New Literacy

My definition of literacy began by involving just reading and writing. However, after many classroom discussions and listening to other people's definitions of literacy I learned that literacy can involve reading, writing, speaking, listening, and seeing. I have seen the definition of literacy expand even further after this project. I never would have thought of expressing literacy in the form of technology before this project. It was interesting to choose a type of new literacy because I never would have classified a digital scrapbook as a way of delivering literacy. I also would have never thought of literacy being in a cultural form. For example, even though I knew that reading, writing, listening, seeing, and speaking can be found in different cultures I never really thought of them as aspects of literacy. I had a hard time thinking about what I was going to focus on in cultural literacy because I kept finding myself not thinking broadly enough about the definition of literacy. We learned in class that there are many different definitions of literacy and that literacy is such a broad term that can often be altered into personal definitions. Once I started to realize that I was thinking into the project too much, I began to look at what I wanted the big picture to be and the ideas began to flow.
I did a digital scrapbook on cultural literacy, specifically on Latin America. I am familiar with scrapbooks in paper form because I work on them as a hobby and for my historian position in my sorority. However, I was very amazed at how creative you can make the scrapbooks online. It also seemed less labor intensive. It takes me a long time to imagine and create scrapbook pages in paper form. Although the digital scrapbook took me a long time to create, the most time consuming part was introducing myself to the program and how to get started. You definitely need a lot of patience and time to get started and learn any new type of technology. I feel that once you get the hang of the program, it would not take that long to write a lesson. Also, if I make a mistake on a paper scrapbook, I have to throw the page away or start over. However, if I am not satisfied with my page or anything about it on digital scrapbooks, with the click of a button I can just delete what I do not like. I feel that it is important for teachers to explore many new forms of technology. We could make class much more interesting, comprehensive, and attention grabbing by using new technology and refraining from the use of plain chalkboards.
I feel that a digital scrapbook is a wonderful tool for teaching lessons to kindergarteners. I know from experience that kindergarteners are very visual learners. What is a better way to teach than with the use of pictures and colorful scrapbook pages? I know that my kindergarteners in my field placement would be amazed because my teacher seems to teach through oral lessons and the use of dry erase boards. There are many ways that you could incorporate the core subjects into digital scrapbooks. This technology form is very flexible and allows you to create a scrapbook on any topic you would like. Now that I am more open minded about literacy and the different ways to incorporate literacy into technology, I think it would be fun to use a digital scrapbook for my next kindergarten lesson.

After working with my new technology, I realized that it was similar to PowerPoint in looks, but took different skills to work. The program would be very easy if I had all 4x6 pictures to put in the picture box and add a little caption under them. Because my scrapbook/slideshow was designed for pictures, I had to learn how to modify larger pictures as well as adding text on top of them. I used Microsoft Paint to do this, and realized that Microsoft Paint is not a very easy program to work with. It took me a long time to figure out how things worked. Because I was not familiar I had to use the Help engine frequently, which made me need to know how to read, and then locate where things are within the program. Once I got my pictures modified, the placing them within my new technology was rather simple, all I did was download the pictures and click them into the photo box.

Working with Environmental literacy showed me many ways of incorporating traditional literacy within it. There were multiple cases where I needed to know how to decipher data from graphs and charts. I also had to know how to gather data from texts, and relate the text to myself in how I can become a better “conserver of water.”

For students to be able to use this technology and study this topic, they would have to be able to know how to use Microsoft Paint, and how to download and upload pictures. At some points I felt a little frustrated with the program, so students will need to know that it takes time and patience to complete this project. Working with a new technology (or any technology for that matter) will have glitches, and we need to be aware of that from the beginning. If students know how to work with PowerPoint, they should be able to use my technology fairly easily.

Throughout this class, my conceptual understanding of literacy has changed. Before this class I thought of literacy as learning how to read, write, and speak. Now I realized that my original thoughts of literacy were only included within traditional literacy. The New Literacy project has taught me that literacy can be in many different forms, including many aspects of our lives. Some of these include environmental, cultural, and social literacy. The idea that literacy can broaden our understanding of what we are reading and learning about is different from my original thoughts of literacy. Before this class, these new literacies would be considered social studies in my mind. I thought that, yes, we can use literacy as a way to teach social studies, but learning about cultures or the environment is not literacy, it is social studies. I have learned, through this class, the importance of teaching these new literacies in my class. In the WheelerSwords article, they discuss how it is important to discuss cultural implications of language within a classroom. Within the article, it states that “A different response to language becomes possible once we recognize that language comes in different varieties, and styles, and each is systematic and rule-governed.” Throughout my schooling, I learned that there is one way to speak and write properly. Through this article and class discussions, I have learned the importance of making sure each type of language is addressed and deemed as important. Literacy is not just being able to talk and write in standard English, it can also include other styles of language as well.

