New Technologies and the Challenge for Teachers of Literacy

Saw this article on line and throught it was worth sharing. It challenges some misconcpetions about the volume of reading and writing students in which students are actually engaged. The challenge seems to be how we do maximize this literary interaction?

'Today's teens have grown up zooming among hyperlinks in cyberspace and conversing in an online world of Twitter and text messaging where acronyms, assorted shortcuts and creative punctuation have redefined everyday discourse.
Experts figure that kids today read and write even more than previous generations. And they do so in a broader and more complex environment — though not always in academic ways.
The fire hose of online content, plus evolving media platforms, present new challenges for students — and teachers rushing to keep up with technology — as 21st-century literacies blend with traditional skills.
"I'm not going to say it's a good thing or a bad thing," says Elizabeth Kleinfeld, assistant professor of English at Metropolitan State College of Denver. "But it's a thing for sure, and we have to deal with it in our classrooms, in our workplaces and in our relationships."
Her research indicates that students have a troubling tendency not to read deeply, though she's quick to add that there's no evidence that previous generations fared any better.
"Our culture has been moving toward prizing efficiency over taking time to do things," Kleinfeld says, "and we've been moving in that direction for decades."
As state standards and national policies embrace the relationship between technology and language, specific skills have emerged as central to new literacies.

Addressing rapid-fire data
Mastering the technical aspects of multimedia tools is essential. And both reading and writing in the digital world demand a more collaborative approach, played out before an ever-widening audience equipped for rapid-fire feedback.
Perhaps most important, the breadth of information that flows from Internet search engines requires that students cultivate a discerning eye. It's not enough to Google something; the trick is to filter the reliable information from the digital flotsam.
"If we don't start helping kids to slow down and think, they could get overwhelmed and not read deeply at all," says Julie Coiro, an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island who specializes in new literacies and online reading comprehension. "I think there should be very much a conscious, strategic moving back and forth between rapid locating (of information) and deep reading."
In other words, kids need to be taught when to stop clicking and start thinking more carefully. Increasingly, teachers are equipping students with means to evaluate websites rather than taking them at face value.
"I don't think the Internet itself is creating all these problems so much as the lack of ability to keep up with constant changes and how to address them in school," Coiro says. "The Internet offers incredible opportunities to build high-level, deep thinkers if we provide the instruction that's needed."
New literacies aren't about displacing mainstream standards, says Michele Knobel, a professor of literacy education at Montclair State University in New Jersey and a leading authority on the topic.
Still, for some who didn't grow up with this generation of technology, the concept can trigger what Knobel calls a "false memory" of deeper engagement with the written word.
"If you choose to see (new literacies) as dumbing down, you're going to see lots of evidence of that," Knobel says. "But if you choose to see it as something new and opening up all sorts of opportunities for young people to really think about media, how truth itself is often up for grabs, then there are all sorts of ways of understanding it.

Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com

*This is a précised version of Kevin Simpson’s article from the Denver Post

Teaching the Developing Writer the Benefits of Rereading

This week I have had more time for reading (term holidays) and so I revisited an old writing friend. I picked up Nancie Atwell’s ‘Lessons That Change Writers’ and began rereading. I like to go back to authors I trust. Atwell’s messages about writing are laden with timeless value.

Nancie writes, ‘Writing is as much an act of reading over what we have written as it is drafting new writing.’

These words set me to thinking. A lot of student writers are not consciously skilled where the act of rereading is concerned. For this reason it needs to be drawn to their attention. We need to show them how and why rereading is an important skill to add to their writing armoury. They need to see it explicitly modelled and valued by a proficient writer. This way it is more likely to be adopted.

A lack of consistent and conscious rereading is frequently the thing preventing the writing young writers produce rising above the ordinary. Learning the habit of rereading and applying it in a conscious way could make the world of difference to the quality of the writing eventually produced for the reading audience.

Rereading Notebook Entries

We need to model the way we reread our own notebook entries and alert students to the possibilities that this rereading quite literally throws up. –All those long lost entries that bubble back to the conscious level of our thinking. This is rereading to ‘excavate’ lost gems and potential new writing ideas.

Rereading As We Write

The other type of rereading is the reading undertaken as we write. This rereading is equally important as it keeps the writing on track and headed in the right direction.

Rereading has many benefits. It allows the writer to pick up many things including:

• Unintended repetitions
• Contradictions
• Weak, junky verbs
• Word omitted, or words in the wrong place
• Anything overlooked
• The voice of the writer
• The point of view of the writer
• The tone of the writing
• Grammatical omissions
• Spelling errors
  

Let’s Hear It For Rereading

Rereading aloud is equally important as reading ‘in your head.’ It allows the writer to hear the text as a reader would hear it and serves to illuminate ‘the bumps’ in the text that may be inhibiting the flow of words. I often tell students to imagine they are hearing the text for the very first time. ‘Can you hear your voice?’  ‘Do your words flow easily from your tongue as you read?’

