| This is an online version of the May 2000 Exploring Literacy on the Internet department Donald J. Leu, Jr., edits for the International Reading Association's journal The Reading Teacher. This department is “reprinted” regularly in Reading Online, and ROL readers are invited to browse the full listing of available columns. |
To See One Another More Clearly: A Pacific Children's Literature Web Project
We read to find out who we are; who we can be. But what if the books children read are about other children and other worlds than their own? To make a group invisible is to render a judgment about its importance (Day, 1994; Harris, 1997). What price is paid by those who must tolerate their exclusion in order to become literate and succeed in school (and life)? What price is paid by those who are comfortably included in the canon, but whose understanding is restricted by their limited experience with the diversity of increased globalization?
Students in Guam rarely find their lives reflected in the books they read. They are expected to engage with school learning when most of the texts, which form the foundation of that learning, do not find them worthy of inclusion. This is in contrast to their experience outside school, where oral traditions and storytelling remain an important part of Micronesian cultures (Sachuo, 1992; Topping, 1987).
Although most Americans would be hard pressed to locate Guam on a map (it is in the Western Pacific, due east of the Philippines), it has been a territory of the United States for over 100 years. Originally colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s, Guam was ceded to the U.S. at the end of the Spanish American War. Today, Guam seeks to redefine its political status and diversify its economic base to better meet the challenges and opportunities of the coming century.
Guam is also part of Micronesia, a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean that includes several entities freely associated with the U.S. via compact agreements--Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Pohnpei, Yap, and Kosrae). While each island entity is unique, there is a shared commitment to preserve local languages and cultures and to chart a globally oriented future that remains firmly rooted in island values and traditions (Emesiochel, 1997).
Despite the flourishing publication of multicultural books in the past few decades (Harris, 1997), fewer than 10 of the 4,000 to 5,000 new books published each year are by or about Asian Pacific Americans, a category that includes 50 different ethnic groups (Yamate, 1997). Further, although popular books on teaching multicultural and multiethnic literature include chapters on Asian Pacific literature, few Pacific authors or books are represented (Aoki, 1993; Yamate, 1997). One explanation for the lack of representation is that the market is not there for these books.
The Internet has a great potential to address issues of equity and to support efforts that give a voice to those previously unheard, even in their own communities. The Internet is all about access; anyone can be an author and audiences can develop for quite specific niches, spontaneously and without restriction. The more conversational tone of Internet discourse and the multi media composing options are attracting new voices and forming new modes and styles of communication. Although some lament the seeming chaos of the Internet, I believe that it can be a force for equality, and that schools in particular can take advantage of it as a tool for communication and cross-cultural understanding.
For the past year, my colleague Brian Millhoff and I have been working with preservice and inservice teachers at the University of Guam to build a Web site on Pacific children's literature (Brian is director of the university's instructional media services). This project, entitled To See One Another More Clearly (Inagoflie in the indigenous Chamorro language), is designed to use the Internet as a vehicle for building and sharing the stories and cultures of Guam, Micronesia, and the Pacific. Students and other members of the Micronesian community are the authors of the various Web pages constituting the site. The project's goals are (a) to create a Web teaching resource that will increase awareness and use of Pacific children's literature, (b) to support local authors and make texts available to teachers and other readers via online publication of Pacific works, and (c) to develop preservice and inservice teachers' technology skills in the context of creating Web pages where they are the content experts.
The Pacific Children's Literature Web Site (Pac-Lit) went online in July 1999. In the following sections, I describe how the Web site was developed, present an overview of the site with selected student Web page examples, and highlight some important emergent findings. My goal is to show how teachers can develop Web pages in collaboration with their students that make a contribution to the community and result in powerful learning. At the same time, I hope that readers will use the information on Pacific literature to expand their teaching of multicultural literature.
Students developed Web pages for the Pac-Lit Web site as part of their course requirements in classes on children's literature and literacy. The first and most important step was determining the site's primary purpose (informational), the Internet audience (teachers and others interested in multicultural literature and the Pacific), and the learning goals for the university students who would be developing the Web pages (developing knowledge and skills related to teaching Pacific children's literature and Web page technology).
Brian and I worked together to develop a structure for the Web site and to conceptualize the overall design (see Figure 1). [Note: In this online version of the article, all figures are “clickable” images that link to actual pages at the Pac-Lit Web site.] We wanted the site to look and feel "Pacific." Brian created the various graphics, and we crafted a visual look for each of the six sections: book reviews and teaching ideas, spotlight on authors and storytellers, original works, a teacher exchange, related Web sites, and information about the project. The design of the individual Web pages was left to the students who would be creating them, since our goal was to encourage students' creativity and allow them to define how they wanted to represent themselves.
