Teaching Technology Today

Blog 2 – January 29, 2012

“Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV)” (Prensky, Part 1).  Reading this statistic is just ridiculous, but I find it completely believable! Part of me is embarrassed to be a part of this generation, but even though I feel like I have spent way too many hours in front of different screens, I have also spent a sufficient amount of time reading actual books.  When I was growing up, I would get grounded from reading – but it wasn’t because we didn’t have technology.  My house has always had at least one computer and two televisions.  I am definitely a digital native – and this will help me connect with my students.

Because my students will be digital natives as well, I will be able to incorporate digital literacies into my classroom seamlessly.  I loved the assignment that was described in Zac Chase and Diana Laufenberg’s article, “Digital Literacies.”  The class had to record interviews and edit them on the computer so that they could be posted on the school’s website.  That is just one wonderful way to include the digital world in the classroom.  I would also love to have a blog or website where the students could raise their voices and opinions about various things.  Digital literacy is more than just reading and writing on the computer and I would love to be able to incorporate as many avenues as possible.

“Digital literacy, itself, is not enough preparation, however, for our students to thrive in today’s global, information- driven world. Students must also acquire the skills of digital inquiry” (Stripling, 16).  They may know how to do things on the computer, but can they analyze the relationships and express the connections between all that they see?  They need to be able to contextualize, focus, and question.  I love the Stripling Model of Inquiry (pg. 17) – it would give a back bone to lesson preparation.

Even though I may have grown up at the same time in similar family environments as my peers, I still think about things and am more confortable with technology than many people my own age.  With so many people growing up in different situations and with different exposure to technology, it can be hard to teach such a wide variety of students. According to Prensky, “The environment and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their thought processes” (Prensky, Part 2).  So not only have people experienced different things that would give them different schemas, they actually think through things differently!  Studies show that it takes a lot of time and concentration to change how you think.

All in all, I loved reading about the different uses and problems with digital literacy and thinking through how I could use it in my own classroom.

Reference:

Prensky, Mark. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” From On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001).

Prensky, Mark. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?” From On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001).

Stripling, Barbra. “Teaching Students to Think in the Digital Environment: Digital Literacy and Digital Inquiry.” From School Library Monthly: Volume XXVI, Number 8. April 2010.

Chase, Zac and Laufenberg, Diana. “Digital Literacy: Embraing the Squishiness of Digital Literacy.” From Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54(7) April 2011.

Creative Classroom use of Culture

Blog – 1.22.12

When I was reading the article about literacy in India, I just couldn’t believe what I was reading! It is so awesome that two of my loves – music and reading – are coming together to help better lives (probably my third favorite). This same-language subtitling (SLS) has “acted as a catalyst to quadruple the rate at which completely illiterate adults become proficient readers” (Riddhi Shah, online). 

Thinking about how I could use these, since I am hoping many of my students will be able to read by the time they are in middle schools.  It would be a wonderful way for students, or anyone else, to learn a new language.  I remember reading a book about an older Egyptian man who learned English by watching old, British TV shows so he had a really funny accent.  It would be an interesting concept to try out how exactly it would work.

Speaking of pop culture, if people in small villages of India are surrounded by it, how much more so are the middle school students these days? “Their experiences with pop culture texts also support their development as literate individuals, help them better understand themselves, and give them the freedom to try on and enact various identities” (Hall, 297).  As a teacher, I would need my students to read the school assigned work, but it would be very beneficial if they were reading anything, really.

The more adolescents read and think about what they are reading, the better developed their brain will be.  The “Popular Culture Text” explained how much harder reading for school can be, and so why can’t we (teachers) find new ways to present the information?

I remember my high school English teacher taught us different literary devices found in poetry by looking at song lyrics.  It was so exciting and something that was actually relatable to life that I enjoyed learning about the poetic elements! More exercises like this should take place and less of the monotone readings out of dusty old books (not that I don’t LOVE dusty old books, they are some of my favorites too).

I loved getting to read all of the student’s discussions in the “Popular Culture Text” because some of their reasons for things being fake were just hilarious, but it helped them think through the bigger ideas.  Plus, it is always comforting when kids don’t believe everything they see on movies or in video games. 

Another way to try and incorporate pop culture, I would love to have a challenge for my students to see where school and pop culture intersect.  Like if we are reading Hamlet, do they notice all the same themes from Lion King? Or see how historical event will be referenced in rap songs?  Whatever gets them thinking about school topics outside of school is a win in my book! “The findings from this study show that youths can and will draw on pop culture texts to inform their understandings of academic ones, even if such practices are not sanctioned within the classroom” (Hall, 304).

