Finding "New Literacy" in Action: An Interdisciplinary High School Western Civilization Class.

shapes that expressed different human emotions (Edwards, 1987, 1989). Students were then placed into groups to create a model of a monument for one person, event, or phenomenon. They were to propose three possible designs for their subject, once a subject was determined. Groups were to make a three-dimensional model of the best design in each group and present that model to the entire class. Dis€U§sbn of symbol systems. Several days into the assignment, I observed groups working on their models. Burt, Ralph, and John were circulating among them. Burt said this to one of the groups: It's going to take you about 5 days [to make the model].... You have to translate what you've drawn into a three-dimensional form. In a drawing, we often get one view. In a three-dimensional sculpture, people can approach it from any number of directions. It should be interesting from each direction. 372 H Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45:5 February 2002 Several groups seemed to struggle with expressing ideas abstractly and designing a monument that was figurative such as a top hat design for a monument to Fred Astaire. The group working on a monument to Dr. Seuss (as described earlier) had originally wanted a design that featured a figurative depiction of the Cat in the Hat. In a later interview, Burt described what he said to the group to try to get them back on track: "I said... if you use these shapes... to symbolize that kind of offbeat quality, then you achieve that sense of abstraction, and it represents essentially what Seuss is about [more than a figurative drawing might]." The group was convinced to shift from their original figurative idea. The discussion that ensued was the one that begins this article with students animatedly debating how best to represent the essence of Dr. Seuss in an abstract manner. Let's cut back to that scene. Now the students are spreading the cut-out abstract shapes on the table. The discussion continues. "We could do love for children... and education," one student remarks. Another chimes in, "When he first started out, he couldn't get published." One student is writing labels in very small writing in pencil on the back of the abstract cut-outs. After a moment, one student suggests that they put the shape (a ball) that represents "money" off to the side. "What if we have more balls, so it's branching off, so it's even bigger?" Gary asks. Bruce answers, "So there are three love,' 'education,' and 'dedication.'" Gary adds, "For his 'imagination,' we could just have a bunch of balloons. How do we put all these balls together? I'm saying the geometry part of it." The students pull out more paper and start cutting out more shapes. A few days later, at the final presentations of the monuments, it was clear that some groups still had difficulty with the concept of abstraction. Several models were still figurative in nature. In a later interview, Burt suggested that perhaps the teachers shouldn't have allowed the class to build monuments to individuals, that the monuments should have been to abstract concepts. He explained that "The project is not about a monument. It's about abstraction. And we thought that having them create a monument form would give them a matrix on which to hang an abstract concept." While the teachers expressed frustration that too many of the monuments had figurative elements (rather than being totally abstract), it was clear that this new literacy classroom featured at the very least explicit discussions between students and teachers about the merits and disadvantages of alternative modes of communication. Perception! of student learning in the new