reading, writing, and designing: getting students on the...

JournalofLanguageandLiteracyEducationVol.11Issue2—Fall2015http://jolle.coe.uga.edu

Reading,Writing,andDesigning:GettingStudentsonthePathtoThinkingLikeDesigners

ChristineD.Kyser

ChristineKyserisanassistantprofessorofeducationaltechnologyattheUniversityofNorthernColoradowhereshe teachersgraduateclasses in InstructionalDesignandVisualLiteracy.Herpassion for teachingwriting and integrating technology in the classroom is inspired her classroom teaching andacademic/instructional coaching in Florida and Colorado. Her research focuses on transforming literacyinstructionwithtechnology,multigenrewriting,andwriteridentity.

ABSTRACT:Newtechnologiesarerapidlyexpandingthecommunicationopportunitiesforourstudents,allowingourstudentstocomposeinendlessprintanddigitalformats.Afterrealizingthatherinstructionwasnotmatchingstudents’digitalliteracyexperiencesoutsideofschool,ateacherchoosestotransformherwritingworkshoptoadesigningworkshop.Thisarticleattemptstospecificallydescribeseverallessonssupportingstudentsinseeingthemselvesasdesigners.Usingaworkshopmodelandunitsofstudyasframeworks,theteacherapproachedalllessonsfromadesignlensasstudentsconsideredtheaudience,purposeandgenreofvariousdigitalapplications,andtheapplication’stemplates.Theselessonscanbeeasilydifferentiatedfordifferentagelevels.Thelessonscanalsobeusedwithvarioustechnologyapplicationsandcanbeimplementedasstand-alonelessonsorinconjunctionwithoneanother.

Keywords:digitalliteracy,design,technology,workshop

JournalofLanguageandLiteracyEducationVol.11Issue2—Fall2015

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henitcomestowriting,Ioftenscribbleonpost-it notes and write the occasionalshopping list,butthevastmajorityofmy

writing is done electronically. I text my husbandthroughout the day, send e-mails to communicatewith my students’ families, and type flyersadvertising events for my school. In creating thesedigital compositions, I can easily make simplechanges like replacing a font color or adding someclipart, but I can also add a voice memo or digitalimagetomakemymessagemoreexplicit.Reflecting on my own and my students literacypractices, I found inspiration for transforming myown classroom pedagogy. Whenlookingback, I lovedwritingasanelementary and middle schoolstudent,butmy interest inwritingdecreased throughout high schooland drastically in college, as thewritingIwasrequiredtosubmitnolonger seemed relevant to my lifeoutside of school. It was duringthis time that I created my firstHotmail account and began chatting with friendsfrom around the country on AOL’s InstantMessenger.Newtechnologieswereopeningthedoorfor newways to read and write. It seemed like theworld outside of education recognized that theInternet was transforming communication, but myhighschoolteachersandcollegeprofessors failedtonotice. I once again fell in lovewith the artwhen Ibecame a teacher andwas energized as I promptedmy students to see themselves as writers, but thestudents and I were communicating outside ofschool using new media like cell phones andcomputers.In my classroom, I realized I was restricting mystudents to traditional print-bound books andwriting and illustrating on paper. The disparitybetween the communication that was occurring atschool and the communication we were usingoutsideofschoolbecamemoreandmoreapparent.Furthermore, the Common Core State Standards(CCSS) College and Career Readiness ELA AnchorStandards state that students will “use technology,

including the Internet, to produce and publishwriting and to interact and collaboratewithothers”(National Governors Association Center for BestPractices & Council of Chief State School Officers,2010).Withtheseunderstandings,Ichosetoattemptto modernize my writing assignments for mystudents. While teaching a group of third gradersthisyear,Ibeganmypursuitofmakingtheirliteracyexperiences in school more authentic and alignedwith their literacy experiences outside of school. Bytransforming my traditional writing workshop to adesigning workshop, my goal was to honor thetextualandvisualmodes,equallyhonoringallmodesof communication (Bezemer & Kress, 2008). I

conducted a larger studylooking at teacherpedagogy in the designingworkshop and students’process as they designedinformational texts usingiBooks Author. In thisVoices from the Field, Idescribe several specificlessons where technology

was infused to help them read and write likedesigners.