Not only has this New Literacies project shifted my views on what I think literacy is, I have also learned the importance of using technologies that I may not be familiar with. Being able to view technology is also an important aspect of literacy. This new way of thinking has changed how I want to approach literacy in my classroom. People today are using printed paper less and less to practice literacy skills. Even books and newspapers can be computer based. It is important to encompass all types of technology to help broaden their knowledge of literacy.

By using different types of technology, I can also teach to a diverse number of learners. Students learn differently at different rates. By giving them multiple ways of learning, I can see what works well for some students, and what doesn’t work. Also students will be able to access different types of information within these new literacies which will appeal to different students.

I think that this technology and new literacy would help students get a better understanding of many GLCEs. For my language arts lesson, I used the GLCE about relating themes to personal experiences. Within Environmental Literacy, water conservation could be considered a theme where students need to see how water plays a role in their lives and how they can begin conserving water. The technologies can give students a nontraditional look on literacy that will be beneficial to them in their future.

New Literacies Project

For the New Literacies project, I chose to use the scrap book as my new technology that I would investigate. I chose scrapblog.com to be my guide for this scrap book. The difference between the scrap book and for example, a powerpoint is that the scrap book that you produce online can be published for the world to see, or kept private. There are many resources that you can access while creating this book, such as stickers, videos, photos, and backgrounds that are all easily accessible through this website. The opportunities are endless on this site, as you can build anything from a one page scrap blog, to a 100 page blog, using different themes or backgrounds to display your information. The scrap blog also offers unique transitions between slides. The scrap book was an interesting choice because it still allowed for creativeness and being unique, while it didn't confine you like the traditional powerpoint presentation. In order to be able to use this new technology, I had to utilize a technology expert. My roommate works for the MSU computer department, and was able to introduce me to everything I needed to know in order to use this technology. In order for children under grade three to be able to utilize this new technology, they would need a step-by-step instruction of the technology. They would also need to be literate in reading, viewing, and writing, as well as using a computer. Anyone in the higher grades would be able to understand this technology through trial and error, but in order to be able to investigate the technology on their own, they would need to be literate in writing, reading, listening, and viewing in order to be successful in using this technology. Being literate in technology is an important concept for children in our society, so as a teacher, it's important to introduce them to other technologies besides powerpoint, such as creating a website, wiki, blog, wave file etc... Teachers can turn routine projects into learned experiences by having children choose new technologies to investigate. In order to be literate in todays world, we all need to be able to understand technology and how to use it. These ideas fit with my idea of literacy because investigating these technologies turned into a new way for effective literacy instruction.

At the beginning of this class, literacy was a new concept to me. Although we had explored literacy in TE301, I believe that my true understanding of the concept did not begin until we began investigating it in this class. My understanding of literacy is an individuals ability to read, write, visualize, and speak in order to function in everyday society. Literacy is always evolving and individuals in our society will always have to keep up with changing technologies, creating a paradigm of individuals who need to constantly be keeping up with the changing times. Literacy also encompasses the outside world. Although this is my current understanding of literacy, at the beginning of the class, I assumed that literacy was the ability to being able to write. After reading assigned readings for this section from Literacy for the 21st Century, as well as assigned research articles, I was able to put forth my best definition of literacy. I feel much more prepared for my own classroom of learners. Understanding the definition of literacy is needed before stepping into a classroom. Word recognition, letter recognition, phonological and phonemic awareness, etc... are all apart of literacy. For my New Literacies project, I explored the use of the scrap book. This technology was completely new to me. I had created scrapbooks out of printed out pictures in my home but using a computer and a foreign website was a new experience. By exploring this technology and creating a project, I was able to inform myself about technology as well as cultural literacy. Through this experience, I was able to inform the other members of this class about cultural literacy through my own travels. In the fall of last year, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. During these adventures, I was a traveler in an world in which I knew nothing about. When in Asia, I was unable to understand their language, leaving me in the dark when it came to ordering dinner, or ordering a cab. Through this experience, I was able to understand what it meant to be fluent or literate in another culture or language. It's important for teachers to be able to provide "effective literacy instruction" as well as it's important for teachers to recognize other cultures and ethnicities that may exist in our classrooms. Students that grow up in other places may have different customs than U.S. raised children, making it important to learn to adapt to providing effective literacy instruction. By exploring this literacy, I was able to open my eyes to the cultures I encountered when abroad, and how many of the particular things I did while in those countries may have been peculiar or out of the ordinary for Thai citizens. Providing effective literacy instruction may be different for different cultures. In Thailand, children are supposed to give respect to their elders by producing a wai, a greeting as well as a goodbye. The wai appears to the average American citizen as a religious prayer. Therefore, teachers need to make sure that they tailor each lesson towards the children in the classroom.

