Focus Questions

TOUCHSTONE CHAPTER

1. PLAYING FOR REAL

Texts and the Performance of Identity, Lorri Neilsen Glenn

Focus Question

As a teacher, what might you learn from David and El’s remembrances of the touchstone texts in their lives that you could incorporate in your instructional repertoire? Just as importantly, what wouldn’t work, and why?

2. BECOMING LIFE-LONG READERS

Insights from a Comic Book Reader, Stergios G. Botzakis

Focus Question

What do we learn from Aaron’s descriptions of the role popular culture texts played in his life that could be used in teaching? What are the cautions in such lessons?

3. LOW-INCOME YOUTH’S (PUBLIC) INTERNET PRACTICES IN SOUTH AMERICA

Potential Lessons for Educators in the U.S. and Other Post-Industrial Nations, Eliane Rubinstein-Avila

Focus Question

Why would educators outside South America benefit from the research reported here? What Internet practices are likely to influence low-income youth’s literate identities across cultures?

TOUCHSTONE CHAPTER

5. “STRUGGLING” ADOLESCENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN MULTIMEDIATING

Countering the Institutional Construction of Incompetence, David O’Brien

Focus Question

How would the multimediating approach to instructing students who struggle with their regular content area assignments described in this chapter play out in a school where you teach now (taught last, or imagine yourself teaching in the next year or two), and why?

6. THINKING WITH FORENSIC SCIENCE

A Content Analysis of Forensic Comic Books and Graphic Novels, Barbara Guzzetti and Marcia Mardis

Focus Question

Imagine yourself doing a similar content analysis of comic books and graphic novels for your content area. How might your findings be similar to the authors’? How might they differ?

7. RECLAIMING AND REBUILDING THE WRITER IDENTITIES OF BLACK ADOLESCENT MALES

Marcelle M. Haddix

Focus Question

To what extent would you be able to replicate the project that the author undertook? What would you need to modify in order to make this approach work in your school or community?

TOUCHSTONE CHAPTER

9. EXPLORING RACE, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE IN CRITICAL LITERACY CLASSROOMS

Bob Fecho, Bette Davis, and Renee Moore

Focus Question

How would you interpret the three authors’ (Bob, Bette, and Renee’s) descriptions of teachable/researchable moments in their critical literacy classrooms? That is, in what ways did those descriptions resonate with your own thinking, or perhaps jar it?

10. RE-WRITING THE STOCK STORIES OF URBAN ADOLESCENTS

Autobiography as a Social and Performative Practice at the Intersections of Identities, Kelly Wissman and Lalitha Vasudevan

Focus Question

Of what value was this autobiography writing to the young people who engaged in it? How can we bring such activities to the classroom, and connect such lessons about writing selves to other academic literacies?

11. “IN THIS LITTLE TOWN NOTHING MUCH EVER HAPPENS, BUT SOMEDAY SOMETHING WILL”

Reading Young Adult Literature from the Blue Ridge Foothills, Gay Ivey

Focus Question

How did the reading of young adult literature benefit the youth described in this chapter? How can we build bridges from such reading to other academic literacies?

TOUCHSTONE CHAPTER

13. ADOLESCENTS’ MULTIPLE IDENTITIES AND TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Alfred Tatum

Focus Question

What are the complexities of students’ multiple identities that teachers (like Mr. Tuscany and Mrs. Garden in Alfred Tatum’s professional development model) face, and how are they similar to, or different from, your own situation?

14. RECONCEPTUALIZING TOGETHER

Exploring Participatory and Productive Critical Media Literacies in a Collaborative Teacher Research Group, Eli Tucker-Raymond, Daisy Torres-Petrovich, Keith Dumbleton, and Ellen Damlich

Focus Question

How were the teachers’ participation in the research group likely shaped by their day-to-day experiences? In what next projects could they engage to continue to develop their attention to twenty-first century literacies in their teaching?

15. MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS’ SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES IN NAVIGATING WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES IN A WEB 1.0 MIDDLE SCHOOL

Margaret C. Hagood

Focus Question

What were the “ah ha”s discovered by these teachers, and how will these likely affect their teaching over the long term? What next steps do they likely need to take?