SYLLABUS
Education 250: Literacies and Education * Spring 2012 *
Bryn Mawr College
Prof. Alice Lesnick
Bryn Mawr/Haverford Education Program
Bettws-Y-Coed 127
alice.lesnick@gmail.com
cell phone: 267-455-5848
office: Bettws-Y-Coed 213
office hours: by appointment
course web site: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/courses/ed250/s12
“A picture held us captive, and we could not get outside it; for it lay in our language, and
language seemed to repeat it to us, inexorably.” Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations,
#116.
“We must use what we have to invent what we desire.” Adrienne Rich, What Is Found There.
“Pay attention to the verbs instead of the nouns.”
-- Paul Grobstein, after Warren Hampe
Course Overview
This course will explore experiences, representations, and implications of learning to speak,
read, and write in and outside of school contexts. Using a “multiliteracies” framework, students
will study literacy learning as a process of ongoing personal, cultural, and political negotiation
among and across people’s ways with words. Informed by the rich body of empirical and
theoretical research in this field, students will revise their own literacy learning and develop
curricular interventions to instigate and empower others’ multiliteracies. Important as a context
for this creative work will be a study of the role of bureaucratic literacy in contemporary
childhood and families.
This course is a program option for students completing teacher certification or the minor in
educational studies. As such, a central “text” of the course is the field placement, through which
students will create and test connections between theory and practice.
This year, the course is also part of 360: Learning and Narrating Childhoods and will serve as a
gateway to study of education and literacy learning in Ghana, a focal site for the 360. Pursing
the course with a twin focus on a local and an international placement will challenge us to
analyze and foster literacies in cultural and multicultural context.
Learning Goals
One of our tasks as a community will be to co-create a narrative for the course. Each of you will
also be about constructing and revising your own narratives of it.
One view of the arc of the course is that it answers the question: What happens in imagination
and action when we, as learners and teachers, allow for flexibility in our conceptions of literacy
as:
singular and plural
technical skills and situated practices
individual and social
acquisition and participation
Another over-arching question is: What does the distinction between in-school and out-of-school
literacy offer and what does it obscure, and how might we develop more robust ways of
contextualizing literacy learning and practices?
In the process of taking this arc, students will:
Develop a critical vocabulary for recognizing and analyzing the educational and political
significance of people’s ways with words and texts, spoken and written, online and in-person
Develop perceptual skills for recognizing and framing as literacy work activities of everyday life
in and out of schools; to rethink the opposition of in-school and out-of-school given new
continua of learning
Develop choices, resources, and skills for teaching/interacting with literacy learners; become
stronger at facilitating both unique- and shared-literacy development in self and others
Gain capacity to integrate critical thinking with purposeful action and reflection
Course Partners
Sarah Brown, HC ‘12, TLI Student Consultant
Nell Anderson, Co-Director, Civic Engagement Office
Manzah Habib, Managing Director, Titagya Schools
Andrew Garza, HC ‘08 Executive Director, Titagya Schools
Debbie Ahenkorah, BMC ‘10 Founder and Director, Golden Baobab Prize
Olivia Castello, Outreach and Information Technology Library Reference Office, Canaday (610526-7467)
Ann Brown, Education Program Coordinator and Advisor
Ann Ogle, Academic Administrative Assistant, Education and Psychology
Oliva Cardona, Program Assistant
Course Guidelines
This course is limited to 25 students. Priority goes to students who are completing the teacher
certification program or the minor in educational studies, and to students participating in 360:
Learning and Narrating Childhoods.
Students who do or may need accommodations in this course because of the impact of a
learning difference are encouraged to meet with the course instructor privately early in the
semester. Students who attend Bryn Mawr should also contact Stephanie Bell, Coordinator of
Access Services, at sbell@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7351 in Canwyll House, as soon as
possible, to verify their eligibility for reasonable accommodations. Haverford Students should
contact Rick Webb, Coordinator, Office of Disabilities Services, at rwebb@haverford.edu or
610-896-1290. Early contact will help to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and delays.
This course demands your active participation as a learner and teacher in various communities.
Missing classes or placement visits or conversely preparing and participating in an exemplary
way may have an additional impact on your course grade.
If the need arises for you to miss a class, be late or leave early, please call or email me ahead
of time if possible.
If you cannot complete a paper by the due date, please speak to me about an extension
BEFORE the date that the paper is due and I will give you an extension.
Course papers that are truly revised (re-seen) may be re-submitted for a new grade based on
the revision. You must consult with me on the revision process, and you must go beyond
making corrections.
