Digitil Video Production About the Dominican Republic Author(S): Jason Ranker Source: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol

Home , Dominican rock

Making Meaning on the Screen: Digitil Video Production about the Dominican Republic Author(s): Jason Ranker Source: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 51, No. 5 (Feb., 2008), pp. 410-422 Published by: International Reading Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017667 . Accessed: 25/05/2011 17:35

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Making meaning on the screen: Digitil video production about toe Dominican Republic

Jason Ranker

Digital video preduction can help students in helpingstudents to become partof this chang- worldof communicationthat is takingplace while ing explore topics "midtimodatty" (Knobel& Lankshear,2006; New LondonGroup, enhancing the readingswritings 2000). and discussion processes that Rankerteaches at Portland In this article,I exploreone way StateUniversity, Oregon, that teacherscan help studentsto de- would normally be part of a USA;e-mail [email protected]. velop new literacies:by using digital traditional inquiry project. video productionin conjunctionwith student inquiryprojects. The use of It is no longerpossible to thinkabout literacy in isola- digitalvideo productionin educationalsettings is tion froma vastarray of social,technological and eco- a growingarea of interestfor literacyeducators. nomicfactors.... These are, on the one hand,the Researchershave focused on how digitalvideo broadmove fromthe now dominance centuries-long productionenables storytelling in multiple of to the new dominanceof the and,on writing image modes & 2005;Waire, and the otherhand, the move fromthe dominanceof the (Hull Nelson, 2006), mediumof the book to the dominanceof the screen. how studentsform a concept of audience (Kress,2003, p. 1) (Buckingham& Harvey,2001) for the texts they author.The use of digitalvideo in school-based Inthe midstof the changesin literacythat Kress curriculaalso has overlapswith approachessuch (2003) described,literacy researchers have been as media literacy(Beach, 2007; Luke, 1999) and consideringhow digitalmedia (the WorldWide media education (Buckingham& Sefton-Green, Web,e-mail, video, instantmessaging) are chang- 1994),which involvestudents in both reading ing the natureof literacypractices (Lewis & Fabos, and producingpopular media texts.In the pages 2005;Luke & Elkins,1998; Snyder, 1998). For ex- that follow,I build upon this work by offeringan ample,instant messaging and e-mail havecreated illustrativecase study of the researchprocesses of new waysof using writingto communicate;these two 12-year-oldstudents, William and Alex (all new uses have,in turn, shapednew types of social names are pseudonyms),as they workedon an interactions.As anotherexample, reading on the inquiryproject about the Dominican Republic Webnot only involvesprint but also imagesand and produceda digitaldocumentary video based sound. Digitalmedia have created new types of upon what they learned.By readingabout Alex readingpractices. In the midst of the migrationof and William'sliteracy work, teachers who wish to literacypractices to digitalmedia and the rise of try video projectsin their own classroomsmight images(in relationto texts),literacy researchers use this articleas a frameof referencefor delving haveraised questions about the role of the school into this largelyuncharted curricular territory.

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As Alex and Williamresearched and pro- tion from literacyscholars in recentyears (Kress, duced their documentaryon the Dominican 2003; Siegel,2006). This areaof study is impor- Republic,they used two digitalmedia: (1) the tant becauseit recognizesthat the linguisticmode Web (as they conductedresearch for texts and (althoughthe most heavilyfavored mode at images)and (2) digitalvideo-production soft- school) is not the only mode availablefor com- ware (Video Studio Editor8 for the PC). They municatingand exploringmeanings. Recognizing also used more traditionalinquiry methods such the potentialof multiple modes of communica- as notebookwriting and book reading.Over the tion in literacycurricula is importantbecause courseof the project,they narrowedtheir study studentsbenefit from exploringthe full spectrum of the Dominican Republicto focus on baseball of meaning-makingpossibilities. In addition,in- playerswith familialties to the Dominican cluding multiple modes of meaningmaking in Republic(who play on U.S. teams) and music of the curriculumpromises to bring school-based the Dominican Republic. literacycurricula "in sync"with the changesin communicationthat surroundthe school Alex and William used both texts and public in the broadersociety. images extensivelythroughout the project. Throughtheir video production process,they searchedfor visual of various of images aspects Background the Dominican Republicon the Web,selected and savedthese images for later use, and then As a formerteacher and currentprofessor with ' imported and arrangedthe images in Video interestsin and experienceswith new literacies,I Studio Editor.Video Studio allowed the boys to teamed up with a colleagueof mine- a teacher weave these images togetherwith audio tracks who was also interestedin using video produc- (which they wrote and narrated)into a single, tion as part of student inquiryprojects. Mr. Clark polished movie project.In the process of pro- and I collaboratedin designinga projectthat re- ducing these audio tracks,the boys conducted sulted in student-produceddocumentary videos Web searcheson their topics by selecting, read- about topics of interestto the students.I worked ing, and organizingthe information that they with Mr.Clark and the studentson this video found. They used this information to write their projectover the course of seven months (one to narrativesin their writing notebook and then two dayseach week). Using qualitativecase-study later recordedand imported these narratives methods and principles(Dyson & Genishi,2005; into their movie project. Merriam,1998), I closely studiedthe students'literacyprocesses as they workedcollaboratively The boys'video productionprocess served while reading,writing, and producingtheir video as an organizing,integrative center for their re- at the computer.Although my primaryresponsi- searchabout the Dominican Republic.Their bility was for gatheringdata, I also participatedin work on the computerin Video Studio drove the researchby helping Mr.Clark plan the project their inquiryprocesses in other modes and media and helping the studentswith their work along (webpages,writing, audio). As Alex and William the way. used the video productionprocess to organize and understandtheir subjectmatter, they ex- Alex and Williammet dailywith Mr.Clark ploredthe Dominican Republic"multimodal- and six other studentsfor their English/language ly"- throughmultiple representationalmodes artsblock. This group of studentswas designated (visual,audio, linguistic; Kress, 2000). The con- as strugglingwith academicliteracy performance cept of multimodality- or the idea that meaning in relationto their peers (accordingto test scores can be representedand communicatedthrough and grade-levelstandards). Mr. Clark and I de- multiplechannels - has drawnincreasing atten- cided that the studentsneeded engaging,motivat-

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ing, and intellectuallychallenging opportunities led to his and Alex'schoice of the Dominican to use print and producemeanings in diverseand Republicas their inquirytopic. multifaceted Our was that ways. assumption Figure1 is a reproductionof the firstpage of students- as much as other stu- struggling any the researchnotebook that William and Alex kept dents- will need to literaciesfor a develop digital overthe courseof their researchproject on the in which new of rapidlychanging society ways DominicanRepublic. At the top of the figure,they and are a using literacy technology necessity listed their threepotential research topics (the London the (New Group,2000). During project, DominicanRepublic, Vietnam, and video games). the studentspaired up and chose topics of inter- At the bottom of Figure1 is a brainstorminglist of est, includingthe Dominican Republic,African possiblesubtopics or headingsfor the different AmericanHistory, electricity, World War II, and chaptersof their eventualvideo (food, history, Jamaica.In orderto get a close look at the intrica- flag,people, video games,dancing, languages, cies of using video as part of student research,I'll school,land, animals,games, movies, customs). focus specificallyon Williamand Alex'sproject. This list was heavilyinfluenced by the firstphase of their research which the boys In the followingtwo sections,I describe project,during were in researchusing books about the Alex and William'sresearch and digitalliteracy engaged DominicanRepublic that they had checkedout practicesthrough two main phasesof their proj- from their school library.Many of the headingsin ect as it developedover the course of seven these books and the aspectsof the Dominican months. The first section describesthe firstphase Republicthat the book authorschose to focus on of their work as they built up a knowledgebase (geography,tourist sites, history, food) mirrored about their topic and decided on focal subtopics the boys'brainstorming list in Figure1. throughboth book and Web-basedresearch. The second section describesthe next phase of Alex During this phase of the project,Mr. Clark and William'swork as they began to design their also scaffoldedthe students'inquiry processes by projectin Video Studio Editor.During this phase, helping them to develop researchquestions (as a In addi- they workedside by side at the computerwhile way of drivingtheir inquiriesforward). came into contactwith more continuingand refiningtheir researchbased tion, as the students and more Mr.Clark a se- upon their emergingvideo project. information, developed ries of lessons on note taking,reading nonfiction texts strategically,and evaluatingthe qualityand Chartinga pathway: usefulnessof information. Researchingthe Dominican Mr.Clark's lessons on note takingand sift- ing throughfactual information proved useful Republicon the page when the boys began to conductWeb searcheson andon the screen the contemporarymusical culture of the Dominican Republic.(As was seen in Figure1, Mr.Clark began the projectby introducingthe the boys had expressedan earlyinterest in dance, group to the idea of makinga documentaryvideo which led to their interestin the music of the and askingthe studentsto choose three potential Dominican Republic.)None of the books that inquirytopics. Throughconferences with each they had checkedout from the library,however, pair of students,he helped them to settle on a had contemporaryinformation about these top- single topic. BecauseWilliam's family had moved ics, so the Web proveduseful to them in this re- from the Dominican Republicwhen he was a spect. (Williamwas familiarwith bachataand young child,he had an evident passion for and merenguemusic becausehe and his familylis- base of knowledgeabout the topic that eventually tened to it at home.) Mr.Clark and I suggested

