What Is A Literacy Booster?
The Creative Arts are Utilised to Kindle a Love of Literacy
When a teacher approaches tasks from the perspective of Multiple Literacies students can be encouraged until a love of learning sparks.
It can be difficult to enthuse some students about literacy and its tasks. Give them a Literacy Boost! To boost means to inject a spark of energy and inspiration. Students will (if allowed to experiment) know what it is that "does it for them." If they are singers - allow them to approach tasks through music. If they are actors perhaps they need to work at their impressions through mime? If they are the type of children who need to 'see,' encourage them to lay their work out visually and map the process.
It is wise for a teacher to ever aware of the way students approach tasks. Be guided by the way students talk about tasks that have been requested of them.
The Creative Arts Teacher can think of this conversely. He or she can remain aware of all that is happening on the expressive learning stage. By remaining alert and open to possibilities he or she can use the task or project as a platform from which to launch the student into a literacy based mindset . This would come at the stage of recording, critiquing, reworking and polishing.
In the Whole School Project "Stepping Up To Challenges," Emotional Literacy can be mapped through a process of drawing and creating imagery within that map. The student will envisage and trace challenges that they imagine would present when they embark on a new career. Students might begin by creating rough drafts. They could capture in comic style specific challenges that might be encountered when planning a career pathway.
By asking the student to repeatedly go further into exploration and explanation of the concepts at hand, teachers will be able to show the student that visual imagery is open to personal interpretation. To communicate more lucidly they can explain images by placing text next to them. (captions) This is an ideal time to introduce them to the idea of the interplay of text and imagery.
Based on experience of the Zillmere Story Book process it seems that
- good order of process would capture the spoken and recorded verbal explanation in the early stages of the project.
- once these are recorded gently encourage the student to continue to refine their visual representation.
- use the written work as an anchor.
This will avoid the situation whereby the student may struggle to explain their approach to the task at the end of the process. Perhaps by the end they will have become tired and may have perhaps drifted away from the original intention of the project.
Sometimes it happens that the original idea has been transformed through discussion and exploration. Through metamorphosis, a new idea may have arisen from the ashes of a changed intention. Renegotiation is also a wonderful way to help students understand the need for Persuasive Text.
The opportunity to have work published is motivating for students. It presents an opportunity for students to see that for publication an author must be diligent not just about spelling, punctuation and grammar but also about creativity, originality and freshness of approach.
As you go about designing Creative Arts Projects look for every opportunity to boost literacy. The Creative Arts is a fertile space and context for enhancement of literacy. This is especially so for those students who struggle. Whole School Projects are especially good as a context within which you can encourage them to "hold their feet to the fire." Help them to persist until work is polished ready for publication.
