My idea of the concept of literacy has changed immensely since the beginning of not only this semester, but the beginning of this project as well. Traditionally, just like I did at the beginning of the semester, people view literacy as simply the ability to read and write. I never had imagined the extent to which literacy travels. Literacy encompasses so many different ideas, and is one of the most important aspects for students to learn and for teachers to display.
I started out having such a small definition of literacy, it wasn’t expansive, but it was limited. Once we started having discussions in class about what literacy really is, I started to recognize how literacy is EVERYWHERE. Literacy is not only reading and writing, but it’s speaking, and listening, and practically any other type of communication between people that can be done. Finally, I began to understand the different ways all different types of literacy can be displayed in and outside of the classroom.
I think what surprised me the most is how many ways literacy can be described. Just by this project alone, we described eight ways literacy can be interpreted. All of these different types of literacy can be used within a classroom too. The possibilities are endless for how to demonstrate them! I think to effectively reflect these different types of literacy, a teacher needs to be very prepared and very aware of exactly the type of literacy they are trying to portray. For cultural literacy, for example, a teacher will need to be sure that anything they discuss or any resource they use does not offend anyone. They need to be open to any lifestyle and they also need to express why that is important.
The new literacy I explored was Social Literacy. I think it is so important for students and teachers to understand this literacy because the way people interact with one another is greatly changing with the introduction of social networking, cell phones, texting, etc. Social literacy explores the way people communicate and exchange ideas. This can be used in a classroom in many ways. For my presentation, I explore different technologies that can be used as social literacy devices within a classroom. I explained things like using twitter, or a classroom blog, or the use of google docs or a wiki. These things can all be utilized easily and would be a great help for understanding the importance of social literacy.
As for technology, it is a great idea to take advantage of the many technology resources available for us today. However, being able to effectively use these resources is important. It takes lots of time and practice to actually be able to learn how to use some of these technologies. It is important to be organized and neat when trying to display a new concept, and using these technologies sometimes it can be hard to do so. I think for a teacher to be able to use technologies would be easy enough, but for students to be able to use it would be a bit harder. Being sure that the technology is appropriate, easy to learn and easy to organize is very important, especially because time is limited in a classroom.
I am in a first grade classroom right now, and I know that using the technology I used, which was a SlideRocket presentation, would not be the easiest option for them. Technologies that might be easiest for first grades to create themselves would be something like a google doc, where they can type at their own pace and easily maneuver through the site. Exploring social literacy, however, would be very important for them, since they are so young and they could learn at such a young age that there are many different options for communication between others and working together. Assessing a first grader’s understanding of social literacy, however, might be a bit challenging. I think the best option would simply be having a discussion with them and talk about the many ways they use to communicate with others, e.g. facebook, texting, and telephone.
I agree that being able to effectively use the technology before handing if off to your students to work with is important. Being able to be neat and organized with this goes into play as well. I know that while viewing a classmate's Prezi, it talked about making sure information with technology is credible. Is this something social literacy involves as well? Would you incorporate these types of technology into your classroom yourself? Or would you have the students use the technology to create assignments and such? If so, how would you go about teaching the students the technology before having them try it themselves?
ReplyDeleteMy concern with teaching social literacy through technology is assuming that all students have knowledge and/or access to the technology. If you are in a school where technology is limited (even in their homes), what are other ways you could teach social literacy? How could you side step the confrontation and possible upsetting of students if they don't have access to texting, facebook and such? Would there be a way to have a classroom 'social literacy'? I have seen a classroom "Twitter" before, where the topics and activities of the day would be "trending topics," and interesting or unique things that students say would go in the time line, so the whole class, as well as visitors, could see. Then, other students would have the opportunity to comment back to their classmate's thoughts after finishing their work, or during down time. I think this is a great example of social literacy because it's just another option of communication that can be done without having to actually create a class twitter account.