comprehension

When I think about comprehension, I never think of the text factors affecting comprehension. I usually think of comprehension involving background knowledge and connection to the text, which are basically reader factors. The three text factors are structure, genre, and content/vocabulary. However, after reviewing these text factors, I realize that I have seen and practiced a lot of components of text factors without realizing it. Personally, whether or not an author organizes and presents their ideas affects how much I comprehend and enjoy the book. I remember story ideas when the text and theme are laid out well. The text factor component of oral language is very common in my kindergarten field. Everyday the CT reads a story aloud as the children listen and as Tompkins says “students use their knowledge of text factors as they listen to the teacher read aloud” (256).
Since I am in a kindergarten classroom for my field placement, it is hard for me to find a lot of text factors involved in comprehension since many text factors focus on reading. There is not one student that can read in the classroom. However, a lot of the comprehension is determined verbally in lower elementary. For example, I was in the classroom and my CT was explaining different genres. This past week they were learning about folklore. She explained that folktales usually start with “once upon a time…” Tompkins explains that “when students know about text structure and recognize genres, they are better able to apply comprehension strategies” (256). Since the CT is practicing genres and teaching ways to differentiate between genres, the students are understanding genres and can apply comprehension strategies. A common comprehension strategy that I see in my class is connecting. This strategy involves the readers making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world links using background knowledge. The CT is consistently asking the students for feedback on a story read aloud such as “have you ever felt this way?” or “has this ever happened to you?”. Questions like these ones test the student’s background knowledge, get the children actively involved, and demonstrate whether or not the children are comprehending ideas of the text.

Good Readers understand the processes that go with reading.  Good readers are able to consciously control these processes. Many times in my life, I have been reading a book and have come to realize that for the past 10 pages I was not comprehending anything that I had read.  This is always very frustrating, especially when you have to turn back and reread what you just read.  Metacognition is when readers are able to control their reading processes.  There are five important processes that good readers can do, including predict, picture, relate, monitor, and correct the gaps in their understanding.  I realize that in order for me to understand what is being read, I need to be in an environment where distractions are minimal.  Interest in the material is also very important.  When reading a text book, I utilize the strategy of self-questioning.  By going over in my head what has happened in the chapter, I am better able to retain the information when it is needed in the future.  Making meaningful connections to the text is also a great strategy for retaining the information.  By using personal relations to the text, such as remember 'please remember my dear Aunt Sally' as "PRMDAS" the student is able to recall that information and possibly  connect it to the sentence.  The difference between cuddling up with a favorite novel as opposed to cuddling up with a textbook is entirely too different.  In the field, I notice that comprehension is very important.  During large group time, the teacher will at first ask the students to make predictions about what they believe the book will be about.  Also, the teacher periodically pauses during the book to ask questions which also help students comprehend what was going on in the book.  At the end of the book, by coming together and asking the students to discuss the major points of the book, the teacher is facilitating comprehension strategies to her young students. 

Comprehension

After reading about and discussing comprehension this week, I have learned a bit about myself in terms of comprehension. As I look at how I comprehend text I can think about ways that others comprehend text as well. In doing this, I can relate to students so I can help teach the best ways to be a good “comprehender”. In the Tompkins’ book, she talks about the eight strategies for comprehension. These strategies are predicting, connecting, visualizing, questioning, identifying big ideas, summarizing, monitoring, and evaluating. Now that I am a fluent reader I tend to do a lot of the strategies that help good comprehension unconsciously. Many times while I am reading I find myself predicting what is going to happen next, visualizing what is actually going on in the story, or connecting the text to my own life. I feel that the idea of me doing these things unconsciously is what teachers strive to get their students to do. Also in the Tompkins’ chapter, she talks about the differences between struggling readers and prolific readers. Struggling readers have a hard time drawing inferences between the text and the strategies of comprehension, while prolific readers can and do this in their reading. For students to become prolific readers, I feel that the strategies for comprehension must be taught. This is because we must be able to comprehend what we are reading to be able to truly be reading. There is no use in reading if we cannot comprehend, therefore, these strategies can be done by asking questions both orally and in writing by the teacher.

In terms of seeing comprehension in the field, I have seen a few of the strategies in action. On Tuesday I worked one-on-one with a girl in my class. I had her read a story to me and fill in a worksheet about it. While she read, I noticed her monitoring herself. From time to time she would read a line then accidentally go down to a line not directly below the one she was reading. She would notice that what she read did not make sense and try rereading the sentence over again. I also noticed her visualizing skills. There were pictures in the story, but many times she would look at the picture and tell me what they left out or what she would have put into the picture. After we read the story I could tell that she understood what she read by being able to write the big ideas on the worksheet.