WhatisaDesigningWorkshop?Kress(2003)believesthatwealldesignersasweareconstantly using words, gestures, voices, pictures,actions, andmore depending onwhat,where, how,andwithwhomwearecommunicating.Designistheprocess of using all available modes ofcommunication, including thosemodes afforded bytechnology, to convey your message (Cope &Kalantzis, 2009; Bomer, Zoch,David,&Ok, 2010). Ichose to approach our workshop through a designlensbecauseIwantedmystudentstoconsideralloftheir communication options and determine howtheycouldbestconveytheirmessage.Iwentsofarastochangethenameofmyworkshopfrom“Writing”to “Designing” to emphasize this point to mystudents.As Bomer, Zoch, David, and Ok (2010) believe, “to‘write’asadesigneristobringtogethertheresourcesand habits of the writer, the artist, the

W

Reflectingonmyownandmystudentsliteracypractices,I

foundinspirationfortransformingmyownclassroompedagogy.

Kyser,C.D.(2015)/Reading,Writing,andDesigning

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choreographer,theimpresario,themusician,andtheengineer into one textual event” (p.10). Designersbeginbycomposingwithallof these tools inmind,rather than using technology as an add-on or anafterthought, and in this case, allowed students touse the most modern of tools to make meaning,embracing recent technological advances.Designersbegin by composing with all tools, such as video,images,words,voice,charts,andallothermodes,inmind.Althoughtheworkshopmodelisaframeworkfor instruction often used in terms of the Reader’sWorkshop andWriter’sWorkshop (Ray, 2006), themodel can easily be adapted to encompass design(Hicks,2009).Instructioninthewriter’sworkshopoftenconsistsofgenre studies of printed materials such as books,newspapers, magazine articles, and picture books.This teaching focuses on traditional literacy,honoring the textual and visual modes. Thedesigning workshop includes an exploration of thegenres included inboth traditionalprintedmaterialand digital texts such as videos, slideshows, andeBooks. While the traditional printed materialcontains images, text, and text features, theelectronic book offers all of the above and mayincludedigitalvideo,sound,interactivecomponents,and links to other Internet pages and sites (seeFigure1inAppendixA).In both the Writer’s Workshop and Designer’sWorkshop, teachers use mentor texts, conferencewithstudents,employthewritingprocessandfocuson the audience, purpose, and situation. However,thedesigner’sworkshopexpandsandemphasizesthedesigner’s options of craft, mentor texts, modes,audience, and how they receive feedback (Hicks,2009).Intransformingtoadesigningworkshopwithmythirdgraders,Iultimatelywantedmystudentstodesign interactive electronic books using iBooksAuthor (student examples ofAll About Space,Bats,and Cats, Cats, Cats available here). I spent themajorityof the fall semester teachingthemtomakeinformed design decisions while simultaneouslybuilding their capacity for working with varioustechnology applications (see Table 1 in Appendix Aforlessonideas).We began by analyzing themes in the slideshowapplication Keynote, discussing how the themeswould be most effective with specific audiences,purposes,andgenres.Studentsalsolookedatdesign

choices of published informational texts, includingtraditional print bound books and eBooks. Theydesigned layouts and looked at the affordances andconstraints offered by all modes and applications.Belowarespecific lessons that supportedstudent intheirtransitionfromwriterstodesigners.

