Information and Imagination: Informing New Visions

Marino C. Alvarez, Tennessee State University

Victoria J. Risko, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University

We will demonstrate how multimedia and Internet capabilities can be used to foster analysis of real world problems, analyzing what was historically, what is in contemporary representations of problems, and imagine what (changes and actions) could be possible.  Embedded in this demonstration is attention to both literacy skills and strategies, in the areas of vocabulary development and text comprehension and deep learning, and imaginative and creative thinking.  Guided by social cultural and critical pedagogy practices, our uses of technology are situated within theme-based and problem-solving formats that invite active and generative learning to help students make apparent their understandings and personal questions.   Examples will illustrate multiple pathways students access for knowledge building that goes beyond simple information gathering procedures and instead sparks analysis and imaginative productions that promote self and collaborative learning. 

Presenter Bios

Marino Alvarez is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning of the College of Education at Education at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee.  He received his masters (M.A.) and doctoral (Ed.D.) degrees are from West Virginia University.  His interest in content literacy stems from his years as a middle and secondary school social studies teacher.  He has served on national committees, editorial advisory boards, and is the Past President of the College Reading Association and Past President of the Action Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.  His publications appear in edited chapters and in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Reading Research and Instruction, United Kingdom Reading Association, Teaching Exceptional Children, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.  He is the co-author of The Art of Educating with V diagrams published by Cambridge University Press, 2005.  Professor Alvarez is the 1995 recipient of both the Teacher-of-the-Year and Distinguished Researcher-of-the-Year Awards at Tennessee State University.

Victoria J. Risko is a professor of language, literacy, and culture at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.  She received her masters and doctoral degrees from West Virginia University.  Vicki teaches undergraduate and graduate language and literacy courses in the teacher education program at Vanderbilt.  Her research focuses on reading difficulties, reading comprehension and meaningful learning, and uses of technology to support problem solving and teacher reflection. She is a former classroom teacher and previously was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and president of the College Reading Association.  Currently, she is chair of the Board of Directors of the International Book Bank, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports literacy projects and sends books to third world countries.  Her writings appear in literacy journals such as The Reading Teacher, Language Arts, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, and Reading Research and Instruction. She serves or has served on the editorial board of nine literacy and cognitive science journals and currently, she is a co-editor of the Yearbook of the National Reading Conference.  She is the co-author of Collaboration for Diverse Learners, published by the International Reading Association, and Declaration of Readers Rights: Renewing our Commitment to our Students, published by McGraw-Hill/Pearson.

Multimedia Cases – Students as Comprehenders and Producers

Cases are narratives, produced by students to represent what they are learning about targeted content and to answer questions they generate.  Students are both comprehenders and producers of knowledge.  To create these cases students access multiple texts—written, electronic, videos, music, art—for elaboration on targeted content and to answer their own questions.

    As students read multiple texts for learning and producing knowledge, they are engaged in the use of strategies that invite them to:

•    Make connections with what is already known and central text concepts

•    Study the text deliberately

•    Generate questions that guide future study

•    Give voice to characters and events and ideas

•    Produce their own texts

Getting started

    1.  Teachers’ role

    - Make a hierarchical concept map depicting the overall components of the case lesson.  An example is shown below:

    - Identify text(s) to initiate the case building, identify central concepts – these can be arrayed on a semantic web, and plan to initiate investigations that involve multiple texts and Internet connections.

    2.  Students’ roles – study texts deliberately and then generate questions to guide their case development.  Plan for case development can be displayed on V Diagram. 

For example, text chosen is the Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Concepts under study in this first text are: Sherlock Holmes as an exemplar detective, art of detection for problem solving

Making Connections

•    Sherlock Homes as an exemplar detective

        Portrait

        Resume of Sherlock Holmes

        Background of Sherlock Holmes

•    Art of detection

        Facts and Guesses

        Inductive and deductive reasoning

        Post reading activity – Produce a radio play, generate facts and  guesses, develop a CD of your case.

•    To characters’ emotions, actions, circumstances

•    Connecting the Known with the New is vital. Multiple linkages are possible: 

    - In and out of school experiences

    - History to contemporary times

    - Mysteries to mysteries

    - Literature to science

    - Science to arts, music, and drama

    - Different and critical perspectives

•    Providing Background Information

•    Establishing a Situation/Problem

Study the text deliberately

•    Story grammar

•    Pre-reading activity, such as thematic organizer and visuals guide.

•    During reading.

•    After reading

Provide opportunities for Incorporating the Case

For example, provide opportunities for students to access trade books, electronic texts, and primary and secondary sources on the Internet with the period of the story setting as it relates to history, science, art, music, literature, and so forth.

•    Historical setting of the story setting:

    - Time period of stories. What’s happening in London? Who’s the Queen during this period?  How did she influence the history, culture, and people of this time period? What kinds of transportation were used during this historical period in London and the surrounding countryside?

•    Related Sherlock Holmes stories to the Art of Detection.

•    Music of the story setting.

•    Art of the story setting

Voicing and Producing

•    Produce a radio play

•    Write a mystery from a scientist’s, an artist’s or other contemporary of the period perspective.

•    Write a mystery in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

•    Produce a CD containing a semantic web of your case components with relevant linkages.

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