Emotional Literacy/Scrapblog Reflection

When I was first introduced to this project at the beginning of this semester, I have to admit I was very overwhelmed. I thought this project was going to be very time confusing and I was unsure how to approach it. I'd never used a lot of the technology that was listed to complete this project. When we were going over the different ways to use technology for this project, I had no idea where to begin. I also didn't realize how many different types of literacy there was. This project definitely opened my eyes to the different types of literacy and learning methods.

However, as I focused on one type of literacy and then picked the most interesting technology on the list, things began to get easier. I chose emotional literacy because that was the topic that I was interested in the most and I wanted to see how it impacted learning. I chose the scrapblog because it reminded me of a hobby I love to do...scrapbooking! When I made my username and password, I started playing around with the scrapblog and found it difficult to stop! I was having so much fun figuring out creative ways to decorate my scrapblog and catch the viewer's attention. It was just like scrapbooking except if you made errors it was easier to fix and a scrapblog is way less expensive! How cool.

Because this scrapblog is so easily accessible for children and super easy to use, I figured it was a great form of technology for children. I can definitely see children using this in the classroom for a research project or any kind of project for that matter. A scrapblog is great for students to display something they've learned in an appealing way.

As I began putting my pages together, I really had to research the definition of emotional literacy and the variety of ways to illustrate emotional literacy. I never realized just how important emotional literacy is in the classroom and life in general! Emotions influence our thoughts and actions and affect our bodies and impact our relationships. Because emotions have everything to do with how we process information, we as future teachers need to be well aware of the importance of emotional literacy. Humans are social beings and need to feel comfortable in their surroundings. Emotional literacy plays an important role on all individuals. It is important to understand just how important this is as teachers and be able to implement it in our future classroom.

I feel that scrapblogs and other forms of technology this project had to offer should be used in classrooms. I can see many ways that children can benefit from them and ways that teachers can really engage their students. With how technology is growing more and more everyday, it's important for us as teachers to be aware of this growth and use it in our classrooms to keep students informed and interested. Every individual would benefit from using these different technologies.

New Literacy Reflection-Emotional Literacy

Now that I have completed my new literacy project and have reviewed a classmate's, I can honestly say that when I started this class I did not realize all the different types of literacy there are. I just assumed there was one literacy-writing. From working on this project though, I have come to realize there are many other ways to be literate such as culturally, technologically, emotionally, visually, and environmentally. These are all important aspects of the world, but I had never considered them to be literacy learning methods.

When it came to actually starting my new literacy project, I was completely overwhelmed because I am the type of person who avoids technology like the plague. So when it came to this project where we had to use a technology to teach it to others, I was worried. To make matters worse, when we were exploring topics in class I had no idea where to even begin. I kept flip-flopping between visual and emotional literacy because I figured those would be the two areas I would be able to do a project passionately about. As the deadline came closer to turn in a project plan, I decided to do emotional literacy because I was interested to see how it impacted learning. Now the only thing I had to do was decide on a technology, so I started looking at projects from students last year. Then AHA! I found a technology that I actually thought was cool and not very frustrating to use...a scrap blog! It was exactly like making a scrapbook, but only online! I love anything crafty, so this seemed to be the perfect thing for me to do!

Finally, I was able to start on my project! As I tinkered around with the scrap blog technology, I have to admit I was a bit frustrated at first, but as I started to familiarize myself with the technology and how it worked, it was a piece of cake. I found out this was a technology I feel young students would be able to use successfully because it is accessible and easy to use once you get over the initial start. As I started to design my page layouts I did research on emotional literacy and for the first time realized how important feelings and emotions are when it come to literacy. People experience feelings and emotions everyday, it is a part of who we are and a result of what we experience. But to imagine not being able to express feelings, would be terrible. This is were emotional literacy comes into play. This literacy deals with people, their emotions, and how they relate to themselves, others, literature, and the world around them. Being able to express feelings is an essential and healthy way for us to express ourselves and if we do not develop these skills, it could hinder us from being able to tell others how we feel as well as understand how others feel.

Emotional literacy does play an important role for all individuals whether they realize it or not. When it comes to incorporating this into a classroom, I feel it is necessary. Even though it is not directly expressed in the GLCEs to express one's feelings, the expectations they set when it comes to comprehension, demands them. In order to comprehend and apply what students are reading, they have to have the knowledge and/or experiences in order to connect to the text. This is where emotions can be found. When students can bring their own experiences into what they are learning and reading, it not only helps them understand what is going on, but they also are bringing significant meaning to what they are learning. If scrap blogs and other similar technologies will help students develop these skills in a way that is important to them, then I feel these technologies should be made available to students. Regardless of the new literacy, I feel every individual would benefit from being exposed to new technologies as well as new literacy's.

New Literacies Reflection

When this assignment was first given I was not sure what direction to go in. I knew that I wanted to do something with cultural literacy, because I enjoy learning about other cultures and I feel it is an important component to incorporate in the classroom. Then, I began to play around with Scrapblog. I had a lot of fun and even made up a Scrapblog of my own. Then it dawned on me that I could incorporate one of the most culturally significant experiences of my college career into this project. So, I decided to use the New Literacies Project to explore my study abroad experiences in Ireland through the lens of cultural literacy.

From there I brainstormed what I thought were the most salient aspects of Irish culture that I learned about and that would be most useful to students learning about Irish culture. I obviously could not incorporate all the aspects of Irish culture into one Scrapblog, but I tried to choose a mix of semi-familiar references to unknown and interesting facts.

The creative process took a long time for me to complete. I wanted to use as many pictures from my own Irish travels as possible. I also wanted to make the pages interesting and engaging for people to look at. I think that my personal connection to the topic encouraged me to spend extra time putting the Scrapblog together--and I enjoyed doing it! I kept thinking of all the ways that I could have students use this in the classroom. For example, they could create a classroom magazine, a illustrated book, or a reflection from a field trip.

