Blog 3 Week 4

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part ii: Do they really think differently?     On the  Horizon, 9(6), 1-9.

Chase, Z., & Laufenberg, D. (2011). Embracing the squishiness of digital literacy. Journal of

Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 535-537.

Moyer, J. (2011). What does it really mean to "read" a text?. Journal of Adolescent & Adult

Literacy, 55(3), 253-256.

I really enjoyed reading the Prensky’s articles from this week.  I actually learned a lot from them, and they kept my interest.  This whole thing about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants makes so much sense.  Starting with my generation and the others that follow, children are being introduced to all different kinds of technology and resources, and they in turn develop their brains differently.  It is actually kind of scary. Growing up when I wanted to become a teacher, I would agree with the Digital Immigrant’s arguments on how students should be taught.  After reading these two articles, children need to be taught totally differently. Straight lecturing, which is mostly what I received growing up, is not going to work for my future students. In the first Prensky article it states, “our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language”.  I guess I am sort of intimidated now; I wasn’t really taught from a Digital Immigrant perspective, so I cannot relate easily to these Digital Immigrant requirements.  I found it really interesting on the use of video games to teach these new Digital Immigrants.  My brother is glued to video games and television- me, not so much.  He can sit in front of the television for hours just working on a single game.  He has enough attention to sit there in the same chair, missing dinner, just to beat more and more levels.  When homework time rolls around, he cannot even work for half an hour without getting fidgety. So my brother prefers games to school work, who wouldn’t? After reading the two Prensky articles, it really had my mind grinding gears to figure out how I could reach out to my brother if he were one of my students. I am going to have to teach in a fun way that involves this new and updated technology. 

From analyzing my younger brother, my future students will need a faster paced learning environment, just like a video game. In fact, trying to teach these Digital Natives can be viewed in relation to a video game.  They aren’t going to play a game that isn’t fun and that is not interesting to them. They want a game that requires a fast paced setting, not too dumb downed.  No one wants t o play a video game that is under their age level. It will be important to come up with video games that while still teaching curriculum, also involves keeping the students busy and active. I don’t really understand why some teachers are being stubborn and not accepting the fact that students cannot be taught in the same manner as they have been in the past. It just is not going to work. The brains of students are wired completely differently, and it will be our job as teachers to step out of our comfort zones to reach out to our students to make learning interesting, fun, and compatible with their brains.

            I also found it interesting that the human brain was not wired to be able to read.  Reading is actually quite difficult for our brains because it is not what they were designed for in the first place. Our brains were first reprogrammed to understand written language and reading. Then they were reprogrammed for television, and now video/computer games.  It is hard for students to retrain their brains again for the older ways of teaching. This can be very frustrating. It’s like taking a Spanish course in college that teaches strictly in French, that you don’t even know. So of course students are not going to be engaged, the teaching is not geared towards them at all.

            One of the additional readings I will be blogging about is “What Does It Really Mean to “Read” a Text?”  I know I have heard from other sources besides this article that reading is on the decline for students. Maybe it is due to all the video games and television their minds are thoroughly engaged in? This article disproves that reading is on the decline. Reading in print services may be declining, but there are newer modalities that students are using. Kindles have become very popular- but does this count as “reading”? Well certainly! Just because it isn’t in the format of an old fashion book does not mean that it isn’t reading. I personally like to have the real book experience, but lots of my friends have been getting Kindles, and I am getting a little bit jealous. I usually buy my books, and all those books that I have acquired over the years take up half my room at home.  Kindles and other electronic devices store all the books on ONE device. How convenient is that? This makes it so much easier for children to complete their reading assignments, especially if the assignment calls for more than one book. Studies have shown that it doesn’t matter what particular modality one uses to read, the information is all comprehended in the same fashion.  So as the change occurs from reading print to e-books, the change must also occur in students’ environments and resources such as the library. If they cannot access the particular modality that fits them best, they will more than likely not be engaged to read.

            In “Embracing the Squishiness of Digital Literacy”, the article stresses that digital literacy is not a new literacy, it is just the same literacy only updated. Digital Literacy is implemented by the use of laptop computers in an 11^th grade classroom. The computers are used to record interviews, and to create an online forum of students commenting and listening back and forth to others students’ interviews.  Reading and writing are incorporated into this project with students then writing rough drafts and revising their work. Students can go further and podcast themselves. This project assignment is so cool! It reaches out to all types of students, and there is plenty of room for development.  Technology is needed to help the students become more familiar with the digital world to develop their knowledge with digital literacy.

 Hall, L. (2011). How popular culture texts inform and shape students' discussions of social studies texts.                                

               Journal of Adolescent And Adult Literacy, 296-305.

