Learning Outcomes and How We Met Them

English 295 is a much-dreaded course for many English majors. Writing Literary Criticism. Yuck. The BYU website describes it as a course to teach "how to address an academic audience, support arguments, and engage effectively in critical conversations about literature." Alright, that's not a bad start, but our class took these basic learning outcomes a step further. We wanted to consume literature in ways that are new to this digital age. We wanted to connect with--not just address--our academic audience. We wanted to create something worthwhile with all that we had learned, discussed, and analyzed. And we did.

Our blog posts bear witness to our unordinary methods of consuming our literature of choice. Some listened to audiobooks; others read eBooks; still others watched movies or read comic books or fan fiction. I went a more "traditional" route and read my digital culture book, Remix, online. We went on to consume what others had said about our books (consuming their interpretations of their own consumption), reading sometimes less-than-scholarly interactions with the text. Significantly, though, we also immersed ourselves in literary scholarship by learning more about the traditional research process through BYU's library. This was an important part of our consumption, and one not to be overlooked. It also directly fulfilled the course's goal of engaging in critical conversations about literature, because sometimes it's a lot easier to find those critical conversations in bona fide scholarship than it is in the overwhelmingly plentiful opinions online.

It was time to connect, to truly engage in these conversations. First, I read my novel of choice, Where the Red Fern Grows, on my own, but I was sure to ask everyone I talked with if they had read the book and what they had thought about it. Thus, I eased myself into the waters of critical conversation. My first major connection outside of the class and outside of my friends, though, was with Israel Sanchez, a professional illustrator who had created some artistic depictions of Where the Red Fern Grows. Because my thesis centered around the pedagogy of language arts classrooms, I then reached out to language arts teachers and the educational community through forums and Goodreads discussion threads (and once or twice through an old-fashioned e-mail). My classmates acted similarly, collaborating with individuals who would have special interest or insight in their literary analyses. We connected with one another in a different manner, by posting links to one another's blogs and helping each other in the research process.

The success of our connections is evident, as previously mentioned, in our blog posts. But there is something bigger that sings glory to our ability to create, to create something that matters after all our consumption and connection: our class eBook. Yes, our blog posts were creations of sorts, but we wrote an eBook in a matter of weeks! I suppose you can hardly call an eBook physical, but we created something that is as tangible as the virtual world gets--a book! It has chapters and illustrations and a table of contents; we are the authors of something real. This is engaging effectively. This is addressing an academic audience. Through meeting the goals of our specific class--Writing about Literature in the Digital Age--we met the course goals more fully than administration could have ever conceived.

eBook Collaboration

I like to get things done. So, when Professor Burton asked every member of the marketing team to find 20 individuals to whom we could market our eBook, I was all over it.

Wait. Twenty? That's a lot.

After experiencing a moment of flustration (no, that is not a typo), I got to work. First, I thought about people I actually know, in the flesh, who might care about this eBook. The list was minimal. Then it was time to explore my online contacts that I have met through my collaboration particularly through this class. While I tried all term to reach out to individuals through the internet, this list, too, was minimal.

Time for a Google blog search. Turns out, lots of people are saying lots of things about eBooks. Specifically, there is a vast array of blogs on the use of eBooks in education. After several searches related to eBooks, education, and technology, I was able to find many potential readers. Potential readers who might even get pretty excited about what we're doing.

And then there was Diigo. Diigo was a goldmine of people who care about this stuff (naturally, since it's such a technology-rich environment). I was able to find several potential contacts whose interests, based on their bookmarks, perfectly align with the objectives of this class: collaboration, eBooks, education, literature, writing in the digital age; many were interested in these topics almost exclusively.

So, with those searches, a few homies, and a couple of teachers, I successfully found 20 potential readers for our eBook. Twenty plus one--me. Currently, our list of potential readers is at 155. Many of those readers are active online, sharing what they learn and what they read. All of those readers have homies. This eBook could really go places.