Please take care to edit and proofread your work so that needless errors do not distract readers
from the strength of your thinking. Pages should be numbered. Be sure to cite sources
appropriately.
I will determine course grades based on the analytic depth and range, creativity, thoroughness,
and progress of your work -- in print and in person -- over the course of the semester. At
midcourse, I will hold assessment conferences with each student and will give a current grade if
it is wanted. At any time, I will gladly discuss your progress with you. I will respond in writing
but will not assign grades to individual pieces of work. We will discuss this approach to
assessment and what it seeks to strengthen and lessen in class.
Assigned Books (available in the Bryn Mawr Bookstore and on reserve at Canaday)
Margery Wolf, A Thrice Told Tale: Feminism, Postmodernism, and Ethnographic Responsibility
Denny Taylor & Catherine Dorsey-Gaines, Growing Up Literate: Learning from Inner City
Families
Lucy Caulkins, Lessons from a Child
Cobb, Mata-Aguilar & Bershad, Supported Literacy for Adolescents: Transforming Teaching and
Content Learning for the 21st Century (ebook available on Tripod)
Other texts online, linked from the syllabus Google Document or from Tripod.
Tripod Course Guide
http://triportal.brynmawr.edu/guides/Education/1379/, prepared by Olivia Castello
Assignments
Note:
*We will discuss all assignments in class, some more specifically than others.
*ALL course writings referring to your field placements must use pseudonyms.
Field Placements
250+360: Spring Break Trip
250-360: Traditional Education course Placement (One you’ve already set up/underway or one
at Parkway West High School)
Reflective Writing -- 2 Channels:
public blog Serendip
public microblog and exchange -- Twitter
Goals: to engage in ongoing, active reflection about your current and past learning experiences
in connection with course material; to revive and preserve memories; to communicate learning;
to gain experience and perspective on varied online resources for personal reflection and public
conversation; and to identify and pursue new questions and connections. All of them can
include visual and video texts as well as writing.
1) Blog (using Serendip), for public. Goals: To share and exchange course reflections as a
public/civic learner and educator; to preserve, unearth, and reconsider memories; tell stories;
worry; wonder; and question. Sometimes I will make specific assignments for this project. You
are also warmly invited to suggest same.
Each week, by midnight each Sunday evening, complete a blog post in which you
reflect on and articulate the following, with respect to the course and when relevant the
360:
1) your current discoveries/insights, making specific reference to class readings,
discussions, placement work, and other experiences;
2) your learning edges (rethinkings/unlearnings/surprising juxtapositions);
3) questions arising from these and
4) action steps in pursuit of responses to the questions
These writings need to be analytic, specific, and complex. Approx. half a page of terse, rich,
careful writing for each item will suffice if you take care to push and nourish your thinking.
During the week, you will also be responsible for reading and responding to a “blog buddy’s”
blog.
2) Microblog (Twitter). Goal: to distill and make public key connections and questions; to
create a diverse community for your learning and blog writing; to be in conversation about ideas
and to disseminate knowledge. Each week you must send at least 5 course-related tweets (not
just re-tweets) and respond to 5 tweets from classmates. Always use the hashtag #BMCed250
when you tweet for/about class. When appropriate, tweet about something that is more fully
developed in your blog. You may also tweet about: links relevant to our inquiries; material in the
media or on campus relating to our work; course-related questions you want others’ thoughts
on; and, of course, others’ tweets! You will also take turns tweeting from a class account we
share: @bmcEd250, to keep the broader community apprised of our doings.
Ghana Study: Group Session and Individual Paper. Goal: To understand the range of
contexts of literacy for a children and communities in Titagya Schools; to gain a sense of the
origins, tensions, and possibilities of these different contexts.
For this assignment, you will work as an individual and in a group to explore one of the topics
below and develop a presentation/workshop for our class on it. The class session should
accomplish 4 things:
1) Give your classmates a handout you create with a sense of the landscape of your topic -what are some of the major issues, histories, and questions that comprise it? Include
bibliography.
2) Focus our attention on a narrower slice of this landscape as part of preparing to work with
kids and communities (in Titagya Schools or elsewhere);
3) Apply and test theories under study in our course; and
4) Help us grapple with the social justice issues in play. (Assignment will be discussed more
specifically in class).
5) How does this connect to your placement? Or not, in an illuminating way?
