CI 414/504: Disciplinary Literacies Fall 2026

The three Pew Research articles made me think about an important question: Who decides what young people are supposed to be like today? I think young people make their own choices, but those choices are also influenced by family, school, culture, technology, and social media. One thing that stood out to me was the change in attitudes toward marriage. Pew found that 67% of 12th graders in 2023 said they would likely get married someday, compared with 80% in 1993. The change was even bigger for girls, from 83% to 61% . I think this shows how ideas about the future are changing. Young women today may have different goals and may want to focus on education, careers, or independence before marriage. I can connect this to my own experiences because I have seen people my age think about their future in many different ways instead of following one expected path. The other two readings connect to this idea because they show how technology and social media are also shaping young people . The c...

 Okay, to organize my ideas to convert into my internal monologue I am doing bullet points.  These are in no particular order but I did read these three and will try to add in the comments other articles that are relevant to the point I am trying to cook in here.  - Teens, Social Media and Mental Health eens, Social Media and Mental Health by Michelle Faverio, Monica Anderson and Eugenie Park  - 12th grade girls are less likely than boys to say they want to get married someday by Dana Braga - Is teen summer employment in the U.S. rebounding after a long fade? b y Drew DeSilver Though DeSilver says that teen employment is decreasing. I actually have very mixed feeling about teens working. I am all over the place when it comes to teens working. I started working at 14 years old because I wanted to be able to take the burden off my parents from buying me the equipment I needed for my sport and to fund the phone I desperately wanted. But it also let me to always re...

🥔 Couch Potato Homework Blog 🥔 Blogger: Klarissa Guillen Typing from: My Mac book & on the living room couch w/my dogs :) (Click the blue article titles for links!)   How Young Adults Want Their Country To Engage With the World First wonders based off of the title: (Maybe you'll have them too)   - I wonder what age range this article's author considers to be a "young adult"? - Engaging with the world in what way? - "Wanting" something is different than "needing" something so I wonder how deep this article will get? - Anything with "country", "youth/young adults" and, "engage" makes me think this might be political?  Themes from those who expect tech will be designed to allow humans to control key decision-making First wonders based off of the title: (Maybe you'll have them too) - Who are "those" we are speaking of in this article? - I wonder why the word "theme" and not "opinion...

  There are many topics that could be discussed when talking about technology today, but the three biggest topics I want to focus on are social media, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of using technology to actually change or improve humans. To start off, I read an article from Pew Research Center about how people around the world view social media and democracy. The second article I read discussed how Americans feel about artificial intelligence and its impact on people and society. Finally, I read an article about AI and human enhancement, which discusses things that honestly sound like they came straight out of a science fiction movie. To be completely honest, I have mixed feelings about all three topics. Technology has made our lives easier in many ways, but I also think we are moving so fast that sometimes we forget to ask one important question:  Just because we CAN create something, does that mean we SHOULD use it? Social Media: Helping Democracy or Hurting ...

Video Games for Textual Analysis: A Genre for the 21st Century For our first blog post, I want to focus on this survey conducted by the Pew Research Center: Click the image to open the article Out of the 1,423 teens surveyed by the Pew Research Team, 85% say they play video games. Out of those, 41% say they play video games daily .  Researchers such as Dr. Gholdy Muhammad argue we should include meaningful, culturally relevant and sustaining texts in our lessons and curricula. They argue doing so increases motivation, engagement, a sense of belonging, and a preservation and extension of culture ( Muhammad, 2023 ). The beauty of the video game for textual analysis is multi-faceted. As the player, you can engage in self-insert roleplaying, or you can immerse yourself in someone else's story. You can test your skills, hone your problem solving, and practice thinking critically about a situation. Video games  for textual analysis  provide countless ways to engage in the reade...

I was so surprised that the Pew Research Center has so many topics related to education. Thank you for letting me know about such a great resource. One eye-catching title was  "Support Grows for School Cellphone Bans,"  and I started with this article because, personally, I support banning smartphones at school. Even for me, as an adult, a smartphone is the biggest temptation and distraction, not only from reading but also from work. I’m sure it’s really hard for young students because even adults have difficulty controlling their screen time. In addition, the article states that 6 out of 10 students have smartphones by the age of 16, but I think more than 6 out of 10 students have smartphones at an even earlier age. Even though some students don't have smartphones, they have access to digital devices like iPads or computers at a very early age. I strongly believe those digital devices have a huge impact on students' reading by reducing their opportunities and environ...

There are many topics this can cover, but the three biggest will be related to the readings from Pew Research.  To start off, I read the articles talking about how women and men consume and apply wellness content from influencers as opposed to professionals. The second article I then read was about in-school cellphone bans. Finally, I finished the readings off with a shocking statistic that more 12th graders are now less likely to want to be married.  To be completely honest, I will share my following opinions about each (please feel free to disagree; I take this more as my take on what I would find most beneficial if I had kids) The biggest point I agree with is banning social media for those under 16. There are 2 main reasons as to why I agree with this ban. Firstly, it is obviously the actual media consumption. This ties back to the topic of wellness influencer consumption. This is not inherently bad; in fact, I started going to the gym for that exact reason. However, it is...

  As a student, I hated reading. When my grades tanked, my dad turned to drastic measures: kung fu movies! Rather than playing dubbed versions, he would leave the subtitles on, challenging me to quickly read so I could enjoy the film and connect it to my own experiences in taekwondo. In reading both buel (2017) and Wickens et al. (2015), I made connections between disciplinary literacy and martial arts as they both push the artist's identity and the art itself.  Check out my thought process! Here's a preview:

Below is an  EXAMPLE BLOG POST  written  by Kristine Wilber , a teaching assistant in a previous semester of CI 414 / 504, a teacher veteran, and school librarian! __________________________________ The term “literacy” is loosely defined as the ability to read, view, write, design, speak, and listen in a way that allows effective communication. If someone is “literate,” they are proficient, capable, sophisticated, articulate, productive.   It’s a rather fun exercise to imagine all the ways we ARE literate, then all the ways we are not. I, myself, am literate in traditional, book-bound reading and writing. There is hardly a time when I am not participating in one or the other. (That’s hyperbole.) I cannot, however, claim much literacy with numerical and spatial concepts. I struggle to understand very basic mathematical ideas like slope. I cannot read maps and get lost leaving the garage.  My dear colleague in the STEM department, Mr. Math...