Over the past three years project leads, Mark Robertson, associate university librarian, information services, Sarah Coysh, head, Frost Library, and Adam Taves, reference and instruction librarian, along with a steering committee and advisory board comprised of the Libraries, Learning Skills Services and the Writing Department, have developed SPARK’s 12 online modules.

“We actually started considering the concept of a virtual learning commons, that could be accessed anytime and anywhere, more than five years ago,” explains Robertson. “We had the Learning Commons at Scott Library but we wanted to recreate that ‘space’ online knowing that many 91ŃÇÉ« students study at home, or while commuting to and from campus.”

“We had the idea – the framework for SPARK – but we didn’t have the funding until the was created three years ago,” Coysh continues. “SPARK is an initiative that we’re very passionate about and have spent years developing. Launching SPARK, and evaluating the effect the modules have on further developing students’ academic literacy competencies, will be extremely rewarding for us.”

Capturing the recursive nature of research and writing, and how various aspects of these activities are intimately tied together, was one of the team’s top priorities.

The SPARK modules are organized into three categories, “Getting Started,” “Exploring” and “Pulling it Together,” and focus on key academic literacy skills such as: time management, research strategies, essay structure, essay editing and creating bibliographies. The SPARK modules consist of interactive components including test-your-knowledge quizzes, videos, and printable worksheets that are designed to enhance academic literacies while empowering students to take greater ownership in developing these skills.

It was that theme of empowerment that became the foundation of the SPARK awareness campaign, which was developed by the steering committee in partnership with the communications and design agency, 12Thirteen.

“The students that we spoke to both in focus groups and through concept testing revealed that they appreciated that SPARK allowed them to choose when, and how, they wanted to learn. From those consultations the theme of empowerment emerged,” explains Taves.

Sobia Ali, a second-year student in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, had an early introduction to SPARK as a focus group participant. “All the students in the focus group noted that SPARK will make a significant difference in their academic careers.  The modules are intuitive, helpful, and easy to navigate,” explains Ali. “Perhaps best of all, the modules encouraged me to be reflective and ask myself different, more deductive questions.”

The focus group participants’ feedback became the basis of, “The power of SPARK” awareness campaign, which illustrates how SPARK can transform any student into an empowered “super-student.” Featured in the campaign are Ali, along with Drew Pinkerton, a fourth-year student at Glendon, and Tristian Reid, a recent graduate (’13) from the Faculty of Health.

To celebrate the official launch of SPARK today (Oct. 16) students, faculty and staff are encouraged to come by the atrium in Scott Library from 11am to 3pm for SPARK demonstrations and giveaways.

Similar launch events will occur at the Bronfman Business Library on Oct. 17 from 11am to 1pm, the Steacie Science and Engineering Library on Oct. 18 from 11am to 1pm and the Frost Library at Glendon Campus on Oct. 21 from 1pm to 3pm.

For more information about SPARK, questions about integrating specific modules into courses, or to provide general feedback, please contact askspark@yorku.ca.

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Receiving  the Botein Fellowship for research in the history of the book in American culture will grant McLaren access to the AAS library that houses approximately two-thirds of all American publications produced between 1640 and 1876.

Scott McLaren

Access to America’s earliest publications may seem counterintuitive to a study of Upper Canadian Sunday schools, but McLaren knows this literature will have a profound influence on his research. “Sunday school libraries in Upper Canada started to take shape in the 1820s and in many ways they functioned as the colony’s first ‘public’ libraries, especially for those living outside of urban regions,” McLaren explains. “However, many of these schools followed American models and imported all their books from New 91ŃÇÉ«.” For these reasons, Sunday school libraries functioned as transnational centres for literacy across the Upper Canadian backwoods.

Following the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 it became especially problematic for Upper Canadian Sunday Schools to form libraries around American texts. These books presented a version of history that Canadian political elites were not comfortable with. In the 1840s the colony’s chief superintendent of education, Egerton Ryerson, banned the use of American textbooks and teachers in Canadian schools entirely.

What McLaren is most excited about is the opportunity to pore over literature that was deemed insidious enough to be prohibited by Canadian politicians. “I want to use my time at AAS to read through these ‘subversive’ books and see what people were reading in 1822-1840 – particularly because these texts helped to shape the landscape of early Canadian print culture,” McLaren explains.

These publications will inform a number of scholarly articles as well as McLaren’s book tentatively titled A Reading People: Print Culture and the Methodist Struggle for Social Respectability in Upper Canada, 1800-1850.

“Scott is a great scholar who captures our imagination and certainly demonstrates book history is not boring,” says Cynthia Archer, University Librarian. “How many of us knew Sunday Schools and public libraries in Canada are related and that Ryerson banned American textbooks for use in the classroom?”

The AAS was established in 1812 when the United States was at war with Britain. The founder, Isaac Thomas, wanted to preserve all records that served to inform the American identity outside of Britain’s governance. The AAS also boasts one of the world’s largest collections of early Canadian publications.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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A project led by 91ŃÇÉ« Faculty of Education Professors Heather Lotherington and Jennifer Jenson at Joyce Public School in North 91ŃÇÉ«, and funded by the (SSHRC), has received two awards.

The 91ŃÇÉ«-Joyce Public School Multiliteracies Project involves graduate students and researchers working with teachers at Joyce Public School to develop traditional and digital literacies. It was one of the winners of the . The awards highlight outstanding individuals, projects and programs in TDSB schools. The project's second award, the , went to the team of teachers from Joyce Public School who are working with Lotherington and Jenson.

Left: Heather Lotherington

Over the past seven years, this school-based initiative has been developed as a result of Lotherington’s SSHRC grants. The most recent grant for Lotherington, on which Jenson is co-researcher, has created a dynamic learning community to research a multiliteracies approach to learning that incorporates traditional literacy, culture and heritage literacies, language literacies and current digital technology literacies. The project has produced a wealth of teacher and student learning projects, such as the multilingual digital video game “Talk Time” designed to help parents teach critical thinking to young children; a series of multilingual creative narratives; video clips such as “Imagine a World”; and student-created public service clips that address issues of social justice.

“I am delighted with this recognition of our evolving work, which belongs to all participating teachers, staff members, research assistants, researchers and the kids, who have created beautiful stories! We have worked together for many years to develop our learning community,” said Lotherington. “Two regular SSHRC awards and several minor grants later, the 91ŃÇÉ«-Joyce Public School partnership has expanded and evolved into a feature of the school. Our learning community is a model for both in-service professional development through collaborative action research and theory-building by translating cutting-edge theoretical concepts into classroom practice.”

Right: Jennifer Jenson

Also honoured was the team of Joyce Public School teachers and support staff who have been working with Lotherington and Jenson. The group received the 2010 Premier’s Award for Teaching Excellence – Team of the Year, given to a team made up of two to 10 individuals who have worked together to achieve a common goal.

Sixty-five per cent of the children at the school speak English as a second language and 90 per cent of the parents are from outside Canada. The teachers working with Lotherington and Jenson received the Premier's Award for their work on the multiliteracy projects that use digital technology and feature students and parents using personal experiences and first languages to reimagine popular stories.

Lotherington’s project "Researching New Literacies in the Multicultural Classroom: Developing a Ludic Approach to Linguistic Challenges in Elementary Education" received $125,788 from SSHRC in the 2007 competition. The research team continues to explore how teachers can teach socially responsive, immersive literacies in the contemporary multicultural, multilingual classroom.

For more information, visit the  Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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