At the beginning of the semester I thought of literacy as just reading and writing. However, after our class on the definition of literacy, I began to think about it a little more. I think one main reading we did that made me broaden my thinking about literacy was the Critical Literacy article. I really liked how the teacher made a point of sharing different kinds of books with her students. She read books from all different cultures so her students got to learn a little more about people around the world. Another thing that also really changed my view on the definition of literacy was our class discussion. Our group started thinking about it and we decided that there is a whole range of possibilities about literacy. It could be reading and writing or it could be speaking and body language. As we explored new literacies further, I started thinking about how much we do on the internet and how we rely on that as a means of communication and knowledge so that is a form of literacy too. It is probably one of the fastest growing avenues of literacy and students are always searching online for something. Many teachers hesitate to bring the internet into the classroom, but I think it is a valuable resource and a important form of literacy that students should learn from. My thinking from the start of the semester has changed a great deal. I not only think of literacy as reading and writing. Now I think of literacy as any way people use to communicate or to gather knowledge. After researching social literacy, I think literacy is a forever expanding concept. Since we have all of this new technology today we are expanding our literacy into it. This is what I liked the most about social literacy. It is understanding all of those social networking and group editing sites we use online now. It is incorporating new technology into literacy. I do not think anyone can put a set definition on literacy. Everyone interprets literacy in their own way.
If I were to teach the technology I used in my current classroom, I think the students would first need to know a little more about computers. The students in my class do not use computers a lot so to jump into a program like this would be very intimidating for them. Also they would have to work on their spelling and writing on the computer. However I think with a little guidance they could put together a simple presentation. I think if I were to use this in the lesson I just taught it would have been really cool. They could have done something like made a couple of slides about feelings and how the characters in our story felt and maybe what they would do in a hurricane. They could use a template provided and just add in the text and some extra stickers out of the graphics. I think this type of technology would be amazing to use in higher grades like 3-7 because students in those grades really have more writing and computer skills and they would probably be able to put together a pretty nice presentation based on a book they were reading. To create a presentation like the one I created students would have to know how to upload pictures and to research information online. Upper elementary and middle school students already are doing this for fun at home so it would be good to input this into lessons. Having them create something they can put online and share with the class would be very beneficial for them. They would be learning about what they are presenting by having to look up information to put it into the scrapblog. For instance, if the class just read a novel like Number the Stars which is about the holocaust, the students could create a little presentation using scrapblog that tells about the holocaust and the characters in the book. This would make them think about the book more and really reflect on what they are reading. They would also be learning technology. I think technology is important in the classroom which is why I chose social literacy. Having the student make blogs and wikis allows them to express their thoughts with each other and others around the world. Part of the literacy assignment could be to post a blog about the book and then put a link to the blog into the scrapblog. This will allow the students to learn a little bit about the holocaust and then see what other members of their class think about the book. New technology is affecting so much in literacy it is important that students get the chance to use and learn from it to teach literacy effectively.
Janie -
ReplyDeleteObviously I spent quite a bit of time on your scrapblog because I reviewed it! If you had a chance to read my review you would understand how impressed I was with your new technology. It was clear and concise and visually appealing. I like that you had multiple examples on your scrapblog about your literacy. It provided a large range of social networking and literacy and gave me a good feel of all the different ways that I could incorporate this literacy into my classroom.
You discuss your evolved definition of literacy which I think is so important. I really like the new way that you chose to define it in your post, "Now I think of literacy as any way people use to communicate or to gather knowledge." I never thought about this communication piece as much as I did once I explored your scrapblog. It was brought to my attention through your project that communication can be very powerful in literacy learning. The communication through technological means is just another wonderful peice that can help advance the knowledge of our students. I think that because students are so infused with technology, it would work in our benefit if as teachers we recognize this advance in our schools and use it to our advatage. I think it can create a huge engagement strategy for any age of student but especially the teens, as you mentioned in your scrapblog. Sparking interest about literacy through something other than a classic novel, might help our students minds become more rich with knowledge and engaged in learning.
I agree that your technology would be better used in slightly older grades. However, I also think that if you created a scrapblog for your students about a specific topic it would engage them. It is so visually appealing that I think students would enjoy looking through it. In addition, I think it would be an awesome thing to have several different scrapblogs on a classroom website for students to browse through. They would be exposed to this technology while also having a new form of literacy shown to them. Using these as an instructional tool for younger grades can be beneficial, but I think they would need a great deal of guidance. I think you overall did an excellent job incorporating your new literacy into your new technology. It is exciting to learn about a new technology and be able to explore it in depth like I was able to do with yours.
By the time I had a chance to review someone's blog everyone had already reviewed everyone else's! I chose your blog entry to review because the new literacy project that I reviewed was a scrapblog as well. I was really impressed on the scrap blog and how easy it was to navigate through. I wrote in Jessica's review that if I were a student looking at a scrap blog presentation in class (or creating one) I would be more invested in the project or presentation because of the creativity, uniqueness, and the idea that it isn't as plain as a PowerPoint. Sometimes I daze off at PowerPoints because it is bullet point after pullet points.
ReplyDeleteI also thoroughly enjoyed reading about your definition of literacy and feel as though I am copying Gina when I say that this quote struck me: Now I think of literacy as any way people use to communicate or to gather knowledge." I feel the exact same way and had that thought go through my head as I was creating my new literacy project and reflecting on how my thoughts of literacy have changed since this project. The technology aspect of literacy does come into play a lot now that children are growing up using computers. I see it a lot in my Kindergarten classroom (so much that students are mesmerized by them and would rather spend the whole day doing language arts CD ROM games then sit at their desk in class). The internet and any other computer form of technology can and should be utilized by teachers nowadays to merge the home life and the school life since to better prepare students for higher grades and life after school.