2. Assignment#1 Write a brief summary of the above
three articles (one paragraph) to demonstrate your understanding of the concept
and the importance of new literacies
These three articles, published even before the iPad was
introduced, clearly demonstrate the critical need for today’s students to
develop proficiency in new literacies in order to learn, evaluate, communicate,
collaborate and succeed with available and future technologies. With the rapid introduction and adoption of
new technological tools, students need to learn a dynamic and growing set of
skills that includes finding relevant information through the internet and
determining its validity, objectivity and purpose. Proficiency in reading comprehension of text
presented on paper as well as online will be critical especially given the
virtually limitless amount of available information. Today’s children will need
skills to communicate in various ways besides traditional pen and paper utilizing
a wide range of tools including email, chat, video and quickly emerging
technologies. An increasing amount of
learning will take place collaboratively as technology has allowed for easy and
instant sharing of information, data, and opinions. Students can easily work together in the
classroom and at home to work on different aspects of a larger project or
exchange viewpoints on a common subject.
As tools are introduced in schools to prepare students for college and
careers, many are already utilized in industry.
By learning new literacies, today’s students will be better prepared to
succeed in an increasingly-global and connected environment.
1. Assignment#2
Which ideas from the video reflect what the ELA teachers you
interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy
instruction?
During ELA instruction, the general education teacher
utilizes the classroom SMART Board to provide new vocabulary with multiple
media to accommodate the different learning styles of her students. The ELA program comes with such SMART Board
resources so she does not have to develop them.
When she starts a new reading unit with new vocabulary and grammar concepts,
she shows a video of the story that shows the text on-screen with associated
imagery and a narrator reading the words.
The students are engaged as they watch and listen. While the text is provided to the students
later, they are gaining experience reading the words from a screen. Further into the lesson, the SMART Board is used
again so students can identify words and locate their meanings and also to work
on sequencing of events as told in the story.
How can you help change their instructional practices to
include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area
curriculum?
While the students are developing proficiency in reading
comprehension and locating, evaluating and synthesizing information through
non-traditional means, the teacher can increase the use of available technology
in the classroom and at home. The ELA
program also comes with an online component where the teacher and the students
can engage in additional content to deepen the understanding of the
lesson. This would give students more
individual practice on finding, deciphering and applying information. Additionally, I would encourage the students
to collaborate on a larger project utilizing technology like a wikispace. At this third grade level, perhaps it’s as
simple as each student contributes a word, phrase or sentence to build a story
that utilizes the vocabulary from the current unit.
What professional development and/or resources will they
need in order to make these changes?
The teacher would need minimal formal professional
development to utilize the ELA program’s online component and a sharing site
like wikispaces.com. However, each
educator has a different timeframe to feel comfortable with a tool before
presenting it in class. With the existing
computer and SMART Board in the classroom, no additional resources are required.
What ideas do you have for grouping students so they will
have equal access to technology in the classroom?
I would utilize flexible grouping to foster equal access to
the classroom technology. As a whole
class, they are introduced to the unit on the SMART Board. Class discussion and interactive learning on
the SMART Board can take place as well with teacher-led instruction and
facilitation. The students can then be
assigned for small group work where they can collaborate on designing a
Powerpoint using the classroom computer with specific time limits. Also, students can add to a classroom
wikispace project individually. Perhaps,
each student gets two minutes each on the classroom computer to review the
contributions of fellow students and add their own.
Assignment#3 Select one of the five tools you recommended and talk to the ELA
teacher to see how it can be implemented in their ELA instruction.
.
The third grade general education teacher is already
utilizing the new classroom SMART Board in her daily ELA instruction. Using prepared materials from the textbook
publisher, she uses the SMART Board to introduce new reading passages,
vocabulary, and grammar concepts. The
engaging, sometimes interactive, videos allow the students to see and hear new
words in the context of a story, visualize their meanings and correct
spellings, and watch for proper use of grammar.
Following the introduction of the material, the teacher leads the class
to identify each new vocabulary word and match it to the correct definition on
the SMART Board. Once the class
completes this task together, individual students come up to repeat the process
while the teacher assesses their understanding.
The district’s ELA program,
Journeys Common Core by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is a comprehensive
program that also includes an online component for teachers and students to use
in the classroom and at home. The
teacher can lead the students on some of these prepared online activities
utilizing the SMART Board before she assigns classwork or homework for those
students who have access at home.
Additional valuable and engaging way to utilize the SMART
Board is for formative assessment.
Modifying existing and available SMART Board lessons and templates, the
teacher can customize a class game show with the current unit’s vocabulary and
grammar concepts. This could be a
Jeopardy-like activity where students can “compete” in small groups by
answering questions on the spelling, phonetics and definitions of new
vocabulary words. The questions can also
assess a student’s reading comprehension of key ideas and details from the
story. The activity can be
differentiated so the more advanced students, grouped together, are given the
most challenging questions. While this
will not take the place of a summative assessment, this fun activity will help
the teacher identify the proficiency and understanding of the students.
At the third grade level, this interactive SMART Board game
show will address several New York state Common Core standards in ELA including
reading standards of phonics and word recognition, key ideas and details, and
craft and structure. Learning outcomes
will include the students’ abilities to build and apply vocabulary, identify
and sequence key ideas and details, and read grade level text. The required technology includes the existing
classroom SMART Board and computer. The
students will enjoy the interactivity and competition. However, the teacher can accomplish this
review and assessment in just one class period for each unit of the textbook
and she can integrate this activity in the lesson plan for each such unit. Not only can this be used as a formative
assessment, the teacher can also evaluate the technology skills while the
students navigate the SMART Board.