Emergent Literacy

I cannot fully classify myself as a digital native based on this quiz. Although I could define some of the more common words and phrases at the end of the quiz, I was not able to define the first few terms. The article claims that “Digital Natives perceive technology as their friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax and communicate”. Although I do like to watch television and listen to music and relax, I do not rely on technology to live my life. I enjoy using instant messaging and exploring the internet, but technology is definitely not flawless. I often am frustrated with technology when things do not work as they are supposed to. Some examples of technology at its worst is when I am taking an online quiz and my computer freezes, I am signed off of instant messaging while talking to friends, or there is no wireless internet available when I need it. Emergent literacy and the term emergent in relation to digital literacy are different in many ways. I feel that emergent literacy learners obtain their knowledge by observing and listening to others. In other words, the children mainly learn by example. When using the term emergent digital literacy with my own personal experience, I know that I do not necessarily learn technology from others. I taught myself every piece of technology I had to use before I ever had to use it. Tompkins stresses the word “before” in his definition of emergent literacy because he wants to emphasize that concepts can be learned before the person ever develops and learns literacy skills fully. From this definition, emergent literacy and emergent digital literacy are alike because they both begin as basic concepts that can expand knowledge with practice and experience.

digital natives

After taking the quiz, I realized that I am not a digital native.  Although I could identify the terms IM, blog, and  online gaming, I was stumped on MOBS, smart MOBS, etc....  Although I definitely would not consider myself a master at all things technological, I can master a computer.  I have to admit I realize that in terms of knowing how to master creating a website, posting on YouTube, or composing music on a computer I am lacking in skill.  I believe that through this New Literacies project I will become more learned in the digital world, which is something that I have needed for a while.  In any terms, being emergent I believe is a great thing because you have so much ahead of you to learn and be able to grasp.  The world is at my fingertips when dealing with digital technology, I just need to figure out a way to introduce myself into this realm.  Emergent digital literacy and children's emergent literacy are connected, but obviously there are vast differences.  When dealing with children's emergent literacy, we have to remember that literacy encompasses a vast range of ideas, such as reading, writing, speaking, technological literacy, etc...  Children need to learn the basics of language before they can emerge from the emergent literacy to having mastered literacy.  Many adults that would not be considered a "digital native" are considered literate if they know how to read and write.  

digital native

After taking the digital natives quiz I found out that I am considered a digital native. Although I did not know all of terms, I knew more than half. For me, I learn technology rather slowly and the only types I know are the ones taught to me through school. For example I would know nothing about blogging if I did not have this assignment. I had to teach myself how and what blogging is. I consider myself to be an emergent digital learner. I think this because I am learning new digital literacies day by day. Tompkins talks about emergent literacy learners as “participating in a variety of literacy activities ranging from modeled and shared reading and writing, during which they watch as teachers read, write…” This reminds me of our literacy’s project. I will need someone to model the new technology for me to understand it. I feel that I am interested in new technologies, but without someone to teach it to me, I will never learn it. I think that it is important to teach both the “old” literacy as well as the “new” digital literacy. In today’s society more and more literacy is being produced digitally. Now I think children around the kindergarten age can be emergent in both types of literacy. It all depends on when you are subjected to the literacy.

Scaffolding

The hardest part for me about being a teacher is watching children get frustrated with a task. Scaffolding is a way of preventing frustration by assisting children in tasks they do not understand and allowing that student to grow from your assistance in other tasks. MSU professors and TAs use some strategies that ensure students are learning efficiently. Rather than writing on a black and white chalkboard, many professors create colorful and attention grabbing PowerPoint for their lessons to keep students focused. In Gibbons it states that “teacher-guided reporting is adopted to make more explicit the role of teacher in providing scaffolding for the learner” (34). This sort of scaffolding occurs in most of my classrooms at MSU. Students are consistently asked to report what they learned or how they solved a specific problem. I do like when the teacher-guided reporting is volunteer –based and open to anyone. However, the worst part of this guiding is being called on when you are unprepared to answer something and many students get frustrated.
I feel that the classroom setup is one of the most important ways to control the interaction between students-students and teacher-students. We experienced the difference hands on in our TE 401 class. In our usual Holden Hall classroom we sit in rows facing the front looking at PowerPoint slides and listening to Becky teach without interacting as much. However, in Erickson hall we were much more involved in discussion when the seats were arranged in a circle. I have also seen a difference in participation based on classroom setup in my kindergarten field placement class from TE 301. When I first started my field placement the children were seated in separate group tables. Although the children participated, the participation level increased greatly when the desks were arranged in a U-shape facing the board. In this formation, all of the children were looped around and they could see other students, the board, and the teacher. Personally, I always enjoyed the creative ways that teachers would rearrange the room to see which way students learn and interact the most and I plan to do the same.

