Multidimensional Multiliteracy Model for Planning

The purpose of creating table 1.1 plus is to integrate several of the big ideas from class into how you think about literature. First of all I know many of you already do but I hope you are including media beyond text in your thinking and planning. How to continue to expand your ideas about literacy to include stories from other media beside text. Not only is this necessary for adults to be literate in their understanding and appreciation of other media but having our children come from such diverse backgrounds that many of them and their families value some of these other media more than text. As such they have had numerous experiences with those media and there are certainly ways we can use that experience as a starting point to facilitate and support text literacy. I know I have mentioned it before, but Steven’s Goodman’s book Teaching Youth Media: A critical guide to literacy, video production, and social change. (2003) contains excellent examples of how video opened doors to literacy - textual literacy - to such high levels as to enable the students in inner city programs to attend highly respectable colleges and universities, graduate, and find employment in fields where they depend on that literacy, a literacy that would surely not been achieved had it not been for this nontraditional approach. So with the ideas that literacy is more than textually based, that becoming literate is more similar to learning a non native language, and being multi-literate is necessary for survival and enjoyment of life, I hope you have a desire to create a framework for thinking about stories in any media to help you better understand, evaluate, and appreciate those literary pieces and to share those ideas with others.

We all have frameworks for literacy. We may not have taken the time to diagram or outline what we know and how it fits together let alone how we would facilitate that understanding with others. So this is my opportunity to do so and share it with you. The first complication is how to get such a large amount of information onto paper or in this case one computer screen that doesn’t scroll infinitely. I mean I have several pages alone just on the Elements of Fiction. So whatever I end up with is just the beginning and certainly not the only way to represent this kind information.

The first row has the big categories that were included in your readings about literature over the years and this summer. The second row has a partial list of categories within them. The Third row takes one book and begins to think about it in terms of those categories. The next row takes Homer’s painting of the schoolroom in your Piazza text and looks includes ideas about the painting and the different parts of the painting.

A table like this can be used to think about one piece of literature in one row or different parts of one piece or if it’s multimedia a row for each media used in the piece; or a multiline table could be used to include several pieces of literature on each line for a theme or unit.

The purpose is to use a graphic or outline or table to collect and record attributes or elements of different kinds of literature and then use it as a memory device and planning device. Sure there may be times when students are creating or analyzing literature when such a device would be useful for them, but it should not be used as an exercise. It should be used as - Hey! how can we consider if we have thought of everything that we should? Or how can we begin to plan and record what we think? Ultimately the information in a table like this becomes internalized and when we read, view, or hear literature there is an explosion of ideas that rumbles through our brain... The bigger the explosion the more enjoyable and the higher the quality of literature. Enjoy!

Piece of literature or Part of a piece	Elements of Communication	Literacy Strands	Story Elements	Elements of Genre	Characteristic of Quality
Book - text only, picture Art, graphic, print, dance, theater, movie, song, other	Creator, message, medium, receiver, context, purpose	Inquiry, language, poetry, story, and information	setting, plot, characterization, theme, style, tone, point of view	Fiction, nonfiction, traditional fantasy, modern fantasy, poetry, ballad, opera, rock, ...	There could be characteristics of quality for each of the items in this row and other ideas.
Chapter book - The Mailbox by	Audrey Shafer - 2008 We all need someone... Text - prose Reader adolescents and older Anytime modern Help us to belong and accept those who are different	Inquiry - it seems all the major characters in the book have a secret and the author writes in a way to compel the reader to discover them. Language uses incredibly realistic images and language to stir emotions of caring. Poetry - the images and metaphors stir the emotions to  a level of compassion, caring, and hope for Gabe.	Setting - today Plot - orphan bounces from care giver to care giver until he is reunited with his Uncle a Vietnam War Vet that has isolated himself from most of the word. Characterization very strong characterization of Gabe... Theme - Style - Tone - Point of view - third person	Modern day realistic fiction
Country School	Winslow Homer School is ... or Teaching is ... or Learning is... Oil painting A classroom built and furnished according to the norms of the culture. Functional built to last yet plenty of space and an atmosphere to work. Huge windows to lit in light and symbolic to having the whole  world right outside their window. Student’s clothes suggest... Teacher’s relationship to her students ...	Seems to be realistic to the point as comparable to a photograph. However, Homer may have chosen the positions of the students, teacher, and artifacts, but how much interpretation he is making about a country school can’t be known for sure. the design	1871 one room school rural architecture spacious area Large windows lighted area plain simple solid sturdy furniture built to last serious studious business like stance and positioning closeness for some and isolation for others vary textual based with most children focused on a book Plenty of space to work on the tables There are places on the tables with materials for construction or use of objects for learning One young child has a cupped hand to an eye that suggests ...	Appears Realistic However, Without the artist's notes or a participant suggesting that Homer attempted to paint a moment in time accurately, then one might claim it as fiction. A viewer might claim that Homer's work was interpretive. Therefore it probably was an attempt to be historical accurate and labeled as nonfiction.