Topics Include:
1. History of Formal Education System in Ghana
2. Language Diversity in Ghana
3. Current Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (possible starting places:
http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/cice/akyeampong7-1.pdf,
http://www.ug.edu.gh/fos/vbrp/climate/FinalreportGhanatilDK091109.pdf)
4. Literacy -- How conceptualized in Ghana (possible starting place:
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ASLdMDgX7f4gZGdobWszeHBfMjBndGJnNjRnMg)
5. Storytelling in Ghana
6. Children's and Young Adult Literature in/of Ghana
In the individual paper (3-4 pp.), discuss one issue or facet of the topic presented that you have
pursued, via research and reflection, in greater depth and, if relevant, draw on the experience of
leading the class insofar as it informs and pushes your thinking on this issue. Due in class one
week after your presentation.
Midsemester Self-Asssessment. Please review (but do not turn in):



collection of all of your reflective writings and comments on others’
Ghana study class lesson plan and paper (with my comments)
class readings and social media texts we have co-constructed
And then write and turn in:

your self-assessment of your work and progress in the course, focused on identifying
and analyzing your 1) learnings; 2) learning edges (areas/ideas you are
rethinking/struggling with/puzzling over; 3) roles and challenges in your placement; 4)
use and benefits of the social media; and 5) questions and goals for the second half of
the course. What narrative(s) are forming for you for making sense of what we are doing
in this course?
Thrice Told Tale Project. Goals: To investigate the role of stories and storytelling, and the role
of various discourses and audiences within storytelling, in child, literacy, and community
development. To explore connections narrative, representation/voice and identity.
For this assignment, tell and re-tell (translate, revise, re-render) a story in three different forms
(genres, audiences, languages). Choose among the following components, beginning with:

telling a story you experienced or were given over spring break; then


retelling that story as . . . a children’s book (print or ebook), an academic paper, a short
fiction, a report to Golden Baobab, a text for your placement . . . and
writing an analysis of what shifts and changes, what is lost and what is gained, in the
movement from form(at) to form(at), from audience to audience.
Final Course Portfolio. On the last day of class, please, having reviewed the following,


Collected reflective writings
Thrice Told Tale Project (with my comments)
Submit:

Your self-assessment of your work and progress in the course, focused on identifying
and analyzing your 1) learnings; 2) learning edges (areas/ideas you are
rethinking/struggling with/puzzling over; and 3) the extent to which you addressed your
questions and goals at midcourse; 4) your activities, accomplishments, and challenges
in your field placement; 5) how you used, contributed, and benefited from social media;
and 6) your current questions and goals as you leave the course.
Final Project 10-12 pp. due at the end of exam period. Goals: To synthesize and use as a takeoff point for design course learning so that it can be of use to other people/communities. Choose
among the following or propose another option:
1) Write a proposal for a grant, summer internship, or community program that would address a
critical issue in literacy education, again drawing on and showcasing your learning this term
(across the three courses). (examples: support/rationale for online work; school/community
partnership development)
2) Using our class’s online writings as a data set, write an analysis of key discourses of learning
in our course this term, again with reference to 360 course readings. Or, write an analysis of
digital media/”new” literacies as evidenced and problematized by this data set.
3) Write and illustrate a children’s book for Titagya and annotate it to show how it represents
areas of your learning this term (again with reference to 360 course readings)
4) Write a curriculum unit for use in a field placement drawing on your studies of literacy
education in the US and Ghana, annotated with references to course readings that situate it
theoretically and with respect to research.
5) Design and give a presentation on an aspect of your Ghana study/field experience for a
specific audience (placement, Parkway, Bico, other).
Schedule of Class Meetings
Tuesday, January 17
Orienting to the Course (introductions, laptops, syllabus, community)
(visitor: Olivia Castello, Canaday Library: experience, research guidance social media, Twitter)
Set up Working Groups for Ghana Study
Visualizing Literacies
Text: Olga Broumas, “Cinderella,” Beginning with O
Thurs, January 19 Key Concepts
Note: By class today, please create a Twitter account and a Serendip account if you do not
already have one.
Reading due:
Eve Tuck, Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities
Lemke, Literacy and Diversity
Chimamanda Adiche, The danger of a single story. (TED Talk)
Writing Due: Tell a brief story of your early (however you define this) literacy learning in or out
of school. Choose freely among genres and use images if you like. Bring it to class and post it
to your Google Doc journal.