Another Educated, Probably Interested Audience

Richard West, my IP&T 286 professor (that's a class on teaching with technology for teaching majors), would absolutely love to hear about our eBook. Moreover, he has resources and connections that would probably help to further circulate our efforts to connect with a real audience. He's really into internet security, so he's a bit hard to find online, but I have his e-mail address, and I'm sure he'd be thrilled to hear from us.

An Educated Audience

Erica Hartman of Hartman Instructional Technology Consulting would probably be interested in our eBook. Just a hunch.

Based on the blog of hers that I found, her occupation is directly related to exactly what we're interested in in this class: incorporating technology into education. Our educational purposes have been quite specific (writing about literature), but I'm sure she would be thrilled to learn about how we have used technology to consume, connect, and create. I am also confident that there are many others out there just like her. We just have to find them. As Dr. Burton has made abundantly clear, there is definitely an audience for this eBook.

Coon Dogs, Cartoons, and the English Classroom: How Where the Red Fern Grows Calls for Visual Representation and Why This Matters

"Championship Coon Hunt to be Held" by Israel Sanchez, 2010

"I don't see why we have to move to town to get an education," I said. "Hasn't Mama taught us how to read and write?"
"There's more to an education than just reading and writing," Papa said. "Much more." Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

Visual arts is necessary in English classrooms; it allows for greater communication than writing alone, especially when enhanced by digital collaboration.


Communicating the Emotionality of a Text


Billy, the young coon-hunting protagonist of Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows, witnesses the gruesome death of Rubin, a boy from his boondocks community."Scared, not knowing what to do, I called for Rainie. I got no answer. I called his name again and again. I could get no reply. My voice echoed in the darkness of the silent night. A cold chill ran over my body. I suppose it is natural at a time like that for a boy to think of his mother. I thought of mine. I wanted to get home" (Rawls).


I just read Where the Red Fern Grows for the seventh or eight time in my life (it's a childhood favorite) so that I could research it and write about it for my class, Writing about Literature in the Digital Age. Often as I read, though, I forgot to think about it as literature as I was caught up in the emotionality of the text. "It is natural at a time like that for a boy to think of his mother." 



Out of curiosity regarding how readers react to this children's novel filled with weighty issues such as love, death, and family relationships, I began to research informal online responses to Where the Red Fern Grows. I looked through Facebook groups. I read tweets. I read book reviews on Goodreads and various other online forums. I searched blogs that mentioned the book and I asked almost everyone I had a conversation with if they had read the book and what they thought of it. I was disappointed in the surface-level responses I got from each of these sources. In my blog post, "Using Art to Interpret Art" I mention how frustrating it was to hear "What a sad book" over and over and over again. While Where the Red Fern Grows is an easy read, it is replete with feeling--it is full of opportunities to connect with the text in a meaningful, personal way and to explore the intricacies of human emotion and, even, interspecies relationships. Words, at least the words I found in informal online settings, were inadequate at expressing the readers' emotions.

These frustrating findings were a pivotal point in my research process.



I decided to see if the internet could provide any visual representations of Where the Red Fern Grows that might be more meaningful than the shallow commentary I was finding in written words. I ran across some art by illustrator Israel Sanchez inspired by the novel, and I was moved by the emotion in even his cartoonish depictions (see illustration above and see citation for URL). The picture at the heading of this chapter is a fine example of his work. In the written text, as Billy asks for permission from his father to attend the big coon hunt with his grandfather, the hopeful yearning of the adolescent is palpable through the pages. Similarly, in Israel Sanchez's piece, Billy's earnest dream--and any dream of any boy that age--is clearly demonstrated in his cherubic upward gaze at his father. 


I e-mailed the artist, and he gave me permission to share his art on my blog, thanking me warmly for my interest in his art and the way he was using it to express his interaction with the work. Thanks to his connection to literature through art, then his connection to others through the internet, I was led to research school projects (typically junior high) that incorporated visual art into the study of Where the Red Fern Grows. As a future high school teacher, I quickly developed a theory that I was thirsty to prove: Visual arts is beneficial for students of secondary education as they study language arts. Indeed, the two arts should not be separated because both textual and visually artistic reactions to the text are legitimate means of interacting with it. Where the Red Fern Grows is particularly appropriate for visual representation because of the strong emotions of the plot that sometimes overshadow meaningful themes and, somehow, dissuade mature written interactions with the text.


