Keystone Assignment: A Teacher's Understanding and Use of New Literacies

Interview language arts teacher to find out their understanding of new literacies and how they practice new literacies in the classrooms.

I observed a third grade teacher, Mrs. Moeller, and asked her about her understanding of new literacies and how they are incorporated in her students’ education.  Not surprisingly, she has learned a lot of how technology is transforming our everyday lives through the experiences of her own children who are age 12 and 9.  She has learned the type of knowledge today’s students need given the increasingly technology-driven world they are growing up in.

Mrs. Moeller realizes the critical need for her students to be comfortable, knowledgeable and eventually proficient in using the classroom computers and common software applications to read text, express ideas, and research information.  While she wishes there was more time and resources for more formal instruction on computer and software skills, she exposes and encourages students to use the classroom’s five desktop computers.  She finds that her young students are mostly familiar and comfortable using this technology and that they sometimes rely on each other to learn new skills on the spot.

The experienced teacher selects software applications and online sites that are suitable for her young students.  For example, they have used Microsoft Word to write personal narrative essays and Microsoft Powerpoint to organize and present information for classroom presentations.  At this stage of third grade, Mrs. Moeller finds that her students can navigate through these applications with little instruction as long as they don’t get too ambitious in utilizing each program’s many design elements.

To provide her students with practice opportunities to develop and reinforce math skills, Mrs. Moeller gives them time on the classroom computers to utilize IXL.com.  This interactive website, whose subscription is funded by the school district, engages students with lively activities, real time feedback and clear instruction.  Additionally, she uses an interactive application called Kidspiration on inspiration.com to build and reinforce her students’ literacy and comprehension skills.  Not only do the children develop critical math and ELA skills, they are learning new literacy skills by reading and solving problems through the computer and these educational websites.  

Mrs. Moeller also utilizes the classroom SMART Board several times throughout the school day.  To start every school day, she writes the homework assignments on a template shown on the SMART Board. This template mirrors the students’ agenda books to facilitate easier transcription.  For each math unit, she displays a publisher-provided multimedia and interactive instructional piece that engages her students.  She then utilizes the SMART Board to teach math concepts and models effective strategies to solve problems. 

While there is much more the students will learn as they progress through this school year and beyond, Mrs. Moeller is utilizing the available classroom technology and resources to teach valuable new literacy skills. Her third graders are already reading, writing, organizing, presenting, learning, and problem-solving using technology.   Her goal with new literacies for this school year is to transform a pen-pal program with a nearby third grade class from a traditional pencil-and-paper exchange through postal mail to an ICT format delivered through email.  This will expand the forms of expression available to students in both schools and engage them with more timely delivery.  I asked Mrs. Moeller if real time video chatting is in consideration for future pen pal exchanges and she said, “Absolutely!”