Also, the more that I relived my Irish experiences and researched the Irish culture, I realized that it is extremely important that people recognize these themes. Many people only think of Ireland on March 17th, but it is a large part of our own culture. Ireland is not just leprechauns and pots of gold, it is a nation that embodies a fierce, determined spirit amidst persecution and turmoil. If a student were reading a book by an Irish author, or heard an Irish reference, how would they understand its true meaning without a solid cultural awareness and understanding?

Overall, I have taken many things away from this project. I think that I will be eager to use Scrapblog in my classroom and I will be even more interested in building cultural literacy in my classroom.

New Literacies Project Reflection

When we first got the New Literacy’s project, I was very overwhelmed. Though as I worked on it I realized that it wasn’t so bad and was actually really fun to find information and put to work the ideas and concepts I have learned through my Environmental Science classes. I chose to use scrapblog as my technology because I love to scrapbook and I wanted to figure out a new way I can use scrapbooking, such as online. I chose Environmental Literacy as my focus, because Environmental Science is one of my minors and I thought it would be neat to use some of my information from classes and see how it relates to Environmental Literacy.

There were so many different ways I could go with Environmental Literacy because there are many different areas of Environmental Science. So, I chose to focus on Environmental Stewardship and what it takes to become a good steward. I felt like this is an area that often gets overlooked because parents, teachers and adults tell children they should recycle, turn oft water when brushing teeth, but they never say why, they never really “teach” them. Stewardship does just that, it informs people about their environment and their effects on the land and then gets them involved in the process. Therefore, I focused my project to help inform teachers, parents, and adults to realize that they need to explain and inform their students about the word and get them involved.

One of my classes last semester focused on Environmental Education and Stewardship, though it is built into many of my classes, so I was able to pull information from my classes. I was also able to pull ideas from where I work: Fenner Nature Center, and on campus with my professor in the Community Agriculture Recreation and Resource Services Department (CARRS). At the Nature Center all of our programs include stewardship ideas and ways to treat the nature respectfully, and my work in the CARRS department is on a few projects involving stewardship: Project FISH put on my MSU Extension and Michigan Conservation Stewards Program put on by MDNR and MSU Extension. This was a major starting point for me in my project.

I had many difficulties with the technology part of this project. Some of the problems included, the link button, the timer (how much time was spent on each slide), uploading pictures, and changing the font color. I could not get the “link” button to work so I could make it easily accessible for people to take my quiz or look at my resources. Also, the timer was too fast on the scrapblog, even when slowed down to the tortoise, which made it hard to read each slide in the amount of time given. I had a really tough time uploading pictures into the project, even though they try to make it easy, I would download pictures online and add them to my photos and the photos would not show up when I tried to pull them in using the site. I almost turned in my project without outside photos, until a friend told me that photobucket was really easy. So I set up an account and away I went. I also tried many times to change the color of my font from black and was unsuccessful. Some of these glitches I came across were really frustrating and made me want to stop the project all together, but I got over it.

Even though I have had many experiences with Environmental Stewardship, doing this project helped me reflect on myself as an environmental steward and see ways I could use this in my future classroom. I can see the scrapblog as a new way to use technology in the classroom. I would most likely use this as an end of the year assignment, by working the students towards this project. I would do this by having them write short informative essays first, then have them make their own books on various topics, followed by doing a PowerPoint and a PhotoStory getting them used to technology. Then, finally graduate them to scrapblog since it is more detailed and involved.

Basal Programs and Vocabulary

What are Basal Reading Programs? Until class, I had no idea what these programs were or what their purpose was. However, after reading the articles and having the opportunity to manipulate Basal Reading material, I now have a better understanding of what it is. Basal Reading programs are basically text books published with stories, activities and guided instruction tips for teachers to use and implement in their classrooms. As learned in class, these books basically take care of any reading lesson planning because most Basal programs use the GLCEs. Although these programs are beneficial to teachers time wise, they also have a few negative qualities. One issue is particuluar deals with the amount of information they expect a teacher to cram into a week's worth of time. When looking through the Basal reader, my group and I thought it would be extremely unrealistic to complete everything as outlined by this program. Another minor set back would be that the content maynot contain interesting stories to the students who have to read it or the teachers who have teach it. Since literacy is the most important subject for students to master, it is important that they feel engaged. Overall the Basal system has some great qualities and a few things it could use some improvement on. For me personally, I would use a Basal program, but to my discretion I would probably pick and choose what I teach my students from it, making sure to stick to the GLCEs.

With regard to vocabulary, I used to think this involved just the word and what it means in relation to the context it is in. However, now I realize vocabulary is more than knowing what a word means, it also involves being able to identify it within text automatically. When students are able to identify words automically it become a sight word, meaning they can read it automatically and comprehend what it means. Sight words are extremely important to reading because as literacy learners develop their reading skills, when they read, they do not actually read an entire word. Instead, their eyes and brain have become familiar with what certain words look like in order for them to gain comprehension. The goal for teachers then, should be to implement a wide range of vocabulary instruction, not only to expose students to a wide range of words, but also to help students develop sight words automatically, which will in the long run make them better readers as they practice seeing and interacting with words.

Balanced Literacy and The Basal Reading Program

I believe that in order to have a balanced literacy program, you need to include the basal reading program. Though, I do not believe that it is useful to make your entire literacy program based on basal reading. As a teacher, you need to tailor your instruction to your students’ needs and the basal reading program mainly only focusing on one type of student learner at a specific level. I believe that the basal reading programs are good to an extent in that they have lesson plans already made that you can easily incorporate into your everyday instruction. Though, I think I would select different parts of the lessons and add/tailor them to fit in my instruction and the individual needs of my students. There are many good lessons in the books, such as comprehension, phonemic, writing, and many uses for students to build upon their skills which are great to have for balanced literacy instruction.

I have not seen a basal reading book in my classroom this year. They do have a spelling test book that the CT uses every week, but I do not believe that this is apart of the basal reading program. Despite the fact that I have not seen a basal program taking place in the classroom, my CT does use guided reading almost everyday with the students. She has about 5-6 groups of 3-5 students who are at the same level. These students are working on the same 4 books for about a week or two and they the different steps to guided reading: pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying.

