Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.
– Transliteracy.com

What does transliteracy mean to you? What is its place in your classroom? Answers vary. Academic librarians Bobbi Newman and Tom Ipri provide a succinct introduction of the background and use of transliteracy in their “Beginner’s Guide.”   Newman, the Librarian by Day who writes with Ipri and others at the blog Libraries and Transliteracy, has created a 2012 slideshare to update ideas surrounding transliteracy, stressing the scope and inclusiveness of transliteracy encompassing other literacies. In part, the piece responds to some of the concerns on the usefulness of the word.

Essentially, according to Professor Sue Thomas of the UK’s De Montfort University’s Institute of Creative Technologies, transliteracy is “the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.”

K-12 teacher librarians have adapted the concept for their students. Joyce Valenza, writing in her School Library Journal blog Neverending Search, is concerned that students understand and can use literacies that take them beyond reading and writing and provides links to several resources. She illustrates the potential of multiple platforms with librarian Brian Hulsey’s video, “Everyday Transliteracy,” from his blog, Strange Dichotomy. His catalog of possible media resources (“avenues for communication”) for sharing a blueberry smoothie recipe is easy for students to understand.

Among high school librarian Buffy Hamilton’s presentations on transliteracy is a slide show, ”Transforming Information Literacy for Today’s K-12 Learners through the Lens of Transliteracy, Inquiry, and Participatory Learning.” Hamilton vividly illustrates not only what the term means but also what it looks like as students explore its potential. Explore her ideas more deeply at The Unquiet Librarian.

Fourth graders take to transliterate learning in a post from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano at her Langwitches blog. See what happens when van Gogh meets QR codes and mp3 files. Elsewhere, a multi-faceted comics related project for college students (described at DMLcentral) could inspire teachers to involve older middle graders in a range of transliteracies.

Even if it’s too late to attend the American Association of School Librarians’ fall forum, “Transliteracy and the School Library Program” October 12 and 13, follow the Ning and Twitter hashtag #aasl12 to find “strategies for integrating transliteracy skills into subject areas across the curriculum.”

For a look at how transliteracy and multi-modality can support implementation of the Common Core standards, register for the School Library Journal’s free webinar, “On Common Core – Getting Real,” set for October 18. The 3 pm event features Rutgers Professor Marc Aronson and school district library director Sue Bartle and is the first of three CCSS related webinars. All three will be archived for interested viewers who miss the live events.

Transmedia projects are turning up in school libraries and classrooms every day. How do they relate to transliteracy? According to former middle school teacher and School Library Journal blogger, Peter Gutierrez, “Simply put, transmedia is the result of transliteracy, which is a larger concept and one that can be applied to the more old-fashioned book vs. movie approach, where different media are established as oppositional, not complementary. Remember, with transmedia we’re not talking about a property that can be appreciated solely through a single medium.” Transmedia is sometimes called transmedia storytelling, defined in a Wikipedia entry as “the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies.”

More writers are creating their works with “transmedia” in mind. Patrick Carman is the author of many popular fiction books for children and young adults, including Skeleton Creek, Trackers, Thirteen Days to Midnight, Dark Eden and the just published 3 Below. After touring middle schools for several years during the past decade, Carman realized that combining written words with video could be a way to bring young readers back to books. So he began experimenting. He reports the result In “Read Beyond the Lines: Transmedia has changed the very notion of books and reading.” Hundreds of teachers and librarians have told him that reluctant readers have returned to his and other multi-platform books. He sees transmedia projects involving print, apps, games, and more, as meeting the youngsters halfway.

Whether a narrative is presented to students or is created by students, they can enter a transmedia story from several digital directions (and often participate in the action). In a collection of articles and resources at the National Writing Project’s DIGITAL IS website, upper elementary media specialist Laura Fleming explores ways that teachers can make use of transmedia in the classroom. Teachers might want to start at this Transmedia Collection page. “Developing a narrative over multiple platforms while interweaving learning outcomes,” Fleming says, can “create transformational learning experiences.” She offers the example of a “born-digital” story called Inanimate Alice (which you can learn about here and then experience here. Also check out the Inanimate Alice Facebook page.)