Class discussion and scaffolding

There are many types of “talk” that I see within my classes here at MSU. Typically each type of talk is centered on a specific kind of class. When there is lecturing, the professor does most of the talking, just giving time to answer questions prompted by the students. When in a smaller recitation of a lecture class typically these classes are more discussion based. Within the Goldenberg article, he talks about the importance of discussion based activities. He talks about how the teacher should be the mediator and the initiator, but not the dominant speaker within the discussion. The teacher should prompt meaningful questions and allow the students to dictate what the main points to consider are. Sophomore year I took an IAH class that had a recitation that used the ideas Goldenberg suggested. Our TA would prompt a question and let the class discuss until there were no comments left. Within a class in a university most if not all of the students have learned the scaffolding measures to make this mean of discussion influential. In an elementary school classroom, however, students may not have the previous scaffolding techniques to be able to understand how to withhold this type of talk. Students must learn how to ask meaningful questions, listen to their classmates in order to build upon their answers, and learn how to take the focus off of the teacher and on the class. Some types of scaffolding a teacher may use are asking open-ended questions to try and promote class discussion or have children work in small groups to become more comfortable interacting with other classmates.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is an extremely important concept in terms of the classroom.  Teachers are able to aid their students by providing them with additional help if it is noticeable that they are struggling.  Once the teacher begins to aid the student, they will continue to help until the student feels competent in the task and is able to complete the task on their own.  Scaffolding is a type of help that the teacher can use to help to guide the child away from frustration while also providing a helping hand which many times is needed when children are trying to figure out higher-task problems.  In classrooms throughout my experience in the field, I have seen a lot of teaching strategies that are similar to scaffolding as well as seeing scaffolding taking place.  Such instances include in math centers, watching the teacher point to each object being counted, therefore making sure the children don't count a marble twice.  Once the student started to understand what was going on, the student was able to sort the objects so she did not count the objects twice.  Not only is scaffolding seen in math lessons, but it is also used to enhance literacy.  According to Tompkins, "Through active involvement with literacy materials, young children construct their understanding of reading and writing." This active involvement can be the teacher scaffolding for the student.  Other teaching strategies such as modeling have been implemented in my classrooms.  I have seen modeling occur in literacy lessons, where the teacher models how to hold a book, turn the pages from right to left and read the words off the page.  This modeling is how students learn to hold a book upright, turn the pages the correct way, etc.... Other teaching strategies can help us to teach children just like scaffolding can and it is important to recognize these other strategies as well.

In Michigan State classes, I have noticed some strategies that professors utilize in the classroom to attain maximum retention rates in their students.  It is obviously harder to see due to the shear class size and the little professor to student interaction, but strategies such as repeating information over and over again to make sure the students remember it, having office hours for the students so that they can come for help, and hopefully leave the office feeling reassured and able to finish the assignment on their own, etc... are strategies that we see in college classes.   

Diversity in Classroom

Having a diverse classroom environment is extremely important in order to allow children from diverse cultures and backgrounds to feel included, but also to introduce your students to different ways of life that they may not be familiar with.  Having a diverse classroom opens up your students eyes to the world around them.  Different ways to incorporate diverse cultures into your classroom is through making sure you practice an anti-biased perspective.  By doing this, as a teacher, you will not feel biased against any particular race or ethnicity, and make sure to give equal representation to all groups.  Having a diverse classroom environment can include doing and having many things.  Making sure that children have different colors of crayons that relate to skin color is important, because not everyone's skin looks like the tan from the Crayola box.  In terms of literacy, having diverse types of literature is important.  Some children do not have a standard nuclear family, and when they can only read about this family in your classroom, they begin to question why they are different.  In one particular instance, in my Fce320 placement, a children had two mothers.  She was very upset when reading a book about a mother and a dad because she could not relate to that family.  The teacher promptly placed a book about a child having two mommies, and the child felt included again.  Another way to have a diverse classroom environment is by placing posters around the room that represent different races and cultures.  A teacher may choose to have a bulletin board filled with different languages.  In a classroom for my FCE321 class, a teacher has how to say "hello" in different languages on a bulletin board.  Furthermore, when reading books to students, it is important for the teacher to engage conversations about the books.  'Book talks' are extremely important because, according to McGee, "through talk children fine-tune ways of thinking about and interpreting literature."  Therefore, when we use diverse literature, as a group, we can discuss this literature and begin to understand the different backgrounds that this book represents.  McGee also discusses "response centered talk" where he describes "readers can share their own understandings and insights" which is also important when discussing how to make a classroom diverse.  In this instance, children can discuss how their families and background are different or alike to the ones being discussed in the books.

