Resources
Articles:
- Introduction: Film, television, and on-screen studies. (2010). In Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and other Media Paratext. New York: New York University Press, 1-22.
- Flanagan, K.M. (2010). Browsing for dissonance: Paratexts, box-art iconography, and genre. Media Fields Journal, 1(1), 1-13.
- Carver-Sekeres, C. (2009). The market child and branded fiction: A synergism of children's literature, consumer culture, and new literacies. Reading Research Quarterly, 44 (4),399-414.
- Ginette, G. (1991). Introduction to the paratext. New Literary History, 22(2), 261-271.
- Magnusson, K. (2012). Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: Daniel Handler and marketing the author. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 37(1), 86-107.
- Carver-Sekeres, D., & Watson, C. (2011). New Literacies and Multimediacy: The Immersive Universe of The 39 Clues. Children’s Literature in Education: An International Quarterly, 42(3), 256-273.
- Lunenfeld. P. (2000). Unfinished business. In The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 6-22.
initial Response
This week’s reading were focused on paratexts, markets, branding and aesthetics. To be honest I have not really considered these things very much when teaching in the past. When I think back to how I used paratext in my class, it was usually me showing a film version of a book that we had read as a class. I had not heard of the term market child before. I had not thought about how characters are shaped in your mind depending on what information you take in beyond reading a book or watching a film version of a story. No longer is it just books that shape a character in a child’s mind but all the other things that are marketed with the books or movie as well. Everything from branded toys, video games, theme parks, bed sheets, action figures, interactive websites and more allow a child to interact and engage with paratext which will further shape their market child. This week’s topic is making me reflect on what other paratext are out there for the stories and books I usually have my students study. Are there ways I can incorporate other literacies into my classes?
Post discussion response
I should be using librarians more to help me find those other paratexts for materials or stories, I cover with my class. Now that we no longer have librarians in any of the schools in our district, I would have to go our public libraries to access this expertise. I always thought it was hard to find the time to go to the library and ask for help. However a quick call or or email to the local library in town would be worth the time to not have to find all the resources on my own. Sometimes I forget all the services that are available through the library.
This week's topic reminded me that we need to think beyond traditional forms of literacy in an educational context. As technology advances new types of literacy are formed and our students will need to make sense and participate in these new forms of literacy. Maggie's comment about traditional forms of literacy being privileged in elementary settings was interesting. Is this because we are so focused on teaching the basics of reading and writing like decoding and letter formation for example? Can we not teach these skills through more progressive forms of literacy? I have actually always felt that traditional forms of literacy were more favoured in the high school and post secondary world when compared with elementary settings!
This week's topic reminded me that we need to think beyond traditional forms of literacy in an educational context. As technology advances new types of literacy are formed and our students will need to make sense and participate in these new forms of literacy. Maggie's comment about traditional forms of literacy being privileged in elementary settings was interesting. Is this because we are so focused on teaching the basics of reading and writing like decoding and letter formation for example? Can we not teach these skills through more progressive forms of literacy? I have actually always felt that traditional forms of literacy were more favoured in the high school and post secondary world when compared with elementary settings!