Popular Websites in Adolescents' Out-of-School Lives: Critical Lessons on Literacy

Chapter 3 of New Literacies Sampler is primarily about the complex literacy practices that can be fostered through the use of popular websites.  In particular, Jennifer Stone argues that these popular websites “support many of the literacy practices we value in school” (p. 54).

Stone evaluates the websites in regard to five aspects including the use of genre, sentence length/complexity, vocabulary, modalities, and intertextuality (p. 55), and she provides a summary of her findings for each webpage in Tables 3.1-5.  The biography of Brain ‘Baby’ Williams from the Cash Money Records website is addressed in particular, perhaps since it performed best overall in the 5 aspects being examined by Stone.  Below, you will see a side-by-side comparison, taken almost verbatim from pages 56-58).          

Baby biography (webpage)	Textbook biographies (as found in The American Nation)
1st sentence contains 49 words (p. 56).	Entire Cesar Chavez biography is 47 words
Complex Sentence Structures – In fact, the first sentence is a Complex-causal structure – including multiple dependent clauses, compound subjects, and various verb structures – that is grammatically correct by school-based standards (p. 56).	Simple structures – Only one or two clauses, uncomplicated subjects, and simple verbs
High level vocabulary: significant, entrepreneur, amassed, empire	Relatively functional vocabulary, with a few key content terms like “migrant” and “boycott.”
7 paragraphs long.	Usually only 1 paragraph

So, as Stone points out, students may actually get more challenging text online than what they will find in their textbooks.  One thought I couldn’t shake during this comparison was that the biographies in the textbook are not the focal point of the lesson.  I’m sure students were reading complex text of historical significance in the social studies textbook that was cited.  I would have liked Stone to address the complexity of the text that was the primary focus of the lesson, not just the short blib about the author.  Still, as far as student interest goes, they will most likely find many more texts that interest them online than what they can find in the textbook, and from a literacy stand point, we want them highly engaged and interested in what they are reading.  This is a reminder to teachers that the web can be used educationally and if done correctly, can be more rigorous that reading a textbook while appealing to student interest.  This chapter can be applied to all content areas.