Critical literacy through Comedy?

So, as I read about the four resources model on literacy, I was struck by the statement "Effective literacy draws on a repertoire of practices that allow learners, as they engage in reading and writing activities, to critically analyze and transform texts by acting on knowledge that texts are not ideologically natural or neutral -- that they represent particular points of views while silencing others and influence people's ideas -- and that their designs and discourses can be critiqued and redesigned in novel and hybrid ways."

It made me think and wonder about how often students simply "cut and paste" information from websites to use as references in research. I've seen students using the computers in my class to do research on-line and I wonder if they ever question the validity of the resource. A part of critical literacy is reading through and analyzing the text for what it is... Who wrote it? Do they have an agenda? Is their view slanted?

Since I used Wikipedia as a resource in my profile to reference MF DOOM, I figured I would pass on this piece of concern dealing with how reliable is Wikipedia? Should I trust Wikipedia?

To continue with the YouTube and multi-modal text tone of this blog, here is an example of a text that is not "ideologically neutral". This Yahoo article titled "Colbert, O'Reilly face off on both shows" indicates that O'reilly mutters "This was a huge mistake, me coming on here," during the interview on the Colbert Report.

Does he mutter that statement? Why does the article choose to use the word "mutter"? I certainly believe that there is a tone to this article in their views of O'reilly vs. Colbert which might determine their choice for the word mutter.

Anyways, here is a clip of the interview... enjoy.



-MF EDOOMCATOR

Welcome to MF EDOOMCATOR

As a first reflection on the course so far, we were presented with the idea of social discourses which can limit students exposure to a way of speaking, thinking, living, etc... I immediately thought of an instance just a few days ago in my class where a student (let's call him Alex) was a portfolio panelist for another student's presentation (let's call him Ricky). While Alex was providing feedback and questioning Ricky, several other students nearby were commenting about how "professional" Alex was sounding and about how Ricky kept calling Alex his "dog" or "son" and how inappropriate that was. I was really struck by the way that Alex changed his normal discourse from being Ricky's "son" or "dog" and became a very serious minded professional in a formal setting. It really amazed me to see how Alex was emulating the way he has seen my (and I'm sure other teachers) discourse in the class during our portfolio presentations.

Speaking of things social... A lot of my students have been endlessly talking about myspace this year. Here's is a humorous clip from Dimitri Martin's segment on "trendspotting" from the Daily Show poking a little fun at the world of online social networking. Enjoy.



-MF EDOOMCATOR