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.