Using Web Quest as Teaching Resource

http://algernon08.tripod.com/index.html

The link above is a Literature Web Quest my course mate & I had done last semester for one of our Literature pedagogical module. The aim of this Web Quest is to get Secondary One Literature students to explore deep into the short story, "Flowers for Algernon", written by Daniel Keyes.

In this Web Quest, different groups of students get the chance to explore issues, like, the accuracy of the measure of people's I.Q. & personality using the I.Q. test & the Rorschach Test (a.k.a. the Inkblot test) respectively. Other students will get to explore more of the story's content as they are tasked to produce a trailer for this story. As a result, students are made to think about the ideologies embedded in tests meant to gauge different aspects of humans.

As students are engaging in their tasks, they are rendered to think analytically & critically with regard to the issue they have at hands. This is an engagement of informal knowledge, for students are working with contents of a short story. At the same time, systematic knowledge is also employed as links are given to them in relation to the task they have been assigned to. FOr instance, groups which specialise in the I.Q. test are given weblinks to know more about the making & functions of I.Q. tests. Through this, these students will get to know more about everything involving I.Q. tests, thereby, tapping deep into the systematic knowledge. Lastly, students will also tap into their transformative knowledge as they have to interact what they have learned & create a product (in this case, an I.Q. test).

Note how multimodality is utilised to a high extent in this webquest, as students not only work with new media (the Internet, video-recording, movie-making programs), they also need to work with the traditional materials, such as, writings, amongst others. Furthermore, there is an online discussion board for students to air their views & any contributions they might have regarding their assignments or the short story in general.

The development of Students' cognitive skills is palpable here.

The Employment of Music Videos as Teaching Material

This is what I suddenly thought of when I was thinking about signs, symbols, connotations, denotations, & what we've learnt about the DUSTY programme in our previous lessons of Multiliteracy.

As you watch this MTV, you'll see how some words are being emphasised by having them spelt out & shown in the MTV itself, like, "enjoy", "trust me", "race", & "stretch", amongst others. This actually creates salience for the point the persona is trying to make.

Besides that, we also see connotations in the MTV, such as the employment of flowers to connote "The power of beauty of your youth" as said by the persona, in this case, Baz Luhrmann. Also, the image of someone cutting up a picture of a heart shape is shown as Luhrmann says, "Don't be reckless with other people's heart."

In terms of dennotation, there is the depiction of someone standing on a weighing machine with the scale pointing at 20kg, as the persona says, "you're not as fat as you imagine". These are just some of the images utilised to symbolised some of the points the persona tries to make.

Additionally, note how colours are used at various stages of the song/rap, as there are times the images are black & white, while in others, the images are colourful.

In teaching, I think this resource can be considered when we want students to think about how certain concepts are represented through the various aspects of images & sound. Students can be asked why certain ideas are represented by certain images/sounds, & what would happened if the music is taken off. Teachers can also get students to think about the impact of the conveyance of message if the lines are not read, & sung instead.

Students can actually be divided into mini groups to work on different aspects, so that, we have them as "specialised groups" - one group will work on the usage of colours in the music video; the 2nd group can work on the images used; while the 3rd group can work on the audio aspect; and so on. Then there can be a "Gallery Walk" in which each mini-group will showcase their "specialisation".

Thereafter, teachers can get students to come together to discuss whether each of these elements work independently or interdependently. This will allow all groups to think critically & analytically on the functions of each element vis-a-vis the others. This can be done by getting students to remove one of the elements & see if the impact & conveyance of message is still apparent & effective to viewers of the music video.

Teaching Ballads in the English Classroom

For this entry on “Teaching multiliteracies in the English classroom”, I would like to highlight ballads sung by female singers. For the benefit of everyone, I shall provide the definition of “ballads” with the help of dictionary.com: a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.

As we all know that youngsters nowadays listen to music much more than people of other ages, we can safely presume that they are highly likely exposed to songs with certain ideologies most of the time.