LessonsinBecomingDesignersThe following lessons attempt to highlight some oftheclassroomactivitiesinmydesigningworkshop.AnalyzingSlideShowThemesEarly in the school year, my students sat in ourschool technology lab. In this one-week projectstudentswoulddesignaslideshowaboutthemselves(seeTable2inAppendixAforthelessonsequence).They chose to title them, “Ten Things about Me!”While many teachers use slides shows, this lessondiffers in that students approached the project asdesigners, analyzing each aspect and choice offeredby the applications. On day one, I asked them toopen the slideshow application Keynote. Whenstudents opened up the application, students wereable to see miniature title slides of each theme.Although Keynote calls this page the “ThemeChooser,”PowerPointreferstoitasthe“PowerPointPresentationGallery.”Prezipromptsusestochoosea“Template.”However,anyslideshowapplicationwillwork for this lesson. Each application offersdesigners various themes to create uniqueexperiencesfortheuserincolor,font,andformat.Althoughstudentswereeagerasever tobegin theirnext project, I told them to browse through thethemes for a minute (click to view the themesavailable in Keynote). I next asked themwhat theynoticed. These third-grade techies began by statingthe obvious. Their answers alluded to the themeshavingdifferentcolors,differentfonts.Theynoticedthat some had pictures and others did not. Next, Iasked them to choose their favorite. One studentsaid his favorite was the “Sedona.” He liked it bestbecause it was brighter than the others, had a redbackground—his favorite color—and the yellowstreakacrossthemiddleremindedhimofalightningbolt. I celebrated this answer and encouragedstudentstotryandbestexplainwhattheytrulylikedabout their chosen theme and how it stood out tothemincomparisonto theothers.Thestudentsgot


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veryexcitedandquicklywantedtoconveywhytheirfavorite was the best, as if it were some sort ofcontest.I then gave them some scenarios. If you weredesigning a slideshow for kindergarten studentsabout book characters, which of them would youchoose?Why?Ifyouweredesigningaslideshowfora large company (such as a hospital) about theirbudget,whatthemewouldyouchoose?Why?Whattheme would you not choose? The conversationcontinuedinthisfashionforseveralscenariosuntilIasked them to hover their cursor over the theme“Fun.”Thetitleslideof“Fun”containstwoshadesofbright orange, uses a whimsicalfont, and has abstract stars in thecorners. Icontinued,“Whatwouldyou use this theme for?” I askedthem to specifically consider theiraudience and their purpose,something we had been workingon in our class. Mary respondedthat she would use the theme“Fun” to advertise a school eventbecause the color would attractpeople’s attention, and she wouldwantkidstoknowtheeventwouldbereallyfun.After this initial lesson, studentswere supported in identifying atheme that they felt representedthem in order to create a slideshow, “Ten Thingsabout Me” (click here to view a student sample).While students could have easily put a slide showtogether inoneor twoclassperiods, Iwalked themthrough each step of the design process, modelingthe explicit choices that aremade each step of theway (seeTable2 inAppendixA fora sample lessonsequence).We took pictures of ourselves using thecomputer’s built in Photo Booth application anddesigned the placement and border of the image.Studentscontinueddesigningthecontentandlayoutof their remaining 10 slides. As I conducted designconferences during students’ work sessions, Icontinually asked them to justify their designchoices, monitoring their thinking andunderstanding.

InvestigatingtheDesignofInformationalText

After a week of learning and celebrating theirslideshows,Iputmystudentsinacircleonthefloorandlaidoutavarietyofmentorinformationalprint-boundbooks.Iaskedstudentstoexaminethepagesin front of them and identify design decisions theauthors and illustrators made in publishing thebooks, just like thedesigndecisions theyhadmadewhendesigningtheirslideshows.Usingchartpaper,Ibeganmakingalistoftheirobservations(clickhereto see chart). Students began by pointing out theobviouschoicesthatauthorsmakesuchasheadingsand images. When a student asked if paragraphs“counted,”Ireplied,“Ifyouthinkthedesignermade

a conscious decisionwhenchoosing to end oneparagraph and beginanother, then, yes, itcounts.” And, then, withinseconds, the room wasabuzz with mentions ofitalics, subheadings, andcaptions.The next school day,students sat in the samecircle, the books from theday before lay off to theside while I presented anadditional set of mentorinformational texts.Today’stexts,eBooks,were

