New Literacies

Our world is no longer confined to print, to ink on paper bound in textbooks. Our world is very much electronic with the takeover of technology. And this change in our world prompts a change in our schools. We cannot ignore the technology shift. We cannot force students to flip through pages in a textbook and get angry when they cannot learn that way. We cannot expect to lecture for forty five minutes and have the students take copious notes. Our world is changing. Our means of education need to change.

 

Chapter Two of Content Area Reading focuses on this idea of “new literacies” and how we as teachers can implement these new forms in our classrooms to ensure the most learning opportunities. The writers claim that these new literacies are changing the ways in which students read and write.

 

We cannot rely solely on print based literacy anymore. We need to incorporate screen based literacy. Our classrooms need to still include print but also become multimodal: video, audio, graphic design, etc. If we can understand these modes of learning, then we can use them in the best possible ways in order to advance the learning of our students.

 

(But what about those pesky State Standards? How will these new literacies fit in with those? Well you might be surprised to learn that these new literacies are already embedded in the standards under terms like media literacy and technological information resources.)

 

So now that we know that we need to change and use these new literacies as well as the State Standards actually want us to use these new literacies – what does that classroom look like. Here are a few characteristics:

1. They feature daily work in multiple forms of representation
2. They discuss the benefits of using these new literacies They have the teachers model how to use these new literacies
3. They combine individual work with collaborative work with using these new literacies
4. They work towards that “flow” state for students of optimal learning

 

Moving forward we will learn about helping students think and learn in a multimodal environment and how to use these new literacies in our classroom.

 

To help students think about a multimodal environment it is important you model what that looks like. You do your own multimodal search of some topic and show the kids how you do it: jumping from page to page, using audio visuals, reading articles, etc. The Internet is very nonlinear and it is important to help students learn to navigate from page to page and that there are many ways in which they can move to different pages. This gets the students using something called hypermedia which is built on hypertexts. Hypertexts are webpages that have a nonlinear structure. These are important for instruction because it includes built in scaffolding for your students. You can select one page for them to start at and all of your students can learn at their own pace from it. A great exercise to get students more involved with hypermedia is to have them use it in their writing. For example, if they are writing a literary analysis of a poem they can learn to use hyperlinks in their writing to link to descriptions of terms without having to include them in their actual writing piece.

 

However, this can be a slippery slope. If we let the students use the Internet we need to teach them how to evaluate the websites they are looking at. Teaching them these steps will help them gauge the quality of the website:

1. Examine the bias of the site
2. Determine the reliability of the site
3. Determine the accuracy of the site
4. Synthesize the information presented on the site in a meaningful way

 

Encourage your students to look at all sources on the Internet (keeping those evaluative steps in mind of course) including blogs, wikis, and nings. You could even have the class create their own in order to synthesize information collaboratively online.

 

Do not be afraid to use the Internet and incorporate those multimodal literacies in your classroom! They can really improve the learning experience for your students and you might find that the students could teach you a thing or two as well with how fast they absorb new technology. If we stick with the print literacy only system we will miss out on really reaching the students and helping them learn in today’s world.

Writing and Tests

This week we read two chapters from our textbooks Content Area Writing: the first “Public Writing” and the second “Writing for Tests and Assessments.”

 

These chapters look at going more in depth with student writing. Earlier, I posted about short writing assignments called Writing to Learn. Today, I am moving away from that subject and on to the bigger writing assignments. However, not all bigger writing assignments are research papers or literary analyses. Students also need to learn how to write for the tests and assessments we give them. This means how do we teach writing for essay tests not only within our classrooms but also on Standardized Tests.

 

First we look at this idea of Public Writing. So far we have looked at the private, unedited, spontaneous Writing to Learn assignments that are not graded. What about Public Writing is different? Well, this kind of writing has the following qualities:

• Substantial – longer, more in-depth pieces
• Planned – intentional writing with a focused purpose
• Authoritative – writing that argues a point or gives information in a confident manner
• Conventional – writing that strives to reach its audience by conventional writing standards
• Composed – writing that has been drafted and revised a few times to make sure it is polished and clear
• Edited – writing that pays attention to the pesky details of grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Graded – writing that will be evaluated

 

Now Public Writing is a great idea, but many times it can be daunting for students. How do we as teacher make Public Writing more accessible and less daunting for our students? Well, we can work on giving students choice. If students have a choice on topics about which they can write, then we are making our assignments relevant and engaging. It is often easier for students to approach an assignment they had a choice on rather than getting forced to write about one specific topic. Besides choice, we can give the students time to write in class. If we make students do all their writing outside of class, many students can fall behind or get confused, but if we allow time in class to write we can provide the support and modeling they need throughout their writing process. Furthermore, we can respond to the student’s writing. Our feedback during the writing process can greatly enhance the student’s writing and give them more confidence when writing alone for tests and assessments. Quelling students’ fears about big writing assignments can be easy if we model good writing and turn our writing assignments into processes that slowly move from step one ‘til the end with plenty of support and feedback along the way.

