Local Knowledge and Digital Movie Composing in an After‐School Literacy Program

A Latino teenager participated in an after school digital movie composing program called the Technology and Literacy Project. As a student of color previously identified as at risk for school failure, Horatio's case speaks to a common discrepancy highlighted in sociocultural literacy scholarship. He was competent and engaged with numerous literacies outside of school; however, he was not nearly as successful with school‐based measures of literacy achievement. This study examines critical incidents in Horatio's composing process to understand how he appropriated symbolic materials and cultural practices from his out‐of‐school worlds for use in a complex digital movie text. In doing so, the study demonstrates how increasing students' opportunities to draw upon their local knowledge can facilitate sophisticated textual work, as well as problematize what counts as literacy achievement in secondary schools.