Final Projects

The new literacies perspective deals with the expanding definition that has developed over the past 10 years. Today, reading, reading instruction, and more broadly conceived notions of literacy and literacy instruction are being defined by change in even more profound ways as new technologies require new literacies to effectively exploit their potentials. Literacy is no longer contained within reading, writing, listening and speaking. It involves navigating the high speed technological highway that has left its mark on the way we (more specifically, adolescents) communicate. This is a new age of sharing information in linked environments, finding content online instead of in books, and actively consuming information as opposed to passively accepting it. We also have a slue of social networks that kids are bombarded with at a very young age, and if we are to keep the safe in their learning, we need to teach them how to navigate these technologies appropriately. This new perspective requires teacher to “jump in” with both feet in terms of incorporating these technologies and literacies into the classroom. If we want our students to graduate from our classrooms (and our schools) with the right kind of skill base in order to succeed in this fast paced world of digital literacies, we as teachers need to become masters ourselves. Ignoring the fact that the times (they are a changing) will only set your class and your students up for falling behind. As a teacher, finding proven and effective ways to link these new literacies with the content that is required in an ELA classroom is a new challenge that didn’t always exist. However, there are a plethora of resources for a teacher to use in their classroom as a way to bridge this gap. Harnessing the power of these new literacies that students are already engaged in, and giving them an educational purpose is a practice that I will need to be familiar with if I want to keep my students engaged, motivated, and learning.

In terms of interactive with people about final projects – it was a little confusing with all of the different screens up and trying to communicate with everyone within the three hours. I didn’t feel like I could walk away from the computer or work on anything else while engaged with everyone. I think it was also too short of a span to really dig deep into everyone’s project for too long of a time. Overall though, it was a positive experience and it was nice to be able to ask questions and get feedback.

Using Vyvew for Discussion

Using Vyvew to discuss the readings had its pros and cons. The pros were that it was a user friendly space that took only a few minutes to become familiar with. It allowed for chatting, drawing, posting notes, typing, and for audio conference calls (which is what Marleah, Greg and I used). I think that it was hard for the three of us to communicate in that we ended up with a lot of dead air and awkward pauses. It wasn't because we didn't have anything to say, but more because we didn't want to cut each other off from talking. There was also an echo when each one of us spoke into our respective microphones, which contributed to the confusion of when to cut in and speak. Overall, I think it was beneficial in that we experienced a new way of communicating. During our session, we discussed the effectiveness of using technology in the classroom. The times are changing in terms of what is effective instruction for students, and teachers need to keep up with those changes if they are to going to make a difference in the classroom. We questioned the willingness of teachers to dapple in these kinds of technologies and step out of their comfort zone in order to introduce new classroom activities that involve the Internet and computers (to name a couple). We proposed that sooner or later, teachers will have to accept the fact that students are learning differently because of the technologies they are growing up with, and take into account those changes when designing their classroom practices.

Classroom websites!

Interesting...

I'm glad someone is finally sticking up for us!

"We all understand intuitively the difference a great teacher makes. One Los Angeles study found that having a teacher from the 25 percent most effective group of teachers for four years in a row would be enough to eliminate the black-white achievement gap..."

Click the link to read more!

Exploring Glogs!

http://kalbel.glogster.com/domestic-violence/

Visual Literacies

What I think I notice the most about this genre of study is the powerfulness of simply using my eyes (and sometimes my ears) to learn about something. I think that at times, I lose sight of the meaning behind the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words;” and at times, how helpful a picture can be in aiding understanding of a concept or a representation. Throughout my browsing of visual literacies, I found that ReadWriteThink.org actually has a comic creator that allows for both students and teachers to utilize. It isn’t as high tech as some of the other sites that are out there, but it is free, and very straightforward. I thought it was cool because it was very simple to understand, and it didn’t allow me to write a lot in the captions, but it was a great starting point for me. It was awesome to be able to create my own comic, and because of it’s usability, it could also act as an introduction for students, before they were immersed in creating their own visual literacies for class. GRR all the way!

                                            

I created a virtual field trip with music using photographs I had taken over the summer when I worked for SayYes. I used iMovie for my creation, and it was a blast. This ended up being more than just a visual literacy since I added music, but I think that the concept remains the same.  This would be great in the classroom if I wanted to frontload information for students, without asking them to read a lot of text (my ELLs and struggling readers would appreciate it). The trip was Howe Caverns but I could essentially create it on any topic linking to what I am teaching in class. I think this would be useful for Science teachers too, especially when delving into complicated concepts that students may need supplemental information for.

