Fall 2014 – Spring 2015

This course highlights the ways in which critical, digital, visual, and other literacies can provide positive social and academic experiences for vulnerable youth. A significant percentage of young people in urban schools and beyond are tethered to juvenile justice or child welfare systems. The realities of these youth pose particular challenges for teachers and practitioners who regularly work with them; notwithstanding that as members of a digital age, these youth consume and produce media at astounding rates and are highly literate in new technologies, popular culture, and social media. Educators who work with youth face critical questions about how to use multiliteracies in their classrooms and how this approach can shape their educational practice. The objectives of this yearlong, participatory learning course which considers literacies as social practice, include: 1) raising awareness of the multiliteracies present in the lives and accessed by young people, 2) encourage future teachers and practitioners to adopt an inquiry stance toward in- and out-of-school literacy practices of vulnerable youth, and 3) develop a broader understanding of various literacies that impact the teaching and learning process. This seminar offers students an opportunity to engage with ideas in course texts through discussion, hands-on workshops, and the publication of a multimedia text at the end of the academic year. Course texts will be drawn from various areas of inquiry – the arts, media studies, education, philosophy, anthropology, literature, sociology, law, and literacy studies.

Teaching Team

• Prof. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, English Ed
• Prof. Lalitha Vasudevan, CMLTD
• Melissa Wade, NY County/Manhattan Family Court
• Lauren Gunn, English Ed Doctoral Student
• Kristine Rodriguez Kerr, CMLTD Postdoc
• Tara Conley, CMLTD Doctoral Student
• Joe Riina-Ferrie, CMLTD Doctoral Student