Visual Representations and Educational Implications


So, having my theory that involved education, I decided my best course of action would be to use the internet to contact teachers on the topic. Through several forums targeted to teachers and a discussion I started on Goodreads, I received responses that, for the most part, corroborated my thesis. Various teachers agreed that language arts can be enriched by visual arts, and they encouraged me to continue to pursue this line of thinking (Whitaker, "Responses"). One woman named Cheryl responded on Goodreads that I should consider offering students a choice when I create visual assignments because "some may not be comfortable responding visually" (Whitaker, "The Incorporation"). I assert that if all students should be expected to create written work, and assuming that visual creation is proven beneficial to the learning process, all students can reasonably be expected to create and consume visual work.   

There are scholarly sources that agree with this viewpoint. Two articles by Zoss and Lin, respectively, state very clearly that visual arts should be a part of mainstream subjects, particularly language arts. I simply wish to take this a step further. Visual arts enriches the study of literature by allowing a greater range of communication, which is especially helpful when exploring highly emotional texts such as Where the Red Fern Grows.


The Digitization of a Visual Classroom


Now, this is important. This is the crux of my research. But there is an underlying significance to how I did my research, how I found the art, how I found the lesson plans, how I communicated with Israel, how I reached out to fellow educators, and how I shared what I learned. It was all done online. Even the student art that I found was online. Yes, I read the primary text from a printed book, but most of my interaction with it was virtual. This says much about my learning process as a college student, but that is not what I am researching. Now, after becoming thoroughly convinced that visual arts is a necessary component of a secondary language arts classroom, I am faced with another question: Is technology a necessary part of this visual interaction?


I love the traditional English classroom. I love the smell of books and sitting in a circle, discussing literature. I love markerboards and notebook paper and that wall-mounted pencil sharpener that sounds as though we're sharpening our pencils with a chainsaw. But, considering the richness of my digital interaction with Where the Red Fern Grows, I can't just forsake technology when I am a teacher in my own classroom. Especially when scholarly sources indicate that technology enhances learning.


The article "Utilizing the Internet to Facilitate Classroom Learning," by Jan Tucker and Bari Courts, states that, "There is a push to increase the efficiency of learning and the transfer and facilitation of knowledge. Technology enhanced learning environments improve the learning experience by promoting cooperation, collaboration, and self-sufficiency in learners." Cooperation, collaboration, and self-sufficiency. Couple that with a visually-rich classroom, which enriches communication, and the level of student interest is bound to increase. Therefore, technology and visual arts are both key components of a great language arts classroom, and just as I saw the two coincide in my research, they should be interwoven in school.


Bringing It All Together


Why does this all matter? My research on a single book, Where the Red Fern Grows, done through a single--though highly diverse--medium (the internet), led me to a single driving thesis: Visual arts is necessary in the study of language arts. How I arrived at this conclusion, though, is as significant as the idea itself when one considers its implications. My ability to access the thoughts of artists, teachers, and typical readers was made possible by the internet. My ability to share my own ideas and get feedback from a variety of interested individuals was similarly a product of technology. The way I learned about educational interaction with Where the Red Fern Grows suggests that secondary education students, too, can benefit from the richness of digital collaboration. Instead of one-dimensional, read-the-book-and-be-able-to-discuss-it English classrooms, students should be immersed in environments of visual and textual intellectualism, coupled with meaningful collaboration that the digital age makes possible.

Amy Whitaker is an English Teaching major at Brigham Young University who runs by day and reads by night.



Sources Cited


Lin, Chia-Hui. "Literary Instruction Through Communicative and Visual Arts." Teacher Librarian 32.5, 2005. p. 25. Web. 2 Jun 2011.


Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows. NY: Laurel-Leaf, 1961. Print.


Sanchez, Israel. "Red Fern Color Comps." Picture Book Report. Web. 6 Jun 2011. http://picturebookreport.com/category/where-the-red-fern-grows/



Tucker, Jan and Courts, Bari. "Utilizing the Internet to Facilitate Classroom Learning." Journal of College Teaching and Learning 7.7. Littleton: Jul 2010. p. 37-43. Web. 6 May 2011.


Whitaker, Amy. "Responses to My Public Questions on Visual Arts." Blogger. 1 Jun 2011. Web. 7 May 2011. http://amywhitakerwrites.blogspot.com/2011/06/responses-to-my-public-questions-on.html 


Whitaker, Amy. "The Incorporation of Visual Arts in a Language Arts Classroom." Goodreads. 27 May 2011. Web. 7 May 2011. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/563335-the-incorporation-of-visual-arts-in-a-language-arts-classroom#comment_id_31040075


Whitaker, Amy. "Using Art to Interpret Art." Blogger. 16 May 2011. Web. 6 May 2011.  http://amywhitakerwrites.blogspot.com/2011/05/using-art-to-interpret-art.html

Zoss, Michelle. "Visual Arts and Literacy." Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research. NYC: Guilford Press, 2009. Web. 25 May 2011.

Score!

I got permission from Israel Sanchez to use his art in our eBook!

Coon Dogs, Cartoons, and the English Classroom: How Where the Red Fern Grows Calls for Visual Representation and Why This Matters

Billy, the young coon-hunting protagonist in Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows, just witnessed the gruesome death of Rubin, boy from his boondocks community, while Billy was on a hunt with him and his brother. "Scared, not knowing what to do, I called for Rainie. I got no answer. I called his name again and again. I could get no reply. My voice echoed in the darkness of the silent night. A cold chill ran over my body. I suppose it is natural at a time like that for a boy to think of his mother. I thought of mine. I wanted to get home" (Rawls).


I read Where the Red Fern Grows for the seventh or eight time in my life (it's a childhood favorite) so that I could research it and write about it for my class, Writing about Literature in the Digital Age. Often, though, I forgot to think about it as literature as I was caught up in the emotionality of the text. "It is natural at a time like that for a boy to think of his mother." How stirring!


I began to research the reactions of Where the Red Fern Grows on an informal basis. I looked through Facebook groups. I read tweets. I read book reviews on Goodreads and various other online forums. I searched blogs that mentioned the book and I asked almost everyone I had a conversation with if they had read the book and what they thought of it. I was disappointed in the surface-level responses I got from each of these sources. In my blog post, "Using Art to Interpret Art" I mentioned how frustrating it was to hear "What a sad book" over and over and over again. While Where the Red Fern Grows is an easy read, it is replete with emotion--it is full of opportunities to connect with the text in a meaningful, personal way and to explore the intricacies of human emotion and, even, interspecies relationships. Words, at least the words I found in informal online settings, were inadequate at expressing the readers' emotions.

This frustrated post was a pivotal point in my research process.



I decided to see if there were any visual representations of Where the Red Fern Grows that might be more meaningful than the shallow commentary I was finding in written words. I ran across some art by illustrator Israel Sanchez inspired by the novel, and I was moved by the emotion in even his cartoonish depictions. I e-mailed the artist, and he gave me permission to share his art on my blog, thanking me warmly for my interest in his art and the way he was using it to express his interaction with the work. Thanks to his connection to literature through art, then his connection to others through the internet, I was led to research school (typically junior high) projects that incorporated visual art into the study of Where the Red Fern Grows. As a future high school teacher, I quickly developed a theory that I was thirsty to prove: Visual arts is beneficial for students of secondary education as they study language arts. Indeed, the two arts should not be separated because both textual and visually artistic reactions to the text are legitimate means of interacting with it.