412 JtflJiiJtL OF iiiLESCEil ft ADULT LfTEiJtCY 51:5 FEiHifJtiY 2118 1^^

Figure 1

that the boys conductWeb searchesto look for their researchfolder for furtherreading and note contemporaryinformation about bachataand taking. other forms of music and dance from the Over the course of the next few class ses- Dominican Republic. sions dedicatedto the project,Alex and William The boys'initial Web searchusing the terms specifiedtheir searchesbased upon what they DominicanRepublic musichd them to multiple had found initially.As a resultof their discus- websites.From their online readingof these sites, sions while performingtheir initial searches, they learnedmore about bachataand merengue William'sbackground knowledge, and their on- and found out about severalother types of music line reading,the boys decided to focus on (often closelyrelated to dance culturesas well) merengueand bachatafor their more in-depth currentlypopular in the Dominican Republic,in- searches.For example,their searchof several cludingsalve, gaga, merenrap, reggaeton, and websitesyielded much informationon bachata, Dominican rock.The boys also printedthese in- including its history and origins and information troductoryarticles out and includedthem in about famous bachatamusicians such as Joe

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Veras,Aventura, El Chavalde la Bachata,and formationthat they might use when writingtheir Monchyy Alexandra. narrativesfor their video. At other times, these readingsessions resembledreading conferences TheseWeb searchesinvolved new reading duringwhich we readand discussedthe articles practicesthat differedqualitatively from their with the studentsto ensurethat they compre- usualbook-based research. Their readingpaths hended their For example,the following of Web-based,on screen were reading. (typical reading) is from a class session which far from linear a clear from be- excerpt during (following path Williamand I were an articleabout the to end as in the of reading ginning reading many print PremioLo NuestroLatin Music Awards that was texts). Instead,their readingtook nonlinearpath- printedfrom www.dominicantoday.com.This ar- ways such as readingselectively, taking links as ticle featuredan updateon the nominationsfor needed, the of web- readingonly necessaryparts the awards. pages,and returningto their searchresults in searchof other pages. Jason: This looks like it's from a news- As they moved back and forth from the papercalled Dominican Today. www.google.comsearch results page and the ac- (Williamand I wereboth read- tual webpages,William and Alex evaluatedtheir ing the articlesilently. In the content (in conversationswith me and Mr.Clark) opening paragraphs,I noted that for potentialusefulness. As they became more fa- the popularrecording artist miliarwith their topics, they became more dis- Shakirais listed as a nominee.) criminatoryabout which pagesto spend time Do you know Shakira? with and which ones to cast aside in searchof an- William: Yeah,I know Shakira.I don't other.For example,many of the webpageswere know how to explain,but I like unhelpfuland were skippedover fairlyquickly. it. It'spretty good. Some informationthat could be pagesprovided Jason: So all of these people were nomi- accessed online while oth- throughquick reading nated.Do you know what that ers needed to be printedout and put in their re- means? searchfolders for readingat a latertime. William: Um.. .like picked? Sometimes,the boys took note of findingsand Yeah.And then vote on the exploredthem in more depth later.For example, Jason: they who were duringa searchusing the termfamous merengue people picked. singers,the boys turned up a websitethat featured famous Dominicansin other fields.They found At a laterpoint duringthis phase of the re- out from this site that therewere a largenumber search,Alex and Williamdecided that a listing of of professionalbaseball players on U.S. teams the differenttypes of music from the Dominican from the Dominican Republic.Although they did Republic,their characteristics,key musicians,and not explorethis topic until laterin the project,it the instrumentscommonly used would be useful eventuallyended up comprisingthe second chap- for their work. Figure2 is an excerptfrom their ter of their video. notes at this point, which they kept in their researchnotebook. Alex and Williamspent extendedperiods of time readingthe articlesthat they had printedout As Alex and Williamread through their duringtheir Web searches.They took notes, high- printoutson these topics and took notes such as lighted,underlined, and discussedtheir ongoing those featuredin Figure2, they discussedthe findingswith each other,Mr. Clark, and myself. types of music in a way that laid the foundation Oftentimes,their discussionscentered on the po- for their laterwriting about the topic. The follow- tentialusefulness of the articlesfor providingin- ing excerptis from one such event. During this

