This edited collection introduces English and literacy educators to the theoretical, research-based, and practical dimensions of using digital memetic textsmemesin the classroom. Digital memetic texts come with new affordances, particularly as avenues for student creativity, voice, and advocacy. But these texts can also be put to manipulative, propagandistic, and nefarious purposes, posing critical challenges to an informed, democratic citizenry. Grounded in multimodality and critical literacy, this book investigates the fascinating digital dimension of texts, audiences, and meaning, and considers how English educators might take up these conversations in practical ways with students. With authentic examples from teachers and students, this volume provides a road map to researchers and educatorsboth preservice and in-serviceinterested in critical and productive uses of these modern phenomena.
This edited collection introduces English and literacy educators to the theoretical, research-based, and practical dimensions of using digital memetic texts"memes"in the classroom.
Editors
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Historical Damage, Modern Resonances, and Speculative Futures: English
Education through Memes
Part One. A Critical Memetic Curriculum
Introduction: Rethinking Reading in a Critical Memetic Curriculum
Making "Meme"ing: Questions for Critical Memetic Inquiry in High School
English Classrooms
Critical Media Analysis through Memes: Considerations and Applications for
ELA Classrooms
Mimetic Masculinities: Young Men of Color Analyze Anime Texts They Love
The Meme Museum: Depictions and Analysis of COVID-19 with High School
Students
Part Two. Multimodal Composing with Memetic Texts
Introduction: Deconstructing Purposes and Outcomes for Composing
Socially Conscious Memetics Through a Culturally Digitized Pedagogy Lens
Young People Reading and Writing the World through Meme Curation, Creation,
and Critical Conversation
Critical Memetic Analysis as Testimony: Restorying Memes as Healing
Pedagogies
What do you Meme? Using Memes for Argument Construction and Understanding
Were not Joking Anymore: Context, Audiences, and Memetics
Part Three. Memetics and Language
Introduction: Critiquing Linguicism with Critical Memetic Language Study
Using Memes to Teach Linguistic Concepts in the ELA Classroom
"I want to use my voice": Youth Literacies Disrupting Critical Memetic
Analysis
Part Four. Memes and Community Identities
Introduction: Transgression and Control
Framing Critical Memetic Literacy: Helping Students Grapple with Manipulative
Memes
Repurposing Problematic Memes in a Middle School Superhero Storytelling
Project
The Plagiarism Paradox: Memes, Originality, and Authorship
Key Terms
Index
Leah Panther is an assistant professor of Literacy Education at Mercer University, USA. She has been a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) since 2008 and is a former middle school teacher.
Darren Crovitz is a professor of English and English Education at Kennesaw State University, USA. He regularly presents at the NCTE conference and is a former high school teacher.