Guided Reading and Basals

Balanced literacy is a useful tool to guide literacy instruction in the classroom. Its components and stages encourage students to develop literacy skills in a variety of ways. Basal reading programs can be coupled with a balanced literacy approach in the classroom. I agree with Avalos et al's discussion of how grade level texts can incorporate a vast quantity of material and resources to help teachers use guided reading instruction. These texts benefit all students because they can be individualized with structured lesson formats and built-in assessments. Although there are many benefits to using basals in the classroom, I have noticed that their effectiveness depends on how and when the teacher chooses to incorporate them.

I have noticed that it's much easier to introduce key concepts like vocabulary or phonemic awareness skills since there is a built-in repetition to the lesson plans. However, simply relying on basals for whole class instruction does not meet the individual needs of students. I prefer the use of basals in the classroom when it is coupled with a more individualized, small group guided reading instruction. This way the structured, useful components of basals can be built upon during smaller group time, like in literacy centers.

Vocabulary Instruction

In class we discussed the importance of vocabulary instruction at all age levels. Vocabulary is the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Without vocabulary it is not possible for students to begin breaking down and understanding text.

Vocabulary instruction should include thoughtful instructional strategies as well as thoughtful selections in the actual words. Teachers should only choose words that are important, have use, and are appropriately difficult. Although most vocabulary learning is done indirectly, it's important to incorporate explicit direct word learning strategies. These strategies include using context clues, reference materials, and being familiar with word and word part origins.

Moreover, teachers must follow up vocabulary with repeated exposures. Children will not learn a word to a permanent and meaningful degree without repeated opportunities to see the word, hear the word, and use the word.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is among the comprehension literacy framework. Like all of the components of literacy, they are tied together. You need to have a good understanding of vocabulary before you can comprehend the text. In class we learned many different strategies for vocabulary learning. Vocabulary learning can be indirect learning, which could be read-alouds, extensive reading, conversation/oral language practice, or incidental. Jen also showed us word learning strategies such as context clues, dictionary/reference books, and word parts/origins. We learned that it's extremely important to give repeated exposure to these words. In my classroom at field, my CT puts up word walls for the students to continuously expose themselves to these new words. This helps them see the words over and over again until they're used to them and they aren't new anymore. Along with word walls, you can use word games or class dictionaries for repeated exposure as well.

When choosing vocabulary words, Jen mentioned that we make sure they were 3 things. First of all, that they are important words and not words that the kids will never use or see again. Next, it's important for the words to be useful that can expand the children's vocabulary and that they can use in everyday sentences. Finally, it's important for the words to be somewhat difficult for them. It should be a challenge or a word that they haven't heard before so they can learn but not be frustrated at the same time.

Fluency and Word Recognition

Literacy is a very important part of a child's schooling. In class last week we talked about fluency and word recognition which are two very important parts of literacy. Word recognition is important for students as they read and recognize certain words in a text. They should be able to understand these words and recognize them automatically. In my field placement, my CT keeps up a handful of high frequency words that the students can see every single day they enter the classroom. When the students are reading a book with the CT, she will point out these high frequency words. The students are constantly studying these words until they become automatic with their usage. When words become automatic to students, this helps students become more fluent. Reading fluency is the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with expression. Writing fluency is the ability to write quickly, coherently with automaticity and ease. A lack of decoding ability breaks down fluency. A lack of fluency breaks down comprehension. So, all of these skills are linked together to become successful at literacy. All of these components are extremely important to cover in my future classroom.

Vocabulary Instruction

Students are constantly learning new vocabulary through their experiences in the classroom and at home, they learn through conversations, reading, etc… Some different approaches to vocabulary instruction in the classroom are using word walls, having class discussions, learning vocabulary, reading aloud, using dictionaries, phonic skills, spelling and writing. Using a mix of the above approaches in the classroom will help support well balanced vocabulary instruction. It is important for teachers to read to the students aloud daily as well as building their vocabulary daily.

With the help of the teacher modeling, and then slowly phasing out, letting the students take control, the students can use their vocabulary skills, to decode words and figure out their meanings through context clues, using word-learning strategies, using definitions and roots of words. Students learn through repetition, so if a new vocabulary word is introduced, it is the teacher’s job to make sure that they use the word in their instruction. Also, it is important to teach students words that may be above their level so that they can have a variety of words to use in their everyday speech and writing.

Fluency and Word Recognition

Literacy is an extremely important part of any child's education, especially since it is the building block for other subject areas. Some key aspects of literacy include word recognition and fluency. With word recognition, students should be able to successfully decode and notice words automatically. As students start to learn and notice high frequency words or words that occur often in text, they become fluent. It is through exposure and practice reading these words that enable students to become fluent. Since students are having many encounters with the same words repeatedly they become familiar and comfortable with many words and the letters and sounds that compose them. As a result students continue to build their literacy skills, helping to them succeed both in and outside of school.

In my current placement, the best way I have seen word recognition and fluency improve has been through simply reading the same few books for a week or two, then gradually incorporating higher reading level books into each student's coursework. This method involves students reading the same words over and over again, helping to make them not only see and read the words, but also helps them hear what the word is. Although this may seem repetitive, it truly helps students familiarize themselves with words and increasing their fluency in using and noticing these words. As students become comfortable reading a particular level of books, then they move up a step, exposing them to knew words. Over time, students become familiar with high frequency words as well as become fluent readers. This activity really improves more than one specific area in literacy for students and from my observations of my 2nd graders, it truly helps them become more fluent students.

Word Recognition and Fluency

Accuracy, automaticity, and prosody are important components of fluency. Instruction and assessment should focus on both automaticity and prosody characteristics, with regard to the students' reading ability and accuracy. Fluency instruction should occur at or a little above the student's reading ability. This way students are actually able to read the text, but it is still presents an appropriate challenge.