Unlike technology classes, where the focus is on learning technology applications, this Web page assignment was a component of content courses and involved only three to four class sessions. Because students' Internet experience was limited, it was important to orient them to the Web, sell them on the idea of the Internet as a professional resource and teaching tool, and provide a basic level of technical instruction on Web design. During an introductory session, the class went online, visiting several sites on literacy (e.g., www.reading.org; www.readingonline.org; www.ncte.org) and children's literature (e.g., www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown; www.carolhurst.com; janbrett.com). I also featured other well-designed educational Web sites for the U.S. Public Broadcasting System, National Geographic, and The Smithsonian Institution. I introduced the Pac-Lit project and demonstrated several examples of the types of Web projects they could produce, such as book reviews and original writing.
After this introduction, students spent several hours on their own exploring the Internet for interesting sites related to literacy. They selected their favorite site and printed out a few representative pages. In class, they formed Web page circles and shared their sites. Each group then selected the top site for online sharing with the whole class. Discussion focused on both the content and design issues.
While students were planning their Web pages and developing the content, another session was spent demonstrating basic Web page construction. Although Brian and I started with PageMill, we shifted to Netscape Composer, which is easy to use and readily available. Students were shown how to input text and graphics, format the text and background, create links, and scan a graphic. Adobe Photoshop was used to reprocess graphics. To provide additional assistance, I encouraged students to use an excellent online tutorial, MFL 195-Netscape Composer Tutorial, to consult with instructional media staff, and to attend an optional computer lab session.
Students had the option of working alone or in groups. This allowed individuals to determine how they would contribute (e.g., writer, illustrator, photographer, Web designer), and to what extent they would be involved in the Web programming. In class they met to design their page, considering goals, audience, content, and design. They submitted a brief proposal, with individual roles outlined, which I reviewed primarily to see if it was manageable and targeted to the overall goals of the site.
Just as in any other writing assignment, students had to find the resources they needed to develop their content and composed drafts of their written text. However, unlike more standard writing tasks, these students knew that graphics and the aesthetics of their page design would be an important component of their composition. In addition to writing, students got involved in drawing and painting, taking photographs, and creating computer graphics. In some cases, they conducted interviews, carried out lessons based on the Pacific books they reviewed, and searched the Internet for related links and information. Prior to inputting their Web page content, students submitted a hard copy of their text and graphics, which I reviewed focusing on clarity and mechanics.
In many groups one or two people volunteered to be the Web masters, using the team's contributions to create their page. They experimented with layout, fonts, and use of color. They tested their Web page to make sure the layout and links worked and submitted a final hard copy and disk with HTML files and related graphics files. Once student Web pages were completed, the next step was to integrate them into the Web site.
After testing the links and navigational tools, the next step was to try the site out on Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers, as well as on Mac and PC computers. Although we knew that the look of the site would vary depending on the browser, monitor, and platform, we wanted to reduce the possibility of major problems (e.g., only half the page is visible or spacing changes dramatically).
Brian then bundled the files and sent them to the university computer center, where they were uploaded to the university server. It was (and is) very exciting to see your Web site online. However, despite hours of editing, there were still corrections to be made--links that did not work, graphics that moved, and so on. Changes were made, files rebundled and sent to the server where they were uploaded and put online again.
Search engines like Yahoo and Excite have a huge impact on which sites get noticed among the thousands of Web pages posted daily. Every Web page has a metamessage in the HTML code containing information that is accessed by the various search engines. We entered a page title, key words, and a description for the six sections or main pages (much as you would for an ERIC document) to facilitate the search process (e.g., children's literature, multicultural, Asian Pacific, Pacific). After the site was online for a few months, we submitted it to the top 10 search engines, feeling that it was ready to be reviewed by outsiders. We also asked colleagues and friends to visit the site and give us feedback on existing problems, promising features, and suggestions for the next phase of the project.
Book reviews and teaching ideas. Many of the graduate students chose to review Pacific Islander books (see Featured Books and Authors...for a listing). Figure 2 shows Head Start teacher Elizabeth Reed's Web page on The Duendes Hunter, a picture book written by Chamorro author Evelyn Flores. In addition to a brief review, Liz developed teaching ideas and included samples of her students' work.
