[CBW_Exec] Before CBW Workshop 2010 (call for help)

Mon Mar 8 19:42:33 CST 2010

Hi, all--

Just days before we all converge upon Kentucky!  Looking forward to it!

A few items FYI, and a couple of different requests for assistance.

First, we have a large number of attendees registered for this CBW workshop.
Three weeks ago that number was close to thirty, and that number doesn¹t
include most of the Executive Board. Expect a big crowd!

Second, a couple of requests:

1. Anyone up for taking charge of getting the word out via the list Kelly
Ritter prepared? (see previous message) We are looking for someone to take
charge of deciding on a good use for that list and then making it happen

2. Can you lead an hour-long, hands-on session during which participants
actually make something (multimodal composing) in response to some of the
ideas discussed? We might continue this into the final hour of the day, too.
I¹m asking here about ³Exploring Multimodal Writing² (session description
below) but perhaps even in ³Reflection and Application² session at the day¹s
end (session description below).

Additional details:
Thanks to Hannah¹s thoughtful planning, the workshop includes an hour of
³hands-on² options for participants to play with various modalities (session
description below). Hannah would like for the audience for these multimodal
projects to be as immediate as the day after, with some of us taking over a
table or some other space in a high-traffic area of the conference hotel to
share the projects. A grassroots effort to get the word out.

What word? Depends on workshop attendees, we think.

That¹s where you come in: We¹d like to give participants options, with a
facilitator at each table drawn from you guys.

What multimodal options would you like to share and lead?

CCCC can¹t provide equipment for us, but perhaps we can bring our own?

A reminder: Multimodal needn¹t require high-end technology, though it seems
helpful to include some of those options.

Can we get each of you to suggest and/or sign up for something you¹d like to
lead? 

Here¹s a starter list. We know you guys have much to add.

I¹ll bring a large role of brown paper, which can become any number of
things. I¹ll also bring my laptop, speakers, and a handful of flip cameras.

What will you bring? What option(s) can you lead for us?

We can offer several and see where folks go, so if you can lead more than
one that¹d be great.  No need for extreme expertise in this. We want to push
one other to take risks by experimenting with other modalities, right? I¹m
out of my comfort zone in a number of these areas. We¹ll push through this
together! 

1. Posters (scissors, glue, construction paper, markers?)
2. Puppets! (paper bags, glue, construction paper)
3. Protest signs (I think Susan is all over this; makes sense to me. Perhaps
others?) 
4. Podcast (laptop? audio recorder? Audacity or other easy-to-use program?)
5. Video Essay (laptop? flip camera? Movie Maker or other such program?)
6. Publisher (laptop? pamphlets, etc.; can we get access to a printer?)
7. Comic Life (or one or more of the comic enabling options NCTE provides?
This may only work if we have internet access, and I¹m not sure we have
internet access. Very cool, though. See www.comiclife.com)
8. Xtranormal: Text-to-Movie (http://www.xtranormal.com/). Crazy easy to use
and all sorts of fun. You plug in the text and the characters come alive to
speak your words. The problem: need internet access for this too.
9. Powerpoint (laptop? Powerpoint?)
10. ??

Thoughts? I share the abstract below, as well as some notes from Hannah. I¹m
happy to answer any questions you may have about this portion of the day.

Hannah¹s enjoying a much deserved vacation right now, so I offer her words
to further explain her vision here. They really helped me wrap my mind
around what she was proposing here:
³In my intro at the beginning of the day, I will lay out some theory which
will connect post-process to community engaged (and therefore potentially
justice-oriented) and multi-modal writing. This will include products
oriented toward real-world engagement (publication for specific, authentic
audiences) and process which focuses on collaboration (which makes sense
with emerging technologies so that people can share what they know and their
varying expertises and intelligences are valuable, and is also inherently
voice-enhancing, as collaborative processes mean that folks share
experiences, even if their final product is poorly done or even a ³dead
letter²). Okay, so given that, for that hour, 11-12, have the participants .
. . work collaboratively in groups to actually produce some product that
goes gout to CCCC. It¹s perfect, because teachers of basic writing are those
who are marginalized, right? Our students: (from our proposal) ³marginalized
voices disproportionately found in basic writing classrooms. That is, those
placed into basic writing classrooms are more likley to be low-to-middle
income, have hidden or visible disabilities, be ethnically and/or
linguistically non-white, or have English as a second language (Matsuda).²
We are disproportionately adjunct, women, at community colleges, etc. So
have them work to produce an actual document that goes out to CCCC‹tell our
stories.² (Hannah Ashley, email dated 2/12)

