Researching Literacy Events and Practices:

Friday Night Fever

Bailey Jackson

Domain: The Friday Night Fever Events of

March 8th, 2013

Les Miserables&

The Mentalist Sean Bott

Texts

Depending on which FNF event was attendedthere were different texts. The film Les Miserables was one option. Sean Bott was the other option, and he utilized texts such as posters, playing cards, and other written word mediums.

Participants and SettingThese are UW students who chose to view the film Les Miserables.

They are in the Family Room in the Union.

Activity and Literacy Event: Viewing, interpreting, and understanding the film as well as discussing it afterwards. This includes musical and cinematic literacy as well

as literacy in written and spoken English.

Participants and SettingThese are UW students who chose to see the Mentalist Sean Bott,

in the Ballroom of the Union.

Activity and Literacy Events: Viewing and sometimes participating in Sean Bott’s show. This included reading posters and notes he had written as well as playing cards and other props. This largely depended on being able to read the English language and

understand numbers and symbols.

ActivityIn this picture (sorry for the poor quality) a student,who had correctly guessed the number Mr. Bott had Been thinking of, is reading a note Mr. Bott wrote earlier that day describing the person he predictedwould guess the number 55. The audience was impressed by his accuracy.

ActivityAnother activity involved four different students working together to determine what card was placed face-up in a face-down deck. They guessed the 7 of clubs.

A girl rifled through the deck and recognized the face-upcard as the 7 of clubs. Again, the audience was impressed.

Literacy PracticesThe first Literacy Practice UW students participated in was determining

which even they wanted to attend. Information on both events was available on FNF’s webpage as well as on posters around campus. This choice would have been between the “higher” and more cultured option of Les Miserables and

the “lower” more sensational option of the Mentalist Sean Bott. Student’swould have weighed their personal preferences and chosen accordingly.

Literacy PracticesThe students who chose to see Les Miserables participated in a cultural phenomena.

As the longest running musical in history Les Mis is an iconic piece of pop culture. By viewing the film, UW students were participating in the tradition of the musical

as well as gaining pop culture knowledge that may be useful in the future.

Literacy PracticesThe students who chose to go to Sean Bott’s show followed a tradition of being

impressed by the sensational and the impossible. “Mentalist” is a fairly new term,and those who fall under that category follow in the footsteps of magicians, who

also use deception and misdirection to amaze an audience.

They also applied logic and reason. Many students expressed surprise and disbeliefat Sean Bott’s “abilities” and “tricks”, such as correctly guessing what someone wouldlook like without ever having seen them and knowing which card a group of people

would choose hours before they did it. Just as with magicians, the audiencewondered how he was able to do it and mentally walked themselves through the

process to see if they could do it themselves.

What Else?While walking by the Wyoming Family Room before the film Les Miserablesbegan, I heard a girl say, in a very surprised tone, “You’ve never seen Les Mis?”Her tone and the question itself is evidence of the cultural importance she placeson the musical and the film as well as the importance she places on participatingin the event.

Many exclamations of “No way!” and “How did he do that?” during Sean Bott’s performance informed me of critical thinking and critiquing that was occurring inthe minds of the audience.

Among other cultural practices, students at both events were participating in thecultural practice of having fun with friends on a Friday night, which traditionallyincludes partying. The purpose of Friday Night Fever is to provide students with good, clean fun, allowing them to participate in the cultural practice without endangering themselves or others.