The issue of the ostensibility of an egalitarian society in terms of the genders has always been widely & actively debated by both genders over the decades. Some women have argued that men have been constantly perpetuating patriarchalism, thus, refusing to give equal rights to women. Whether this is accurate is not on focus in this entry. I, however, would like to argue that there are women out there who are actually exacerbating the current situation by reinforcing ideologies, specifically on how women may not be able to survive without men, or, that women are still deemed inferior to men in terms of social status.

With the above thesis, I would like to zoom into ballads sung by female singers. Let me take 3 ballads as examples:

1. “Lost Without You” by Delta Goodrem
2. “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Jasmine Trias
3. “All Around the World” by Coco Lee

Looking at the lyrics of the 1st ballad, “Lost Without You” sung by Delta Goodrem, one will see how the singer describes herself as being “stubborn”, “a little righteous and too proud”, & “never giving in”. Based on the aforesaid descriptions, we see that righteousness &”never giving in” (in other words, “persistence”), which are normally deemed as good qualities in an individual, are deemed as negative qualities in a woman, as there is a sense of self-deprecation from the singer since she mixes these qualities with other negative qualities, like, “stubborn” & “too proud”. In this sense, it seems as if women are not supposed to be righteous & persistent before men.

As we move into the chorus of the ballad, the singer further depicts herself as a weak individual as the lyrics go,

All I know is I’m lost without you
I’m not gonna lie
How am I gonna be strong without you
I need you by my side
If we ever said we’ll never be together
and we ended with goodbye
Don’t know what I’d do
I’m lost without you.

The singer then continues in the next stanza to reinforce her weakness,

I keep trying to find my way
but all I know is
I'm lost without you
I keep trying to face the day
Lost without you.

The 2 stanzas above tell readers how the singer is “lost” when her lover is not with her. She seems to have lost control in every aspect – physically, mentally, & emotionally – as the lyrics state that she doesn’t know how to be strong, & that she has problem trying to find her way. It seems as if she couldn’t think straight anymore, as the lyrics state, “all I know is I’m lost without you”. All in all, she is a total wreck with no sense of direction in her thinking, behaviour, & feeling. This shows how she cannot survive being alone.

The 2nd ballad, “Midnight Train to Georgia” performed by Jasmine Trias, talks about the departure of a man & how the woman would “rather live in his world than without him in [her own]”. Once again, we see how the woman is willing to sacrifice her own “world” just so she could be with the man she loves. It seems she is unable to get the man to be in her “world” if one is to think about it in this angle.

The last example, “All Around the World” sung by Coco Lee, talks about the singer being too busy to spend enough time with her lover due to her commitment as a singer, which requires her to travel constantly.

From some parts of the lyrics, one can gather that this woman can be considered to be possessing some power/influence, for she can be heard on the radio & seen on TV, as the lyrics state,

All around the world, Hear me on the radio
Catch me on a TV show

The assumption of her power/influence can be made, as one of the elements in deciding Forbes’ most power/influential celebrities is radio & TV exposure.

Nonetheless, despite this woman being one who holds certain degree of power/influence, she says things like, “Forever I'll be your girl”. From this, one sees that, firstly, she belongs to another person instead of herself; and secondly, the description of herself as a “girl” belittles her status as opposed to her lover's. Thus, we see how a woman like her, who possesses a certain amount of power, is still seen as someone else’s property and of an inferior status.

Having analysed the 3 ballads, let me touch on the 3 different knowledge which are to be employed for teachers to teach students to see the above ideology – informal knowledge, systematic knowledge, & transformative knowledge.

In terms of informal knowledge, teachers can get students to think of songs, which they know of, that talk about boy-girl relationships. As mentioned earlier, songs are part of the popular culture, & students are presumed to listen to a significant amount of pop music, thus, students should be familiar with this genre of text.