Rereading is a boon to any writer. It is part of learning to read like a writer. Developing writers need to be aware of its benefits and learn from the example set by their teachers and mentors. If you’re still not convinced, might I suggest rereading this article.

'The Write Stuff' Teacher Magazine April 2011 Edition

The latest edition of  ACER's Teacher Magazine (April Edition) contains an article titled 'The Write Stuff' in which I have tried to outline the essential ingredients for an effective classroom writing program.

 EXTRACT:

'In any successful writing program, certain principles are at the heart of the teaching, and the impact of these principles is clearly visible in the day to day operation of that particular classroom. In such places one senses a special energy –a genuine spark!

            A partnership exists. -A unique partnership where students and teachers share the common goal of becoming expert writers. Each participant assumes an increasing authority for personal writing outcomes. The gradual release of responsibility is at play in the teaching. Should we venture through the doorway and spend time in these learning environments, the following factors become self evident:'

For the full article go to : http://research.acer.edu.au/teacher/vol2011/iss220/7/

Slice of Life Tuesday -When I Rode The Bus

This morning I watched a bus go by and stop nearby as I walked Mornington’s main street. Schools are on a term break and I have time to amble. I like the notion of ambling. Remember, not all who wander are necessarily lost. I fixed my gaze on the bus for a brief moment.  I realized I have not travelled on a bus since returning from New York in 2007. I must be honest, I don’t miss the experience. 


 The longer I stayed in New York, the more my travel innocence eroded. I experienced things in New York, I had only ever read about. The comfort of my existence in a quiet, coastal town in far away Australia proved to be the antithesis of the life I came to know during my time in New York. I moved through a life wrapped in exciting, strange, challenging, scary-weird and wonderful moments, -often within the same hour.


When I first came to live in Brooklyn, Friday mornings found me catching the No 69 bus out of Park Slope, knowing I was sure of getting a seat on the not yet crowded bus. It provided time to contemplate the day awaiting me at my Friday school in the project housing area near the Brooklyn Navy yards. I enjoyed my two years working with a school community working hard to overcome huge student disadvantage. The bus journey  to get there was never much fun.


 On one particular morning, the bus had reached the crowded intersection of Atlantic Avenue and  Vanderbilt Avenue, where we picked up passengers outside the ubiquitous McDonalds and moved on through the intersection. Across the intersection the traffic stalled, and at this point I noticed a tall man wander out onto the road and move between the stalled traffic. He grabbed another young man, somewhat shorter in stature, who had also wandered onto the road from the opposite side. The taller man escorted his companion to the side of the road.  The shorter individual had his hand placed inside his coat and was grimacing and appeared to be experiencing significant pain. He walked along the pavement supported by his companion who was pulling him forward. From the bus window I watched them walk past the car wash and then directly alongside the 69 bus. Momentarily my eyes met with the man clutching his side. Initially I thought that he had been struck by a car, while attempting to cross the road.



 The bus moved forward and stopped fifty metres further along Vanderbilt Avenue, the next the designated stop. Two young girls clambered on board and excitedly declared ‘Someone just got shot!’ It was at this precise instant I realized what I had experienced. My mind switched immediately to the face of the young man. -That face, the pain so obvious, the holding of his side as he moved; the look in his eyes.    My innocence was swept away in the space of a breath. A woman sitting next to me on the bus turned to me and said “The world is a sad and dangerous place at times like this. I don’t understand”



Strangely the bus driver, the person with an uninterrupted view of the whole episode, had not given the slightest indication that he had seen anything unusual. He just continued to drive the bus. He never uttered a word. Was he just de-sensitized?


The bus continued forward on its route. But for me, the day was no longer the same. Throughout the day I continued to see the face of that young man, and I began to speculate on what had prompted the events of the morning.


Bus adventures, misadventures, and memories of New York moments triggered by the sighting of a bus this morning. Who would have imagined that?

A bus in Manhattan not Brooklyn- but a bus all the same!

Slice of Life Tuesday Special Visitors

Today some special visitors came to my home. They quite literally flew in. I was sitting on the deck sharing a cup of tea in the faint autumn sunlight with my sife and a friend when I noticed some unexpected visitors hovering near the buddleias beside the creek.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things. Such visits are uncommon. However they are renowned for being able to travel significant distances and I have waited many years for them to visit. So the hope in my heart began to dance with anticipation.

I stood to gain a closer look. I approached them tentatively, not wishing to disturb them and still unsure that what my eyes were fixed upon matched the thoughts in my head. Were these magnificent butterflies that flittered around me actually the legendary Monarch butterflies also known as Wanderers?  Diving and swooping continually around the buddleias and along the creek their movement held me mezmerized. Finally,they flew up high and disappeared into the branches of a Weeping Willow before returning to the buddleias once more, propping to allow their delicate wings to soak up the vital sun like solar panels. 

