From Absence to Affordances: Integrating Old and New Literacies in School‐Based Instruction for English Learners

Abstract

AbstractImmigrant youths’ frequent and skillful use of new media technologies outside of school has generated discussion on the need to integrate their expertise in formal literacy instruction in school. This commentary argues that braiding old and new literacies for English learners in empowering ways needs to be guided by a connection to the future (new literacies for social and academic purposes) and a link to the old (traditional print literacy skills). Such a dual focus is necessary to develop an integrated pedagogical design that engages learners in using the new tools for acquiring both new and old literacy skills. Active facilitation of transmediation between social and academic purposes of new literacies and between old and new literacies relies on both explicit instruction of higher level thinking skills and literacy strategies for online and offline engagement and teacher expert scaffolding of applications of these skills in meaningful learning tasks.