single rural network

Assembling “Digital Literacies”: Contingent Pasts, Possible Futures

In this article, we examine the historical emergence of the concept of “digital literacy” in education to consider how key insights from its past might be of use in addressing the ethical and political challenges now being raised by connective media and mobile technologies. While contemporary uses of digital literacy are broadly associated with access, evaluation, curation, and production of information in digital environments, we trace the concept’s genealogy to a time before this tentative agreement was reached—when diverse scholarly lineages (e.g., computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy) were competing to shape the educational agenda for emerging communication technologies. Using assemblage theory, we map those meanings that have persisted in our present articulations of digital literacy, as well as those that were abandoned along the way. We demonstrate that our inherited conceptions of digital literacy have prioritized the interplay of users, devices, and content over earlier concerns about technical infrastructures and socio-economic relations. This legacy, we argue, contributes to digital literacy’s inadequacies in addressing contemporary dilemmas related to surveillance, control, and profit motives in connective environments. We propose a multidimensional framework for understanding digital literacies that works to reintegrate some of these earlier concerns and conclude by considering how such an orientation might open pathways for education research and practice

Comparing Perceptions of Effectiveness of On-Campus and Hybrid Apparel Ph.D. Programs

Currently, one distance textile and apparel-related Ph.D. program exists. It is offered in a hybrid format, which entails on-campus summer courses, and asynchronous and synchronous online courses. Formative assessment of this Ph.D. program option was undertaken to ensure not only student satisfaction, but also that the program\u27s academic competencies are met for the sake of student preparedness and maintenance of the program\u27s reputation. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to compare perceptions of the program\u27s effectiveness between samples of (a) on-campus and hybrid students and (b) students and faculty members who work within both formats of the Ph.D. program. Researchers administered a qualitative online survey to a purposively selected sample of faculty, hybrid graduate students, and on-campus graduate students in the textile and apparel Ph.D. program. Overall, respondents reported satisfaction with the program\u27s effectiveness and appreciated the uniqueness of the hybrid program

Tracing ‘21st Century Literacies’ in College and Career Ready State Standards: A Multi-State Scalar Analysis

This paper brings together resources of sociocultural literacy studies (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic, 1999) and policy attribute analysis (Porter, Floden, Freeman, Schmidt, & Schwille, 1988) to examine how the meaning of “21st century skills/literacies” - as emphasized in recent college and career-readiness (CCR) standards - is framed and negotiated across state and district scales