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Reality television (RT) programming is frequently and rightfully criticized and yet its popularity among adolescent and young adult viewers is also undeniable. In response to the need for media literacy programs to address the pleasures, the problems, and the pedagogy of the genre, we have chosen to take a cross-national, comparative approach and to model a process for teaching through our own research. Three popular reality tv programs were selected from each of our respective nations (China, South Korea, the United States) from one of three subgenres: Dancing, Restaurants, and Travel. We each watched episodes of all nine programs, inventoried their features and took notes. We then compared and contrasted the programs cross-nationally and across genres, and identified four themes: Pedagogy; Individualism and Collectivism; Tradition and Modernity; and Globalism and Nationalism. We found striking differences across nations in our analysis that provide important insights into our respective national cultures. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of our process for teaching about RT.

In this study, we investigated media reports and literacy research in four nations—China, Morocco, the Republic of (South) Korea, and the United States—about the relationship between adolescents' literacy and use of digital media, or digital literacy. We present short "snapshots" of adolescents' digital literacy in each country and then compare these to findings in a report about adolescent literacy and uses of digital media published by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Our analysis indicates significant variation across countries in both literate traditions and adolescents' access to digital media, and notes that these interact to create unique conditions for adolescents' digital literacy in each country, even as, across the four nations, adolescents' capacity to innovate and solve problems with digital access seems constant. In conclusion, we are cautious about making global claims about the state of adolescents' literacy worldwide but point to important findings about how the use of the internet in schools seems to have a positive impact on reading performance and offer some implications for classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay uses the metaphor of "savvy travelling" to discuss the limitations and problems associated with three current "best practice" approaches to the reading of literature in upper grade levels, particularly in the United States: close reading, response-based reading, and disciplinary literacy. A "savvy" approach to reading and reading instruction combines close attention to the text, readers' intuitive responses, and concepts from cognitive science, cultural studies, and literary theory in a narrative approach that identifies and compares the story in the text to the story of the text. Two examples from classroom practice are presented and analyzed to identify elements of savoir faire in each. Identification of these elements leads to a method of savvy reading whose goal is to produce students who will become savvy world travellers of texts on their own: readers who are autonomous, flexible, and able to read carefully and responsibly across a wide range of contexts.

This essay uses the metaphor of "savvy travelling" to discuss the limitations and problems associated with three current "best practice" approaches to the reading of literature in upper grade levels, particularly in the United States: close reading, response-based reading, and disciplinary literacy. A "savvy" approach to reading and reading instruction combines close attention to the text, readers' intuitive responses, and concepts from cognitive science, cultural studies, and literary theory in a narrative approach that identifies and compares the story in the text to the story of the text. Two examples from classroom practice are presented and analyzed to identify elements of savoir faire in each. Identification of these elements leads to a method of savvy reading whose goal is to produce students who will become savvy world travellers of texts on their own: readers who are autonomous, flexible, and able to read carefully and responsibly across a wide range of contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]