Perhaps another nice way to complement the ³I am Basic Writing² campaign. If
we are basic writing, who are we? If our students wear these buttons, who
are they? If our basic writing programs are changing (and some are
disappearing), who might be denied access to higher education so now are
found mute (affixing an ³I am Basic Writing² button to a ghost of the
student who, under different legislation, would have been populating our
basic writing classrooms but now must defer that dream of higher education
altogether. 

Session descriptions below.

Thanks!
Shannon

Social Justice, Multi-modalities and Basic Writers

Session: W.7 on Mar 17, 2010 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM    Cluster: 106)
Information Technologies
Type: Workshop: All-Day Wednesday    Interest Emphasis: race/ethnicity
Level Emphasis: all    Focus: basic writing

Institutions across the US are decreasing funds for Basic Writing (BW).
Education stakeholders describe BW students as â?omarginalâ? or
â?oremedialâ? (Greene and McAlexander), and identify BW students by
â?odifferenceâ? in race, social class, ability, and language (Matsuda;
Sanchez and Paulson). Institutional policies create barriers for BW
students, indicating a need for equitable conditions for BW students. To
address these issues, participants explore intersections of social justice,
multi-modal writing, and BW post-process pedagogy.

OPENING CONCEPTS: 9-10
Co-Chair: â?oSocial Justice and Multi-modal Writing for Basic Composition: A
Post-Process Frameworkâ?
I suggest a framework for considering intersections of multi-modal writing
and post-process writing instruction. Multi-modal writing suggests a
post-process writing pedagogy that includes collaboration, consideration of
specific and authentic audiences outside the classroo m, and real-world
engagement with final products and publication (Arroyo; Kessler). According
to Heard, compositionists have been largely â?osilentâ? in response to the
post-process formulation of writing as uncodifiable, not bound by
hard-and-fast rules; he asserts that one way to practicably engage diverse
writers in the give-and-take of post-process writing instruction is through
community-engaged writing.

Speaker 1 and Speaker 2: â?oCBW Social Justice Workgroupâ?
We collaborate with participants to revise the CBW Social Justice
Initiative, and to provide local context for considering social justice: the
ruling against the Louisville school district in the 2007 Supreme Court
desegregation case. The district argued that educational equity could be
achieved through race-conscious desegregation. Justice Breyerâ?Ts dissent
spoke against the Courtâ?Ts majority; he stated that the 5-4 ruling would
re-segregate schools. From this context, participants reflect on! t heir
views of social justice and collaborate on revision of the CBW Social
Justice Initiative.

KEYNOTE: 10-10:45

Speaker 3: â?oThe Making of New Literacies: African American Youth and the
Politics of Placeâ?
Drawing on a multi-year ethnographic study conducted in New York Cityâ?Ts
Harlem community, I employ a participatory action approach to engage in new
directions in literacy research on African American youth in socially
constructed spaces (i.e., gentrifying communities). I investigate how the
lived experiences and literacy practices of African American youth are
affected by public attempts to gentrify their community. This investigation
reveals the following: the ways in which race and place are connected; how
African American youth view their role within the gentrification process
through use of multimodal communicative tools/resources; and how spatial
narratives (i.e., place-making; community change) should be considered in
research on youth, school! in g, and multicultural education. Attention is
paid to how youth write against pervasive narratives that depict their
communities (and hence their identities) as "inferior" and "marginalized."