So, having a theory that I was thirsty to prove that involved teachers, I decided my best course of action would be to contact teachers on the topic. Through several forums targeted to teachers and a discussion I started on Goodreads, I received responses that, for the most part, corroborated my thesis. One woman named Cheryl responded on Goodreads that I should consider offering students a choice when I create visual assignments because "some may not be comfortable responding visually." She did go on to admit that maybe pushing students out of their comfort zone was appropriate.    
There are scholarly sources that agree with this viewpoint. Two articles by Zoss and Lin, respectively, state very clearly that visual arts should be a part of mainstream subjects, particularly language arts. I simply wish to take this a step further. Visual arts enriches the study of literature by allowing a greater range of communication, which is especially helpful when exploring highly emotional texts such as Where the Red Fern Grows.


Now, this is important. This is the crux of my research. But there is an underlying significance to how I did my research, how I found the art, how I found the lesson plans, how I communicated with Israel, how I reached out to fellow educators, and how I shared what I learned. It was all done online. Even the student art that I found was online. Yes, I read the primary text from a printed book, but most of my interaction with it was virtual. This says much about my learning process as a college student, but that is not what I am researching. Now, after becoming thoroughly convinced that visual arts is a necessary component of a language arts classroom, I am faced with another question: Is technology a necessary part of this visual interaction?


I love the traditional English classroom. I love the smell of books and sitting in a circle, discussing literature. I love markerboards and notebook paper and that wall-mounted pencil sharpener that sounds as though we're sharpening our pencils with a chainsaw. But, considering the richness of my digital interaction with Where the Red Fern Grows, I can't just forsake technology when I am a teacher in my own classroom. Especially when scholarly sources indicate that technology enhances learning.


The article "Utilizing the Internet to Facilitate Classroom Learning," by Jan Tucker and Bari Courts, states that, "There is a push to increase the efficiency of learning and the transfer and facilitation of knowledge. Technology enhanced learning environments improve the learning experience by promoting cooperation, collaboration, and self-sufficiency in learners." Cooperation, collaboration, and self-sufficiency. Couple that with a visually-rich classroom, and the level of student interest is bound to increase. Therefore, technology and visual arts are both key components of a great language arts classroom, and just as I saw the two coincide in my research, they should be interwoven in school.

I have spent my academic years writing single-strand scholarly papers, but these do not even begin to reflect what literary criticism can be in an age of digital literacy. If I had written a traditional scholarly paper for an audience of one (my professor), about Where the Red Fern Grows, this highly emotional children's novel, I probably would have come up with a thesis, I would have found sources that corroborate my initial impression of something I consider important in the text, and I would have tried to determine its significance on a grander scale. This might have been a fine paper. But writing about Where the Red Fern Grows in the digital age, using digital resources, I was able to reevaluate the emotionality of the text, recognize the legitimacy of visually artistic responses to the book, and study how visual arts might be used to study it in a secondary education classroom. All of this matters much more to me in my future career as an English teacher than does any theme, device, or oddity I would have decided to delve into on my own.

Simply stated, looking at the digital world of Where the Red Fern Grows--particularly a visual world of artistic interpretations--before looking at the printed text itself influenced my research, my ideas, and my ultimate thesis. Going about my research in this manner allowed me to see the novel in a unique light. More importantly, though, it led me to new pedagogical ideals--it led me to a thesis that I will continue to actively pursue and, assuming I find it consistently accurate, incorporate into my future career as a teacher.


Lin, Chia-Hui. "Literary Instruction Through Communicative and Visual Arts." Teacher Librarian 32.5, 2005. p. 25. Web. 2 Jun 2011.


Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows. NY: Laurel-Leaf, 1961. Print.


Tucker, Jan and Courts, Bari. "Utilizing the Internet to Facilitate Classroom Learning." Journal of College Teaching and Learning 7.7. Littleton: Jul 2010. p. 37-43. Web. 6 May 2011.


Zoss, Michelle. "Visual Arts and Literacy." Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research. NYC: Guilford Press, 2009. Web. 25 May 2011.