Hudson talks about several specific strategies and tools to use when developing word recognition and fluency, including repeated readings, timed repeated readings, and activities including practiced performances. I think that this was a particular point that I liked and would like to incorporate in my classroom. Students learn best when they feel like what they are doing is meaningful and has an immediate purpose. I think doing Readers' Theatre, performing for an audience, Radio Reading, etc. have a great place in fluency instruction and in any classroom.

Word Identification and Fluency

There are many key approaches to assess students with respect to word identification one is by using timed repeated readings which help students with decoding as well as their word identification ability. Other ways to assess students with respect to word identification that are suggested in the Tompkins book are keeping running records: miscues, errors with respect to semantics, graphophonic and syntactic cueing systems; and using decoding ability tests (305). These different ways allow the teacher to hear where the students struggle and where they are progressing to know what areas they need to focus on or what areas they can back off from a little.

One key approach to assessing students with respect to fluency are by using running records just like for word identification, but by paying attention to the speed, intonation and pauses. Another approach to assess students with respect to fluency are by using echo, choral, partner and whisper readings, these four ways start off by supporting students the most to giving the least support which helps them become more fluent as the progress. These assessment approaches allow the teacher to hear how the student reads, is it choppy, smooth, etc…, and lets them slowly phase out of the reading and let the students read on their own to become a more fluent reader.

Comprehension

After last week's class, it struck me how comprehension is so important to students, yet at the same time occurs without even knowing it. As we listened to the story read to us and made predictions about what might happen next, every single person in our class was comprehending and taking in information from the text. For us, it seems to happen almost automatically, but for students, they need guidance and it is clear how this can shape how they learn and take in information.

In my 2nd grade classroom, my teacher does an amazing job of monitoring and implementing comprehensive skills within each lesson, regardless of what topic is being taught. She constantly asks them questions and repeats information in order to emphasize and test what the kids are understanding. Whether lessons are being taught about sharks, where visuals are used so the students can name the different fin types, to geometry where cards and wood shapes are manipulated, the kids are constantly demonstrating their knowledge and comprehension to my CT. I feel the students greatly benefit from the visual extremes and questions asked by my CT in order to further their understanding. My teacher does an amazing job of keep her kids interested and testing their knowledge in a way that does not put them on a spot. I can definitely see myself implementing teaching strategies for comprehension similar to what I see in my placement.

Comprehension

While reading Tompkins Reading Stages, I couldn’t believe how detailed each stage was and how descriptive the entire process was. Tompkins stated, “Reading is a process in which readers comprehend and construct meaning.” This shows how important it is to take away an understanding of the text after reading it. A lot of children struggle with comprehension and with as many stages as there are, I can understand why. It’s easy for me to comprehend texts because I’m at a higher level and don’t have to focus as much on vocabulary or pronouncing the words correctly. I can focus my attention on what I’m getting out of the story and what exactly is taking place.

The Kindergartners in my placement are constantly being read short stories. The CT always asks them questions during the story to see if they’re following along and paying attention. She’ll also ask them questions to engage them and keep them interested in what’s being read to them. At the end of the story she will go over the main points of the book and ask questions. She also relates the text to their own lives for them to gain a better understanding, which I think is very important. I think overall my CT does a great job tying in comprehension strategies for the children to utilize. This helps them better understand the text read to them.

Reading Comprehension

For the most part, comprehension is something that I do automatically and do not necessarily think about specifically. Both the readings and the class discussion held brought back memories of when I was learning to read and then learning how to comprehend what I read. When I read a book for pleasure or an enjoyable book for class, I will make predictions, inferences, visualize, use my prior knowledge, make connections to what I am reading to my personal life. I will also do some of this when reading text books for classes, though it takes me a much longer time to read the text and comprehend it because it is often technical or dry. I will often have to go back and forth with reading text books because I will forget what I just read or it didn’t make sense. This is defiantly a purpose issue for me, my purpose is to read it for class to pass an exam, but I do not enjoy it all the time if it is too technical or if it is dry.

Comprehension is something that is automatic for me, but it is not something that is automatic to students. They need the framework to start them off in the learning process of comprehension. Framework is needed in the beginning stages to help guide students to take in the information and the main points of what they are reading or what they are hearing.

My 2nd grade class is all about comprehension and discussions of books, whether they are story books, social studies books, scientific books, etc. My CT encourages students to bring up main points of the book, make connections to the text to their own lives, other books, or the world around them. She does this through questions, reading logs, summarizing, making connection charts, visualizing, think-alouds, and writing reflections. I believe that my CT does a great job at teaching comprehension to the majority of the class. I also think that some of the comprehension strategies that we discussed in class would be helpful too in a classroom setting such as quickwrites and K-W-L charts.

Comprehension in the Classroom

This week's class helped me to think a lot about the importance of comprehension instruction in the classroom. When I read Tompkins' description of the reading process I was surprised at the details and extensiveness of each stage of reading. Our descriptions of all the comprehension strategies hinted at how difficult it is for students to learn about, understand, and apply all of those "steps" in reading. I've seen this happen frequently in my placement and in when reading myself. If a student (or I) cannot comprehend the text, then nothing has been gained.

Even though it is obvious that making connections and comprehending text is the most important component of reading, I often see it neglected in classrooms. In my 6th grade placement I often see quick, end-of-the-chapter questionnaires that are meant to monitor comprehension. However, when I did my reading discussion it was evident that not all comprehension was monitored through the worksheets. Several students were able to recall surface details but did not know the importance of key events in the story or make inferences. The strategies we talked about in class are more time consuming, require more thoughtful planning, and need lots of practice. However, I think that using the strategies we discussed in class are more effective at monitoring comprehension, building comprehension skills, and reaching a broader group of students who may struggle with traditional paper and pen activities. Overall, I think they are better at targeting deeper level comprehension.