Spotlight on authors, illustrators, and storytellers. Students collaborated on Web pages featuring local authors and storytellers. Peter Onedera, Guam's master storyteller, poet, and playwright, is featured in a page developed by teachers Christine Jo Chasse, Antoinette Fejeran, Evangeline Iglesias, Julie Salas, Sheila Taitano, and E.J. Stewart. Their page includes an interview (Figure 3 shows an excerpt from it), a short biography, book reviews and teaching ideas, reprinted excerpts from two of Onedera's books, acknowledgments, and an “about the Web page authors” section.
Voices of the Pacific: Original works. Many preservice teachers were drawn to the idea of writing and illustrating their own works to be shared with an Internet audience. Legends and poetry were most popular, drawing on island oral traditions. One group featured a student's grandfather, Jesus M. Duenas, who is known for having discovered Sgt. Yakoi, a Japanese "straggler" from World War II who hid out in the jungles of Guam for 27 years. All of the works in this section can be downloaded and printed out or used as online texts. Figure 4 shows a retelling of a Guam legend.
Teacher exchange. This section invites teachers and other visitors to the site to submit their own book reviews, teaching ideas, original texts, and related Web site addresses. The goal is to learn from one another; to share knowledge, stories, and resources that promote cross-cultural understanding.
Web sites of interest. There is a wealth of information available on the Web; the challenge is finding relevant sites efficiently. This section provides references for Web sites related to multicultural literature (with a focus on Asian Pacific literature) and other sites on the Pacific. Reading multicultural literature stimulates a natural curiosity about the various cultures represented (see Pacific and Multicultural Literature...for a listing of Web resources).
This type of Web project exemplifies why the Internet is going to change the way we prepare students for their literacy and learning futures (Leu, Karchmer, & Leu, 1999). First, the Internet is a self-publication tool that makes it possible for all voices to be heard and all peoples to be represented, even when they are few in number, disconnected from traditional print literacies, or marginalized in society. In what is increasingly becoming “one island earth,” this is an important outcome. It is important not just for those who are creating on the Web, but also for those who are reading, viewing, and responding. The Internet is a teaching agent; a socializing tool. It can be used to "make progress in appreciating another culture's perspective, and perhaps, in making one's own perspective clearer to others. Such efforts are essential, particularly if one wants to develop a sense of truth, beauty, and goodness that is not hopelessly parochial" (Gardner, 1999, p. 101).
Second, creating their own Web pages for the Pac-Lit site was an authentic literacy task for these preservice and inservice teachers. They recognized the need for this type of resource and the implications for its use, both locally and internationally, and were motivated to produce quality products for an Internet audience. As one student wrote in her self-evaluation,
[W]hen we started, we thought it was a pretty good Web, until we looked around and found out everyone else's was a lot better. So I chose to take it home and do some drastic improvements to it. I think it impressed everyone.
Third, Web page composition is different from traditional print composition. Students integrated graphics and focused on visual design and organization; texts were designed in chunks and categories. Some capitalized on the capacity to link to external sites, although most did not. This may have been due to the lack of time, since energies focused on developing content and creating the Web pages.
Fourth, Web projects like this capitalize on the distributed nature of knowledge and socially based learning models (Vygotsky, 1978). Students excelled at planning and sharing tasks so that each person was able to contribute in a meaningful way. As a matter of course, students pulled in family members and friends to help, an approach that fits the islander way of cooperating and working together. The option to work on projects individually, with a partner, or with a group allowed students to decide how they would contribute, and to what extent they would get involved in the actual Web page production. Given the minimal time available in class to work on the project, this was essential to student and project success.
Finally, students were very comfortable retelling legends and sharing their culture through poems, stories, artwork, and photographs. There was a natural connection to the rich oral storytelling tradition of the islands, and the emphasis on culture seemed to draw students out, to inspire a desire to share their world with others. They were the insiders and that, I think, makes a difference. As a cultural outsider, my role was to facilitate their efforts. I tried to avoid imposing a western narrative structure on their writing and used my outsider perspective to identify where they, as the authors, needed to make aspects of the culture or language explicit for other readers (e.g., adding a glossary or providing an explanation of a cultural practice).
It would have been easier to do this project in a technology course, but that would have negated the goal of integrating technology in a meaningful way in content courses and developing technology skills in real-world contexts. Students learned through technology, about technology, and with technology as they completed their projects. The impact extended beyond the immediate class project with some students deciding to open up their own Internet accounts, and others making plans to create their own personal pages or classroom Web pages. The project also resulted in important lessons about authority, responsibility, and the Internet. As one student wrote,
[This project] made me realize not everything on the net is valid...just thinking that even regular people like me can actually put something inside the net made me understand why everyone should be more careful in picking information...[there's] plenty of room to abuse the power of the Internet and as users we should be careful.