Overall, I believe having a diverse environment, particularly when it comes to literature is extremely important to allow each child to feel represented, and included in the classroom. 

It is imperative for teachers to explore the backgrounds of students in many different ways to help them learn to their best ability. There are many different ways for students to connect personally and culturally to reading. In Triplett’s article she discusses the importance of book talks as a way of getting to know students and their backgrounds in an experience-text relationship (ETR). She states “ETR is an instructional conversation strategy meant to help teachers integrate cultural relevance into comprehension instruction” (64). I like this statement because from experience in the classroom as a student and as a future teacher in the College of Education, I have seen many scenarios where students share experiences during book talks and connect to the story in many different ways when they would not be given the chance to discuss otherwise. She mentions that it is important to get children thinking and connecting to the book before the book is even opened by asking prompt questions. For TE 301, my CT always asked questions before reading the text to get the children involved and motivated before they knew what the title of the book was. I always liked listening to the stories and answers that the kids produced from the questions she asked because they could tell you a lot about the culture and home life of students. Although it is hard to make time for book talks in the classroom with the required material and tests that students are given nowadays, teachers have to understand that book talks are very important. Students can connect to the book and also connect with other students who share some aspects of their diverse culture, while also learning to become better readers. Whether small groups or large book talk discussion, children can connect to the book and discuss their personal connections with each other.
Another way to learn about students and their cultural experiences is to have a diverse selection of books. I know that when I was in elementary school we did not have that many diverse books for the few diverse students that attended my school to relate to. Having a diverse selection of books will allow every student to connect to books differently and having book talks about diverse books allow for different experiences to be shared for the whole class to learn about. To better understand every individual backgrounds you could always have every student create their own stories about themselves. I always enjoyed the Young Author books that we worked on in elementary. We were given blank books and a topic for which we could go about creating in any way possible. Some topics that could help me as a teacher learn more about students would be “All About Me”, “My Culture”, “My Favorite Personal Memories” and even “What People Do Not Know About Me”. These topics would allow the students to reach into their memory bank and past experiences so they can share with the class diverse literature created by students.

Learning about the diversity within a classroom is essential for quality learning. To do this the teacher within the classroom must decide how to best find out the background of their students. There are many ways a teacher can find out information about their children’s background. In the preschool I work at, the head teacher goes on home visits to her new students home. One can find out a lot of information about a child by looking at the environment they are growing up in. Another option would be to meet with parents and discuss the importance of diversity in the classroom and ask if they have any background to disclose with the teacher. Besides taking out of class time to learn about diversity in the classroom, the teacher could do “get to know you” activities. One such example of this is what we did during class last week, by making poems. The about me poems help show the class as well as the teacher what aspects of the writer’s life is important to them. The different important factors within a child’s life are what makes the classroom diverse.

In terms of English language learners, Lenski came up with different categories to place her students. The four categories are as follows, Newly arrived students with adequate formal schooling, newly arrived students with limited formal schooling, students exposed to two languages simultaneously, and long-term English-language learner. By categorizing ELL students into these groups it helps the teacher begin to understand the types of literacy the children have been exposed to. Although a teacher is subdividing ELL students into these groups for assessment does not mean that they all have the same skills. Lenski makes it known that each student even if they speak the same language have different skills in terms of literacy. With that in mind it is important to know each student individually to best know their strengths and weaknesses.

literacy

Literacy is a very complex idea with many elements added.  although we may think we have a true grasp of literacy, the concepts of literacy are at many times difficult to pinpoint, and integrate thoughtfully into the classroom environment.  When asked to come up with a definition of literacy, I immediately thought of reading.  Although I know that literacy is not subjected to only reading, my initial thought processes drew me to consider a child reading a book as being literate.  After going through classes that educated me about literacy, I found out that being literate also dealt with fluency in reading and writing, but as we grow as a technological society, literacy also deals with being fluent in the technological world, meaning computers, television, and the radio.  When a child is capable of doing complex tasks while reading and writing, they are considered literate.  Literacy has changed in many ways from what it was once thought of in earlier years.  While literacy used to only entail reading, it now deals with many other aspects of society, such as technology.  The advancement of computers, televisions, etc... have lead children of today to be in need of learning these machines from a young age in order to be able to function in society.  This idea was unheard of only a mere decade ago when computers were starting to become mainstream. 