Digital Immigrant: Added to Vocabulary

Up until taking the digital immigrant test, I personally felt I had a decent idea of how to use technology. However, once I saw the very first question on the test dealing with modding, I knew at once I was a digital immigrant. I have never been very much into technology other than knowing what was necessary to complete my schoolwork. Now that I know I am a digital immigrant, I honestly can say I had never even heard of the term. In my opinion, a person who is digitally savvy has many experiences dealing with various means of digital communication. Unlike myself, the most digital communication I have taken part in, has come from my TE 401 and TE 402 classes. 

As much as I am a digital immigrant, it is important that I become an emergent learner in this area. Digital communication is becoming a way of life, especially in many aspects of learning. Being an emergent learner in this new digital era, the best way for me to begin learning is to slowly submerse myself into technologies such as wikis, blogs, etc. Through interaction with these new forms of communication, I will become more fluent and comfortable using these technologies. Also considering many students, younger than myself have a broader sense on how to use these technologies, as an educator I need to keep up with what students are learning and interacting with on a daily basis. With more exposure to digital medias, my hope is to retake the digital test again and no longer be a digital immigrant.

Digital Immigrant

I am a digital immigrant. I was not surprised by this result, because I know the basic functions of the computer such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, as well as how to use a cell phone, a digital camera, a digital picture frame, an iPod, instant messaging and photo story. Though before this semester, I had heard of Wiki’s, blog, and Google docs, but had never used them. I am most definitely an emergent learner in respect to my digital learning. I probably always will be an emergent digital literacy learner because I am always behind in learning about new technology. Also, since technology is constantly changing, it makes it very hard to keep up with all the new technologies and things one can use. Even my dad who is a computer programmer, has a hard time keeping up with the fast growing technology advances.

Emergent digital literacy is very similar to the way Tompkins describes emergent literacy in many ways. An emergent digital literacy learner has to learn a new set vocabulary and figure out what each term means and how it is used in the digital world; strategies on how to use the different digital mediums; comprehension of the new terms/vocabulary when reading or writing in the new digital literacy; and an emergent digital literacy learner has to learn about the different content-areas of study involved in digital literacy.

I Am a Digital Immigrant

After taking the digital native quiz I realized that I’m not as technologically savvy as I had thought I was. I knew certain words like ‘blog’ that we’ve been introduced to in college. However, some of the words I had never seen or heard of before this quiz. Times are definitely changing and this world is depending more and more on technology. Every time I turn around there’s something new that has been invented. Technology is growing and progressing every day at an extremely fast rate.

Now I realize that I’m not a digital native but rather a digital immigrant. I do not know as much as I thought I did. I always compared my knowledge of technology to my parents knowledge and could be the explanation as to why I thought I was so digitally native. I recall countless times having to explain certain things on the computer (facebook, microsoft word, itunes, even e-mail). However, being 21 years old I know that there’s been even more technology introduced to this world that I’ve never seen or heard of. I believe that technology can be a great tool to introduce into my future classroom. My neighbor is a teacher at an elementary school and she asked the school if she could have two ipod-touches and an apple desktop computer for her classroom. They allowed her to and she uses them daily in multiple ways with her classroom. She says she absolutely loves them and so do the kids! I think this is a fantastic idea if the school can afford them, to introduce kids to the efficiency of technology and I hope I can do the same in my future classroom.

Digital Natives

When I took the digital natives quiz I was surprised at the result. I had thought that I was fairly competent and current with technology. When I took the quiz I realized that I only know a lot about a few things, and I am completely unaware of others. From talking with others who took the quiz this seemed fairly common.

I think that this result makes me a digital immigrant. Technology is something that I have to constantly learn and relearn. It progresses faster than I can process it and apply it. I can definitely understand better how my parents and grandparents feel when they encountered computers, cell phones, or text messaging for the first time. To them I may seem like a "digital native," but really my digital literacy learning is constantly emerging.

I also realize that our students are emergent technology and literacy learners in many ways. In my sixth grade class, some students are familiar with making powerpoints and videos, but they need help making webpages. On the other hand, some students do not even know what a Word document is. I think that this illustrates that all students need to be immersed in technology. It is not easy to categorize students because everyone is in the process of learning some new technological skill.

Classroom Discussions

Within the community of my classroom, a vast majority of conversations taking place are very interactive between the students and the teacher. The most dominant form of conversation I see on a regular basis is instructional based, where my CT leads, guides, and supports the students. She will address issues and concepts and raise questions relating to the context. Once she poses a question, she encourages all her students to answer and will restate what they said to exhibit her knowledge of what the students are saying. Sometimes from this, other students will say they agree with the last person to talk and will continue to provide their own answer. During this setting, the conversation is welcome and contained within a safe learning environment. Another from of discussion I have seen includes more one one on attention between my CT and a few students or one student. Within this setting, the conversation and instruction is more personalized and catered to each student's needs, while at the same time providing them the opportunity to participate in a more "safe" environment. On occasion, I will also see mini discussions pop up among the students when they are talking to one another. They question one another and will also to a certain extent offer support and build off of one another's comments. Discussion does occur within this classroom and I would say functions as an important aspect of the learning that happens within the classroom.

With regard to scaffolding, some aspects that may help implement better response-centered discussion may include building questions. I feel if the students have a solid foundation they can build upon discussion wise they will be able to do a better job of talking and participating. Perhaps a way my teacher could incorporate this would be to find topics of interest that will draw the student's interest as some of the articles we read suggested. If the students are interested in what they are potentially talking about, I think it would allow them to be more outspoken with their thoughts as well as inspired to learn and explore the topic further. Another aspect I may suggest would be to allow plenty of wait time because as of now, my teacher does a decent job doing this, however I feel if there was more time for the students to think, their responses would be better thought out. For specific students in my class who have learning disabilities, I feel this would be extremely helpful and beneficial for them. Perhaps rewording or guiding the response-centered discussion would help these students be more successful, positive learning participants in the discussion.

In my classroom, I feel discussion is important, but at the same time needs to be tailored to support the students within the classroom. Support, presentation of questions and information in my opinion are the most important aspects of a successful discussion, as well as student participation.

