Literacy in My Classroom
For my classroom, the definition of literacy is twofold. Traditionally, literacy is a tool to help students comprehend, unpack, and analyze texts such as novels, poems, newspaper articles, and more recently films and music. In this respect, I strive to develop every student's fluency with language, particularly in relation to vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, and analytic skills. Language is power in our society; if you cannot express yourself, you cannot get what you desire. The foundations of being literate are your ability to recognize and understand the meaning of words, as well as your ability to process information presented to you. If you cannot do those things, you cannot succeed in society. Because of this, literacy in the classroom becomes monumentally important. Your success as an individual is inseparably tied to your fluency with language.
Thankfully, we live in the 21st Century. Each year we have more and more technology available to create content in a multitude of new ways. As such, every education needs to devote a significant amount of coursework to exploring these new technologies. With the understanding of traditional literacy in mind, my classes will use the technology available to develop those skills. To fully prepare students for life in an evolving world, literacy instruction should also be extended under the umbrella of technological fluency. While some teachers have integrated tools such as PowerPoint and Facebook into the classroom, it should not end there. Literacy in our generation should also introduce students to programs such as Photoshop and Flash and Audacity that provide new mediums for student expression. Using the strategies of traditional literacy, we can produce proactive, technologically sophisticated, critically thinking students prepared to shape society.
The following video is a call to arms, of sorts, to recognize the symbiotic relationship between technology and us. Once we realize what technology is truly capable of, we can begin to use it to our benefit.
Thankfully, we live in the 21st Century. Each year we have more and more technology available to create content in a multitude of new ways. As such, every education needs to devote a significant amount of coursework to exploring these new technologies. With the understanding of traditional literacy in mind, my classes will use the technology available to develop those skills. To fully prepare students for life in an evolving world, literacy instruction should also be extended under the umbrella of technological fluency. While some teachers have integrated tools such as PowerPoint and Facebook into the classroom, it should not end there. Literacy in our generation should also introduce students to programs such as Photoshop and Flash and Audacity that provide new mediums for student expression. Using the strategies of traditional literacy, we can produce proactive, technologically sophisticated, critically thinking students prepared to shape society.
The following video is a call to arms, of sorts, to recognize the symbiotic relationship between technology and us. Once we realize what technology is truly capable of, we can begin to use it to our benefit.