For quick access to more transliteracy resources, visit Bobbi Newman’s Pinterest collection. Looking beyond the scholarly debate about the best ways to name and describe the new-literacies phenomenon, the most important concern of the classroom educator (and parents and families, for that matter) is how to capitalize on transmedia content to engage students in reading and writing — and understanding stories and nonfiction content — across multiple media platforms. The ultimate goal, of course, is to be sure our iGeneration students are “transliterate.”

Image of 21st C learner: Guilia Forsythe, Creative Commons.

The Young Adult Library Services Association has a new tool to help you and your students find just the right books. And the YALSA blog, the Hub, also has ideas for engaging kids in reading all year long. We’ve included these and other resources as we consider The Best Ways to Keep Up with YA Books. Read all the way to the end to find books for younger readers and writers’ reflections on books that challenged their tween thinking. And a bookish infographic.

Teen Book Finder as close as your phone

YALSA’s Teen Book Finder is a free app to help students, teachers and parents find three years of YALSA’s top reads. But this iPhone/iPad app (Android version later this year) doesn’t stop there. It’s searchable lots of ways, uses OCLC WorldCat to find libraries with particular titles, and lets you share books via Facebook and Twitter. Read a review of its pros and cons and watch a brief video to glimpse its possibilities. The app is funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

YALSA’s Hub predicts YA future

Young Adult dystopian novels are rampant now with the success of The Hunger Games and Matched. The Hub blog looks at some of the best for teens. What’s the next YA trend? Hub bloggers share what they see on the horizon. Some of it is horrible, with an onslaught of serial killers on the horizon. Other trends: fresh ways to avoid parents, a revived interest in science fiction, hip girl sleuths, and (maybe) circuses.

#summerreading continues at NYT Learning Network

As of September 4, tweets were still piling up at the NYT Learning Network’s #summerreading. Instead of reporting books they planned to read over the summer, most kids were lamenting encroaching deadlines. But over summer, many students and teachers suggested titles.  The Learning Network bloggers have assembled a list of recommended reads from both teachers and students for their target audience of readers 13 and older.  You can also read what NYTLN has to say about some super-teachers who promote reading via Twitter and other online outlets (including Book Whisperer Donalyn Miller, who we interview here).

Top 2012 tween reads

Teachers can find carefully selected books for younger students among the Children’s Literature Assembly’s 2012 Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts for grades 1-8. Kids get to choose their favorites in the International Reading Association’s annual Children’s Choices Program (PDF, starts on page 7). The IRA’s teacher and teen lists are nearby. The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has announced more recent books for adolescents in their 2012 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award winner and finalists. These books are judged to demonstrate “ a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.” Also find great reads over at the Nerdy Book Club blog. See the 2011 Nerdies Book Awards here. The blog is facilitated by a group of very book-nerdy teachers and librarians. And don’t miss their long list of other kid-book oriented blogs — scroll down a bit and look in the right margin.             

Books to Hear and Watch

Young readers may also enjoy listening to books.  Look over YALSA’s listening suggestions for ages eight and up. You can travel from 18^th century Europe to outer space with titles ranging from Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce to Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. The School Library Journal has also rounded up audiobooks for kids in grades 5-8, with something for just about every reader: tales of the Depression, fearsome sharks, friendly aliens, and daring outsider artists.  School Library Journal’s Digital Shift shares book trailers to catch young readers’ attention. For background on professional and homemade trailers, visit SLJ’s fuller take on trailers.

Writers recall adolescent reads

What books caught your imagination or helped push you toward awareness when you were becoming a young adult? Writers remember their special “PG-13 books” in a series from NPR. It’s radio, of course, so you can not only read excerpts but listen to recollections, including Jesmyn Ward on Gone with the Wind and Myla Goldberg remembering one of the first chilling tales of nuclear apocalypse, On the Beach.  Some of the writers’ choices would not make a tween reading list today.

Just for fun, graphically

Finally, with a glance back to vacation time, a keen eye for mazes will make this amazing infographic guide to summer reading easier to follow. The folks at Teacher.com have created a reader flowchat that spans time, topics, genres and more to bring together 101 books for high schoolers and those adults among us. You may even find a few for eager middle schoolers. One reader suggested middle grades students create their own infographic.