Next, systematic knowledge requires students to analyse the lyrics of the songs, as shown above, to suss out the ideology embedded in the songs. Students are expected to pick out words or phrases which provide evidence to any claim they make. In addition, students are also to think about the gender of the singer. The tune & melody of the song is also crucial in determining the mood of the singer’s voice. These are essential aspects to delve into.

Lastly, transformative knowledge will see students thinking of ways to challenge/resist the ideology that has been uncovered – in this case, the perpetuation of women’s inferiority by women. This can be done by generating songs which promote & celebrate women’s independence, & their ability to survive without the help of anyone. Songs like,

1. “I Belong To Me” by Jessica Simpson
2. “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child
3. “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” by Jennifer Lopez
4. “Can’t Hold Us Down” & “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera

will give weights to contest the perpetuated ideology.

With such a focus of study going on, students will be rendered to think critically & analytically & realise the prevalence of the permeation of ideologies in an ostensibly entertaining text (songs). Furthermore, students will also get to see the various ways to counter these ideologies.

Motivating students to engage in such a study should not be an issue as pop music is one that students generally can relate to due to their frequent exposure to it, hence, its feasibility should not be deemed as hitting a rock with an egg.

Words may not be Playing the role as a Second Fiddle Afterall

The article, “Multimodality, ‘reading’ and literacy’, written by C. Lewitt seems to centre on the dwindling state of the mode, writing, from a vital “must-have” position in meaning creation during its days of glory to that of a “supporting role” now.

The above is made palpable as Lewitt made an observation of two students interacting with a multimodal text that teaches the students the scientific process of the transformation of ‘liquid to solid’. The students were apparently oblivious to the linguistic text (“liquid to solid) that was stated in the screen they were looking at, & they were clueless about what they seeing at the centre of the screen. In other words, they had no idea what they were looking at even when there were linguistic texts that states ‘liquid to solid’ at one part of the screen. This, Lewitt comments, shows how “[s]tudents often privilege one mode over another when they read multimodal texts. In this case, the visual mode is privileged over the linguistic one.

Aside from the aforesaid, Lewitt also remarks that linguistic texts are seemingly used for minor purposes nowadays as they are often used for labelling. I would say this might be so when we are talking about multimodal texts which are catered for texts which are not very “academic”. In this case, “academic” refers to texts which are of tertiary level and higher. Think of the innumerable canons there are in the repertoire areas of studies in the world – Law, Literature, Business, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthology, Anthropology, amongst others – & we will realise that most of the contents in these canons are made up of a mostly words, rather than any other modes. So, if we consider this fact, we will probably see that words are still very much the most utilised, desired and respected mode when it comes to texts at the higher level of the literary world.

I suppose if the other modes are looming around in the higher level of the literary world, it would be due to the areas of studies which require them, such as Music, Art, Visual Art, and the likes. Other than that, canons are usually dominated by words.

To put it crudely, and not to sound condescending at the same time, any other modes, other than words, may be considered, by some, to be meant for amateur readers.

Just to lay a disclaimer in case I get lambasted for making the above statement, I am writing this as an observer; not an advocate. So, I do not endorse everything I state in this entry. These are just observations.

Moving on to the implications for the pedagogic aspect, I suggest that teachers should inform students right from the beginning that words are still very much desired and respected as one moves higher in the academic realm. This is to get students mentally and physically prepared that they might be in contact with more words and less images as they progress academically. This is also in accordance to what Lewitt states in his article that it seems there is this pattern of the reduction in the amount of images as one progresses higher academically. Thus, we can try to accustom students to this pattern by reducing the amount of images and presenting them with more words as the time goes. This, I think, will be beneficial to them in time to come.

In Response to Jennifer Tan's & Pippa Stein's Articles

After reading the 2 readings written by Jennifer Tan, as well as Pippa Stein, I generated my own little statement regarding my take on meaning-making – meaning-making is a process which is all-encompassing as it involves one’s culture, physical behaviour, mentality, creativity, and sensory.