An idea literacy environment would encompass aesthetically pleasing posters that would catch the children's eyes.  These posters would not only hold words that describe the pictures, but they would teach the children about what happens in everyday life.  An ideal literacy centered environment would place emphasis on reading and writing centers. These centers would be the center of the classroom, and would occur on a daily basis.  Starting off in small groups, the children would read stories and write together.  As the children became more comfortable with each other, joining in large group to discuss their work would occur.  This would promote fluency and literacy skills, because the children are using their communication skills to inform the class of their accomplishments in the centers.  Teachers would stress the importance of reading aloud to the children, and make read aloud a part of every day.  The classroom would also have a quiet reading area, adorned with comfortable pillows to provide an oasis for children to escape to enjoy their favorite books.  According to our book, Literacy for the 21st Century it is also important to include "basal reading programs, literature circles, and workshops" into a successful environment centered on literacy.

Literacy is an important concept when dealing with children in the elementary school levels especially, which is why it's especially detrimental to take the ideas of literacy to heart. 

Literacy

Literacy

I had a really hard time creating one definition of literacy because it seems impossible to combine so many ideas and thoughts into one definition. Every time that I think I created a good one, I think of another idea that I want to add and the length of the definition keeps growing. The best definition that I can come up with is that literacy is a compilation of speaking, writing, listening, viewing, and reading. Being able to understand, practice, and teach literacy is also very important. Although I have created this definition, I do believe that it can be altered as I learn more and think of new ideas to add to this. My definition changed after our class discussions because I used to think that literacy was just speaking, reading and writing. I seemed to omit the important elements of literacy such as listening and viewing. I feel that the perfect environment for literacy includes a comfortable place where children are eager to learn and teachers are eager to teach. I liked the video we watched in class with all of the literacy centers. I feel that having these stations in a classroom allows for imagination, creativity, and learning. I plan to provide children with the choice of how they would like to practice and learn literacy whether that means providing them with books they are interested in, puppet shows, or group work. I have seen that children are more responsive and open to learning when they are given choices related to a topic that needs to be taught. Cambourne stresses that teachers should practice underdeveloped skills to prompt other ideas and discussion in order to make sure that students engage and comprehend to their full potential (189). I feel that it is difficult at times to keep children engaged and I enjoyed the chart titled The conditions of learning: the model of learning as it applies to literacy that Cambourne provided in his article. This chart mentions the different ways of learning and how these methods keep students engaged. I see this chart as being helpful in the future in applying learning conditions to teaching literacy to students.

What is literacy...?

Literacy is the knowledge of reading, writing, listening, viewing, and speaking.Within the knowledge of these aspects of literacy, one must understand how to do these things, be fluent with them, and be able to incorporate them into daily life. In Cambourne’s article he discusses many conditions of learning. These conditions of learning are reflected in terms of making sure children are comprehending what is being taught, as well as making sure that literacy is being explained in multiple ways. In relation to understanding what is being taught, the use and response conditions help convey that goal. To use the information in daily life one must understand the fundamentals behind how to do the literacy aspect. Response helps children to understand what is being taught by forcing them to see what their classmates did or did not do and give them feedback. By looking outside of what one did, the children are learning different methods of learning literacy taught by others as well as defining themselves as learners and teachers. The other goal of Cambourne’s article is to ensure children understand the material by teaching lessons in multiple ways. The conditions of immersion and demonstration help with this goal. Immersion helps to make sure the students are familiar with multiple texts, and the demonstration helps make sure the students are seeing how the texts are used.

I thought the article by Cambourne was very interesting in terms of changing my definition of literacy. Originally I thought of literacy as mainly reading and writing. The conditions he provided helped me understand the importance of the units of literacy. As we discussed in class, many times only the reading and writing aspects of literacy are focused on in teaching. The importance for reading and writing is critical in learning literacy, but the other pieces of literacy are just as important as well. Another aspect of the Cambourne article that made me change my definition reflects the idea of relating literacy in our daily lives. This concept is also explained within the Leland article, where she reads her students books without “happy” endings. The books she read were more personally connected to her students because they resembled situations of everyday life. It is important for children to relate to literacy. The majority of literacy one will engage in throughout life will not be sitting at a desk in school. It will be in daily life. To be able to draw connections to life is necessary.

The ideal learning environment for literacy would consist of a place with many different genres of books. The variety of books will help engage students into reading as well as give them options to want to read further. In terms of writing, multiple genres would be able to be explored, to promote options as well as to help keep children interested in writing. Some people may say they “hate” writing, but when you ask them to write a letter or email to a friend they are more than willing to oblige. It is important to help keep an open mind to students about literacy and by exploring many genres of books and writing there is a higher chance in succeeding. My learning environment would also consist of a lot of listening and response to other children’s ideas on literacy. This would help promote listening and speaking skills as well as help generate a greater understanding for the topic being discussed.