 

Step Two – let’s look at what kind of writing students will be doing besides the big papers. Let’s look at what writing students will be doing for tests and assessments. Now tests are supposed to assess what students learned; however, there are limitations:

1. We have taught students to write for an external reason. They write for a grade. They do not write to persuade or inspire. They write simply to regurgitate the information we fed to them.
2. Tests do not have a large audience. The student either writes for the teacher or an anonymous test grader they will never know. There is no connection or desire to want to reach people through their writing.
3. Our questions we pose for them to write about are limited themselves. We get what we ask for and nothing more. Students do not elaborate. They answer the question in as basic terms as possible and move on.
4. Students only get one chance to write their answer. They are given a fixed amount of time and no way to add in the writing process of drafting and revising.
5. Tests only look at one moment in time. They do not show how a student progressed throughout a unit. What you get in an essay could be what they learned or it could be what they already knew. Tests do not allow for overall assessment of how that student learned.

 

So now that we know how limited tests are – how do we fix it?

 

We design better essay tests. We ask better questions. We focus on the big picture and long term meaning rather than the specific, tiny details the student will forget the second the next unit is started. We use tests throughout the unit that focus on writing and create a process the student can really learn from.  We give students more time to write their essays either in class with fewer questions or use take home tests.

 

We prepare students to respond to questions in a variety of ways. We give them examples and we model for them. We teach them how to look at a question or testing situation and approach it logically. We teach them how to take essay tests and by extension standardized tests.

 

There are three strategies to do this:

1. Keep students writing year round. Give them assignments that have them explain their ideas, elaborate on them, and connect them to other ideas. The more comfortable they become with this process – the easier the tests will be.
2. Make sure the students know the expectations about what is supposed to go in their answers and how they present their answers. They need to be able to look at a question and decipher what it is asking and how to give their answer.
3. Relate test taking to what they know: video games. Teach them that test taking is all about being ready to engage, being alert, using strategies, thinking over modes of moving forward, and deciding the best route to take.

 

By preparing students for writing on tests, we can help them improve their overall learning in every area as well as improve how they approach other problems in life once out of school. We no longer need to “teach for the tests” because we can learn to use the tests to really teach for the kids.

Building Student’s Vocabulary

Chapter 8 of Content Area Reading looks at developing a student’s vocabulary. Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz write “teaching words well means giving students multiple opportunities to develop word meanings and learn how words are conceptually related to one another in the texts they are studying” (CAR, 235).

 

Why is this important? Why do students need to have a better vocabulary?

 

To improve their reading comprehension. If students know the words they are reading on the page then their reading comprehension will improve.

 

However, how do we as teachers define vocabulary?

 

There are three distinct types:

• General – everyday words with well known meanings
• Special – words from general vocabulary that take on specialized meanings when adapted to different content areas
• Technical – words that are only used/applied in one specific area

 

To teach vocabulary it is important to know when to preface a reading and teach certain words, when to give a list of words for students to keep in mind during their reading, and to have a list of words students should discuss after reading.

 

To begin this process it is vital we look at the term “concept.” Many students learn in terms of concepts and every concept has its own hierarchy of relationships. To teach a concept it is helpful to look at this hierarchy of relationships, oftentimes through a graphic organizer.

 

To create a graphic organizer that explains the hierarchical relationships of a concept it is helpful to follow the following six steps:

1. Analyze the vocabulary and list the important/key words
2. Arrange the list of words in terms of a hierarchy from most important to related
3. Add in example words for your vocabulary list that you believe the students already know to help clue them into the meanings
4. Evaluate the organizer and make sure the relationships are correct
5. Discuss the graphic organizer with the class before doing a learning task
6. After learning task relate discussion back to graphic organizer and add more words if needed

 

However, before graphic organizers can be used in the class it is helpful to work with students before learning new vocabulary to activate their prior knowledge. Have them write on what they already know about the words with Word Exploration activities. Put the students in groups and have them brainstorm related words to the given vocabulary words.

 

If there is one word in particular that stands as a word beneficial for the student’s long term vocabulary, have them work with that one word. Have them categorize it, define it in their own words, brainstorm their own comparisons, illustrate what they think it is like, anything really that gets them using their own words/experiences to learn this new word will help commit it to their long term memory.