Tuesday, January 24 Key Concepts
Reading due:
Gee, What is Literacy
Casely-Hayford & Ghartey, “The Leap to Literacy and Life Change in Northern Ghana: An Impct
Assessment of School for Life Final Report”
(Summary)
In class: Dagbani video http://www.uniteforsight.org/volunteer-abroad/ghana/tamalepreparation/dagbani
Thursday, January 26 Key Concepts
Reading due:
Maria Lugones, Playfulness, ‘World-’ Traveling and Loving Perception
Canella and Viriru, Childhood and Postcolonialization, ch 1
Writing due: In your journal, create personal dictionary definitions of at least 4 key terms, for
you, in postcolonial studies. Bring to class.
Tuesday, January 31 Case Study: Ghana
Brian Street, Literacy and Development, Intr
o and Chap. 3: Herbert & Robinson, “Another Language, Another Literacy? Practices in
Northern Ghana”
Freire, Cultural Action for Freedom
Thursday, February 2 Ipad Workshop
Ipad introduction with Olivia Castello. Bryn Mawr students, please bring a sheet to class with
your name, Bryn Mawr ID number, and bar code so that if you choose you will be ready to be a
borrower of an ipad for your team.
Jaschke, Leigh, Strategies to Improve Literacy: Adult Non-Formal Education Using Mobile
Phones A West African Perspective
Piecka, Debra Using Ipads in Early Childhood Education
Giridharadas, Anand Where a Cell Phone is Still Cutting Edge
a related scholarly article -(from Olivia Castello)
Beyond E-waste: Kenyan Creativity and Alternative Narratives in the Dia-lectic of End-of-Life
U Vallauri - Ethics of Waste in the Information Society, 2009
http://scidok.sulb.uni-saarland.de/volltexte/2009/2536/pdf/irie_11.pdf#page=22
ipad app/game re: travel in Africa: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ansel-clairs-adventuresin/id433593765?mt=8
for fun - “A Magazine is an iPad that does not work” (from Olivia Castello):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXV-yaFmQNk
Tuesday, February 7 Case Study: Ghana
Community Day of Revisiting Readings/Re-Connecting
Thursday, February 9
Ghana Study 1 (Formal Ed)
Guest: Theresa Cann, Director of International Programs, BMC (noon)
Friday, February 10 -- Field Trip to UPenn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology,
“Imagine Africa” exhibit
Tuesday, February 14 Reading and Writing with Children
Literacy Conversation with Amy Lagrotte, HC ‘02, Reading Specialist, Friends Select School
De-brief Museum Trip
Bring in 2-3 books and 2-3 Iphone apps you’d like to share with kids -- in Ghana or in your
placement and be prepared to share why they interest you.
Thursday, February 16
Guest Speaker: Prof. Mary Osirim, BMC Sociology Department (11:30)
Ghana Study 2 (Language Diversity)
Tuesday. February 21
Ghana Study 3 (NGO’s) & 4 (Storytelling)
Thursday, February 23
Guest: Roselynn Appenteng, BMC ‘13
Ghana Study 5 (Children’s/YA Lit)
Tuesday, February 28
Lessons from a Child, parts I and II (chapters 1-14)
Thursday, March 1 No class -- journeys begin
Tuesday, March 13
Reunion: Sharing stories of home and abroad. Where have we been? Where are we going?
Thursday, March 15
Reading due:
Matusov & Julien, Print Literacy as Oppression
Lisa Delpit, The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Education Other People’s Children
Tuesday, March 20
Writing due: Self-assessment/mid-semester portfolio
Thursday, March 22: Re-presenting Experience(s), Occupying Language(s)
Alim, What If We Occupied Language?
Thrice Told Tale, Intro and part 1
Tuesday, March 27
Thrice Told Tale, parts 2 and 3
Thursday, March 29
Writing due: Thrice Told Tale Paper
Tuesday, April 3: New Media Reflections
Guest Speaker: Marsha Pincus
Alvermann, Hagood, Williams, Image, Meaning, and Sound: Making Meaning with Popular
Culture Texts
Lankshear & Knobel, Blogging as Participation: The Active Sociality of a New Literacy
Tuesday, April 10
Reading due:
Supported Literacy for Adolescents -- prepare for this class and the ones to come by
reading/through the first, second, then third sections of the text on the lookout for pedagogical
concepts and strategies you’d like to use or critique AND at the same time for the tacit theories
of literacy, school, change, and place driving it.
Thursday, April 12
Supported Literacy for Adolescents
Tuesday, April 17
Supported Literacy for Adolescents
Thursday, April 19
Course Portfolio Workshop
Tuesday, April 24
Writing due: Final course portfolio -- open mic in class
Thursday, April 26
Endings, Middles, Beginnings
Final Project due: end of exam period.