414 JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT I JtOlfLT LITERACY 51:5 FEiiilif 2108 115555^^

Figure 2

conversation,William and Alex were readingin Tony: Reggaeton?It's like reggaebut depth about reggaeton.As they read,a classmate, it's a rap. Tony(who was a fan of reggaetonand reggaemu- sic) chimed in: About halfwaythrough their readingof their printoutsabout Dominicanmusic, Alex and Alex: Do you know reggaeton? Williambegan working independently by dividing William: Yeah.Do know you Daddy their researchprocesses more clearlythan they Yankee? had before.Because of William'sintense interest in Mr.Clark: Is it a style of music? Dominicanmusic, he continuedto work on that William: Yeah,it's a style of music. They aspectof the projectby takingnotes that he would rap. eventuallysynthesize into an informationalaudio

JOURNAL OF liOLESCEH & ADULT LITERACY 51:5 FEDRUARY 2008 415 IB

narrativefor theirvideo project.The followingis the students.Figure 3 is a "screenshot (a photo- an excerptfrom this narrative: graphof the computerscreen) of the students' work at one point in the project.It providesan il- Imagine yourself relaxing at the beach of the lustrationof the program'sfunctions, which are Dominican Republic hearing some beautiful music, similarto many other video-editingprogram in- the waves crashing down, and the birds chirping. I'm terfaces(such as iMovie on the Macintosh). hearing a beautiful song on stage. Everybodyscreams! There are two different kinds of music: bachata and The centerof the screenin Figure3 features merengue. Bachata is smooth and soft but not fast. a running draftof the video project- a close up use the and maracas. They guitar, bongos, Merengue of the particularclip that the user is workingon is fast- not very slow like bachata. In mernegue they at moment (at this the title slide use the drums, marimba, and a metal scraper.The any given point one best music in the Dominican Republic is merengue. It is featured).This focal window highlights clip is heard all around the Dominican Republic. In at a time, selectedby the user from the clips avail- bachata there are maybe 5 to 4 people. In merengue able along the bottom of the screen.These multi- there are 10 to 5 maybe people. ple clips make up the actualdraft or running version of the final video project,which arelaid WhileWilliam was busy writingthe featured out in a chronologicalordering of clips as the - narrative,Alex had returnedto the computers user sees fit. The user can move clips into and out this time conductingimage searcheson the Web of the workingdraft of the movie with the use of that the had using the list of baseballplayers boys the clipboard.The clipboard,located on the found earlier for famousmusi- (while searching right-handside of the screen,displays the avail- ciansfrom the Dominican Based Republic). upon able clips.The user imports these clips (which his initial he searchedfor of David list, images can eitherbe still imagesor video) from any digi- Ortiz,Alex Sosa,and Pedro Rodriguez,Sammy tal sourceof their choosing (includinga video Martinez.As he found of these baseball images cameraor other location savedon the computer's that he be useful,he saved players thought might hard drive).As users constructa movie project, them in a folderon the computer'sdesktop, later they move clips back and forth from the clip- consultingwith Williamabout which imagesthey board and into their movie as it takesshape over should use in their actualvideo. However,not un- time. The programalso allowsusers to manipu- til they actuallybegan importingand arranging late images as they see fit and import audio the imagesin Video StudioEditor did the boys get tracks,correlating them with the video images a clearpicture of the shapethat theirvideo and (the studentsimported audio narration,which the restof their researchproject would take.In the wrote and then recorded)as well as graphic next section,I describethis phase of theirwork. they and title slides.

