Integrating New Literacies in Classroom Contexts

I have been an educator since 1997 and have taught a variety of classes in different ways:  theatre to middle schoolers, general music to nursery children, band lessons and rehearsals, chorus to elementary students, and introductory jazz to my homeschool jazz band.  One thing that I was not as prepared for in my pedagogy classes in the 1990s was utilizing technology beyond stereos, albums, CDs, and cassettes.  Let’s not forget VHS and overhead projectors!  I was still using most of these when I stopped teaching in 2007 to be at home with my children when the military relocated us again.  
Fast forward to 2018 when I began teaching once more, with online curricula sources, ubiquitous SMART and Eno boards, and nary a book to be found for the students to use for music class.  This was a change in epic proportions not only for my brain to wrap around, but for me to adapt my entire style of teaching for my students in this new digitally-centered community!  New literacies using technology is increasingly becoming more important to my students.  
I have learned how to use different platforms to engage students while they were distance learning during COVID and continue to use them while I teach in every class.  My main resource paid for by my district is QuaverEd, which contains ready-made lesson plans, a plethora of music, videos, and ebooks.  Once I did a deeper dive, I found it contained music games, ear training, applications that are for composing, and interactive activities.  I am also able to customize lessons, add my own content, make videos and create my own audio for students, as well as give them classroom and personalized assignments.  I also use Seesaw for online musical manipulatives, Padlet for chorus rehearsals and at home practice, Kahoot! for fun games, YouTube for activities and music, and Plickers for assessments.  
All of these platforms can be a wonderful asset in the classroom, but when devices are not working properly and students with little experience outside of using a cell phone coincide, then the experience is less that stellar for them.  As the teacher, I model what the expectations are for projects, demonstrate how to do them with student participation, and I translate as much as I can for my English Language Learners (ELLs).  QuaverEd has also added resources in Spanish this year which has helped with having graphic organizers and other writing tools in the home language for many of my students.  Student collaboration aids in minimizing the impact that a lack of experience, like with a computer and mouse, has on getting the project done.  Kids can work together to be creative while leaving a potentially stressful situation in the hands of a partner.  This also provides leadership opportunities as pupils strive to help their friends and will demonstrate how to do something so their neighbour can practice using newly found tech skills.  Musical composition can also transcend language barriers for my ELLs since they don’t need to read English to do the assignment, but “read” and “write” in the program they are assigned.  According to Hernandez, while quoting Scheibler, "While I think people need to read and read and read, I think that a judicious set of movies can expand and deepen a student's appreciation for all of the basic elements of storytelling”.  Storytelling is just as important in music, so instead of using movies my students are using the writing and creation of raps, poetry, and commercials to tell their stories.  They are using what they know and composing in a different way, using technology to augment their performances.  
While reading about affinity spaces this week, I discovered that one of the articles did not translate well into ProQuest, an online space to read articles.  As I was reading the material, I was finding it more difficult to concentrate on the content of the article and was highly distracted by the misspelled and clearly incorrect words that were peppered throughout, like “More importandy, kids mink that the devices are cool” (Philip and Antero).  I was also perplexed with the following, also from Philip and Antero, “The narrative of inherent student interest in technology, augmented by die unsubstantiated paranoia over die last diree decades about die dramatic deterioration of public schools (Rodistein, 1993) , has resulted in counterproductive measures that attempt to routinize and control the work of teachers. Technology has been central in mis campaign.”  As a multilingual speaker, my brain was attempting to flip to different languages in order to understand what I was reading, which continued to detract from concentrating on the article and was causing much consternation on my part.  This prompted me to think about my ELLs as well as students who have language processing delays.  How would a text rife with misspellings and incorrect words affect their frustration levels?  Could they do the work or understand the material?  I will be vetting future materials thoroughly after this, my students deserve clearly understandable texts.  How can they infer what the lyrics of a song are about if they are not what was actually written, and what would I expect of their performances when the materials used are causing upset?  
My school is in an urban district, the majority of my students are Black and/or Hispanic.  Hip hop is a large part of their culture, and it is not just music.  It’s the clothing style, it’s the graffiti that was and still is created, it’s the calling out of unfair and unjust treatment, of oppression and suppression.  (Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap 2012).  According to Emdin et al, “The ways they [students] create, imagine, predict, measure, and draw conclusions when they engage in hip-hop practices and sensibilities like rapping, deejaying, graffiti, or breakdancing showcase their ability to engage in STEM” (2021).  I had never thought of rap and hip hop through the lens of STEM, and these authors are on point.  When one analyzes the lyrics to hip hop, there is so much that is put into them and so much that my young students can interpret and have empathy with.  This culture that my students have grown up in has molded their minds to think in critical ways that are not generally recognized in a classroom setting.  Our urban school is viewed as a lesser quality due to our demographic, and that is not accurate nor is it fair.  We do have a STEM school that the majority of students attend when they move up into middle school, but they don’t seem to feel that they are able to do the work.  I am going to explore more of this STEM connection with my students to their own culture in hopes to empower them, that they know that they are enough and that they know more than they think they do.


                    Works Cited

Emdin, Christopher, et al. “On Science Genius and Cultural Agnosia: Reality Pedagogy and/as Hip-Hop Rooted Cultural Teaching in STEM Education.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2021, www-tandfonline-com.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1080/00131725.2021.1957636#d1e203.
Hernandez, Michael. "REFRAMING THE MEDIUM." Literacy Today, vol. 35, no. 3, 2017, pp. 16-17. ProQuest, https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Freframing-medium%2Fdocview%2F1966007223%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067.
Philip, Thomas M., and Antero D. Garcia. "The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy." Harvard Educational Review, vol. 83, no. 2, 2013, pp. 300-319,400-401. ProQuest, https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fimportance-still-teaching-igeneration-new%2Fdocview%2F1399327199%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067.
Shout! Studios. (2012). Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap | FULL MOVIE | Ice-T, Q-Tip, Snoop, Eminem, Bun-B. YouTube. https://youtu.be/d_-xReCd2lw?si=OEm3hszmc2XKIcwG