Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An intensive examination of developments in a curriculum area selected by the student. In addition the course will deal with major philosophical and historical factors that influence the present state and future directions of curriculum and instruction.

COURSE DETAILS:

January 6th to April 12th (in person) from 4:30 pm to 9 pm. These dates can adjusted to accommodate the students.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The primary goal for this course is to develop knowledge of the theoretical foundations and contemporary research in the field of literacies and literacy practices. This will allow you to situate current trends in educational practice and to identify pedagogical principles that arise from the New Literacy Studies and the Multiliteracies streams of research which have contributed in recent decades to a reconceptualization of the concept of literacy practices. Literacies are now conceived as dynamic and multidimensional practices: they are centered on the negotiation of meaning, situated in and linked to specific social and material contexts, and related to power of dynamics in society.

This course will adopt a critical perspective to study the links between literacy practices in family, community and school settings. It will allow you to put into perspectives the different discourses central in the literacies field, and to consider the role that schools play in the teaching of literacy practices in the context of developments in digital communication, increasing population diversity, globalization, and the decolonization of the curriculum. You will be invited to learn about and mobilize bodies fo theory that are increasingly present in research about literacy practices, including those of sociomaterial theories (i.e., posthumanism, new materialism, and Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophy) and of many indigenous perspectives.

Specifically, this course will address the burgeoning influence of generative AIs on literate practices and how they might reshape multimodal literacies pedagogies. Students will have the opportunity to explore Jasper, ChatGPT, Chatpdf and Claude and assess their impact on bilingual reading-writing in comparison to older tools like Storybooks Canada, Indigenous Storybooks, ScribJab, and multilingual pedagogical practices like Évil aux langues. A significant assignment in this course will evolve observing one's own literacy practices and writing self-observation report, utilizing knowledge gained throughout the semester.

Targeted Skills by the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Define the concepts of literacies, plurilingual literacies, and pluriliteracies.
• Identify foundational and emerging theoretical perspectives on literacy practices.
• Describe the relationships between literacy practices, identity construction, and language teaching/learning situations.
• Discuss the development of literacies in multilingual and multicultural environments, adopting a critical perspective on globalization, the rise of generative AI's, and the context of reconciliation/decolonization.
• Observe and critically analyze their own literacy practices.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES: