S/R1 “Before Coffee, Facebook: New Literacy Learning for 21^stCentury Teachers” 

Karina Juarez, 07/23/18

Roach, Audra K., and Jessica J. Beck. “Before Coffee, Facebook: New Literacy Learning for 21st Century Teachers.” Language Arts, vol. 89, no. 4, 2012, pp. 244–255. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41804342.

Roach, A., & Beck, J. (2012). Before Coffee, Facebook: New Literacy Learning for 21st Century Teachers. Language Arts,89(4), 244-255. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezhost.utrgv.edu:2048/stable/41804342

SUMMARY:

This article illustrates how  21^stCentury teachers use their own literacy experiences to launch a new literacies pedagogy. The authors, Roach and Beck, believe that the future of literacy studies must include helping students to communicate across differences in a globally networked world and “develop consciousness of the audiences they address, invoke, ignore, reject, exclude or deny” (244).  In this specific study, conducted by Roach and Beck, they discover that teachers, in addition to their students, too, live literate lives online.  The authors’ methodology is to study by screen-capturing and transcribing a 2-week period of Facebook interactions from one of her colleagues, named Jessica. Specifically, the authors paid attention to how Facebook conversations that invoked teaching or the roles of teachers.  In their study of Jessica’s Facebook posts, Roach and Beck code and write analytical memos to identify patterns in social positions about the roles of teachers on Facebook.  This teacher admits that she is reluctant to accept writing about her life on Facebook and she refers to herself as a “reluctant grown up who is trying to accept change”.  Her posts, however, attract a diverse range of people from fellow educators, to internet friends who she has never met in person.  According to Roach and Beck, “Through her writing, Jessica could predictably accomplish the same kinds of social things again and again and elicit the same kinds of responses from people no matter how far or wide; her way with words were, therefore, powerful in constructing author/audience relations as a community of confidants” (247).  In addition to communicating with other teachers, she also added her former students as Facebook friends, but her online interaction with her former students was strictly professional.  Roach and Beck describe a post in which Jessica chooses to move “in and out of sight” by showing up in different conversations selectively.  Her decision to respond or not “suggests that she understood that a writer can choose strategically when to speak and when to stay silent” (251).  Also, Roach and Beck suggest how this knowledge can be implemented in classrooms. One of their suggestions is that teachers can have their classes read together from discussion boards that support hobbies like games or fanfiction.  They state, “Young writers can consider critically how users are positioned within a particular site, how it is designed, by whom, for what purposes, with what effect, and for whose benefit…and we might invite talk about power and fairness, noticing things like whose voices are heard or not, who gets along, and who sets the rules for participating” (252).  

RESPONSE:

            My response to this article is that it is effective in discussing how social networks are designed to invite participation by a diverse audience.  The study that the authors conducted was meaningful because it demonstrates how a teacher was reluctant to engage in social media, but was able to expand her audience, and engage with other teachers, too. Although she was reluctant to use social media, she made the decision to be selective of her posts and who she added as friends.  I find it interesting that she is a teacher and she was able to use language, rhetorically, to create her audience.  It became obvious to me, when reading this piece, that she knew how to craft her language, and she chose who she would respond to or not, on her Facebook posts.  As far as how this relates to digital identity, it seems clear that here is a teacher who is on social media, and adding some of her students as friends, and her language toward other users and decision to not respond to some posts creates an audience.  She was able to communicate with other teachers by portraying herself as a professional and she was aware of issues of privacy on Facebook.  When she decided to add her students, she created a separate teacher profile and she located groups that discussed education; in terms of digital identity, this is meaningful because there is an obvious distinction between her identity on Facebook.  Personally, I know some friends who use Facebook for keeping in touch with family and for growing their professional circle.  I choose to use Facebook for following interesting pages about music, sports, tv shows, and animals.  I don’t intend to add potential employers, ex-bosses, ex-co-workers, or political organizations to my list of friends.   I do think that the suggestions of Roach and Beck for teachers are quite helpful.  It would be effective for teachers to have students analyze how language is utilized in discussion boards or wikis that are appropriate for their students.  It is important for students to engage with digital writing technologies in order to learn how people choose to create their online identities.  

QUOTATIONS:  

“By noticing and naming online authors’ craft, and what is humane and inhumane, we intend to help young writers develop lovely, powerful, and socially just ways with words on screens” (252).  

“NCTE (2008) suggests that 21^stcentury readers and writers must develop proficiency with technology; solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally; manage multiple streams of information; design and share information for global communities; and attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments” (253).