Class Discussions

In my classroom I am seeing a lot of instructional conversations, which promotes comprehension through discussion. It is a joy to watch this teacher because she is always assisting the children to think, reason, comprehend, and understand the important ideas being taught. I learned in the Goldenberg article that this type of discussion is Instructional Conversation. The CT does make sure to keep the students on track but tries to step back and let the kids ask each other questions. The CT definitely has to guide the students and asks questions that will keep the students engaged and focused to the task at hand.

The scaffolding that’s needed for response-centered talk to take place is, I’ve always believed, an extremely safe and positive learning environment. If the students respect each other’s answers and conversations then everyone should feel comfortable to voice their opinions. The classroom rules/norms should be set up immediately on the first day of class so the students are able to practice these every day. I believe that it’s impossible to expect student’s to develop a positive and efficient response-centered talk without having a fantastic classroom community beforehand.

Since this is my second week having visited the elementary school, I don’t know each individual student well enough to answer the question about particular types of scaffolding.

Classroom Discourse

I don't get to see a lot of student driven discourse in my sixth grade placing. The class really emphasizes a traditional lecture, recitation, and round robin reading style. They do incorporate interesting literacy related projects, but they are usually independent and don't incorporate cooperative learning. When students do ask questions or a discussion is started it represents an I-R-E format. Frequently, student ideas are glossed over or ignored altogether instead of expanded upon. It's frustrating to see this happen in the classroom, because I can see how many students would benefit from discussion.

As discussed in the McGee article, all students can benefit from response centered discussions because students can discover and construct new information together. In this class there are many students who struggle with the reading material and need extra help identifying important details and understanding the story. Other students need to be challenged to think beyond the surface level and develop a more critical eye. I know many students are not comfortable talking and asking questions to the class, but they could get the help they need in a comfortable, reassuring small group setting.

Discussions in the Classroom

In my second grade classroom, I see both the recitation type “discussions” and actual discussions. Most of the discussions in my classroom start off as I-R-E, but flow to a beneficial discussion. Though, most of the discussions are dominated by the boys in the classroom and the CT. When my CT is looking for a specific answer she will call on one of three or four boys in the classroom whose hands go up first and whom she knows will give the right answer. The girls in the class are very shy and though they know the answers, or have good questions or thoughts they often do not share them. I believe that some of this has to do with the opportunity to do so, but not always.

The scaffolding that is needed for response-centered talk to take place is a good classroom community where the students feel comfortable to share their thoughts and ideas, and a set of classroom norms. Other ways to help response-centered talk, I believe, are mentioned in the Weinstein reading, supporting the participation of diverse learners. Using these different techniques will help bring the students into the conversation and discussions more effectively. Such as changing the way of asking questions, becoming familiar with different discourse patterns and allowing for accommodations in patterns, have explicit instruction and provide alternate response formats such as individual dry erase boards (p321-322).

I believe that explicit instruction and alternate response formats would be very beneficial in my classroom. A number of the students seem to struggle with the way the CT gives directions, and if she were a little more explicit at times, I think that she may have a better turn out with the students’ responses. Also, I think that the alternate response formats such as dry erase boards would be great if they were used in my classroom more often. They are used in math occasionally, but I have not seen them used with literacy. I think that this would allow the students to internalize information and think for themselves. It gives everyone a chance to participate and share their knowledge and ideas instead of the same students all the time and then a few scattered others.

Student Individuality

Every student is unique and adds a specific element to the class they are in. As a teacher, I too agree it is extremely important to truly know your students both in and outside the classroom. When students are within the classroom setting, it is imperative to know how to tailor lesson plans to each student. Whether students are ELL, ESL, or Special Ed., they all should be treated as individuals first, because this is the only successful way in my opinion to ensure they learn the best they can. In order to accomplish this, activities should be implemented to learn about each student, allowing them to express themselves and reveal who they are. With this information, I would be able to learn about my student's interests. 

Regardless of how information is acquired about each of my students, I truly believe with any information I am given, it will help both the student and myself develop a trusting and safe communication system within the classroom. My primary goal is to make sure my students feel welcome and safe within the classroom, because it may be the only place where these students may feel safe. One thing I may not learn about my students is what goes on when they are home and those factors could and can potentially have a great effect on how the students performs within the class.

So many factors come into play both in and outside of the classroom, however I feel it is my job to make sure I know as much as possible about my students so I can provide the best learning environment possible to accommodate the diversity that will be in my classroom. As mentioned before I would make sure to implement activities to explore ways to learn about my students as well as promote the students to learn about one another, to help the classroom function as a whole. These activities may include games, show and tell, incorporating different book genres, having/hosting a traditions day (ethnic diversity), and possibly writes poems and stories. Diversity is an important thing for students to be submerged in and a great way to encourage acceptance. 

Getting to Know Your Students

I think getting to know your students is a very important part of becoming a successful teacher. Knowing student likes and dislikes can help teachers reach students who are struggling or need to be challenged. Teachers can recommend certain books or genres to pique student interest. Our activities during class also helped me to realize that getting to know your students is important in creating a solid community where everyone feels connected regardless of difference. The “Where I’m From” poems helped me understand how students’ backgrounds are a dynamic force in the classroom. Every student has a culture and past that influences their interactions and interpretations in school. However, teachers need to know more about their students than just their preferences to fully appreciate cultural diversity in the classroom. Providing students with opportunities to discuss their reading and elaborate from their own experiences is one way to get to know students. Although many students are shy and don’t like to discuss personal experiences in front of others. For these students, reading journals might help to guide students to make connections and provide the teacher with background information. Also knowing what students do outside your class/subject-area helps. I’m in a sixth grade class at Pleasant View Magnet School for Performing Arts and since I’ve been watching electives (i.e. dance, visual arts, etc.) I’ve come to see a whole new side to my students. It gives me a greater appreciation for their interests and potential to see them outside a “traditional” classroom. I think using these interests can be used successfully to incorporate diverse elements in reading instruction and in helping engage students in your class.

