I’m a former high school English teacher, and I’m currently a literacy researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia. I think that books are valuable – and I think that it’s important to understand how teens are engaging with literature and developing their literacy on Hunger Games-related fansites.

For the past year, I’ve talked with teens around the world.  My study is ongoing, and I would love to find more research participants.  If you’re between the ages of 11 and 17 and live in the United States, Canada, or Australia, will you participate in this study? 

With your parents’ permission, I will talk with you over email or Skype to learn more about your passion for The Hunger Games and how you participate in fansites. Please email me at js.curwood@sydney.edu.au for more information or to join my research. Your real name will be confidential and your privacy will be protected. I’d love to hear your story, and I think that parents and teachers could learn a lot from you.

Why is this research important?  I hear a lot of people say that, “Teens don’t read” or “The Internet is a waste of time.” And I just don’t think that’s always true.  Teens do read – if they have good books at hand. And the Internet is an incredible way to connect with other fans and develop literacy skills.  I think that adults should know about (and care about!) how young people engage with literature and fan culture.

Since last April, Adam and Savanna have been producing a weekly podcast about all things related to The Hunger Games.  Savanna’s a writer for Picktainment and founder of Panem Radio. Adam has been instrumental in bringing The Potter Games and The Fandom to fans around the world. In short, they are unstoppable!

For the past year, I’ve been conducting an online ethnography into adolescent literacy, young adult literature, and fan culture.  I’ve had the opportunity to work with some incredible teens in Australia, Canada, and the United States.  They’ve shared their passion for The Hunger Games with me and given me so much insight into how young people are inspired to write Hunger Games fan fiction, produce videos, create art, and take on leadership roles on fan sites.

My research is ongoing, and I’m always looking for more participants.  (If you’re between 13 and 17 and live in one of the countries noted above, please contact me!)  The fan culture related to The Hunger Games is always growing and evolving.  Case in point: Capitol Couture.

Tune into the Fireside Chat on Monday January 30 at 10 pm EST!  Connect via the Website, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and iTunes.

Photo by andrewmalone

As an educator, it was an incredible experience to closely collaborate with my colleague.  Lora’s expertise was instrumental as our students to engage in multimodal composition, and her energy and encouragement helped me develop my digital literacy skills. I really think that if we want to implement technology in schools, we need to value this kind of ongoing, hands-on, collaborative professional development.

I have previously published an article in the International Journal of Learning and Media about this project.  In “‘Just like I have felt’: Multimodal counternarratives in youth-produced digital media,” [PDF], we developed a methodology called multimodal microanalysis that sheds light on the complex ways in which modes operate in young people’s digital productions.

I’m happy to share that Lora and I have just published an article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, “iPoetry: Creating space for new literacies in the English curriculum” [PDF]. Here, we explore how our approach to teaching digital poetry changed over time. We argue that the iPoetry project enhanced students’ critical engagement, increased their awareness of audience, and encouraged their innovative use of multiple modalities.

We share the digital poem of one of our students, Blair Mishleau. Blair is an incredible young man who will soon graduate with interdisciplinary degrees in journalism and interactive arts and media. He has recently been accepted into Teach for America, and I know that any child would be lucky to be in his classroom!  Here is Blair’s digital poem that we analyze in the article.

Photo by wasimmons

Your Desires by Blair Mishleau from Jen Scott Curwood on Vimeo.

These are the opening words of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which is co-authored by John Green and David Levithan.  I love to read when I travel, and I picked it up before heading to the Literacy Research Association conference in December.  Let me say this: it’s the kind of book that can make you laugh out loud on a crowded plane.  But it’s also filled with teenage angst, awkwardness, and heartache.  In short, it’s a great mix of everything.

I loved David Levithan’s first novel, Boy Meets Boy, and I’ve used it in class before.  Many of his books are love stories, and it looks like his latest, The Lover’s Dictionary, is no exception.  Every day for the past 23 years, Levithan has written a story for his friends for Valentine’s Day.  John Green is also a well-known young adult author and his work includes Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns.  I read Paper Towns last year.  While the characters and their pranks are over-the-top, I was drawn into the compelling storyline.  Green is also one half of the Vlogbrothers and founder of Nerdfighters.  I purchased Will Grayson in a local bookstore, and a couple of pages in, I found a handwritten note from a local fan.  It thanked me for buying the book and proclaimed, “Don’t forget to be awesome!”  Here’s a Nerdfighters FAQ:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson tells the story of two Will Graysons who live in the Chicago area.  Other than their name, they don’t have much in common.  They meet by chance in a porn shop (which is not as bad as it sounds).  Neither of them really meant to be there, they’re both a bit heartbroken, and admittedly freaked out to meet someone with the same name.  But soon Will is introduced to O.W.G.’s (Other Will Grayson’s) best friend, Tiny Cooper.  As O.W.G. explains, “Tiny Cooper is not the world’s gayest person, and he is not the world’s largest person, but I believe that he may be the world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.”

