How are new technologies changing literacy? My thoughts...

New technologies are changing the way we view literacy today. It seems that with each passing year, kids are able to communicate through more and more sophisticated technology. Gaming systems like the new interactive Wii, video games, cell phones, and the internet seem to get more and more advanced features with each new version and kids soak it all up like sponges. My 14-year-old son figured out features on his cell phone that I have still yet to discover on mine. The truth is, we love technology. Why else would people stand in line (for days sometimes) to purchase a gaming system or a phone (like the iPhone) before it comes out? For this reason, I think we as educators need to use this technology to our advantage.

As a sixth grade teacher, I have found that kids enjoy projects that involve researching on the internet rather than a book so throughout the year, I give a few projects that allow them the opportunity to do that. For example, last year I assigned a "The Day I Was Born" project. This was a project that they had to find out certain things about the day they were born (President, price of a house, toys, television shows, etc.). They had to do a lot of research on their own at home. For this reason, I gave them the websites to go to in order to find the information. Let's face it, the internet is not the safest place for kids and I didn't want my students going into websites they shouldn't be in so I checked out the websites first. This was time-consuming but I have found it better to give students a list of websites to go to rather than give them an assignment and wish them luck. The end result was that they loved the project and some of them went on to look for more information on the day they were born. Once more, the kids were still doing meaningful work: reading, distinguishing what was relevant, and writing their paper.

I really enjoyed the YouTube video. I think the bottom line is technology is ALWAYS changing. We as educators need to figure out ways to embrace and incorporate it effectively into our classrooms.

Last summary. Yahoooooo!

My thoughts on NCLB

In the beginning, I think many thought that the NCLB Act was a great proposal and who wouldn't? NCLB aims at improving students' performance, holds schools accountable and allows parents more options when choosing schools for their children. What's wrong with that? Plenty!

Reality: In order to improve student performance, many teachers have to accommodate their schedules by dropping other subjects and concentrate on math and reading (and sometimes science) which are the areas tested. I admit that I rearrange my plans in order to fit more math and language art practice months before the NJ ASK. One week I may drop Social Studies and use that period to teach math or language arts and then the following week I will drop another subject (such as Health or Science) so I am not dropping the subject altogether to teach to the test. I will also admit that by the time the test comes around, we are all looking forward to it just to get it over with! I won't deny the test results, all this "teaching to the test" is in fact, improving test results but are the students really learning or just memorizing?

Reality: It holds schools accountable by taking funding away if they fail to meet the high expectations set. How is this suppose to help? If the school couldn't meet the expectations with funding, how is it going to meet it without funding? And to add insult to injury, passing schools get an incentive. Fully funding this act is what should have been the first priority before imposing such high expectations on schools. Without it, many children are being left behind.

Reality: School choice, yeah right! It's not that easy or simple. Parents are suppose to have more choices when choosing schools for their children but what happens when they are told there isn't any room at that school or when the school is far away? I don't know what percentage of parents actually take advantage of this option and I'm even more curious to find out how many parents even know they have a choice if their child is attending a failing school. I honestly don't believe schools make it publicly known that parents have that option. After all, they don't want their "smarter" students to go elsewhere!

Thoughts on Assessments

As I read the article "Principles of Effective Literacy Assessment" I couldn't help but wonder how authentic the fourth principle (Assessment should be a collaborative, reflective process) really is. I think if you let students pick out what they want in their portfolios after they see their grade, of course they are going to pick out the work they really did well on. If you let them pick ahead of time, they will pick only the easier assignments to be evaluated and, in turn, they may not try as hard on more challenging assignments because they know it won't be graded. Either way, I don't think it is an authentic picture of the student and if used, it should be used sparingly along with other assessment tools like the ones mentioned in the article "Authentic Classroom Assessment in Action: Ms. Rodriguez's Classroom." She seemed to have a real handle on assessing her 28 students even though it seems like a lot of work. I think the key to successful assessing is to use a variety of assessments. If you use only one way, it just wouldn't be authentic.

What Do We Actually Know About Reading? Ch. 5-7 Summary

There seems to be a lot of theories out there about what we actually know about reading. Although much of the theories have changed forms and names over the last 75 years, they have laid out the foundation. Some commonalities I found interesting were how much social interactions (at home and at school), family involvement (emulating) and rich home literacy environment have a big part in a child's readiness and willingness to learn to read. I am skeptical about the Maturation Theory. I've seen a 4 year old read The New York Times and I have seen kids struggle to read who were well over 6 1/2. People mature at different rates and I don't think you can put a specific age on it, perhaps an age range but not a specific age.

I agree that children learn to read in stages. And when they are ready, as educators we need to guide and encourage them. As written on p. 78, "Teachers need to understand the ways in which children think at different stages of development in order to create developmentally appropriate lessons and activities for them." This knowledge avoids educators from teaching material, a child is not ready for. For example, if an educator, tries to teach reading to a child that is not ready, this can cause frustration to both student and teacher. I have seen many of the theories (used in different degrees) in schools today. For example, I had my son at a day care center which had a strong belief in "learning through play." As an educator, I believe the best approach is to know your student and see what works best for him or her. I just don't think there is a "one size fits all" formula for reading success since each child is unique.

How Do Children and Adults Acquire Language?

I believe that our innate capacity as well as our environment allow us to acquire language (and sometimes if we're lucky, more than one). I also believe that there is a window of opportunity (the articles referred to it as the critical period) in which language could be fully acquired (with ease) when we are very young. This is why learning a foreign language is so much easier for a young child than an adult and why feral children will never be able to speak as we do.

My mother was a stay at home mom who spoke only Spanish so I spoke only Spanish until it was time for me to go to school. The little English I knew I learned from watching television and yet I don't remember struggling through kindergarten. My mother told me that once I was immersed in the English-only classroom, I picked up the language with ease.

I believe that children as well as adults need social interactions as well as a nurturing environment in order to successfully acquire any language.