Some of the most enlightening professional development sessions I have attended have been led by teachers. Recently, I participated in a workshop titled Remixing Our Stories: A Connected Learning Hack Jam facilitated by Christina Cantrill and Meenoo Rami from The Philadelphia Writing Project. It was a powerful session in which I found myself asking tough questions about literacy (both digital and media), gender, power and race.
The main idea of a “hack jam” is remixing pieces of recognizable or “understood” information for an entirely different purpose, to tell an entirely different story or to re-envision something that is perceived to be static. Hack jams can be explained as an opportunity to question, undermine current systems (e.g., schools, board games, policies and procedures) or forms of expression (e.g., newspapers, books, music videos and magazines) and find alternatives by thoughtfully creating new content. This activity fosters creativity and risk-taking and provides participants agency over how they consume information and give meaning to content and structure.
Hack jams hone critical literacy skills because, as this TT lesson explains, “Part of learning to read is being able to look critically at the images and messages in books, to understand what we can learn from authors, but also to think about problematic stereotypes authors and illustrators might perpetuate.”
At the workshop I attended, we were given 20 minutes to remix (alone or collaboratively) children’s picture books into new texts using an array of materials, such as markers, paper, foam pieces, glue, scissors, magazines, folders and other books. I collaborated with a colleague, and we chose the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty.” We perused the pages, asking ourselves questions similar to ones asked of students in the activity we read about:
- What explicit and hidden messages about race (or gender, ability or sexual orientation) do authors and illustrators of picture books send to readers?
- What explicit and hidden messages about beauty do authors and illustrators of picture books send to readers?
As we looked through the story, we immediately noticed the lack of racial diversity: All the characters were white. The original authors portrayed the princess as helpless, thin, beautiful and as an object for the brave prince to “take … for his bride.” We decided to remix a story that “talked back” to the text to show empowered images of women on one side contrasted with stereotypes of women on the other.
The result of our creation was a completely new text, created by using popular cultural icons cut from magazines and pasted together to create a new “Sleeping Beauty” story (see image). Throughout the experience—which required collaborating with a peer, reading with a critical lens and literally dissecting books—I felt a great sense of empowerment from creating a new story that challenged mainstream values.
Teachers wanting to share this experience with students can take a multitude of paths: from replicating a similar scissors-and-glue activity to hacking web pages and news sources using online tools, such as X-Ray Goggles from Mozilla. Begin by assessing student understanding of the text (resistant reading must come after students achieve foundational comprehension). Then encourage students to read the text again, using a lens (and, if necessary, some guiding questions) that will help them identify missing or biased perspectives; this may help them determine where they want to “hack” into the story. Finally, encourage them to re-envision the text, adding balance, justice or a new perspective, whatever the students feel is missing or biased about the original.
By exercising their critical literacy skills as readers and consumers of technology, students learn to question reality, challenge texts and authors, and practice becoming agents of change in the world.
Huynh is a third-grade literacy teacher in Philadelphia who is passionate about social justice in the classroom.
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