Module 2: Defining New Literacies

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As a high school teacher of global history, I am continually working out the most efficient ways for my students to access, interpret, and communicate information. New literacies, as defined by Knobel and Lankshear (2007), challenge the limited view of skills that have been traditionally framed within narrow bounds of academic reading and writing by actually recognizing literacy as socially situated practices for making meaning through "encoded texts" in participatory Discourses (p. 24). That move from the theoretical into real social practices makes things of equity, engagement, and relevance with my classroom.

In global history, students explore diverse narratives, cultures, and power structures. Yet, if I only value literacy as formal reading and writing, I unintentionally silence the varied ways students already make and share meaning through memes, TikToks, YouTube, fan fiction, and even Discord discussions. As the NCTE’s Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age argues, “Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices” that evolve with technology and society. If I ignore that evolution, I risk making school literacy feel irrelevant or inaccessible to my students.

This narrow view also reinforces systemic inequities. Students from marginalized backgrounds, especially multilingual learners, which make up a large percentage of my high school, are often framed as “behind” when, in fact, they’re literate in ways that schools traditionally ignore. The ILA’s Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice report emphasizes that digital literacies are deeply tied to justice as it suggests “A justice-oriented approach acknowledges the role of power in determining whose literacies count.” When schools only validate traditional literacies, they reinforce existing hierarchies of whose knowledge is seen as valuable.

So what does this mean for my teaching practice? It means I must deliberately expand what counts as literacy in my classroom. For instance, instead of just assigning a written essay on the Haitian Revolution, I can also invite students to create an Instagram story that tells Toussaint Louverture’s life from a first-person perspective using text, image, and caption to communicate historical understanding. This isn’t “dumbing down” the work but simply engaging students in the kinds of multimedia composition they already do outside school and showing them that these literacies count in academic spaces. From a curricular standpoint, the AIR brief on digital literacy urges educators to help students critically analyze digital content, collaborate online, and communicate using varied digital tools. This aligns perfectly with global history’s emphasis on evaluating sources and understanding perspective. It’s not about replacing traditional literacy but expanding it to meet learners where they are and push them further.

Ultimately, recognizing and incorporating new literacies is a justice issue. It’s about access and giving students multiple entry points to rigorous thinking.  It also emphasizes equity by valuing the diverse ways students make meaning. I still struggle with how to assess multimodal work fairly and how to support students without equal digital access at home. These are questions worth asking, because the future of literacy is not a single lane.  How do you assess student work that uses digital or multimodal formats?Have you had success integrating new literacies into content-area teaching (like math, science, or social studies)? What barriers do you face in expanding literacy definitions in your school context?  I'd love to hear about your experiences! 

References

Comments

  1. DerekBowenMay 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM

    Great ideas here. It's interesting how you said you unintentionally silence some types of students digital literacies. I feel like I do the same thing. Although I teach middle school, I feel like tick toc and some times YouTube have very little value to them. But it seems possible they can learn from these sources. I know learning can be done from these sources, I'm just unsure how much of that middle school students are doing.

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