#NCTE25! What an event. We—myself (Holly) and Chris—had our session on our book, Joyful Literacies in Secondary English Language Arts,on Friday at 3:30, and I was predictably nervous about how it would go. As I talked more and more, I felt the nerves wear off, and the realization that I was around wonderfully engaged and creative English teachers brought a sense of comfort.
We started the session off with our definition of joyful literacies pedagogy, which we included in our one-pager. As we defined joyful literacies pedagogy for the audience, I made connections to my own classroom and the joyful projects I had done with my classroom this past semester—from my sidewalk chalk project on education to learn synthesis to our most recent foray into dioramas with setting as a character.
With joyful literacies pedagogy, it’s not just about having fun and a sense of play in the classroom—although that’s definitely part of it! It’s also about getting students to realize that they have many literacies around them and that English class connects explicitly to those literacies. Giving students opportunities for creativity and meaning-making through various modes allows them to make connections between English class, their other classes, and their lives. The challenging, deep thinking students do in our classes—the analysis, the synthesis, the evaluation—is integral to students beginning to see the literacies around them.
And, of course, we must make explicit connections to those literacies. Without making the connections for them, students easily separate the literacies of English class from the literacies of their own worlds.
In our presentation, we focused on chapter 8, “Untangling the Tangled Web: Reweaving Critical Digital Literacies,” analyzing quotes from Netflix’s The Social Dilemma and including links to texts that I’ve used in class so that students can start considering the effects of AI on education and their thinking.
We’ve decided to share the presentation here, so feel free to peruse the documents linked within the presentation at your leisure. Enjoy! And see you next year in Philadelphia!
Joyful Literacies 