Focal Blog Prompt #1

What are alternative texts and what do I privilege in my daily interactions with core and alternative texts?
When we think of texts we think of words, books, numbers, even logos, but what are we missing? Claudia Wallis puts it best in The Multitasking Generation article, “Thousands of years of evolution created human physical communication – facial expressions, body language....” In addition, Margaret Mackey defined a contemporary literate experience as an ‘interpretation of recorded symbolic representation.’ Are facial expression and body language not interpretations and additions to speech? Are words and text in its simplest form not symbolic representations of speech? If this is true, which I propose is true, the most primitive core text is speech, the alphabet that represents speech and the words that we create from those representations.
If the core texts are speech and the written word then what is an alternative text? When I think of the word alternative I think of a choice, an alternative, as simple as do or don’t, yes or no. Therefore the alternative to speech is silence; the alternative to the written word is a blank page. I cannot define an alternative text as simply something different from a core text, but as a supplement and/or an alternative presentation to our core texts, speech and the written word.
In my daily interactions I interact with the core text of speech continually as do I with the written word in the forms of talking, reading and writing. I also lift words off paper and send them to friends by means of text messages or instant messaging. I read newspapers containing the core text of words, but I do so online reading international newspapers in Swahili, not by holding the print in my hands. When I hear the phone ring I answer using the core text of speech in an alternative digital form that does not allow me to interpret facial expressions and body language that accompany traditional speech. I also deal with alternative texts such as blogs, websites, etc., that frustrate me. As Margaret MacKey said, “what is our attitude to a textual world where many of us now feel incompetent....” Is it not outstanding how we as a species have the power to take core texts and deliver them in such an alternative manner that we no longer have the ability to interpret and recognize our ‘recorded symbolic representations’ of speech and word?

What forms of text types and teaching approaches did I observe during my practicum?
I obviously observed speech and the written word in my practicum, but I observed the power of speech. How a teacher delivered their lecture, whether it was with conviction or not, defined how the students engaged with the teacher. If a teacher spoke in dull language, a blank face and little body language the students were disengaged. Yet, when a teacher walked in the room and their body language and facial expressions showed their passions for their subject and their voice drew in the students it created an environment where the students were engaged and listening attentively. No matter what forms of an alternative text a teacher, including myself, used the most powerful was speech.
Alternative forms of text and speech that I used and observed were power points, videos, mind maps and activities that engaged the students with their core text books. For example, by having my students read their core text and then find three internet articles that supported what their text book was saying it involved the students with an alternative form of the written word and taught them to critically think about what their text was saying. In scienc,e an entertaining video is an invaluable tool for linking the core text of speech and word with pictures and diagrams simultaneously that help students reach a deeper level of understanding.

How can MacKey’s ‘asset model’ be applied in science (biology) and how can this approach help all learners to become literate in science?
If an asset model offers different areas that a student must be literate in or are assets for the students to become literate in then every one of MacKey’s categories would directly apply to science. If my students hope to pursue a career in science they will need to understand electronic images as our images of cells, etc., are advancing rapidly. In addition, my students need to also understanding how these images are created and more importantly how they are altered. Electronic text, wireless text, audio, video and online texts are already how scientists across the globe share information with each other. My students must have a solid understanding of the various alternative forms of text to fully grasp scientific concepts.
In regards to the above, although my science students could benefit from this type of asset model, they must not be limited to the alternative texts listed above. I not only mean that they must be literate in new forms of emerging alternative texts, but they must also be literate in traditional text on paper. Scientific literature in its purest form is how science got to where it is today. Months of passing literature and scientific reviews has passed down the foundation of our current scientific knowledge. I am not sure where science is headed, but students must be able to interpret the basic science behind all future discoveries and these basics are stored in dusty books in the form of text on paper.