housed in the iBooks app on the school’s iPadsspread in front of them. Once again, after givingstudentstheopportunitytoexplorethebooks,Ihadthem choose a digital interactive book thatinterestedthemandopentoapage.Justlikethedaybefore, I wanted them to recognize the designdecisions made, but I wanted students to considerthe two very different containers of a traditionalbook and an electronic book. Students quicklyrecognizedthattheauthorsmademanyofthesamechoices in the traditional books and in the eBookslikeorganizing thecontent inchaptersandsectionsand using graphs and diagrams, headings, andsubheadings.TheeBooksofferedmore,suchaslinksto websites for more information, movies that theviewer canwatch, andmultiple-choice quizzes. Thestudents’understandingandabilitytoidentifytheseintentional design choices allowed them to think

Thestudents’understandingandabilitytoidentifytheseintentionaldesignchoicesallowedthemtothink

criticallyabouthowtheywouldcommunicateintheirownwhencomposingon

paperandindigitalformats,especiallyastheydesigned

theirowninformationaltexts.


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critically about how they would communicate intheir ownwhen composing on paper and in digitalformats, especially as they designed their owninformationaltexts.Overthecourseofthesetwodays,thestudentshadcreated an extensive list of all the design decisionsofferedinboththeprintedanddigitalmentortexts.Itypedtheirlistthatnightandcutthewordsapartforstudents to sort. I split my class so that they wereworking in groups of four. Individual groups wereinstructed to split their designated butcher paperintothirds.Imodeledsortingbydistributingmybagof words into three categories: (a) OrganizationalText Features, (b) Graphic Text Features, and (c)Formatting Text Features. During the sortingprocess,thestudentsarticulatedwhytheyfeltthataglossary, index, and table of contents wereorganization; why tables, diagrams, and paintingswere graphic; and why bullets, picture credits, andtitleswereformatting.Inourlessonclosing,studentsmade this connection that every design choice anauthormakeshasaspecificpurpose in termsof thethree types of text features: organizational textfeatures, graphic text features, and formatting textfeatures(seeTable3inAppendixA).DesigningonPaperI knew my students were starting to grasp theconcept of design by Halloween when I overheardtwo students debating the design of candy barwrappers. Students had been having some greatdiscussions on font such as type, color, and size.After a discussion about content experts, Ichallenged my students this day to considerthemselves content experts of design as I handedthema listofHalloween factsand information,andsheets of 11 by 16 inch graph paper (click here forstudent samples). Acting as the content expert ofinformation,mygoalwastogivethemthewordstouseand for themtoconsiderhowtobestpresent itto their readers. For example, one fact was aboutcandy sales and how much is spent each year oncertain typesofcandy. Iwantedthemtoconsider ifthisfactwouldbebestcommunicatedbywritingoutthe fact, creating a graph, drawing an image, or byother modes afforded by the paper container,whether visually, textually, and spatially. Studentsalsoneeded toconsider the layoutof thepage suchaswheretheywantedtodrawthereader’sattention,

how to make the page interesting, and how tologically present the information. Before diving in,we reviewed several double page spreads from ourmentor informational texts. The students pointedout the lack of white space, and the variety of textand images that intrigued the viewer. I gave themtheirworkshoptimetodesigntheirowndouble-pagespread for our classHalloweenbook thatwewouldpublishforourschoollibrary.As one studentwas designing a section of his pageonTrick-or-Treating,hechosetodrawaSnickersbarandannouncedtotheclassthathecouldnotbelievehow boring a Snickers wrapper is. This commentsparkedanimpromptuconversationamongstudentsand a celebratory moment for me as their teacherbecause I knew they were beginning to seethemselves as designers. I continued to listen in asseveralstudentsdecidedthatthemakersofSnickersandMilkyWaycouldsellmoreoftheircandybarsiftheymade their wrappersmore interesting. Severalstudentsheldastrongbeliefthatthewrapperswere“boring.”Onestudentchimed inthatyoucouldnotmakeaSnickerswrapperbrightandcolorfulbecauseitismostlychocolate.Thecolorfulwrappersareusedfor candies like Skittles and Nerds. In the end, thestudents decided that it was appropriate to usecolorslikebrownsandorangesforchocolatecandies,and that the designers could workmuch harder tomakethewrappersmorefunwithdesignsandanewfont. As a teacher, I was most intrigued with mystudents’ ability to critical analyze and articulatetheirbeliefsonthedesignofacandyicon.Theywereabletodefendtheiropinionsastheyconsideredtheaudience,purpose,andgenreofafoodwrapper.

Recognizing the Design Options Afforded byEachApplicationOverthecourseofthesemester,studentscomposedusingavarietyofdigitalapplicationsandcontainerssuch as Keynote, Pages, Comic Life, iMovie, andiBooksAuthor(seeAppendixAforonlineresourcesfor getting started with these applications). Theyalso designed using web applications Weebly,Animoto, andVoki.Foreachof thesedesign tools,we created an anchor chart in our classroomdepicting the design options afforded by each.These posters not only became colorful remindersof our work, but powerful teaching tools. Asstudents’ depth and understanding of design


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increased, they added to the posters during lessonclosings. I first introduced Keynote toward thebeginningoftheschoolyearandstudents’KeynoteDesign Choices listed “image” until November.Before Thanksgiving, a student mentioned thatimage included far too many choices, and weneededtobemorespecific.Thestudentsspentover10 minutes brainstorming the components of animage and the intentional decisions a designermakes when choosing an image, such as its size,content, and type (photograph, drawing, clipart,etc.),effects, suchassepiaor thermal,whether theimage has a frame or contains text, and so forth.This exhaustive list covered an additional sheet ofchartpaperanddemonstratedtheirgraspofdesignand the options expanded by technology. Whilethey previously considered an image to simply bewhat image, they quickly realized the possibilitiesandoptionsofmanipulatingtheimagetoportrayamorespecificmessage.Students came to understand that writers anddesigners are intentional in themodes they choosetoconveyinformation.Similarly,theyareintentionalin the digital applications and tools they choosebased on their audience, purpose, and genre. Asstudents reflected one day, I overheard, “Oh, that’swhyweusediMoviewhenwelearningabout‘howto’writing.” When I asked him for clarification heanswered,“Well,whenyou’reteachingsomeonehowto do something, it’s just better when you canactually show them on video.” Although this mayseem obvious, he was correct in that video-editingsoftware allows the designer to integrate video,image,text,andsoundtoexplainspecificdirections.

Tocontinueourreflection,studentsworkedinsmallgroups to think about their interpretations of thedifference between writing and designing. TheybrainstormedonchartpaperandIhadthemusetheonline video creator, Animoto, to demonstrate thisunderstanding of the similarities and differences(clickheretoviewstudentsamples).

FinalThoughtsIntransformingmywritingworkshoptoadesigningworkshop, I wanted my students to truly considerandhonorallmodesof communicationavailable tothem when composing text, whether traditional ordigital. Just as I had coached students through astudy of informational text in my previous writingworkshop, the designing workshop situated ourinquiryasstudentscametounderstandtheirchoicesof modes and media to best convey their message.Nolongerreadersandwriters,studentstransitionedto consumers and composers of multimodal text,whether paper or digital. These conversationssupportedstudentsinunderstandingtheintentionalchoicedesigners,includingthemselves,haveineverystepof theircomposing. Justasstudentsconsideredtheir slideshow templates and colorsof a candybarwrapper, there is great intention in every designdecision. As technology influences our lives outsideof school evenmore, wemust continue to supportstudents in school with how to consume andcompose with evolving media. Whether designingmovies, cartoons, electronic books, or slideshows,there are unlimited opportunities for 21st centuryteacherstoexpandthepublishingopportunitiesinourclassrooms.


