New lit blog

1. My conceptual understanding of what it means to be literate is completely different after doing my new literacy project as well as looking over other people’s projects. Through this project I learned that literacy is not only about knowing how to read, write and do other things that go under the “language arts” heading. Literacy is a part of every subject and everyday life. By researching and going through other’s work, I learned that literacy is more about understanding and being knowledgable about a subject then it is about being able to read or write. You can get this knowledge without needing to read or write by way of new technologies, such as video’s or online resources that are able to read the information for you. Traditional literacy and my new way of thinking about literacy are therefore very different after doing this project. I can now see that, even though I struggle with reading I am still literate about many different subjects, which I never thought of in this way before.

1. To provide “effective literacy instruction” to learners no longer means making sure all learners can read, write and speak properly. To me, this involves getting all children to understand and be knowledgable about the subject at hand. You don’t have to be a great speaker of english to be literacy about numbers, geography, emotions or any of the literacies we researched, you just have to understand what is being explained to you. These explanations don’t have to come from teachers talking at their classes, there can be hands on and exciting. These hands on aspects can be added though technology, such as online quizzes, videos, games and other interactive ways to get the main points of instruction across. 

 Digital literacy: In order to use technology such as a Prezi, children would first need to understand some basics of using a computer, such as how to type, use a mouse and start the computer. Once these skills are acquired, the children will need to learn how to type information into a search engine in order to find the page they need on the internet. Finally, the children would need to be taught how a Prezi works, including how to set up the Prezi, add words, pictures, videos and other engaging aspects into the Prezi and finally how to share a Prezi with others. To provide support with using a Prezi, after the basic skills of computer use are down, I would first show the children on a overhead or Elmo all the steps they need to do, one by one, in order to get a feel for a Prezi. After, I would have my class go to a computer lab and together go through these steps, having each child follow along on their own computer. Finally, I would let the children explore and find new and different ways to use a Prezi.

New literacy: To develop environmental literacy students would first need to understand what it means to be environmentally literate. I would teach these concepts by having them play games, such as those added to our presentation, that have you do activities that are considered environmentally friendly. After having the children explore different ways to keep the environment clean, I would draw the children’s attention to ways in which they themselves could help the environment, such as picking up and throwing away trash, or riding their bikes to a friends house instead of riding in a car. To have the children continue thinking about how to be environmentally literate I would challenge the children to do something to help the environment every day and I would spend a few minutes having the children share their actions.