This comic would be a great talking point for students in a Social Studies class. Instead of giving students mindless handouts or doing popcorn reading from a textbook, introducing a comic such as this one is a great way to create a chase of pace for the students. This is current and relevant to them, and would therefore be more engaging of a topic, and it can also be used as a bridge to connect some of the content in the textbook.  Long (2008) advises: "Teacher educators – especially those of us who have chosen multimodal literacies as an intrinsic part of our practice – are currently traveling a precarious and unpredictable path in education that requires us to reflect upon and act as pedagogical advocates for the students in our care"(p. 498). A teacher who incorporates this kind of visual literacy is taking a step away from the traditional literacies of textbook reading and handouts, and introducing students to a new kind of learning - one that is multi-modal and critical, and can carry them far beyond the classroom walls.

 This is a picture of Monet's Impression Sunrise painting. I chose to add it to my blog because I think that art is a great visual literacy that I wish I myself was more educated in. I love going to museums and seeing paintings, but sadly I don't think I could tell the difference between Impressionists' paintings and a Baroque-era creation. Students should not only be versed in reading and writing, but I also think they should be well-rounded and cultured - which is where art and music steps in.

“Because the majority of instructional texts at the elementary level contain various types of pictorial representations, both for motivational and instructional purposes, attention to viewing as a language art has become paramount in today’s classroom. In order to be considered literate, students must be taught to “read” visual images in addition to connected text” (McVicker, 2007, p. 85). Visual literacy in the form of paintings, sculptures, statues, pottery, etc., will help students become well-rounded individuals, and it would not be a stretch for ELA and Art teachers to collaborate and work together to make connections across the classes and really get student thinking critically about the content in both classes. For example, if a class is reading Wuthering Heights in ELA, they could be looking at art from that time period during Art class. (This is just one example, I'm not that creative, but I have faith that it can be done!) I think that students need more than just the basics to get them through school, and Monet may just be the ticket.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Internet Projects & Quests

The instructional model that I choose to read about and research is Internet projects. The videos from the UConn website were very informative, and also easy to understand. I like the idea of Internet projects because they allow for collaboration between 2 or more classrooms. I can remember when I was in elementary school, every year I had a different pen pal from a neighboring town, and even though it was only 30 minutes away, I was extremely awed by the fact that I was communicating with someone that didn’t go to my school and I had never met before. The possibilities of sharing a project with a school in a different city or country are endless - cultural exchanges can take place, students will learn about a way of life that is not their own (in addition to learning the content of the project), and they will also learn how to collaborate with a group of students that they don’t know very well.  I think that while getting started, I will probably have to stick with the web-based projects since they are already created and available for me to become familiar with. Once I become more adept at handling all of the aspects of the projects, I would like to write my own “spontaneous” projects, because I feel as though I can adapt them to fit the content that I want to teach. It was extremely hard for me to find sample Internet projects using Google, so instead I used the thinkquest.org website that was recommended by the UConn video where students create internet projects and submit them to a competition. I felt that these were a mix between a project and an inquiry, because a lot of the submissions were created by a group of students, but the projects were similar to an inquiry in that they answered a specific research question.

I chose the 2009 winner, a project all about saving the planet and its species: http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/00473/#

This project/quest has a short movie in the beginning; one that I think would address the multiple learning needs of a classroom, even ELLs. Sox & Rubinstein-Avila (2009) assert that in terms of Webquests, “The use of illustrations, graphic organizers, trade books, and audiovisual resources provide scaffolding, making the content information more easily accessible for ELLs” (41). This quest had animations, an easy to understand organizational structure, and the directions were very clear. Scrolling over one part of the quest would result in a short description popping up, which I think would be helpful for an ELL if they didn’t know what a term on the site meant. The language was also very straightforward, another benefit for English-language learners. I think that this sort of project has great potential for my classroom, mostly because it can serve as a culminating project for what my students have learned using technology, and also to demonstrate their knowledge of critical literacies. As a teacher, it will be my job to educate students on finding reliable sources using the Internet and being critical about the information they come across. Helping to be come “healthy skeptics who learn how to critically evaluate Internet information through several guided experiences with websites” will serve them in the future, long after they leave my classroom (Leu, Leu, & Coiro 2004, p. 100). this project will also be a way for them to demonstrate what they have learned.

Overall, I think that Internet inquiry, projects, and quests have great potential for learning in my classroom and I can’t wait to get started!