We learned many important lessons from this experience. They include the following:
I would like to close by focusing on two important outcomes of the Pac-Lit project, outcomes that I imagine those of you who have developed your own Web pages, or who have worked with students to create pages, have experienced.
First, the opportunity to create reveals talent. In students' self-evaluations, self-discovery emerged as a theme. One student wrote, "One thing that I learned from this activity was that I found my talent. Drawing"; another wrote that it "enabled me to write a beautiful story." Others discovered new technological skills. If we believe that schools should be about opening doors and realizing potential, then projects like this provide opportunities for that to happen.
Second, the opportunity to contribute develops pride. A recurring theme was students' pride in their work, not out of an individual sense of accomplishment (although of course that was important to students), but more out of the opportunity to share their culture with others, to give of themselves:
We are so proud of our small contribution to the Web page project...I have contributed to my culture. (A Philippino student)
I feel creating the Web page has given me a whole new perspective on the Internet...the part that really got me jumping for joy is that our class project would be seen by almost anybody in the entire world. I can imagine people from Europe, or even in the U.S., reading our many ideas, stories, and simply learning about Guam. (A Chamorro student)
These kinds of responses reinforce my desire to further explore the Internet as a place for the realization of potential and cross-cultural understanding. I must say thank you and Si Yu'os Ma'ase to the University of Guam students and members of the Micronesian community for their contributions to the Pacific Children's Literature Web Site, to my colleague Jose Q. Cruz for providing the Chamorro word Inagoflie to describe the project's goal "to see one another more clearly," and to Brian Millhoff, whose collaboration on this project has been essential to its success. Finally, I invite readers to visit the Pac-Lit Web site; I hope it will help us all "to see one another more clearly."
Dalton teaches courses in literacy at the College of Education at the University of Guam, Magilao, GU 96923, USA. E-mail bdalton@uog.edu. [Note: The preceding contact information was correct at the time of original publication of this article in The Reading Teacher. Bridget Dalton is now at CAST in Peabody, Massachusetts, USA, and serves with Dana L. Grisham as an editor of Reading Online. She can be reached by e-mail at bdalton@cast.org .]
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Pacific book reviews with teaching ideas(Book levels: primary, P; intermediate, I; advanced, A). The Brave Little Turtle by Gill McBarnet (Pacific/Hawaii; P). Ruwanga Trading Booklines, 1994. Chamorro Word Book by Marilyn Salas (Pacific/Guam; all). The Bess Press, 1998. Dolphin Day by Evelyn Flores (Pacific/Guam; P-I). Green Island Publishers, 1988. Dolphin, Dolphin by T.K. Cassidy (Pacific/Guam; P-I). T.K. Cassidy & Associates, no date (self-published). The Duendes Hunter by Evelyn Flores (Pacific/Guam; P). Green Island Publishers, 1988. Fafa' na'gue Yan Hinengge Siha (Ghost Stories, Chamoru Beliefs & Customs) by Peter Onedera (Pacific/Guam; I-A). P. Onedera, 1994. From the Mouth of the Monster Eel: Stories From Micronesia by Nancy Bo Flood (Pacific/Micronesia; I-A). Fulcrum Publishing Golden Co., 1996. Gecko Hide and Seek by Gil McBarnet (Pacific/Hawaii; P). Ruwanga Trading Booklines, 1993. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and Other Classic Philippine Legends by Maria Elena Paterno (Pacific/Philippines; I). Tahana Books for Young Readers, 1993. Grandma's Love by Dottie Winterlee (Pacific/Guam; P-I). Knowledge Craft Ltd., 1994. How Honu The Turtle Got His Shell by Casey A. Mcguire-Turcotte (Pacific/Hawaii; P-I). Steck-Vaughn, 1991. Isa's Avocado Tree by Evelyn Flores (Pacific/Guam; P). Green Island Publishers, 1988. Legends of Micronesia Books 1 & 2 by Eve Grey (Micronesia; I-A). Turtle Song Productions, 1951; reprinted 1999. Let's Call Him Lau-wiliwili-humuhumu-nukunuku-nukunuku-apua'a-'oi-'o by Tim Myers (Pacific/Hawaii; P). The Bess Press, 1993. Pacific Island Legends: Tales From Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia by Nancy Bo Flood, Beret Strong, and Bill Flood (Pacific/Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia; I-A). The Bess Press, 1999. The Prince and the Li Hing Mui by Sandi Takayama (Pacific/Hawaii; P-I). The Bess Press, 1998. Punga: The Goddess of Ugly by Deborah Nourse Lattimore (Pacific/N.Zealand; P-I). Harcourt Brace, 1993. Songs of Papa's Island by Barbara Kerley (Pacific/Micronesia; I-A). Houghton Mifflin, 1995. The Stone-Shaper's Daughter by T.K. Cassidy (Pacific/Guam; I). T.K. Cassidy & Associates, no date (self-published). Surf Gecko to the Rescue by Bruce Hale (Pacific/Hawaii; P). Words + Pictures Publisher, 1991. Too Many Curls by Marilyn Kahalewai & Karen Poepoe (Pacific/Hawaii; P). The Bess Press, 1992. Visions of a Chamoru by Peter Onedera (Pacific/Guam; I-A). P. Onedera, 1995. Whose Slippers Are Those? by Marilyn Kahalewai (Pacific/Hawaii; P). The Bess Press, 1988. The Woman in the Moon by Jama Kim Rattigan (Pacific/Hawaii; P-I). Little, Brown, 1996. Featured authors and storytellers of the Pacific
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Guam and Micronesian literatureLegends of Guam Part 1--read several of Guam's most well-known legends, ns.gov.gu/legends.html Legends of Guam Part 2--more Guam legends, guam.org.gu/hemplo Multicultural sitesMulticultural Pavilion--excellent source on multicultural education, with multicultural literature links at Multicultural Paths-Other Sites, curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/multicultural Kay Vandergrift's Children's Literature Page--another strong resource on children's literature Includes a section on gender and culture, with links to Web sites, www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/culture.html Tales of Wonder: Folk and Fairytales From Around the World. Online full text versions of folk and fairy tales, members.xoom.com/darsie/tales/index.html [Note: Page unavailable; link disabled.] At Home With Multicultural Adolescent Literature, borg.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall95/Ericson.html Dietrich, D., & Ralph, K.S. Crossing borders: Multicultural literature in the classroom. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, (15), Winter 1995. Boise State University, www.nebe.gwv.edu/miscpubs/jeilms/vol15/crossing.htm [Note: Server unavailable; link disabled.] Walk a Mile in My Shoes--Multicultural Curriculum Resources, http://www.wmht.org/trail/explor02.htm Asian Pacific Island Resources, www-bcf.usc.edu/~cmmr/Asian.html Clearinghouse for Multicultural Bilingual Education. Picture books/Young reader-Asian Pacific, www.weber.edu/MBE/Htmls/MBE-Books-PBYR-Asian.html Folk and Fairy Tale Web Site Links by D.K. Ashelman [sic]. A collection of electronic texts, as well as links to other folklore Web sites, www.pitt.edu/~dash/folklinks.html General literature sitesDavid K. Brown's CLWG: Children's Literature Web Guide. Extensive literature resources, www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Web Site. Extensive literature resources, www.carolhurst.com Guam and Micronesia Web sitesGovernment of Guam Home Page--an excellent starting place to learn about Guam, www.gov.gu Official page of the Federated States of Micronesia, with links to Yap, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Chuuk, www.visit-fsm.org Republic of the Marshall Islands--official government page, www.rmiembassyus.org Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands--a very interesting site about this island, www.bikiniatoll.com Republic of Palau--welcome page, www.visit-Palau.com Guam Council of the International Reading Association, www.read.guam.org Pacific Web sitesMichael's Pacific Sites--my favorite source for Pacific sites, www2.hawaii.edu/~ogden/piir Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL)--educational issues in the Pacific and related resource links, w3.prel.hawaii.edu Pac-Lit Web site, www.uog.edu/coe/paclit/index.html |
This article reproduces the text of a column published in the May 2000 issue of The Reading Teacher; any departures from the published text are included in brackets, preceded with the word Note in boldface. The figures that appeared in the print version have been modified for this electronic version and now link to the Web pages that they illustrate.
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Citation: Dalton, B. (2000, May). To see one another more clearly: A Pacific children's literature Web project [Exploring Literacy on the Internet department]. The Reading Teacher, 53 (8). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/5-00_Column/index.html
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Published May 2000 in The Reading Teacher; posted December 2000 in Reading Online
© 2000 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232