Diversity in the Classroom

I agree with Kali that using the “Where Are You From” poem or something similar is a great way to get to know your students personally. This is a way to get to know your students through their eyes and not just standard questions relating to their home life, their past, etc. Do not get me wrong, I believe that questions that relate to home life and so forth are important, but they only let you get to know your students on a surface level instead of a more personal level. A good template for getting to know your students home life, I believe, is in the Lenski article “Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms”, Table 2: Predictability log questions. These questions are meant to help teachers assess English Language Learners, though I believe that it hits on crucial things that a teacher needs to know about their students’ background in order to teach them better. The types of questions include: what is the student’s family situation?, who are their best friends?, how do they dress?, what are they interested in?, what is their schooling background?, and what do they enjoy doing outside of class?.

As a teacher, I could learn about my students not only by standard questions and where they are from poems, but also by getting to know their community. Being involved in your students’ community is critical to get to know your students because you can get a better feel for their life and surroundings and events going on in their neighborhoods or communities. Especially if you move to a new city or state and they speak a dialect that is different from your own. You will need to become familiar with their dialect and sensitive in order be respectful of their customs, similar to the Wheeler article on codeswitching. This involvement allows a teacher get to know their students from multiple perspectives so they can get a better feel for them as a learner and a person.

Diversity In The Classroom

I believe that our activity “Where I am From” poem that we discussed in class is a fantastic way to learn about the diversity in your classroom. I learned in class today that it’s hard/nearly impossible to just look at your students and know what their background is and where they come from. During our computer activity looking at the different accents and distinguishing where each one derives from, I realized that it’s easy to just assume that everyone has similar backgrounds. It’s important not to make this assumption but to get to know each student and maybe understand what their prior knowledge is or their style of learning is like. The “Where I am From” poem even showed me the differences and similarities between my partner and I during class that I would never have guessed. It’s a great “get to know you” activity and classroom community builder. Getting to know each other in the classroom can really help the environment be more positive and for the children to feel more comfortable opening up to one another.

In the Lenski article, it stated that ELL teachers should become aware of their student’s backgrounds before assessment takes place. I think this goes with not only ELL teachers, but all teachers. It’s important to understand where the students come from and how they learn to educated them as best as we can as teachers. Also, the Wheeler article made me realize how to address students speaking AAVE and to not think that they are any slower, less able, or less intelligent than a child speaking Standard English. It’s important to know what family they were raised in and what their dialect is; what they’ve been taught at home.

General feelings

I have really enjoyed reading your posts thus far. I have noticed some overlapping ideas in regards to your feelings about what is literacy and how it affects you and your future classroom. The idea that literacy is a changing view and not stagnant is important to remember. Literacy is always changing and adapting to the world.
I would strongly suggest commenting back and forth with each other within the blog. Get some discussion moving within the ideas we have discussed in class and you have written in your blog. Communication is a valuable tool for furthering our learning and understanding.
Keep up the wonderful insights and comments. Push yourself to discover new insights about your own learning. Make sure you are submitting your blogs on time and keeping up to date.
Remember from time to time I will comment but I will always be reading your blogs.

Definition of Literacy

I'm with Stefanie with the basic definition of literacy. When I first hear the word, I automatically think the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. However, after this initial thought process I then think back to my TE 301 class where our TA drilled the meaning of literacy into our heads using the literacy project. Many of you might recall this as the huge novel we spent countless hours on during the semester. After this project, I realized that literacy can mean a variety of things from phonological or phonemic awareness to concepts of print (even just reading from left to right, top to bottom of the page).

I was unable to attend class last week because I was sick, however I did learn from previous classes and the readings assigned. The article that stuck out the most to me was the Leland article. There was a part in the article that said "There are four resources or types of knowledge that are essential to the process of becoming a truly literate person: decoding practices, text-meaning practices, pragmatic practices, and critical practices." Based on a portion of literacy which is reading, I think that this is a great way to look at different types of literacy knowledge and to realize that there are all sorts of ways to read a book. Like this teacher did, I believe it's important to go beyond the textual concepts but to build on the awareness of critical literacy as well.

I also wanted to relate to the Cambourne article which stated a variety of ways for students to become enthusiastic about learning literacy. I think that the conditions of learning shown in this article is what my classroom will mimic in the future. These conditions show a positive classroom community where the students can walk away from the class and have learned something and be excited about literacy. I believe that the most important part of teaching is developing that safe environment for the students to feel comfortable and voice their opinions.

What is Literacy?

When first asked to define literacy, automatically I thought to myself: literacy is the ability to read and write. Plain, simple and to the point. However, as our class started to define it within small groups then together as an entire class, I started to modify the meaning a bit. Although literacy does encompass the ability to read and write, it involves much more than that.

Within my group, we discussed how literacy really is the foundation for all other learning (I am agreeing with you Jess!). Thinking about all the aspects of literacy such as concepts of print and phonemic awareness these form the base of all the knowledge we build throughout our schooling. Through these concepts we learn what each letter is as well as letter-sound relationships they have. Once we understand letters and can recall them, we learn to recognize and identify them in text and other various ways. It is only after understanding these basic principles that we can learn anything else. It is literacy that makes learning possible in all other areas.

In an ideal classroom setting, I would have access to an unlimited amount of books, ranging all reading levels and abilities. My classroom would be highly interactive, where learning games would be implemented and encouraged. I truly believe students learn best from interacting or experiencing their learning in visual ways. I would also love to create an atmosphere enabling students to feel safe and positive about learning, even if they are not the best readers. My main goal would to create a support system for my students and to encourage them to do the best they can. As the teacher in a literacy learning environment, I would also strongly encourage my students to have reading buddies with older students. This would be beneficial for all students, regardless of learning level. 

Another aspect of my ideal learning environment for my students would be to incorporate ways for students with disabilities to be accommodated. With Special Ed being my focus, I would make sure to provide a very structured layout and learning plan for my students so they can and prosper in literacy at their own level. Some things I may include in my classroom may be interactive computer software, games, learning tools (digital books, etc.). Basically I want all my students to feel comfortable.