Goals

In order to become competent and learned in the area of children and their studies, it's very important to take the necessary precautions, such as courses aimed at children's literacy, in order to make sure children of  the generations to come are adequately prepared for their studies in the future, and their lives.  Hence, Te401 is aimed at those necessary measures to ensure our own success in teaching children.  

When reading over the syllabus, I noticed a large portion of it devoted to the Teaching Standards that we as teachers will be obligated to fulfill.  It is important for us to learn those standards, and how to incorporate them into our classroom in order to be sure we are competently teaching our students.  A goal for me in this course is to become familiar with those goals, and learn adequately how to incorporate them into meaningful lessons with which my children will learn about literacy and reading.  Another goal I have for myself is to become familiar with different ways to teach diverse learners.  Classrooms nowadays are filled with children from all backgrounds, thinking styles and ethnicities, making it extra important for the teachers of our time to become familiar with these diverse learners, and learn how to cater to each style.  This goal will only help me be more comfortable in the classroom, and allow me to cater to each child depending on the child's own needs.  Furthermore, another important goal for this course is to understand, and be able to carry out my own pedagogy of teaching.  Since the syllabus makes it sound so important, I believe that learning my own teaching reportoire, understanding the importance of assessments, and understanding children as learners is important in order to be the best teacher I can possibly be.  Another goal is learning the importance of self-assessment, in order to make sure I can accurately assess  my own findings, teaching practices, etc... to ensure I am carrying out my role as teacher as best as I can.  Self-assessment is extremely important in the classroom, and until I can understand myself as a learner, and a colleague, I will not be able to effectively integrate into my own classroom. 

Overall, this course is aimed at helping all of us become successful teachers, and while reading the syllabus, I have come to understand the aims of this course.  

Goals

I really agree with the goals of the classroom and hope to get a grasp on each individual one fully. Throughout the syllabus there are many mentions of how teachers have to cater to the different learning abilities of each individual. I feel that this is very important because no matter what lesson we teach or activity we do, every child will catch on and perform differently. In my TE 301 class my teacher always stressed the importance of being patient and flexible. These two qualities are a must because every child comes from a different background, learns different ways, and learns at different speeds. Therefore in the syllabus under Understanding Children and Adolescents as Learners hits the jackpot on how I feel when it says “You will learn to adapt your planning to the learning needs of individuals and groups”. My main goal as a teacher is to help each individual in every way possible to keep up and learn to the best of their ability. I also like the fact that the syllabus and all Teacher Education classes focus on the fact that teachers are all learners as well. Even though we are hired to teach and instruct it is important to keep learning every day as well so we can grow as individuals and be the best teachers. I hope to continue to learn well beyond my TE courses through experiences, whether good or bad, to get closer to creating the best learning environment.
I feel that the hardest part of being a teacher that I found in the syllabus will be to know all of the standards, using them correctly, and making sure that all of the necessary standards are covered. The syllabus has a helpful table in it that shows what standards we focus on during what assignments throughout the course. I just hope that it becomes less difficult separating state, district, subject, and grade standards throughout this course. Another worry that I have is keeping up with technology. The syllabus states that in this course we will “examine ourselves as a learner in English language arts and as a technology user”. With the new inventions and wider range of technological advances, I think it may be difficult to keep up with modern times and invent knew ways that children can learn using technology. My goal is to have an open mind and learn any new type of technology that comes my way and can be helpful in the classroom.

My Goals

After reading the syllabus I have developed a few goals for my learning in the class. I feel that it is important to understand and begin to accomplish the three goals of the classroom. It is important to be able to conceptualize the importance of my teaching philosophy. Right now I am capable of saying “yes this is important” but I am not completely capable of stating why. It is also important to develop pedagogy. Being able to use multiple teaching styles, knowing how to teach within the standards of the state and how to assess knowledge of the standards, and being able to know how children learn are important aspects of teaching to be an effective teacher. I need further guidance to learn these aspects so that I can become the best teacher I can be. Another goal set by the class is engaging in continuous self-assessment. A lot of times I find doing this and writing about self-assessment to be boring or a waste of time, but in the long run being able to critique myself will be an important characteristic to develop. In order for children to get a good schooling, I think it is important for me as their teacher to change my lessons or style of teaching throughout the years to get the best learning environment possible. Another goal I have is to relearn the basic terms for literacy… such as phonics, fluency… I do not feel I got a firm handle on these in 301, so trying to learn these concepts will help me. I would also like to learn more about lesson planning in terms of literacy. I feel that most of the classes I have been in are more concept based, and there is less emphasis on how to incorporate things within a classroom.