"You know, mom, I just don't think I'm ever going to be a real reader like you are. I just don't see myself picking up a book and reading for enjoyment." That's how a recent conversation with my 15 year old son ended one afternoon as we were discussing his school workload for the upcoming week. As someone with a career in education that spans more than 20 years, one that has revolved around teaching hundreds to students to read, his off the cuff comment made my heart sink. I'm a reader, a true reader, and have been since I was too small to remember. I could spend hours at the local library browsing the shelves for books, being told to put some back because I could never carry that many home. To this day, I begin every morning seated at my kitchen table with the local newspaper sprawled across the tabletop, taking up so much room, my kids have been relegated to the counter to eat. Really, how could someone who enjoys reading so much have created someone who seemed so indifferent about it?
I had to put a stop to this kind of thinking and fast. As a high school sophomore, my son has an entire lifetime of literacy ahead of him. I needed to alter his perspective, and fortunately this class came along at just the right time. It turns out I was going about winning him over in a fashion that was completely wrong. I was mired in my old school (no pun intended) view of literacy and texts. In today's age of information, I needed to broaden my views and his on what we considered a text to be.
After shifting my thinking, it turned out he was spending way more time immersed in literacies than we both realized. His eyes were on text from practically the moment his alarm clock sounded, as the first thing he did was check his Snapchat messages. My unintentional reader continued this right through breakfast as he scrolled through his Instagram feed, and asked Siri what the score of last night's basketball game was. He had spent nearly an hour voluntarily engaging with multimodal texts and was completely unaware. Now he was off to school and despite the repeated statement that "I did nothing today," he actually spent a huge chunk of it interacting with more forms of text. From Google classroom to EdPuzzle activities to reviewing material with Kahoot to interactive PowerPoints, he was reading, writing, listening, and speaking all day long, with no complaints. So much for not being a reader. In fact, he was an advanced reader because he was truly multiliterate and ready to fully engage with today's world.
I had to put a stop to this kind of thinking and fast. As a high school sophomore, my son has an entire lifetime of literacy ahead of him. I needed to alter his perspective, and fortunately this class came along at just the right time. It turns out I was going about winning him over in a fashion that was completely wrong. I was mired in my old school (no pun intended) view of literacy and texts. In today's age of information, I needed to broaden my views and his on what we considered a text to be.
So after shifting my views on texts and literacies in today's age I reopened the conversation with my son. "Really, you don't think you'll ever see yourself as a reader?" I posed to him. "Nah," was his response. This time I was ready, armed with a new perspective on being multiliterate and a new definition of text types. He still didn't seem convinced so I had to bring in some heavy artillery to drive my point home. "What if I told you video games were considered a kind of text? Then would you consider yourself a true reader?" This statement fully caught his attention. Since December, along with much of the teenage boy population, my son had been entranced by the video game Fortnite. If allowed, he would give up hours, if not days, to stay connected to it. Yes, in today's world, video games are examples of visual texts that combine still and moving images along with music and sound effects to process to make meaning. Success navigating such texts actually relies on full engagement and concentration. SOLD! Point made. "Based on that definition I guess I'm a real reader after all, mom. Maybe even more so than you." I'm not prepared to pass the torch just yet, but at least I was able to shift his perspective.
This class has certainly opened my eyes to not only accepting, but understanding how things such as a video game is in fact considered a form of text! Younger generations are so skilled with being able to interpret and learn from moving images since they are constantly submerged in them. I aim to make it my goal as an educator to help students be able to make the connection between games (or tv shows, movies, etc.) and being multiliterate, such as you did for your son!
ReplyDeleteJen, great post! I think your post is super relatable because as a young person in today’s world I spend more time interacting through social media and technology then I do reading a book or newspaper. It is great that you could use what you learned in this course to open your son’s eyes to multiliteracies.
ReplyDeleteI think this is such a relatable post for so many people! Our kids need to understand that being literate is more than just sitting down and reading a book. Literacy can look many different ways. I love that your son said that he may be even more of a reader than you. Opening our kids' eyes to these different types of literacies can boost their motivation to take part is so many different ways.
ReplyDeleteIn my other class, I led a study group on motivating boy writers. We watched this quick video clip and it is just one example of a way to motivate boys and all children! Allowing them to engage with video games and explore them in reading and writing allows for increased motivation which positively affects their stamina and interest in both reading and writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6_FOhbVceE
This was so great to read Jennifer. This course has too opened my eyes to a whole new mindset on texts and what it means to be literate and a reader. I overlooked sources like video games as a meaningful text to be read. This made me think about a young boy I used to watch who was infatuated with Minecraft. He would build and create on this game for hours, scouring youtube videos to learn how to plug in code to make new tools and join group builds where he could play, talk and write to his peers. That all takes a great deal of skill and literacy that spans such a diverse range of modes. That you were able to use your new viewpoint to make such a awesome connection with your son and his literacy identity is so wonderful and what this is all about!
ReplyDeleteI love your real life example and made this class have a true connection to multiliteracies. I never considered video games as literacy but it too is a form of reading and understand text. There are so many different types of learners in the classroom and that is great your son was able to find his literacy identity, even without knowing. That is the goal of teachers is to find every students literacy identity!
ReplyDeleteThis was great! I do not understand Fortnite nor know much about it, but I'm sure it was very eye opening for you and your son to realize how much reading he actually was doing without even realizing it!! Love teachable moments for people of any age! :)
ReplyDeleteI love this story Jennifer! I feel like a lot of fifteen-year-old boys share the same perspective as your son. I recently finished my student teaching in second-grade and was shocked to hear how much time students were spending playing video games. But after reading your post, I couldn't help but shift my perspective realizing a lot more goes into playing video games than mindless playing. This is definitely something I can bring up with my "gamers" to help them become more aware of what they are actually doing when playing video games.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, Jennifer! It is true that many give social media and video games a bad reputation, but they do have their positives. I never would have thought of those literacies being just that, literacies, but you are completely right. As you stated, these also help develop student's engagement and concentration skills. Literacies are everywhere!
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I love how you connected this course to your own life! Now a days, students prefer playing video games over reading. But, it is such a great feeling when students begin to fall in love with reading. You raised great ideas! I had never even thought that literacies are in video games! Great post!
ReplyDeleteJoy, that's a tough one for me. I'm such a traditional kind of person. I think for today's learners though, multimodal is the way to go, since they've been raised on technology. I do love it though when my kids get frustrated reading on their school issued iPad and wish they had hard copies instead.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right! As much as children think they don't find reading enjoyable they see it and use it in their everyday lives without even realizing. I never thought about how much actually goes on in video games and the amount of literacy that goes on until now!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post!! I love how you took your child's everyday life and found places where he is using literacy without him even realizing. technology (especially social media) has students using text without even realizing it. Social media takes over their lives like Snapchat, instagram, VSCO, and twitter. I know some high school teachers that have decided this social media in their classroom to enhance students literacy.
ReplyDeleteWow that is great to see how you opened the eyes of your son to understand that her is reading a form of text! It’s so crazy to see how scrolling and playing video games is a new form of text now a days. All this new technology how really created a shift in new ways to view texts. Your son is just practicing being multiliterate!
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