Literacy

My definition of literacy is fairly flexible and constantly evolving. To me, being a literate person means more than simply being able to decode text. Literacy means dissecting text, making connections, and using that information in a new and purposeful way. Being a literate individual means being able to comprehend what you're reading and being able to apply it in some way.

Therefore, my ideal literacy environment would be conceptually challenging to students. It would contain a wide range of literature that would stimulate students to make connections and think critically. I think that a good literacy curriculum pushes students to think for themselves and grow as individuals. I think that students should feel challenged at their own level. Students who struggle with reading print should be able to access the thoughts and ideas in books through other media. Allowing students to access text in a variety of ways, involving peer-peer interactions, and using real life applications make a difference in student success in the classroom.

An environment that is stimulating in this way fulfills the conditions of learning outlined by Cambourne. Students who are immersed, engaged, and held to high expectations in literacy will succeed at a higher rate. After our discussions and reading various children's books I have a better understanding of the importance of involving these elements in a classroom to help students become literate, critical thinkers.

Literacy

My definition of literacy is that it has many aspects to it such as reading, writing, speaking, listening, communicating, and the understanding of ones language. It involves integrating all of these skills and thinking critically to become a literate person. Also, literacy skills provide one with the ability to participate in society.
Some significant points that were brought up in the discussion that helped me further define my definition of literacy are: literacy is the building block of life; literacy is the ability to carry out functions such as questioning, reflecting, finding deeper meaning, connecting, and critiquing to help with ones reading, writing and using these functions in the outside world. Also, from writing my own definition and the discussion, I realized it is really hard to pinpoint a definition of literacy. This is because it is an ever changing field and we learn more about literacy from new experiences and research. Each situation requires a different set of skills or functions needed for certain persons to be considered literate. For example: an adult who reads and writes at a 2nd grade level can still fully function in society by listening, speaking, communicating, questioning, reflecting, making connections a so forth.
The Cambourne article discussed ways to intrigue students to learn about literacy, become excited about learning literacy and getting a lot of out learning literacy. I think that my ideal literacy learning environment would look similar to “The Conditions of Learning” as discussed in the Cambourne article. Such as: immerse students, demonstrate, engage, have expectations, give responsibility, approximations, employment, and response. I believe that all of these conditions are crucial to having an efficient literacy learning environment, where students will succeed in a friendly environment without pressure, become more involved and eager to learn. In my classroom I would also include a wide variety of books, varying from reading levels to books that cover all major types of books from historical fiction, to science fiction, to critical books and more. This will allow my students to be able to expand their horizons of books. To cover all the aspects of literacy, I will have literacy workshops and centers that will focus on students reading, writing, listening, interacting skills as well as many others to make it less repetitive and more comfortable through games and working with their peers.

Goals and Expectations

For my TE 402 experience in Language Arts this semester, my primary goal will be to take in everything I can and apply it to what I already know as well as to the experiences I will encounter this semester. Being a Special Education-Learning Disabilities major, focusing on Language Arts, I have had the opportunity to take classes where literacy is broken down into the basic building blocks in order to accommodate and assist students with learning disabilities. Although I am grateful to know how to apply this to students who may struggle in Language Arts, this also makes me worry how I am going to apply this knowledge to other students. 

I want to learn and understand how to teach Language Arts to an older age group and know how to teach it to them affectively. Literacy is extremely important to children of all ages and I want to be prepared to teach an array of students, no matter what level they are learning at. In order to accomplish this, a goal I have set for myself is to learn and use all resources that are provided to me in class because they may be the one source to provide me with valuable materials and information. Another personal goal is to learn multiple teaching strategies enabling me to present information to my students in a visual way. I too, believe learning material visually is highly beneficial to students, regardless of their age, gender, or learning preferences.

Perhaps most importantly,  my expectation for myself is to act in a professional manner which includes exhibiting respect, honesty, integrity, and cooperation with my professors and peers. The best way I can accomplish this is to be prepared for class (completing reads, writing blog posts, etc.) in an orderly fashion and demonstrating a positive attitude towards the learning process as a whole.

Goals For This Course

My goals for this course are to learn a variety of ways to teach literacy in the elementary classroom. Being a language arts major, I am well informed and educated on the many famous Shakespearean plays and classic novels. However, I've lacked lessons on how to utilize literacy in a meaningful manner. In my previous TE classes I've learned quite a bit on literacy and have applied what I learned in my placements for TE 250 and TE 301 which have been in urban settings. I do wish to learn more meaningful and engaging ways (activities, games...) to help children get the most out of my lessons as a future teacher. I hope that our readings assigned and class time will give me more knowledge and ability to apply and test what I will learn with the students in my placement. I hope to "bloom" by becoming knowledgeable on the variety of methods to teach a meaningful literacy lesson. I hope to keep children intrigued and excited about literacy in a positive and significant manner. I hope to be a teacher, guidance, and role model to the children, showing them just how important literacy is.

Goals for TE 402

My goals for this course are to learn more strategies on how to be an effective language arts teacher. I do not have a strong background in language arts instruction because I am not a language arts/English major or minor. Through this course, I also hope to be able to add to my developing teaching pedagogy.

I have had placements in urban settings before in both TE 250 and TE 301 working with literacy instruction. I believe that literacy instruction needs to be hands on and taught in many different forms. I think that it is more beneficial to students learning if literacy instruction is varied, thus non-repetitive. I also believe that one word alphabet picture books do not help students learn to read and that students rely on the pictures and not the words to “act like they are reading”. I hope that this course will help me to come up with more ideas on how to vary my literacy instruction and workshops and or centers that will be beneficial to all ranges of learners, especially students with a low level of literacy.

I want to learn teaching strategies that are effective for language arts instruction. I want to “bloom” this semester by becoming a more successful teacher of language arts and become more confident in my teaching of language arts.