Using Collaborative Writing Tools for Literary Analysis: Twitter, Fan Fiction and The Crucible in the Secondary English Classroom
Introduction As educational researchers, media theorists, and sociologists are defining the constellations of practices that constitute “literacy” in a new social, digital, and participatory culture (Jenkins et al. 2009; NAMLE 2009; Alvermann 2008), teachers are faced with the challenge of preparing students for success with these new literacy practices while still meeting the accountability demands of NCLB-era schooling systems (Beach, Campano, Edmiston, and Borgmann 2009). What kinds of reading and writing assignments will prepare learners to engage with the vast range of knowledge-building and problemsolving communities that increasingly characterize the educational, vocational, and social experiences of many adults? What can we do to bridge the gap between these new literacies and kinds of practices that students are called upon to demonstrate in formal and standardized assessments? Over the last two years, a research group made up of students and faculty affiliated with Indiana University’s Learning Sciences Program, secondary English teachers working in several high schools in Southeast Indiana, and administrators at those schools has developed and refined an approach to literacy instruction that embraces an expanded notion of literacy and supports engagement in new media literacy practices while also helping learners to be successful in the English classroom. This paper summarizes one unit that makes use of the microblogging tool Twitter, fan fiction practices, and the crafting of a traditional literary analysis essay. These are embedded in collaborative and multimodal practices in ways that encourage students to treat texts as living and personally and socially relevant artifacts. This embedding is achieved by organizing participation in these activities in support of the following learning objectives: