English teacher Molly Vasich, a graduate from the M.Ed./initial licensure program in English education, and four students from the Digital Media Studies Program (DigMe) at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School visited instructor Rick Lybeck’s English Education (teaching writing) class on March 3. Vasich and the students shared their experiences with DigMe, a partnership between Roosevelt and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CI), led by Cynthia Lewis and Cassie Scharber, who are studying the intersection of critical engagement, disciplinary learning, and digital media within a technology-mediated program in an urban high school.
Vasich discussed her curriculum incorporating both analysis and production of digital media in her English classes. Students Tiffany Alva, Dyami King, Yesenia Perez-Ramirez, and Olga Uraga talked about specific digital media projects, with a particular focus on how new literacy practices such as digital media composition compare and contrast with more traditional writing practices. Lewis, English education coordinator in CI, invited the guests to support pre-service English teachers in their developing understanding of the changing landscape of English as a discipline and the need for them to provide their future students with opportunities to analyze, interpret, and produce meaning through digital media.