by Maryann DiEdwardo
Abstract
Thesis: Writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama as a learning community in English curriculums in distance settings with self-assessments through metacognitive pedagogy can improve student learning and achievement.
Stories that students create in the new literature of the social network become the new voices for a global cultural literature revolution. By telescoping into a shorter version of oral history, writers succeed in the learning community. The framework short story fuses authentic assessment and multiculturalism as a focus to envision the student in a creative process to offer transformation.
Globalization of the literary canon requires applications of the aspects of oral history traditions. My class is organized to become a learning community with a focus writing short stories as authentic assessments to develop student voices.
As cultures converge in global 21st century classroom, students of multiethnic backgrounds require varied models to succeed. Reading, writing, and arithmetic which served our industrial society may be enhanced by a new fourth “R” or remembrance as educational focus for the age of technology and multiculturalism. Language is the basis of classrooms whether traditional, enhanced or distance. In fact, Howard Gardner, in Frames of Mind (1983 page 78), regards the “rhetorical aspects of language as the ability to use language to convince other individuals of a course of action; the mnemonic potential of language to help one remember information; the role of language in explanation and the potential of language to explain and reflect on itself as in metalinguistic analysis.”
Language based upon oral history can connect cultures in classrooms. My presentation centers upon the short stories of Chinua Achebe and Zora Neale Hurston and student examples of multiethnic students writing their own oral histories. I also offer examples of current social networking as a framework for achievement. Students read the works of multicultural authors and create audio presentations in youtube. Music, photography, art, pinterest, twitter and facebook become the new literature that enhances learning. Stories that students create in the new literature of the social network become the new voices for a global cultural literature revolution. Mirror the classroom by following activities that students can perform before they enter the classroom.
By telescoping into a shorter version of oral history, writers succeed in the learning community. The framework short story fuses authentic assessment and multiculturalism as a focus to envision the student in a creative process to offer transformation.
I actively engage students by 1) reading key articles by scholars in the field in blogs, wikis, web sites, books, pamphlets, newsletters, or journals or other material 2) demonstrating techniques of close reading in order to explicate a text with terms of the literary scholar that apply to writing across the curriculum 3) and differentiating among major literary genres to converse, to analyze, and to use cultural heritage.
Journey through technology one student at a time to create new voices to develop language skills.
Learning strategies focus on Multiple Intelligence Theory, Life Story Writing, Studying Oral Histories, Writing Process Theory, Student-Directed Learning and Learning Communities, models for Authentic Assessment which engage student writers by breaking down interior interpersonal borders through metacognition.