Tiny Cooper is a central figure in the story – so much so that the book could have easily been titled Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Tiny Cooper.  Levithan and Green each write in the voice of a different Will Grayson, and the chapters alternate this first-person narration.  Some of my middle school and high school students used to struggled with books written with multiple narrators, but each Will has a very unique voice and perspective so I don’t think that would be an issue here.  I think that this would be a great addition to any high school teacher’s classroom library, and I can see it be incorporated into literature circles that focus on friendship or relationships.

Over on his blog, John Green talks about his experience with co-authoring a book.  Consequently, I think Will Grayson might be a wonderful example of collaborative writing that teachers could use in their curriculum, perhaps in conjunction with tools like Bubbl.us, Google Docs, or MixedInk.  To open it up to more collaborators and readers, look to Novlet or Protagonize.

Image Credit: John Green

When I’m teaching about literacy and technology, I find it incredibly useful to share videos with my students.  Sometimes, educational research can seem very distant or impersonal to pre-service and inservice teachers.  But when they have the chance to hear scholars talk about their work and see them actively engage in research, it often creates a space for critical discussion.

The New Learning Institute has created a wonderful video series that features noted scholars such as Jim Gee, Mimi Ito, Henry Jenkins, John Seely Brown, and many more.  Here are two recent videos that feature faculty in the Games+Learning+Society research group, Constance Steinkuehler and Kurt Squire.

Constance Steinkuehler from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

Kurt Squire from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

The latest issue of the Wisconsin English Journal is now online! I have truly enjoyed serving as the assistant editor for the past two years, and I will miss the wonderful editorial board, authors, and reviewers.  Thank you to senior editor Mary Louise Gomez for such a wonderful opportunity!  Marci Glaus, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, will take over as an assistant editor, along with Jessica Gallo.

In this issue:

From the Editor – Mary Louise Gomez

Views from the Field: Javon’s Story – Catherine F. Compton-Lilly

The New Adventures of English Language Arts: The Revolutions ARE Being Televised… and Blogged and Tweeted – Dawnene D. Hassett

State of the State: RTI and the Role of English Educators – Emilie A. Amundson

The Critical English Educator: Examining Violence in Literature – Melissa Schieble

Making Research Relevant: Learning from One Another – Jessica Gallo

Tech Tools for Teachers, By Teachers: Bridging Teachers and Students – Carmen Manning, William Brooks, Vanessa Crotteau, Annelise Diedrich, Jessie Moser, Amanda Zwiefelhofer

Profile of an Outstanding English Educator – Karen Kelley Rigoni

Book Review of RTI in Literacy-Responsive and Comprehensive – Mary Guay

Book Review of Why Culture Counts: Teaching Children of Poverty – Lisa Arneson

Book Review of Solution-Focused RTI: A Positive and Personalized Approach to Response to Intervention – Dana L. Hagerman

Student Self-Assessment and the Concept of the Completed Argument – John Pruitt

Microblogging for Professional Learning – Luke Rodesiler

Creating Conversations: Pairing YA Lit with Wikis to Build Reading Communities – Robyn Seglem

Social Collaboration in the Workplace: Questions to Consider and Possible Activities for Your Classroom – Jason Henry Wirtz

WCTE Position Statement on Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill – Lynn Aprill

It’s been an eventful week here in Madison, with my dissertation defense (passed with no revisions!), the National Council of Teachers of English – Assembly for Research conference, and protests at the state capitol against legislation proposed by Governor Walker that would eliminate collective bargaining for most union members, deny health insurance to 200,000 children, and make our state universities semi-private.

For the past 11 years, I’ve been a union member in Wisconsin, first as a teacher and now as a teaching assistant.  I didn’t vote for Walker, and I can’t support this legislation. Yesterday, our union leaders agreed to take cuts in pay and benefits, if we could preserve collective bargaining.  Walker refused to budge.  Clearly, this isn’t about money: it’s about destroying unions and taking away worker rights.  In response, our state’s citizens have responded in full force.

