New Literacies Project

How has your conceptual understanding of literacy changed since beginning this class?

     My understanding of literacy has changed dramatically.  I learned in previous courses how literacy can be connected to all domains and can be taught in multiple ways, but I do not think I realized the importance of literacy to all domains.  In this course I have learned that without having literacy skills one is unable to complete task in other domains.  For example, my new literacy project was based on visual literacy.  A person is unable to understand pictures and visuals without being able to have the skills to organize their thoughts, thinking about who created the the image and asking themselves other questions in relation to the image.  Another example would be math problems-a person without reading capabilities would have a hard time doing problem solving even if they were excellent at math they wouldn't be able to read the problem.  I also learned that literacy is ever changing and it is up to teachers to continue teaching their children about literacy to further their skills in all areas.  I also learned that a teacher needs to make sure to assess children throughout the school day, semester and year to make sure they are not only at level, but to make sure lessons are being taught constructively for all children to understand.

How does your research on a new literacy and development of your own digital literacy (using your new technology) inform your thinking?

      It first informs me that literacy does not have to be boring like I had previously thought when I was a student!  I always thought of literacy time as reading and writing.  I know now that this is not the case.  Learning about a new literacy made me realize how I could incorporate different aspects of literacy into the classroom to get children excited.  I also learned that technology is a great way to incorporate excitement as well as hands on activities for children.  I realized that with technology being ever changing and easy to send to others it would be a great tool to connect home to school.  For example, when looking at my classmates scrapblogs I thought about how easy it would be to send a weekly or monthly scrapblog to families showing them what we've been learning in the classroom.  I think that families would get a clear picture of what we are doing and it would for sure reach them if sent to their email unlike notes sent in their child's backpack.

What new knowledge, skills, strategies and dispositions are you now aware of, and how do these compare/contrast with more traditional literacies?
I am aware of the endlessness of literacy.  I am aware that it connects to everything that we do on a daily basis as well as aware of the knowledge and skill that continues to develop and change.  I feel that traditional literacy as I said is based on reading and writing.  This connects directly to new literacy, but new literacies go beyond just reading and writing.  New literacies incorporate pictures, technology, thought processes and much more.  I feel that the strategies I learned about teaching literacy through technology will continue to change and I will take this knowledge to continue to teach myself about the new programs that will continue to develop. 

What does it mean to provide “effective literacy instruction” to diverse learners?

To me this means to incorporate multiple instruction tools throughout every lesson.  For example, showing pictures, giving hands on materials, reading aloud as well as giving students directions in print.  Every child learns differently and it is important to make sure they are all learning.  As teachers learn the learning styles of their children I believe it is important for teachers not to only teach using these methods, because as subjects change children may need a different instructional method to help them.  I believe this connects to the importance of assessments for teachers to know what teaching methods are and are not working in their classroom.

Mini Lesson Plan

• Target area and rationale: Visual Interpretation-Pictures and images give us visual cues as readers and as emerging readers children often use pictures as the words to tell them stories.

• Objective(s): Students will write a sentence based on what they believe a picture is telling them.
• Materials and Supplies Needed: Picture Cards, Paper, Pencils

• Outline of Key Events:
1. Teacher will explain that pictures give us cues of what we are reading.
2. Teacher will then explain that each person who sees the same picture may think of something different based on their previous experiences and knowledge of the subject in the picture.
3. The teacher will then tell students that they will each get a picture and they are to observe and think about what they think is going on in the picture.
4. Explain that they will then write a sentence about what they are seeing.
5. The teacher will remind children that everyone will have their own thoughts about the picture they see so there should be no talking until everyone has finished unless they need help spelling a word they can raise their hand or sound it out.

6. After time for completing their sentences the teacher will explain what she wrote about the picture.  She will then ask for students to share what they thought about the picture.
• Closing Summary: The teacher will then discuss the importance of thinking about all the possibilities a picture could be telling us when we are unable to read the words or no words are included.
• Ongoing Assessment: Before reading a story the teacher could do a picture walk through allowing the children to give their ideas of what they think will happen based on the pictures they are seeing.