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Making Space: Complicating a Canonical Text Through Critical, Multimodal Work in a Secondary Language Arts Classroom
Author(s) -
Dallacqua Ashley K.,
Sheahan Annmarie
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.1063
Subject(s) - privilege (computing) , narrative , pedagogy , action research , space (punctuation) , the arts , language arts , mathematics education , psychology , action (physics) , qualitative research , power (physics) , value (mathematics) , sociology , linguistics , visual arts , computer science , art , social science , physics , computer security , quantum mechanics , philosophy , machine learning
The authors document research completed in 10th‐grade language arts classes where a canonical play was read alongside a graphic novel in the hopes of shifting student understandings of power and privilege in literature. Using teacher action research as a methodological framework for this qualitative study, a teacher and researcher engaged in long‐term fieldwork and participant observation as a means of investigating what happens when nontraditional texts are paired with canonical works in diverse secondary classrooms. Findings illustrate that by placing a work of the dominant literary study tradition in dialogue with a contemporary graphic novel, students accessed multiple perspectives that allowed for emotional, academic, and critical learning. Additionally, findings speak to the value of multimodal composing as a way to privilege student voice in conversations across various literary narratives and forms.