This week at the capitol, teachers and other public employees were joined by police, firefighters, and countless others who marched, chanted, cheered, and protested this legislation.  My son has joined in the protest too.  (His sign?  “Governor Walker, love our teachers like they love your children.”)  Yesterday, faculty and students from UW-Madison’s School of Education joined together to march from Library Mall up State Street to the capitol.  Our state and our Democratic senators have garnered national and international media attention, and we know that we’re taking a stand not just for ourselves, but for others too. “This is what democracy looks like!”

A year ago, I shared my working dissertation abstract. I’m now writing my final dissertation chapter, and I wanted to share an updated version of my dissertation abstract.  Between now and my spring 2011 defense, it may change slightly, but this reflects where I’m at now.

The Nexus of Continuity and Change: Digital Tools, Social Identities, and Cultural Models in Teacher Professional Development

Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this dissertation investigates how teachers’ participation in learning communities influences technology integration within the secondary English curriculum. The year-long multiple-case embedded research study draws on cognitive anthropology and sociocultural theory to examine how English teachers’ everyday discourse reveals their cultural models, pedagogical beliefs, and instructional practices with literacy and technology. In addition, it attends to the role of dialogic narratives in shaping teachers’ identities in ever-changing learning environments. Situated within a reform-oriented approach to professional development, the analysis focuses on teachers’ discourse at a micro level to understand how their pedagogy is shaped by macro-concepts, social institutions, and cultural shifts. While digital tools can shape adolescents’ engagement in participatory learning, multimodal authoring, and critical thinking, findings from this study indicate that the ways in which these practices take root in the English curriculum are still very much dependent upon teachers’ beliefs, values, and skills. Technology integration can be supported by professional development that features: hands-on learning with digital tools and new literacies; sustained dialogue around teachers’ curricular goals and students’ learning outcomes; the ongoing analysis of students’ digitally mediated work; a view of knowledge as a social construction rather than as a commodity; a recognition that school-based discourse shapes teacher identity; and an understanding that teachers’ cultural models about language, literacy, and technology impact their pedagogy.

As one of the assistant editors of the Wisconsin English Journal, I’m delighted to share that we just published the fall 2010 issue.

From the editorial board:

We invite you to visit our web site to review articles and items of interest.  We also invite you to consider submitting an article or book review for publication in future issues. The Wisconsin English Journal (WEJ) welcomes articles on all subjects related to teaching English in middle and high schools. In the coming year, we plan to feature an article or articles in each issue that focus on a theme.

For spring 2011, we have chosen the theme: Teaching English Language Learners. We welcome articles on teaching reading, writing, or literature to students who are learning a second or third language while in your classroom/s. Articles on other topics are welcome as well. The due date for the spring issue is February 1, 2011 and the due date for the unthemed fall issue is August 1, 2011.

We believe that the juried journal process that we have organized is vital to developing excellent articles for readers. We hope that all of you will be willing to be journal reviewers and help us support authors. Because we are a juried journal with each article receiving at least two anonymous reviews, the journal may hold more power for those concerned about the publication’s impact on their careers.

Please consider submitting an article to the Wisconsin English Journal. We look forward to receiving and reviewing your texts.

I’ve attended the Midwinter Conference of the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly for Research before, and I’m really excited that we are hosting the next one here in Madison. NCTEAR will be held on February 18 to 20, 2011, and the theme is Time and Space in Literacy Research: Revisiting Context.  Proposals are due September 30, so make sure you get yours in!

There’s a new website for NCTEAR, where you can find the call for proposals, information about registration, and details about the fabulous invited speakers. These include:

Mollie Blackburn, Ohio State University
Barbara Comber, University of Southern Australia
Norma González, University of Arizona
Juan Guerra, University of Washington
Glynda Hull, New York University
Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Kevin Leander, Vanderbilt University
sj Miller, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Kate Pahl, University of Sheffield
Johnny Saldaña, Arizona State University

I’m co-chairing the Teacher Committee, and we’re working on some exciting events and opportunities for K-12 teachers, including a special reception, lunch with noted scholars, and the option for graduate credit.  Teachers (or graduate students from other universities) will be able to register as a UW-Madison special student and obtain one to two graduate credits in conjunction with attending the conference.  Thanks to the School of Education, these credits are just $150 each.  See you in Madison!

Photo Credit of the Memorial Union Terrace: JanetandPhil