Rachel Lynn Livesey

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Rachel Lynn Livesey

• Text of America
• Where Do Our Students Fit In?
• A Cultural Studies/Media Literacy Approach
• to American Literature in the High School
  Classroom

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Prompt and Inquiry Questions

• What was an American text?
• What defined an American author?
• What were an American authors implicit beliefs?
• How does a reader make meaning from an American
  text?
• How were media informing student responses?

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Cultural Studies

• Individuals are cultural beings,
  and language, texts, institutions, and social
  practices script
  the way we think and act.
• Carey-Webb
• Literature Lives A Response-Based Cultural
  Studies Approach to Teaching English.

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Texts as Cultural Artifacts

• Cultural studies and media literacy
• define texts more broadly than the written
  material.
• Texts include any cultural artifact.
• (Boomer, Hall, Pirie)

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Media Literacy

• The Center for Media Literacy suggests that media
  literacy provides a framework to access,
  analyze, evaluate and create messages in a
  variety of forms. It builds an understanding
  of the role of media in society, as well as
  essential skills of inquiry and self-expression
  necessary for citizens of a democracy.

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The Great Gatsby

• The acclaimed great American novel.
• In the preface, Michael Bruccoli claims that the
  novel is the great work of fiction defining
  American thematic qualitiesJay Gatsby fulfils
  the American dream he confuses it with Daisy
  he is betrayed by it (Fitzgerald xi).

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Pairing Gatsby with Media

• Web chronicle providing historical/cultural
  context, constructing media, examining format.
• Online discussion boards continuing class
  discussions on race and gender, helping students
  explore identity.
• Individual iMovies situating self within
  culture.

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American Maker
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Do I Look Yellow to You?
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Student Hesitations

• Students seemed hesitant to view media as a text
  Why are we studying this in English?
• Students resisted the use of technology.
• Students questioned why the iMovie should contain
  a thesis with the argument that an iMovie is
  intended to be aesthetic, resulting in a few
  students producing picture collages set to music.
• Implementation of cultural studies/media
• literacy into the curriculum alleviates
  these
• problems, but we need consistency.

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Conclusions

• The crux of American literature lies within the
  cultural lens by which it was constructed.
• Through texts, literary and media, patterns of
  America discourse emerge.
• An American Literature course taught from a
  cultural studies/media literacy approach offers
  students the opportunity to create texts,
  contributing to American discourse.

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Conclusions

• A cultural studies/media literacy approach to
  teaching high school English promotes critical
  thinking, citizenry and active participation in
  culture.
• It also promotes the examination of social issues
  such as race, gender, class, nationality, systems
  of power

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Implementation

• Media literacy with an understanding of cultural
  studies needs to be implemented across grade
  levels in order for students to be critical.
• Strong classroom communities need to be
  established if students are to discuss topics
  such as gender, race and class.
• A knowledge of diversified texts in differing
  genres needs to be included in the curriculum if
  the students are to critically analyze American
  ideas, values and norms.

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Web Access

• If you would like to view this PowerPoint, the
  America iMovie assignment or the students
  iMovies selected for this presentation, please
  visit
• http//piccle.ed.psu.edu/pages/ rll154/inquiry.htm