Looking at the statement above, I think the writers’ stance on the pedagogical aspect would be to incorporate all of the aforesaid elements to help students establish their sense of “selves” as well as “identities”.

Something interesting, at least to me, was raised while we were discussing what the students in the DUSTY programme were doing. It is in relation to how some of the words these people use may be incomprehensible to people who do not understand their culture & way of using the English language, especially when there are so many slangs in theirs. Let us just say that everyone is encouraged to involve the above elements to (re)present themselves not only to the world, but also to their ownselves, but how will the world be able to see what these people are trying to (re)present themselves if the world does not even get the meaning of some of the way they express themselves through these elements?

One of my course mates, Syazwani (if I recall correctly), remarked that we do not need to understand, say, the linguistic elements of these people because we will still be able to see what these people are trying to express through other elements, like, their body language & facial expressions, for examples. Hearing that, I actually did agree with that. When I was pondering over it at home, however, I thought about the theory of relativism. To put relativism simply, I’ll use this saying to illustrate its definition – “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”. How does this link to the issue above? Let us have a look at the followings.

There’re many languages existing around the world currently, even though many have “died” over the millennium. Thus, language might already, in itself, be a source of “hindrance” when it comes to using it to bridge understanding between people. Even when two people are using English, do note that there’re many Englishes in the world too – Singapore English, British English, American English, and tonnes more! If I say “Porridge”, I mean congee as many Singaporeans use them interchangeably; but I believe the British would think of “Porridge” as “Oats” as that is what is known as Scottish porridge.

In terms of body gestures or languages, from the top of my mind with what I can think of, a thumb’s up in many countries implies “good”, “okay”, “yes”, and so on. These signifieds are not shared in either some parts of Australia, if not, Australia as a whole, however. The thumb’s up in Australia implies, “Up your ass” – to put it in a crude way, “F**k you!”

In terms of culture, just to quote an example from Stein’s article, the Americans deem it respectful when conversing with one another by looking at each other in the eyes, but this is considered rude in Africa, especially when one of the interlocutors is of a lower social rank than the other.

Looking at the 3 examples of relativism in 3 different aspects, how are we sure that what we intend to convey about ourselves to others are received in the way we intend to? Don’t you think every element is actually pretty much contextual? There is really not much everyone in the world share in common.

To answer the above issue, I suggest that we should all make an effort to try to our utmost to immerse ourselves, if not at least know a thing or two, into the cultures & lives of people we are not really familiar with. In addition, there should be no assumption made of anything we see, hear, smell, feel, & touch. Ask & clarify!

Yes, the suggestions I made may seem tedious as we might have to go to a huge extend to inquire about every single thing, but do note that nobody says this was going to be easy right from the start!

I read parts of the journal written by Captain John Smith, who is a real person (not just a fictitious character from the cartoon “Pocahontas”), & in it, he actually talked about immersing oneself to the culture of others in order to really know the people. It was only in the later stage that he came to a realisation that the Native Americans should not be considered as savages for they share numerous disparities in many aspects when compared with people of his own country.

I would like to emphasise that when we see the people in the DUSTY videos, we think we know what they are trying to express, but take a minute to think about whether we are interpreting everything we see of the video based on our own culture? Are our interpretations accurate if that is the case? Is it not important to know the author’s culture before generating any sort of interpretation of what we witness of them? This is just food for thought.

Getting Students to Resist Discrimination & Discover Their 'Real Selves'

Jane Elliot Video Clip Part 1
Jane Elliot Video Clip Part 2

When doing the presentation slides for my group’s presentation this week on using multimodal artefact to represent the videographer’s “true identity”, some issues struck me. One of which is the question on how do we, as teachers, get students to successfully recognise their “true selves” when they are made to believe they are of certain “selves/identities” based on the general society’s point of view?

