Discussion prompt: «Analyze an approach to reading or a reading program that you have encountered, used, or would like to find out more about. Use the concepts introduced in this section to explore the pedagogy that underlies this approach or program.»

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Post 1 

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I have learned with the traditional method of reading and writing (phonic) and only when I was around my 20’s  I got familiar with Paulo Freire’s pedagogy and method.

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At the time (in the 70’s) we had a huge illiteracy rate in Portugal and after the Revolution in 1974, illiteracy campaigns were launched and one of those campaigns was based on Paulo Freire’s method.

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A table with statistics of illiteracy  from the 60’s till 2011, according to official census in Portugal:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I’ve joined those campaigns addressed to illiterate adults from the poor social strata. The method was based on the life experiences of people and «generator words» that had significance in their lives and their communities.

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So, in a first stage a repository of meaningful words is collected together with the group of learners, it’s a moment of mutual relationship and knowing each other.

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In the second stage, selection of the words annotated following criteria of the more simple phonetic ones to gradually more complex ones.

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In a third stage, analysis and discussion of real situations related to those words, in order to open up perspectives and raising awareness regarding local, regional and national issues.

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In a fourth stage, creation of script cards to guide the discussions.

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The fifth stage is about the creation of word cards decomposed into phonetic families /syllables, corresponding to the «generator words».

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His method was tested in the 60’s in a rural area with 300 sugar cane workers who learned how to read and write in a very short period of time (45 days).

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His pedagogy aimed at citizenship values and social and political awreness of the disadvantaged, which was considered subversive and in 1964 when Brazil was subjected to the military dictatorship, Freire was forced to exile.

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Paulo Freire was a compassionate human being and had that mystic aura of the sage, his carisma influenced other followers and his education philosophy is as valid today as was in the 60’s - https://youtu.be/60c1RapBN7U

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Discussion prompt: Find an approach to learning to write that you have encountered, used, or would like to know more about. Describe and analyze the approach using the concepts introduced in this section.

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Post 2

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In this chapter about the writing process some grammars were mentioned, the traditional grammar from which I’ve learned at school, the Chomsky grammar which I became familiar with in my university days (in late 70’s), we designated it as «generative grammar».

 Regarding Michael Halliday’s functional grammar is something new for me .

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 In fact I’ve studied at the University other linguists like Roman Jakobsen and his language functions - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson%27s_functions_of_language .  At the time Saussure’s structuralism was in vogue .

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(in http://www.sclcr.com/toolkit/conceptDatabase/viewConcept.php?id=470 )

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A grammar of multiliteracies is proposed as tool of analysis for digital media at present:

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Finally a simple scheme of stages for the writing process is described:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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and the Scholar platform is the example chosen to describe the writing process. However , I think that web design is much more complex than the scheme applied and I think that other dimensions must be taken into account, namely the basic principles:

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Perceivable: Available to the senses (vision and hearing primarily) either through the browser or through assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers, screen enlargers, etc.)

 

Operable: Users can interact with all controls and interactive elements using either the mouse, keyboard, or an assistive device.

 

Understandable: Content is clear and limits confusion and ambiguity.

 

Robust: A wide range of technologies (including old and new user agents and assistive technologies) can access the content.

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and the WCAG 2.0 directives  for accessible content- https://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist

 

We have to be careful about describing images otherwise  screen readers used by blind people are not capable of detecting them, we have to caption/subtitle/trancribe vídeos otherwise deaf people can’t understand what is said, we should always use the «styles» menu of wordprocessors when we write to organize long texts ( publications) so that navigation gets simple and certain software, like Daisy with talking feature (used by blind and other communication limitations like dyslexia) may jump from chapter to chapter) , and so on.

 

Nowadays we have lots of free website tools  with lots of templates that make easy the organization of our webpages.

 

I started by creating a global ePortfolio of my MOOCs in Wordpress - https://idabrandaomooc.wordpress.com/ -  but the website is getting too heavy and lately I decided to create individual ePortfolios for  each course. Here is my ePortfolio for Multimodal Literacies - https://idambrandao.wixsite.com/multimodal-literacy.

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Post 2

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In previous MOOCs focused on the creation of fiction and poetry run by the University of Iowa (the best courses are the ones that make learners create content/projects), I’ve tried to create a short story that I’ve published in Pressbooks and continued to develop after the course ended - https://moocwritings.pressbooks.com/chapter/character-joao-do-piodao/

 

My other rewarding activity was writing poems in english (never imagined)- https://edualter.pressbooks.com/front-matter/introduction-2/

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In both courses I’ve explored visuals with graphic tools like the 3 act plot model - https://idabrandaomooc.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/story_shape.png

or the design of the main character in my short story - https://idabrandaomooc.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/collage-character-joc3a3o-do-pic3b3dc3a3o.jpg 

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and many poems were framed in Canva or Pixteller - https://idabrandaomooc.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/lisbon.jpg?w=614 

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Discussion prompt: Find some examples of curriculum resources or classrooms where teachers engage their learners in meaning-making texts that move between images and writing. How do these experiences highlight the power of synaesthesia – the process of shifting from one mode to another – and integrated, multimodal learning?

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One of the tools Freinet used with his pupils was the school newspaper composed with the traditional printing technique of block letters. The school newspaper is a great means to write on any topic and area of knowledge, associating text and image. Nowadays, a school newspaper can be composed digitally and very often schools use blogs.

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There are lots of digital tools that allow the construction of text and image, either static or moving image.

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Example of a tool that offers nice graphic images to motivate children to write/create stories - https://storybird.com/create/ and many more exist - https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/5446

 

UDL tool for BookBuilder incorporates a narrator which turns stories more accessible for those with communication difficulties - http://bookbuilder.cast.org/library.php

 

Free software and apps based on symbols as alternative and augmented communication are supported on images - https://symbolworld.org/ - https://www.pictoselector.eu/pt-pt/ (useful for ASD students and other ones with communication and cognitive limitations)

 

As I‘ve mentioned in a previous post I use many free graphic tools like Canva , Pixlr, Gimp, etc. A poem I particularly like from australian Oodgeroo Noonuccal  «Son of Mine» was framed in one of these tools

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