New Literacy

Before TE 402 I had a very shallow understanding of the word "literacy." As the semester has progressed I have learned that literacy is a much broader term. When we started this project I was slightly confused as to what these new literacy's were and how they were going to connect to our class. I chose to do my project on emotional literacy and can truthfully say that I have learned a lot about this topic. But I also feel that I have learned more about the other types of literacy from the other projects I have viewed. I started off thinking that literacy simply referred to reading and writing and my understanding as grown to include these new literacy's. After this project I have realized that literacy can encompass many different areas and is important to teach students about them and help them become literate in all these areas. Many are stuck in the mindset that I had coming into this class and are more concerned with the traditional types of literacy. However, it is just as important to integrate these new literacy's in the class to make your students more well rounded individuals.

Technology has never been my best friend. I tend to struggle using technology but the finish project always is enjoyable. For my project I chose to create a website that explained emotional literacy and all the components to it. Using this piece of technology was much easier then I had anticipated and was extremely user-friendly. Just like emotional literacy or any of the other new literacy, being technologically literate is very important. I think that by using a technology to learn and explore the new literacy also helped make me more comfortable with technology. Our world has become so technologically advanced that is important for teachers to keep up to date with technology and help integrate it in the classroom as much as possible. Students tend to learn about technology before adults, so it would be beneficial to the students for teachers to incorporate it as much as possible. I found that using weebly.com to create my website would also be a great resource to have in the classroom. I think that a classroom website would be a great way for students to keep up to date and informed about homework or upcoming events.

I am placed in a second and third grade split classroom. If my students were to complete this project they would need to be taught a little background information on the new literacy as well as the technology. I believe that giving the students enough background information that they would be able to use and learn about this type of literacy. My students are very good at using the class computers and are capable of getting to a website. I think that my students may struggle with paying close attention to instructions and that would be challenging. Creating a website is not very difficult especially if it was kept basic. Once on the website it is very simple to write on each page as it is similar to a word document. However, creating new pages and adding pictures may be more difficult. In terms of learning about the new literacy I think my students would be able to find out information. When I was learning about emotional literacy a simple google search came up with many simple definitions. I think that my students would be able to find this information and would be able to understand what it means. They would need to take their time reading the information and try to fully comprehend and digest the information before sharing with others. I think the students would also benefit from knowing what literacy means to then be able to understand any new literacy.

Integrating this technology in the classroom would be easy and interesting for the students. One way that you could use a website for a language arts lesson could simply be based around a class book. Students could participate in a book club and then create a website to share what the story is about, quotes, questions, etc. The other students could then look at the website of the other books to get information or a summary about each book. This would be a great way for the students to publish their work and make it more meaningful to their learning. The teacher would need to give the students a tutorial on how to use this technology but after that students can have creative freedom to design and set up their page as they please. Teachers can assess what the students have written on the webpage, or how the webpage was set up. Integrating technology is important for students learning and can make any lesson more fun for the students.