These were the buddleias (butterfly bush) that I had planted some three years before in the hope of attracting exotic butterflies, -and now a cluster of what I strongly believed were the long awaited Wanderers were feasting on the dark purple flowers of my Black Buddleias. This was the pay off. This was realization of a simple dream. For years I had planted swan plants in the hope of specifically attracting Wanderers. It had been fruitless. Instead they had found the Buddleias.

I raced inside to get my camera. I needed evidence. This took quite some time. The butterflies rarely settled long enough for me to get the all important close up. After some considerable time, I had some shots of my visitors.

 I checked the photos I had taken against the photos of the Monarch Butterfly (Wanderer) on the internet. They certainly looked the same. I then emailed my photos to my friend Barry, a butterfly aficionado. He confirmed my suspicions. ‘They’re Wanderers alright’

When you’ve waited so long for something to arrive, its like being a kid again. You are alive with the thought and the moment.

The Sometimes Secret Reading and Writing Lives of Teachers

A teacher once told me, ‘I don’t want my students to know anything about my life. I am just here to teach.’ The comment disturbed me on a number of levels. It showed no sense of the need to bond with students. I had the impression the teacher was merely a cardboard cut out of a living, breathing teacher. When we make the effort to bond with students we humanize ourselves. We connect with our students more effectively when we provide insights as to how we operate as lifelong learners. In order to do this, we need to give something of ourselves and that requires an emotional commitment, not just curriculum support.

 It amazes me how many of my colleagues live secret reading and writing lives. Lives they keep hidden from their students. They may be voracious readers, but see no need to connect this rich reading life to their classroom practice.  Others may keep diaries and journals about their travels and broader lives. Others write poetry. Yet all this rich literate activity is kept separate from the classroom. These literate experiences fail to connect with their professional lives. And within that separateness remains a rich untapped vein.

Examine your literate life and determine what’s important for your students and your classroom practice. If reading and writing extends beyond your teaching life ask yourself- What compels me to read and write?

I make a point of letting students know that I:

• Love owning books and have an extensive and ever expanding library of books
• Talk about books with family,  friends and colleagues
• Know what I am going to read next
• Read more than one book at a time
• Have defined interests as a reader
• Read book reviews to learn about books
• Love spending time in bookshops
• Need to read in order to feed my writing
• Use reading to extend and challenge my thinking
• Have favourite authors that I trust
• Read professionally to continue my learning about education
• Record extracts in my writer’s notebook
• Read every day across a range of genres –newspapers, e-reading, books, recipes, magazines

Examine what you do as a reader and determine to make your thinking and behaviour around reading visible to your students. This is powerful modelling of a significant adult living a literate life. Our students are more likely to follow us and expand their own reading and writing if they see we value our own literate abilities.

I make a point of sharing books I have recently purchased or am reading. I read extracts where I believe the writers have used words powerfully. I share my understandings and what I hope to gain from my reading of a particular book.

Recently I have shared the following books from my suitcase of surprises:

Noah Barleycorn Runs Away by John Boyne- the story of an eight year old boy’s journey

Land’s Edge by Tim Winton.  A coastal memoir by the master story teller.

A Child’s Garden by Michael Foreman. A picture story book about hope.

Igniting Writing-When A Teacher Writes. My own book about why teachers need to write.

Whose Nose? by Jeanette Rowe. A simple picture story book with interesting graphic elements

Mirror, by Jeannie Baker. A picture story book with a unique layout.

His Name in Fire by Catherine Bateson. A novel written in verse about country living

Pyrotechnics on the Page-Playful craft that Sparks Writing by Ralph Fletcher. A professional book about writing craft ideas from one of my favourite writers.

Even if the books you are currently reading, or intend to read next, are not suitable for students to read at this point in their reading lives, it is still important to discuss what you are reading. Students need to hear us value our respective reading lives.

I want to make it patently clear to students that as a writer, my reading life is vital to that writing. Your secret is safe with your students…

Reflections On The Slice of Life Story Challenge March 2011

Once again I am pleased that I was able to last the distance, to meet the challenge of writing and posting a writing slice every day for the month of March. I became even more aware of those internal machinations of my sometimes scrambled mind, as I pondered my daily posting. The rehearsal was continual. It was stimulating. Words and phrases tumbled around in my brain and I played with ideas until at last I settled on my daily script. Then I sat at the computer and the words spilled onto the screen.

Being involved in SOLSC teaches you to be disciplined as a writer and raises your awareness of small moments in a day and their potential as a focus for writing. It heightens the writer’s awareness of the near world.

Through my participation, I have met new writers and given and received feedback. My horizons have been extended as I have read about the lives of others in areas far removed from mine.  As much as we are different, we share a sense of community and fellowship. Happy, sad, weird and wonderful ideas have been shared through our respective postings. I have been extended as a writer.

This is the third year I have participated in this writing challenge and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. As usual, it provided a great learning experience...