About the same time that Williamcomplet- Workingin VideoStudio Editor: ed his narrativeabout Dominican music,Alex Adialogue between images had gathereda sufficientnumber of imagesof the baseballplayers that the boys had decidedto fo- andtexts cus on in their project.At this juncture,they re- Becausethis section focuses on Williamand joined their effortsas they began to work in Alex'swork in Video Studio Editor8, I'll begin Video Studio Editor.Their firstjob was to begin a with an explanationof the softwareinterface new video project,meanwhile selecting and im- (means of operating,functions, and overallfor- porting imagesof the baseballplayers onto their mat) as a way of outlining the options for manip- clipboard(from their folder savedon the com- ulatingimages and informationthat it createdfor puter'shard drive).

416 JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENTa ADULT LITERACY 5!:§ FEDRUARY2008 B1IIICT

Figure 3

Once the imageswere on the clipboard, As the boys began to import and arrange Alex and Williamselected and moved images,in- the baseballplayer images into Video Studio sertingand arrangingthem sequentiallyonto the Editor,their projectbegan to take form and they "timeline"(which made them part of the running could conceptualizethe scope of their video was to fit in the video of draftof their movie). Theirwork at this point was (what possible actually a reasonableand doable and then focus entirelyvisual because they hadn'tyet conducted length) their toward their text-basedresearch on these baseballplayers. energies accomplishing goals. Up to this point, Alex and Williamhad still been Becausethe imageswere randomlyimported thinkingthat they might include chaptersabout onto the clipboard,they first needed to group all some of the initialtopics that they had brain- of the imagesof David Ortiz together,all of the stormed (such as history,geography, places to vis- imagesfor Alex Rodrigueztogether, and so on. it). As they began to physicallylay out the images These divisions,in effect,created their first sub- in their video and see the length of time that it within this first to be realizedin chapters chapter would taketo accomplishwhat they were envi- Video Editor.(Although they had researchedand sioning, they cut these other topics and decided writtenabout Dominican music, they had not yet to divide their movie into two majorchapters. As done anythingin Video Studiowith this material, was evident in this highlyvisual phase of Alex which would laterbecome their second chapter.) and William'swork on their project,the visual

JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENTi ADULT LITERACY 51:5 FEBRUARY2008 417 IAfl!liMfl»

