Virtually all national standards now require students and teachers to understand the particulars of disciplinary literacy. But recently emerging scholarship suggests that disciplinary literacy is, by itself, an incomplete and potentially problematic approach to secondary literacy instruction. By asking students to "think like" or even…

This activity allows students to consider how they self-identify by labeling their identities publicly on three Post-It notes for the class to see and how they may neglect to assign social identities to the way in which they see themselves. Doing so pushes students to make invisible identities more visible, which Cooks (Pedagogy, performance, and…

"Teaching with a Social, Emotional, and Cultural Lens" goes beyond existing social emotional learning programs to introduce a new framework for integrating the development of key skills needed for academic success into daily classroom practice. The framework spells out the competencies, processes, and strategies that effective P-12…

Courses: Communication Theory, Intercultural Communication, Performance Studies, Gender and Communication, Rhetorical Criticism and Analysis. Objectives: This unit activity encourages students to engage in reflexivity regarding the ways intersectionality and power influence their lives and the lives of others. Utilizing strategies grounded in…

Courses: Communication Technology, Communication Theory, History of Communication, Media and Society. Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of the two principal theories of technology and culture: technological determinism and the social construction of technology.

People who receive supportive communication when they are distressed benefit from a series of advantageous outcomes. We designed the following activity based on the popular board game Apples to Apples to provide students with an experiential understanding of different types of social support--(1) emotional, (2) esteem, (3) network, (4)…

While reading, writing, and arithmetic remain important, they are no longer enough. For learners to thrive, they must move beyond traditional literacies to modern fluencies--the unconscious mental processes that are learned, adapted, and applied in the context of real-world problems and challenges. In this book, the authors unpack the fluencies…

Understanding the social determinants of health, health equity, and social justice from a social ecological perspective is vital for public health students. This paper provides an example of a creative method for teaching health disparities, using the HBO television series "The Wire." Methods: The pedagogical strength of "The…

Globalization is blurring the lines between once clearly defined groups of people, making cultural sensitivity more important than ever. Culturally sensitive art education can cultivate the ability for students to empathize with and care about others, but until now, few guidelines have existed to help art educators bring together those from…