Simply put, since the day an individual is borne, the individual has been subjected to a particular identity. As seen from the video of what Elliot did to her class of students with blue and brown eyes, we cannot help but see that students, who possess minds that are fresh and young, buy into whatever people say about them easily. As such, they internalise what is said of them and actually believe that they are what is said of them by others. As a result, they believe that they are of a certain “selves” which are given by the society. With such a phenomenon occurring, one cannot help but wonder how is it possible to get each student to see himself/herself as how they really are in person instead of how they are perceived by the society.

Let me draw a line between the definition of “identity” and “self” as they are not to be used interchangeably – “Identity” is imparted by others; while “self” is given by the person himself/herself. For instance, A male child may see himself as a girl, thus, he has defined his own “self”. However, due to his physicality which is of a boy, the people around him would identify him as a boy. From this, we see that the child’s “self” is a girl because this is what he has thought of himself as; but his identity is that of a boy because his identity is given by the people around him.

To me, it may be a tough road ahead if we are to make students see themselves as what they would see themselves as rather than what the society see them as. The reason is very simple. If one is to declare oneself as possessing a certain identity, one will have to get others to agree with one in order to successfully “possess” that certain identity. Let me give you an example – I can say that I am a girl. In fact, I can keep telling myself and everyone that. However, if nobody buys into this idea that I am a girl, I will forever be identified as being a boy. So, what is the point of me identifying myself as a girl when no one, other than myself, believes so? Hence, in this sense, we see that a person’s identity is very much bestowed by not the person himself/herself, but others.

Riding on the aforesaid point, we, as teachers, have to devise some ways to, first of all, get students to resist the identities given by others to them, and move on to discover their “true selves”. To do that, I think it would be helpful to show them the video clips of what Jane Elliot did, as well as the following video clip.

Taught to Self Hate Video Clip

Watching Jane Eliot’s clip and the clip above will let students see that everyone’s identity is actually given by other humans and everyone actually has the power to resist it. This can be done via disbelieving what others say about them, if they think what is said of them aren’t true. Then the next step is to get students to explore what their true selves are. This can be done by getting them to reflect on the things they do in their lives, their likes and dislikes, as well as getting responses from them based on given scenarios. One scenario could be:

One day, 10 children were told not to play at Railroad X because trains will be moving via it for the day. They are advised to play at Railroad Y, which will not be used that day, instead. However, 7 children did not heed the advice and were seen playing at Railroad X, while 3 other children heeded the advice and played at Railroad Y.
You are the worker who is in charge of shifting the directions of railroad. A train is fast approaching and there is not enough time for you to warn the children. You have to decide whether to shift the track to direct the approaching train to Railroad X or Y. What would you do? Why?

Students will have to reason with themselves and justify for their decisions, and through articulating their thoughts and exchanging views with their classmates, they will be able to know more of others, as well as their own selves. Additionally, after the discussion, they can write a short paragraph or two on what they think of themselves as well as what they think of some of their classmates, based on the answers and reasons they have given. Then, they will read them out, so that everyone will have an idea of how each student perceive his/her own self and how every student is being perceived by others.

After which, students will have some idea of what they “real selves” are, and they can get to the part where they create a multimodal artefact to show to others what they think they really are. The artifact would serve a persuasive function as I have mentioned earlier, we all need others to buy into our ideology in order to successfully possess identities that we want to have.

Using Films to Teach

I just watched the film, "Crash", & I thought films are actually great tools for teachers to inculcate certain things to students. Films provide the visual imageries for students to see and probably even experience theories/concepts which verbal aspects may lack. Note how some viewers actually cry when watching films with depressing contents. It says a lot about how films affect people, doesn't it?

In this case, "Crash" is seen as a film that is apt for inculcating the issue on Racism, something which doesn't seem to bemuch of an issue here on the surface, but still pretty much an issue underneath it all. Anyway, without having the teacher to say much about it, the message of how racism can be fatal is highly likely to be imprinted in the minds of the students after they have watched this film. This is how multiliteracy comes into play in our present classrooms.