Reference:

Shah, Riddhi. "Watch and learn - The Boston Globe." Boston.com - Boston, MA news, breaking news, sports, video. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/19/watch_and_learn/?page=full>.

Hall, Leigh A. “How Popular Culture Texts Inform and Shape Student’s Discussions of Social Studies Texts.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Dec 2011/Jan 2012. Pp. 296-305.

Cross Curriculum Creativity

Blog Post 1 – 1.15.12

So many of the readings were about cross curriculum reading, and I couldn’t agree more!  There is too much literacy to be covered in one Language Arts class, reading and writing should be spread across the board.   I remember in my own high school math class we read some really funny play about calculus – it was hilarious and I totally loved it!  Whether I end up as a math or English teacher, I will go out of my way to include reading and writing.

I loved in the Content Area Literacy Case Study how the author went into detail about the various exercises the Case Study’s teacher, John, used.  The little handouts were even included.  That is just a perfect resource to have as a future teacher and I make a point to save all of the valuable handouts I can because I don’t know how many perfect and original ideas I can come up with on my own once I have been teaching for how ever many years.

In Reading Across the Curriculum, I loved the quote: “More middle school students are able and willing to access these materials when they are written at different reading and interest levels and when the writing style is engaging” (pg 182).  I have already started collecting various young adult literature so that when I become a Middle School teacher, of whatever subject, I will have fully stocked bookshelves.  I couldn’t agree more with all of these articles about reading in every class, and encouraging students to read outside the classroom as well.

I was discussing with some of my peers last week about how broad of a term “literacy” is these days.  We see it as more than just being able to read and write, but all forms of expressing and communicating.  As teachers, we need to demonstrate this to our students so that they see reading blogs and following silly new stories is still improving their literacy skills and introducing them to different forms and styles of writing.  I loved the R.A.F.T. assignment (Content Area Literacy Case Study) and how there were so many different Forms of writing that the students could perfect through that.

All in all, I loved each of the articles we were assigned to read, but I am just really in love with the reading and writing in subjects besides English.  If I do end up being a mathematics teacher, I want my students to be all about reading different types of writings and do research reports on the history and content of the mathematical principles.  I admire teachers who are able to seamlessly achieve this so much and I hope that I will one-day fall amongst those ranks.

My Personal Thoughts on Literacy

Reading always has, and probably always will be a huge part of my life! I love the smell and feel of a new, familiar or old book in my hand – I think books are glorious! Despite my love for reading, I do not, however, like reading things on my computer nor will I every purchase some sort of eReader – I feel like they are unnatural and I would rather give my patronage to printed pages.  While I can struggle to read all of college’s assigned class readings, I have found the chance to read over thirty books in my past four semesters while still taking eighteen credits.  I mainly love fiction – of all kinds.  My one weakness is probably World War II stories – I eat that junk up like cake!  That passion started in middle school with a semester studying the Holocaust, but my passion for reading started much earlier. 

My parents always read to me before bed and I hung out with my older cousin and several other older friends who could already read so that really pushed me.  I remember my dad would read me Peter Pan every night until he got sick of it and then he would just make up his only little adventures that Peter would go on – to this day my dad and I still go and see all the Peter Pan related movies.  I learned to read before kindergarten – I don’t remember exactly when or how, but I know I got in trouble in my first week of school for laughing at some boy who couldn’t because I thought it was normal to be reading. As I have grown up, I have noticed that being literate (in the sense of being able to read and write) is not always a trait people have.  I remember when I had a friend who would never read out loud in our fourth grade classroom because he couldn’t make sense of the characters on the page.  Especially in this education program, we are exposed to students with all sorts of difficulties reading so that we will know how to properly handle and instruct those students. 

I think my only un-fond memories about reading are (1) those stupid little three-page paper books that fit perfectly into the box – I could never get them to go back in the box in the right order without bending one. And (2) when I had read all of the books in the children’s section of the library, but my mom did not feel like I was mature enough to go into the adult section. Now that I am finally able to go into whatever section of the library I see fit, I tend to steer clear of the nonfiction unless I am researching something for school.  School does drive most of my thoughts on “literacy” these days, being on track to become an English teacher this should be expected.  I have agreed with what I have learned in my education classes, but I feel like some of my other professors might have skipped these classes because their view does not appear very broad.

All in all, I feel like literacy is something that every single person comes in contact with every single day and I cannot wait until the day that I get to teach and mold middle school brains to love reading half as much as I do!