 

Johnson, H., Watson, P., Delahunty, T., McSwiggen, P., & Smith , T. (2011). What it is they do: Differentiating knowledge and literacy practices across content disciplines. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 100-109.

I don’t know why these Blogs are so hard for me to write, more like intimidating.  I’m not much of a writer- or even a free flowing non-structured writer at that.  I never really know what to say.  I am much more of a reader- I’ve already started on book number two in the science section of our book list.  I also knocked out each Harry Potter book the day that it came out… not that I am bragging or anything. J I just enjoy reading because the text is already down on the page for me.

The first article I read was, “How Popular Culture Texts Inform and Shape Students’ Discussions of Social Studies Texts.” I really enjoyed reading this article. It was not just information after information like some of the other articles. It actually had examples of the points the author was trying to prove which made it very relatable to me.  I like to hear about the examples.  I thought it was really cool that the girl named Emily in the article used her prior knowledge about arches to understand Roman architecture.  Whoever thought McDonalds would be helping children out in school?! I do have to agree with Emily though, whenever I think about arches those golden ones are always the first ones to come to my mind.

I also thought it was really interesting how the students thought that if something is in a movie it is automatically not real.  Specifically when they were talking about if Atlantis was real or not one of the students said it wasn’t because it’s a movie and another student agreed because he said it is also a video game. Thomas jumped to a conclusion and said, “Cool. So, yep, not real.” Pop culture can be both beneficial in the classroom and also harmful. If students jump to quick conclusions, they will be hurting themselves in the long wrong. Students need to be able to distinguish between the non-fiction and fiction in pop culture texts.

Another interesting topic of debate is with the girls not being allowed to be sailors. A student brought up that you never see girl sailors in movies so they must not have been allowed. I actually think this is very humorous. Pop culture portrays women to be helpless and not equals to men. Robert said: “Right. Girls don’t explore. They stay home, or they get saved.” Robert does have a point, because women in movies are more often than not portrayed like that. And just because Eric and Robert made a case to Linda about girls not being in those movies or video games, it made Linda reconsider what she was thinking just because those two had evidence in movies/games.

The second article I am blogging about is “What It is They Do: Differentiating Knowledge and Literacy Practices Across Content Disciplines.”  I also really liked this article. I find it really interesting how much Math and Geography are really similar in how they are taught. The article thoroughly explains how we are shifting to disciplinary literacy. This somewhat confused me throughout the article because I wasn’t really sure what it was referring to.  The disciplinary approach was defined as, “a more complex view of literacy instruction that addresses the literacy demands specific to content areas and is based in the belief that deep knowledge of a discipline is best acquired by engaging in the literate habits valued and used by experts in that discipline (p.101)” Wait what? This has to be the most confusing definition ever.

I did however relate to one of the points made in the article. “Students often question why they have to learn about reading if they are going to teach math, science, social studies, art, music, or physical education “(p.102). I definitely had this thought process growing up. “Why do I have to learn this. It will never be useful to me.” While I did THINK this, I never said it out loud in class like some of my other classmates did. Even in my math classes, “Why do we have to learn about derivatives? Who uses this stuff in everyday life?” The article does mention how teachers have to be EXPERTS. I guess teachers do have to be really smart in almost every subject. It would just stink to have a math teacher who could not communicate well. But hey it happens.

I thought the articles were very interesting this week. I’m trying to be better about this whole blogging thing so hopefully I did a lot better than last week!!

I found this article, The Challenge of Content Area Literacy: A Middle School Case Study, to be really interesting.  I can't believe that a middle school class would, like clockwork, come in, sit down, and read then write.  I know, after my past experience with being in a middle school, that must have been either a really great class or it took lots of patience and training to teach the children to be able to have that routine.  Especially with him being a first year teacher.  Once students figure out that you are new, they try to take advantage of you.  I know they can sense fear because I once sensed it when I had a new teacher growing up.

I feel that it is very important to incorporate reading into the other three main subjects besides English.  Reading strengthens your vocabulary and knowledge, and this is very important for students to be introduced to.  I like how this article teaches reading and writing in a science classroom.  Students need to be able to read, comprehend, and write in areas other than just English.  I particularly like the two main techniques John teaches to his class, RAFT and HEART.  These creative techniques spice up the usual boring things that are usually taught in English class to strengthen reading and writing skills. These techniques are also good because it teaches students that literacy extends farther than just an English class setting.  I know when I was growing up I associated essays with only my English classes. When I was asked to write something short for my science class, I couldn't comprehend HOW I was supposed to do it.  It did not come to me as easily as it did in English class. I thought it was weird that I was being asked to write something in a class other than English. I will definitely implement many of the techniques John teaches his class to mine one day!!