mode has its own form of "punctuating"or transitioneffects between images.At this point, "framing"that was centralto organizingthe boys' they had the images importedand arrangedfor literacyand inquiryprocesses. Kress (2003) theo- their baseballchapter but had not done research rizedpunctuating in visual communicationas or writtentheir narrative,and they had done the "theframing of an overallorganization, and as text-basedresearch and writingfor their chapter the framingof differentkinds of order"(p. 125). on Dominican music but hadn'tfound the images.So Alex began searchingwebpages for textu- As a resultof their framingwork with im- al informationon the baseballplayers while ages,they decidedthat chapter1 was to be on the Williambegan a new chapterin Video Studio on baseballplayers (with subchapterson David music from the Dominican Republic(see Figure Ortiz,Alex Rodriguez,Sammy Sosa, and Pedro 4). He createda title slide for this chapterand be- Martinez),and chapter2 was dedicatedto music gan an image searchon this topic as Alex had (with subchapterson bachataand merengue). done with the baseballplayers. The followingis an excerptfrom the boys'con- note versationas they arrangedand discussedtheir Basedupon this researchand taking, each of the project. Alex wrote a narrativeto accompany subsectionson the famous Dominicanbaseball Alex: Can I fix that?(referring to the players(as Williamhad done for bachataand arrangementof text over an merenguemusic). The followingis the beginning image) of William'snarrative on Alex Rodriguez: William: We have to takethis guy out. He'snot a sports player,(refer- "Arad [A-Rod] (a.k.a Alex Rodriguez)" ring to an image of Christopher Alex played for the Yankees. He was born July 27, Columbus) 1975 in New York. Alex was a shortshop. Alex's first team was the Seattle Mariners. His second team was Mr.Clark: I were to tell thought you going the Texas Rangers. On November 17, 2003, Alex won how he sailedto the Dominican a player reward. But it went to someone else. Alex first Republic? moved to Miami, FL. Alex was a good baseball player at Miami at West Minister school and he was William: but this is the high Yeah, by sports rewarded. players. Mr.Clark: So he'sjust in a differentpart? During this phase of their research,the ways He'sin a differentchapter? in which the boys' emergingvideo production Maybeyou could draghim back processcreated a dialoguebetween texts and im- up here to the clipboard. ages reallycame into view. In other words,their William: We don't have time becausewe work with texts createdthe need for furtherwork still have to do bachataand with imagesand vice versa.Thus, a truly multi- merengue. modal researchprocess began to emerge (espe- Alex: Yeah,let's just takethat part out. ciallyas they recordedand importedtheir written We don't have enough time. But narrativesthrough the audio mode). we can it back in maybe put Deciding how to use and integratethe audio later. mode requiredproblem solving and discussion with Mr.Clark and betweenAlex and William Within each subdivisionon the individual about how they wantedto form their projectand baseballplayers, the boys arrangedthe images about the possibilitiesand constraintsof the me- further,inserting titles, determininghow long dia with which they were working.For example, each imagewas to be displayed,and creating as Williamwas searchingthe Web for imagesthat

418 JOUHiJtL OF liOLESCEIT & JtiULT LITERACY 51:5 FEBRUARY 2008 iB^

Figure 4

might fit with their chapteron Dominican music, William: What do you mean? Alex was on the computernext to him searching Mr.Clark: I mean areyou going to video- for webpageswith textualinformation about the tape yourselftalking? Or will focal baseballplayers. The following excerptis a you just do voice or type it in? stretchof dialoguefrom their conversationas Alex: I think we can havehalf the TV they conductedthese Web searches: with our face.And then we shift and anotherpicture pops up. William: Mr.Clark, do you think that we Mr.Clark: I'm not sure it's possibleto split have of the enough pictures the screenlike that.Well, let's music? just startwith puttingyour pic- Mr.Clark: Why don't you insertyour pictures in your timeline and see tures into the timeline and then what happensfrom there. you can see if you have enough or what you might need. Also, Throughconversations such as these,the how areyou going to get your boys decidedthat they would recordand import writing in there? their audio tracksso that they would play simul-

