Intertextualities and Their Relationship to the Definition of Literacy in the Twenty First Century
Traditionally, the word literacy has always been defined as a way to gauge an individual’s proficiency at reading and writing to gain or convey knowledge or meaning. While this is indeed a definition of what it means to be literate, it is not the sole definition of the word in our modern world. So, if literacy’s definition has evolved to adapt to life in the twenty first century, what exactly does it mean to be literate in the twenty first century? It means being able to interpret intertextualities located in a single, larger text (such as the various related texts found in a high school history textbook) to understand how these intertextualities convey the broader meaning of the text. It also means being able to identify and interpret intertextualities found in online affinity spaces and gain meaning from them. Finally, it means being able to utilize intertextualities in one’s own teaching to bolster the impact of the lesson on the students.
In the previous paragraph, I made mention of the word “intertextualities”. You may be wondering what an intertextuality is, and also how it relates to being literate in the twenty first century. To understand the latter, one must first know what the former is. An intertextuality is the shaping of a text’s meaning by another related text. So take, for example, if one were to take a world history textbook, such as Burstein and Shek’s textbook World History, intertextualities such as modern day photographs and maps showing the landscape of the region once known as Mesopotamia (Burstein and Shek, 2006), a computer generated diagram depicting the layout of the famous ancient city of Ur (Burstein and Shek, 2006), and excerpts from famous documents such as Hammurabi’s Code and the Epic of Gilgamesh (Burstein and Shek, 2006) would be found in the section about Mesopotamia. In this example, the aforementioned intertextualities play a large part in developing the students’ overall understanding of the importance of the Mesopotamian civilization and therefore, these intertextualities would play a part in developing the students’ literacy in world history because they can look at the computer generated diagram of Ur, and then look at a picture of modern day New York and then compare the two and gain an understanding of just how far civilization has come.
So we have looked at intertextualities in a physical text, but they can also be found in online affinity spaces. What is an affinity space? An affinity space is a physical, virtual, or blended space where people interact around a common interest or activity (Curwood, 2013). In Jen Scott Curwood’s 2013 article titled Hunger Games: Literature, Literacy, and Online Affinity Spaces, a young boy named Jack is being spotlighted for his involvement in multiple online affinity spaces that are devoted to the series of novels called the Hunger Games. These affinity spaces played an integral role in Jack’s development of his understanding of the novels, and also allowed him to help others develop their understanding as well. Why? Because these affinity spaces contained various related texts, or intertextualities, within to help readers interested in the Hunger Games to gain a better understanding. Curwood says that young people will often look outside the Hunger Games trilogy to online affinity spaces where there are videos, podcasts, games, and songs to help them make intertextual connections (Curwood, 2013). Therefore, being able to interpret the intertextualities found in online affinity spaces is essential to being literate in the twenty first century.
Intertextualities are not only found in physical text and in affinity spaces, but can also be found in use in the twenty first classroom. Basically, the teacher of the class is using various types of other texts as teaching material to maximize the impact of their lesson and to help their students gain a better understanding. I am not referring to the use of a textbook, and the classroom is definitely not an affinity space because not every student is interested in that particular subject. In the video Inquiry Based Learning in the Science Classroom (Edutopia, 2015), the teacher, Mr. Schwartz, uses various types of texts to help his students learn about the creek and to be able to put meaning behind their answer to the question of whether or not they would want their friend to go tubing in the creek. Mr. Schwartz has the students take notes, make charts, and even take a field trip to the creek itself. Mr. Schwartz’ use of these intertextualities helped students develop their literacy in biology class because they were able to make use of and interpret these various intertextualities to develop their own understanding of why they would or would not want their friend to go tubing in the creek. Another example of the use of intertextualities in the teaching of a lesson is in another video titled Creating Digital Stories: Civic Expression and the American Creed (Teaching Channel, 2018), the teacher uses intertextualities such as a video, a song, and a poem to help students form their own understanding of what it means to them to be an American.
So what does it mean to be literate in the twenty first century? It means being able to help students identify and interpret intertextualities in a textbook to further their understanding of the lesson that is being taught to them. It also means being able to interpret the intertextualities found in online affinity spaces, such as podcasts, videos, songs, and games to further develop an individual’s understanding of a text. And it means that a teacher is able to incorporate the use of intertextualities in their own lessons as a way to bolster their students’ understanding of the lesson being taught. Essentially, being literate in the twenty first century means being able to take various types of intertextualities found these different areas, interpret them, and gain meaning from them to bolster one’s own understanding of the lesson being taught to them.
References
Burstein, S. M., & Shek, R. (2006). Holt world history. Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Teaching Channel. Creating Digital Stories: Civic Expression and the American Creed. (2018, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/create-digital-story-ypp
Curwood, J. S. (2013). Hunger Games: Literature, Literacy, and Online Affinity Spaces. Language Arts, 90(6), 417–427.
E. (2015, August 18). Inquiry Based Learning in the Science Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqPaKTsDIU
