New Literacies Reflection

I have used Flickr before to store and share photos online. The notes features allows for captioning that is much more specific and interactive. I had seen is used before to mark memories on a picture of a neighborhood, and thought it had a lot of possibilities for learning. Creating a set in Flickr keeps the photos like an album, you can also tag the photos, add descriptions to the photos and to the set.

I chose to focus on visual literacy because of my interest in art and all things visual. I think these skills are something I have gotten in some of my art classes, and are concepts that I use all of the time. Those students who chose not to take art missed becoming visually literate. I think it is important to teach visual literacy to elementary students as they need to be able to read more and more images. Having discussed ways to teach vocabulary next week, I thought I might try and make in interactive and more useful type of glossary. I think students could also use Flickr and notes to create their own glossaries, stories, autobiographies, and more. In regards to teaching diverse students, if giving students choices about how to produce something, making a flickr set could be an option.

Because of my background (I used to be a studio art and art ed major) I am always looking for ways to bring the arts into my lessons. Knowing that visual literacy is an important part of literacy gives me some standards to look to where I can support my decisions to teach visual literacy skills. For example, L.RP.04.02 select, listen to or view knowledgeably, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit. L.RP.04.03 respond to multiple text types listened to or viewed knowledgeably, by discussing, illustrating, and/or writing in order to clarify meaning, make connections, take
a position, and/or show deep understanding. In order to be able to most effectively discuss, create, etc. students need to know some of the terms listed in the project.

Clearly the definition is much broader than just reading and writing (which is where I started my thinking at the beginning of the semester). I am sure that the definition will continue to broaden. Having media/technology literacy will help me be prepared to tackle teaching many types of literacy because of the endless possibilities and information it provides.

New Literacies Project:
Reflection on Learning

The new technology that I explored was a PowerPoint presentation. Although this technology may not be new to many students, it is something that I had very little experience with, and have never used as an educational tool in the classroom. I was somewhat familiar with the basic structure of PowerPoint, but I used this project as an opportunity to become more comfortable and confident with this form of technology. I attempted to play with different features, and I was particularly proud of the overall appearance of my final project.
Some of my goals concerning the knowledge, capacities and commitments I needed to develop in order to use this new technology include:
Knowledge Objective (student understanding): I will be able to locate places in the technology where text features are used to enhance the understanding of key and supporting ideas.
Capacity Objective (interpretive skills and strategies): I will be able to use text features appropriate to the literacy information.
Commitment Objective (attitudes): I will be able to engage in conversation concerning the affects of text features in presenting new literacy information.
Learning to use this technology fits with my current conceptual understanding of literacy in many ways. This project has really expanded my understanding of literacy and has introduced me to numerous ways to support literacy learning through technology. After completing this project, I realize that effective literacy instruction involves the incorporation of diverse perspectives and various forms technology/ different ways of presenting the information. I am amazed by how much I have learned about both Literacy, and the various forms of technology used to teach it!

• How has your conceptual understanding of literacy changed since beginning this class and how does the technology you explored inform your thinking? Describe your growth in what you understand to be literacy (or literacies) and how that growth has altered your conception of learning in English language arts. You may choose to offer a reflective commentary or a chronological account of "this is where I was when I started, here is where I am now, and these are the readings, events, or experiences from this course that got me there." Alternatively, you may decide to organize your discussion around themes, issues or other 'big ideas'.
• This project helped me to realize many things about literacy. Before this semester, I didn’t really know or understand the extent of the different types of literacies and how they could be incorporated through the use of technology. Along with all of the readings and class discussions, I was able to learn a lot about the different types of literacy through both my own research throughout the project, as well as learning from my peer’s presentations. Now that I have learned about the many different types of literacy and various forms of technology that can be used to teach literacy, I am very eager to continue my learning by applying this new knowledge and using more forms of technology in my teaching. it was especially interesting and useful for me to be able to compare the different ways of presenting information on Cultural Literacy to my own project. I think I was able to learn the most through the different ideas and insights presented by my fellow classmates.

• What does it mean to provide “effective literacy instruction” to diverse learners and how does the particular technology you explored inform your thinking? To help you think about these questions, review your concept map that you created early in the semester and then updated for week 8. Also access the Grade Level Content Expectations you worked with to plan your language arts lesson. If students at that grade level were learning to use the technology you explored, what knowledge, capacities and commitments in reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing would they need to develop in order to be successful? How could you incorporate that learning in your language arts curriculum and instruction?
• I think this project really opened my eyes to the benefits of using a variety of different techniques and technologies to best reach all learners. As I reflected back on my concept map concerning my thoughts and ideas about literacy, I was amazed to see how far I have come in my thinking about literacy. I realized that I had only considered literacy in terms of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and was completely oblivious to the many types and focuses of Literacy. I really discovered the importance of incorporating each of these different types of literacy and the benefits of using a variety of instructional and technological tools in teaching to diverse learners.
• I think each of the technologies that I have reviewed, as well as the technology used in my project, could be modified to accommodate all learners. I think you could use each of the technologies differently in your classroom depending on the ability level in order to make learning accessible for all students. I realized that these technologies could be incorporated into any language arts classroom and when used appropriately can help make all students successful learners!

Tech Literacies Project Reflection

Since beginning this class, I have expanded my understanding of the varieties of literacies that are relevant to teaching and their influence on teaching. For example, when I first began this class I only considered literacy in one general, traditional definition that includes reading, writing, and speaking. Since beginning this project, I have developed a much larger scope about literacy. I have always learned about ways to teach to a diverse group of students, but I don’t ever seem to learn about specific ways the students’ diversity affects their literacy learning. The focus has always been on socio-economic status, and not so much on other cultural factors, such as language, that can influence students.

Providing effective literacy instruction means that the instruction given is appropriate for all students. So, all different types of literacies must be included in curriculum – not only so that students have knowledge of the concepts of these literacies, but also so that the variety allows for success of all students.

I decided to create a comic for this project, mostly because it was one of the most popular choices that I have not yet been exposed to. I was not sure how effective it would turn out, but in the end I realized how beneficial comics can be in literacy learning. One of the GLCE’s for second grade in the writing genre states: Students will write a narrative piece such as realistic fiction, fantasy, or personal narrative depicting major story events, using illustrations to match mood, and containing setting, problem/solution, and sequenced events. Comics are extremely beneficial for meeting all of the requirements of this standard. The panels used in comics will help students develop a logical sequence of major events. In addition, the illustrations, however the students choose to create them, must match the mood of that part of the storyline. Although the writing style is not traditional, it can still be useful.

Why do you need software to create a comic though? Can’t comics be hand written? Of course, comics are not a new form of “literature.” The option is always available for students to hand write and illustrate their own comics on a piece of paper. Using software, however, is much more efficient and visually pleasing. Specifically, there is much more flexibility when using software; if a student realizes that his or her sequence of events does not make sense, it is very simple to revise the order.