JOUiilL OF liOLESCEiT ft ADULT LITERACY 51:5 FERRUARY 2008 419 Miiiiiii^^ | taneouslywith the digitalimages that they were Implicationsfor teaching findingand arranging.In addition,William Alex and William'swork with literacies broughtexamples of bachataand merenguemu- digital and other inquiryprocesses raises several points sic from home and importedthem into the proj- relevantto that ect so that between narrativesin the literacyteaching incorporatesdig- they played ital video The first has to on Dominican music. 5 is a screen production. implication chapter Figure do with what was new and creativeabout Alex shot of the different"tracks" (corresponding to and William'sexperiences with digitaltechnolo- the visual, and audio modes) available linguistic, gies in the curriculum.Not all uses of digital in Video Studio Editor.From to bottom the top technologynecessarily bring somethingnew to tracks with still im- correspond images,moving the literacycurriculum. Just like any other curric- ages (video recordings,which Williamand Alex ular component, digitaltechnologies can be used opted not to use), text (which the user types in in limiting and uncreativeways (Knobel& over the imagesor on separateslides), spoken Lankshear,2006). It is in the qualityof uses of narratives,and audio imports (which the boys digitaltechnologies that createthe potentialfor used for importingbackground music). somethingnew to happen (Sefton-Green,1999),

Figure 5

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allowingfor a new meaning-makingprocess to creativelystructured the boys'purposes and in- emergerather than acting as an addendum. teractionswith their subjectmatter. So what was new and creativeabout Alex ForWilliam in particular,working with and William'suses of digitaltechnology? How subjectmatter that was part of his culturalidenti- can teacherslearn from their experiences?Kress ty was an importantelement of this project.As (2003) offeredinsights on these questionsby not- severalliteracy scholars have noted (Ladson- ing that "muchof what we regardas 'creativity' Billings,1994; Moll & Gonzalez,1994), allowing happensas studentsmove meaningsacross studentsto drawupon familiarsubjects and other modes"(p. 36). As was discussedand highlighted funds of knowledge(Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, in this article,the students'explored their mean- 2005) in school is an effectiveway of creatingcul- ings multimodallyas they moved acrossaudio, tural relevancefor students.Particularly for stu- linguistic,and visual modes of communication. dents from nondominant culturaland linguistic This aspectof their literacyprocesses enhanced backgrounds,cultural relevance creates new and built upon the reading,writing, and discus- means of accessto school-basedcurricula and lit- sion processesthat studentswould normallybe eracypractices. In addition,the boys'use of the engagedin as part of a traditionalinquiry project. Web allowedthem to use their knowledgeand interestsin cultureof the Dominican The new medium (digitalvideo) structured popular musicalculture and a dialogicrelationship between text and image. Republic(contemporary baseball as a of This relationshipwas createdby an interactive professional players) way entering into the at school.As another synergybetween the boys'Web image searches, literacypractices work in Video Studio Editor,Web text searches, way of creatingaccess for marginalizedstudents, scholarshave noted the of and the writingof narratives- thus producinga literacy importance cultureas a of the circle" multimodalmeans of generatingknowledge popular way "widening of what counts as materialfor about the Dominican Republic. legitimate explo- ration at school (Newkirk,2002, pp. 170-171), As the moved back and forth between boys thus creatinga "permeablecurriculum" (Dyson, work with and texts, transformed images they 1993,p. 217) in which home-basedand school- their of the Dominican Republicover meanings based knowledgeand literaciescan intermingle. time. At times, their work with imagesserved as the contextfor furtherwork with text.At other Thereare a few logistic matters,however, times, their work with text servedas the context that go along with a digitalvideo projectsuch as for furthermeaning to be made with images.For the one I describedin this article.First, the fact example,when they had arrangedtheir chapter that we used Video Studio Editor8 was relatively on famous Dominican baseballplayers in Video unimportant.This programhappened to be part Studio,they realizedthat they needed informa- of the video packagethat was availableon the tion about these baseballplayers so that they computersin Mr.Clark's classroom. There are a could write a narrativeto accompanythem. wide varietyof similarprograms (Movie Maker Conversely,once they had writtentheir narrative for PCs, iMovie for the Macintosh)that use a on contemporaryDominican music (basedupon similarinterface and underlyinglogic. Any such theirWeb-based research on the topic) they real- program(that is often includedas part of the ized that they needed to conduct image searches softwarepackages that come with computers) for representationsof Dominican music in order would servea similarpurpose. For teacherswho to import imagesto accompanytheir audio track. may be deterredby the technicalaspects of such a Theiruses of Video Studio Editorwere unique project,I should note that Mr.Clark and I becausethey createda mode of productionthat learneda lot about using Video Studio Editor generateditself over the course of the projectand along the way.We didn'tcome to the projectas