COFFEE BREAK

EXPLORING MULTI-MODAL WRITING 11-12
Facilitators: â?oSmall Group Discussion and Hands-On Activities.â?
CBW facilitators collaborate with participants to explore whether multimodal
texts provide greater opportunities for students to speak back to
â?osocietyâ? in terms of issues of justice. This section alternates between
discussion and opportunities to experiment with multi-modal composing
strategies, including technologies of films, graphic novels, blogs, and
websites.

LUNCH

REFLECTION: 1-1:30
Co-Chair: â?oMulti-modal Writing and Social Justice: The Right Mix or Mixed
Up?â? 
We reflect together on theories and practices encountered in our morning
activities.

INSTITUTIONAL DIFFERENCES, EQUITIES AND INEQUITIES: 1:30-3:00
Sp! ea ker 4: â?oRace, Racism, and the Institutional Status of Basic
Writing": I examine the dismantling of iconic BW programs and argue that by
enacting race conscious efforts to reaffirm such historical ties, we might
devise new strategies for preserving remaining BW programs, and for
developing new ones to meet the needs of these marginalized students.

Speaker 5 and Speaker 6: â?oConference on Basic Writing Workgroup on the
National Status of Basic Writing Programsâ?:
We present second year results of a national survey on BW programs; we focus
on what survey results tell us about multi-modal writing and commitments to
social justice.

Speaker 7: â?oCase Study of Institutional Change: The Accelerated Learning
Project (ALP)â?
I describe our search for a BW model that would justly serve our students,
and the results: the ALP. This case study is based on five semesters of
evaluation. I discuss ALPâ?Ts modest costs, and plans for the future.

BREAK
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION: 3:15-5
Facilitators: â?oSmall group discussion: Is Your Program Serving Social
Justice Ends?â? 
Co-Chairs: â?oWhat Does Basic Writing Stand For?â? Participants revisit the
social justice initiative and discuss communicating BW needs to the larger
world.

Participant    Affiliation    Speech Title (if known)
Hannah Ashley
(Chair)    West Chester University    Social justice and Multi-modal Writing
for Basic Composition, really? A Post-Process Framework
Greg Glau
(Facilitator)    Northern Arizona University
Marcia Ribble
(Facilitator)    University of Cincinnati
Barbara Gleason
(Facilitator)    City College of New York
Susan Naomi Bernstein
(Speaker 1)    LaGuardia CC- CUNY    CBW Social Justice Workgroup
William Lalicker
(Speaker 2)    West Chester University    CBW Social Justice Workgroup
Valerie Kinloch
(Speaker 3)    The Ohio State University    The Making of New Literacies:
African American Youth and the Politics of Place
Steve Lamos
(Speaker 4)    UCB    Race, Racism, and the Institutional Status of Basic
Writing
Deborah Mutnick
(Speaker additional)    Long Island University    Conference on Basic
Writing Workgroup on the National Status of Basic Writing Programs
Rebecca Mlynarczyk
(Speaker additional)    Kingsborough Community College, CUNY    Conference
on Basic Writing Workgroup on the National Status of Basic Writing Programs
Peter Adams
(Speaker additional)    Community College Baltimore County    Case Study of
institutional Change: The Accelerated Learning Project (ALP)

EXPLORING MULTI-MODAL WRITING 11-12
Facilitators: â?oSmall Group Discussion and Hands-On Activities.â?
CBW facilitators collaborate with participants to explore whether multimodal
texts provide greater opportunities for students to speak back to
â?osocietyâ? in terms of issues of justice. This section alternates between
discussion and opportunities to experiment with multi-modal composing
strategies, including technologies of films, graphic novels, blogs, and
websites.

-- 
Shannon Carter, PhD
Associate Professor of English
Director, Writing Programs
Department of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Commerce, Texas 75429-3011
Shannon_Carter at tamu-commerce.edu
http://www.shannoncarter.info

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