Writing Post-modern Fairy Tales at Main Street School: Digital narratives and evolving transliteracies

Authors

  • Heather Lotherington York University

Keywords:

elementary school, digital literacy, fairy-tales, narrative, multiculturalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT. At an elementary school in inner city Toronto, I am working with the principal, a kernel group of primary teachers, and the school’s technician to develop children’s digital literacies. Main Street School is dedicated to the pursuit of social equity for its population of grade K-5 students who are characterized by high multiculturalism and low income. The school achieves this goal through the promotion of digital learning. Our project experimentally writes the children of Main Street School into dynamic postmodern digital versions of traditional European fairy tales, and showcases the evolving transliteracies children are navigating in the pursuit of emergent literacy. RÉDACTION DE CONTES DE FÉE POSTMODERNES À LA MAIN STREET SCHOOL : HISTOIRES NUMÉRIQUES ET LITTÉRATIES NOUVELLES RÉSUMÉ. En collaboration avec le directeur, un groupe d’enseignants et les techniciens d’une école primaire de la grande ville de Toronto, je travaille au développement des connaissances numériques des enfants. La Main Street School se consacre à la poursuite de l’équité sociale chez ses élèves de niveau K-5 qui se distinguent par un multiculturalisme marqué et de faibles revenus. L’école réalise cet objectif en encourageant l’apprentissage numérique. À titre expérimental, notre projet campe les enfants de la Main Street School dans des versions numériques postmodernes et dynamiques de contes de fée européens traditionnels, et montre comment les enfants de cultures différentes évoluent vers une culture émergente.

Author Biography

Heather Lotherington, York University

HEATHER LOTHERINGTON is Associate Professor of Multilingual Education at York University, and past Co-editor of the Canadian Modern Language Review. Her research focus is multiliteracies. She is currently directing a collaborative study on emergent multiliteracies in the elementary school focusing on the construction of postmodern, digital narratives.

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Published

2006-11-11

How to Cite

Lotherington, H. (2006). Writing Post-modern Fairy Tales at Main Street School: Digital narratives and evolving transliteracies. McGill Journal of Education / Revue Des Sciences De l’éducation De McGill, 40(1). Retrieved from https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/549

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Section

Articles