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expertsin using this particularprogram. Kress,G. (2003). Literacyin the new mediaage. London: Technologicalexpertise had little to do with what Routledge. Ladson- G. (1994). The enabledthe studentsto explorenew, digitallitera- Billings, dreamkeepers:Successful teachersof AfricanAmerican children. San Francisco: cies duringthis project.In fact,learning how to Jossey-Bass. use the was of the itself. ^technologies part inquiry Lewis,C, 8cFabos, B. (2005). Instantmessaging, literacies, and social identities.Reading Research Quarterly, 40, REFERENCES 470-501. Luke,C. (1999). Media and culturalstudies in Australia. Beach,R. (2007). Teachingmedialiteracy.com:A web-linked Journalof Adolescent& AdultLiteracy, 42, 622-627. guide to resourcesand activities.New York:Teachers Luke,A., 8cElkins, J. (1998). Reinventingliteracy in "New CollegePress. Times."Journal of Adolescent& AdultLiteracy, 42, 4-7. Buckingham,D., & Harvey,I. (2001). Imaginingthe audi- Merriam,S. (1998). Qualitativeresearch and casestudy appli- ence:Language, creativity and communicationin youth cationsin education.San Francisco:Jossey-Bass. media production.Journal of EducationalMedia, 26, 8c N. Lessonsfrom researchwith 173-184. Moll, L., Gonzalez, (1994). children.Journal of ReadingBehavior, Buckingham,D., & Sefton-Green,J. (1994). Culturalstudies language-minority 26, 439-456. goes to school:Reading and teachingpopular media. New London (2000). A of multiliteracies: London:Taylor & Francis. Group. pedagogy social futures.In B. 8cM. Kalantzis, Dyson, A.H. (1993). Socialworlds of childrenlearning to write Designing Cope Multiliteracies: and the in an urbanprimary school. New York:Teachers College (Eds.), Literacylearning designof Press. socialfutures (pp. 9-37). New York:Routledge. T. Dyson, A.H., & Genishi,C. (2005). On the case:Approaches Newkirk, (2002). Misreadingmasculinity: Boys, literacy, and culture. NH: Heinemann. to languageand literacyresearch. New York:Teachers popular Portsmouth, and CollegePress. Sefton-Green,J. (Ed.). (1999). Youngpeople, creativity, arts.London: Gonzalez,N., Moll, L, & Amanti,C. (2005). Fundsof knowl- new technologies:The challenge of digital edge:Theorizing practices in households,communities, and Routledge. classrooms.Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Siegel,M. (2006). Rereadingthe signs:Multimodal transfor- Hull, G., & Nelson, M. (2005). Locatingthe semiotic power mations in the field of literacyeducation. Language Arts, of multimodality.Written Communication, 22, 224-261. 84, 65-77. Knobel,M., & Lankshear,C. (2006). Discussingnew litera- Snyder,I. (Ed.). (1998). Page to screen:Taking literacy into cies. LanguageArts, 84, 78-86. the electronicera. New York:Routledge. Kress,G. (2000). Multimodality.In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis Waire,P. (2006). From sharingtime to showtime!Valuing (Eds.),Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the designof diversevenues for storytellingin technology-richclass- socialfutures (pp. 182-202). New York:Routledge. rooms. LanguageArts, 84, 45-54.

The NationalRetired Teachers Association has partneredwith Curriki,a nonprofitopen sourcecur- riculumsource to providelearning resources to studentsaround the world.Retired educators can vol- unteerto develop educationalmaterials for studentsand their teacherswho may lack accessto traditionalbooks and assessmenttools. Currikiis workingwith experteducators around the world to ensurethat materialsmeet variededucational standards. The work supportsthe United Nations Millenniumgoal of guaranteeingan educationfor everychild worldwideby 2015. For more information about how to get involved,visit www.aarp.org/nrtaor www.curriki.org.

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