 

Other activities for long term memory include:

• Semantic Feature Analysis – create a chart of similar words and have students determine which properties go with which word and which words have overlapping properties
• Categorization Activities – create activities to help students explore the relationships between words
• Concept Circles – help students describe a concept by looking at relationships of concepts in circle

 

However, when faced with an unknown word while reading it is helpful if students have activities they can use to help unpack an unfamiliar word. Helping them learn how to use context, word structure, and the dictionary will help students learn unfamiliar words on their own.

 

Context offers three clues that will help students learn an unfamiliar word. The first clue is typographic and this clue can be found in footnotes, italics, bold, parenthetical explanations, pictures, graphs, etc. They are the visual aids included in text books meant to help explain an important concept, and teaching your students how to use these helpful clues will improve their reading comprehension. The second and third clues are syntactic and semantic clues – the clues hidden within the text. Learning how to unpack a sentence and write it in the most basic words will help student discover the meaning of words they don’t understand.

 

Word Structure can help students decipher an unfamiliar word too. The smallest unit of words, morphemes, will help students predict the meaning of a word. Teaching your students about well known morphemes, suffixes and prefixes, compound words, etc. will help prepare students to figure out a word while reading.

 

Finally teaching students how to use a dictionary may seem trivial, but most students don’t know how to approach the dictionary. Emphasizing the “best-fit” option for definitions will help students find the correct definition they are looking for in relation to what they are reading (a relation that can be helped by knowing the context of what they are reading.) it is important when asking students to use a dictionary for an assignment to use it sparingly. Have the students learn a few big concept words really well instead of overwhelming them with every descriptor word you can think of. (And a helpful side note is to teach students about the pronunciation keys and how to decipher the symbols and translate them into sounds.)

 

Vocabulary may seem like a trivial, memorize and go topic, but vocabulary is vital for a student’s reading comprehension. The better their vocabulary – the better their reading comprehension – the more they learn!

Encountering Diverse Classrooms

Chapter Three of Content Area Reading is titled “Culturally Responsive Teaching in Diverse Classrooms.” This chapter focuses on how teachers respond to those cultural differences by using different scaffolding methods when instructing.

 

Why should we pay attention to this? Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz write that “the rapidly changing demography of the United States and its schools is transforming the country into a society that is increasingly multicultural” (CAR, 54).

 

Our schools are changing. Our student groups are changing. Therefore, as teachers, our instruction needs to adapt with the changes in order to best teach every student.

 

This multicultural instruction starts with cultural understanding, and this understanding can be approached in the following ways:

• Contributions – emphasizing culturally specific celebrations/holidays within curriculum
• Additive – integrate themes related to multicultural concepts and issues into the curriculum
• Transformative – promote understanding of different ethnic and cultural perspectives by continually providing opportunities for reading, reflection, and discussion among students
• Decision-Maiking/Social Action – provide opportunities to engage activities and projects dealing with cultural themes, issues, concepts, etc.

 

However, one time inclusion of multicultural concepts is not enough when working with a diverse group of students. Teachers need to do more and can do more by including multicultural literature within their curriculum. The texts chosen must be solid texts from which to teach and must provide opportunities to learn about cultural norms relating to family, morality, sex roles, dress, and values. These criterion will help ensure the students are getting the most out of the texts. When using these texts it is important to note that not every student will approach them in the same way. Different cultures have different views on education and different methods for attaining an education; therefore, it is necessary for teachers to be aware of this fact and make sure the students stay on the same page throughout instruction.

 

One way for a teacher to keep students on pace is to create a culturally responsive classroom with the following characteristics:

• High Expectations – support students and push them to learn more
• Positive Relationships – include families and communities in this group to help foster as much support for students as possible
• Cultural Sensitivity – create curriculum that addresses different cultures and teaches students to respect all cultures
• Active Teaching Methods – have a variety of instruction methods to reach every student
• Teacher As Facilitator – be present in the classroom working closely with the students
• Student Control – let students have some control of each lesson whether that be in group work or class discussions
• Low Anxiety Instruction – create pairs and groups to let students work with each other to understand the material in a low anxiety environment

 

To further reach every student in your classroom, look at linguistic differences. Pay attention to the students who might not know English as well as others and understand that they can learn just as well with a little extra help and time. Provide adequate support for your English Language Learners. Adapt your instruction to be easy to comprehend while at the same time providing just as many opportunities for complex reasoning/growth with strategies like simple language instructions, vocabulary development activities, intensive and extensive reading activities, activities centered on active learning and engaged learning, and writing strategies for practice with language skills.

 

It is important to remember that every student can learn in your classroom no matter what cultural roadblocks may occur. Working together with the students to get over those roadblocks will help ensure the best possible learning for every single student in your classroom.