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ReferencesBennett,S.(2007).Thatworkshopbook:Newsystemsandstructuresforclassroomsthatread,write,andthink.

Portsmouth,NH:Heinemann.Bezemer,J.,&Kress,G.(2008).Writinginmultimodaltexts:Asocialsemioticaccountofdesignsforlearning.

WrittenCommunication,25(2),166-195.doi:10.1177/0741088307313177Bomer,R.,Zoch,M.P.,David,A.D.,&Ok,H.(2010).Newliteraciesinthematerialworld.LanguageArts,88(1),

9-20.Calkins,L.M.(1983).Lessonsfromachild:Ontheteachingandlearningofwriting.Exeter,NH:Heinemann

EducationalBooks.Cope,B.,&Kalantzis,M.(2009).“Multiliteracies”:Newliteracies,newlearning.Pedagogies:AnInternational

Journal4(3),164-195.doi:10.1080/15544800903076044Kress,G.(2003).Literacyinthenewmediaage.London,England:Routledge.doi:10.4324/9780203164754Hicks,T.(2009).Thedigitalwritingworkshop.Portsmouth,NH:Heinemann.NationalGovernorsAssociationCenterforBestPractices&CouncilofChiefStateSchoolOfficers.(2010).

CommonCoreStateStandardsforEnglishlanguageartsandliteracyinhistory/socialstudies,andscienceandtechnicalsubjects.Washington,DC:Authors.

Ray,K.W.(2006).Studydriven:Aframeworkforplanningunitsofstudyinthewritingworkshop.Portsmouth,

NH:Heinemann.


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AppendixAWriter’sWorkshopvs.Designer’sWorkshop


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Table1:DesigningWorkshopLessonIdeas

Computer Application Lesson Idea Lesson Details

Slideshows (Keynote (Mac), Power Point, Prezi) Desktop Publishing (Word, Pages (Mac)) Built in Webcam (Photobooth (Mac)) Video Editing Software (iMovie (Mac), Windows Movie Maker, Animoto, Powtoon) Weebly

10ThingsAboutMeCharacterizationReadingResponses “HowTo”MoviesDigitalPortfolio

Students use text and image to describe themselves Students use text and image to create newsletters, business cards, obituaries, etc., of the characters they are reading about Students use the webcam to record their reading responses Students use text, image, video, voice, and more to teach someone how to do something Students create websites to house their digital projects and share with others


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Table2:LessonSequencefor“10ThingsAboutMe”SlideshowsDay

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

Lesson

Introduce slide show templates; discuss themes for specific audiences, purposes and genres; Outline task and show teacher exemplar (mentor text) Support students in choosing theme that represents them Use webcam to take photographs Create title slide (font (type, color, size), background, image placement, image border, etc. Review mentor text Model adding slides; changing slide layout and appearance (change master slides) Model finding and uploading images Model formatting font, background, image, etc. Model inserting shapes Model integrating transitions Model animating text and objects Celebrate!


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Table3:Organization,Graphic,andFormattingTextFeatures

Organizational Text Features

Graphic Text Features

Formatting Text Features

Facts Glossary Table of Contents Appendix References Index

Charts and Tables Labels/Cutaway Diagrams Photographs Maps

Headings and Sub-headings Captions Timeline Bold Font Sidebars Italics Bulleted Lists


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AppendixBOnlineSupportandTutorialsforDigitalTools

Digital Tool Online Support/Tutorials

iBooks Author Keynote Prezi Photo Booth Pages Comic Life iMovie Weebly Animoto Voki

http://help.apple.com/ibooksauthor/mac/ https://help.apple.com/keynote/mac/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Yu_qp9FFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA7rv4-7Dgg http://help.apple.com/pages/mac/ http://plasq.com/education/take-comic-life-to-school/http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu50A7sZPCQ https://animoto.com/blog/news/creating-your-first-animoto-video/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FunBew6S4Bk

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