"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).
Before the job I have now, I never realized how much our personal lives affect how we process and make sense of texts. I grew up in a largely populated city with small, rural towns surrounding us. I was so used to all the different cultures, races, and languages I was engaged with. I never realized how little diversity other kids in smaller towns are being exposed to. Now, I work in a small, rural school and I get to see the difference first-hand in the way they process texts and media based on their life experiences.
With children growing up in a world of social media and technology, I am interested to see how digital literacy will play a role in their overall learning lives. I currently have some students who relate our lessons to videos they have seen online. While this can be a positive way to make connections and increase engagement, we are all aware that this isn't always a positive thing for young children. I am afraid of how many children will become disconnected from printed text and books due to technology. I believe it is already making their attention span much shorter, which in turn is making them less tolerant of longer reads. The quote by Gillen and Barton applies well to this topic of literacy as a social practice.
This quote from one of our optional readings, The Educated Blogger, is an excellent example of how our personal lives impact our literacy:
"Storytelling can be considered as the first steps to developing literacy (Huffaker, 2004). The practice of telling stories allows children’s language and reading skills to grow (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999). This may begin when a child and parent sit together to read a bedtime story, or when the three-year-old recounts the day spent with the grandparents. These stories, whether fictional, autobiographical or anecdotal, give rise to more mature narratives (Bransford et al.)" (Huffaker, 2005, p. 93).
Storytelling is a great foundation for building literacy skills. However, I can't help but think about the children who do not have parents or family members that will tell them stories, read them books, or talk about their day with them. These children are missing out on one of the first key steps to developing literacy. Even after learning to read, I am sure this will still impact how they process and make sense of texts, as well as how far their imagination can travel. How can our minds expand to something we have never known before? The author goes on to discuss how storytelling doesn't end in our childhood. We continue to read, write, and use the internet for communication as adults.
I also think it would be interesting to see how children in a technology filled world grow their literacy skills. My friend's son has very little experience with print books and only has experience with games on a tablet or phone. His literacy skills are not great and struggles in school. There are definitely positive ways to utilize technology that will help strengthen literacy skills. At my job, I did a story workshop theme during summer camp for preschool. The kids loved being able to tell their own stories and make a book to bring home. Some of the children you could tell did not have experience with stories as they needed help telling their stories.
ReplyDeleteI believe some adults think most kids would choose technology! My coworker teaches 5th grade and had to stop using Chromebooks in her class for a while because of students misusing them. The students actually ended up asking her if she can keep them away because they liked to do things the traditional way and realized they were actually bored with their computers! My students this year love reading and it amazes me to hear what they have said about it. If I reward them with doing something fun on their computers, some ask me if they can just read instead. One student told us his mom made him choose between a book or Pokemon cards, so he chose the cards. Several of my students were floored by this! They said they would always choose a book over something "meaningless". I feel like most kids would love to tell and write stories, but they haven't fully been introduced to the idea so they just don't know they like it. Parenting also plays a huge role, as I stated in my original post. Some kids just don't have those people in their lives to help them build these literacy skills. I am still shocked that that parent made a book a part of that choice. Books should be separate from toys/cards.
DeleteTechnology is a great thing and has made so many advances in learning. I can create many interactive lessons using technology, but I still want to incorporate printed reading material and practice handwriting. During my student teaching about 2 years ago, my cooperating teacher just used iPads for the students to submit their work, and they never hand-wrote a paper. I did not agree with that method, and I knew I did want that to happen in my future classroom. When observing, I often found students playing games on different tabs and needing to be more engaged in their work. Then when I reviewed their work, It was almost in "texting style," where things were abbreviated, not complete sentences, and they could not come up with 3-4 sentences per paragraph, and this was a 5th-grade classroom. Technology should definitely be incorporated into learning and classrooms, but as earlier learners especially, it should not be all they are using. It should be used at the correct times in moderation.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I love using technology to create engaging and interactive lessons. I also believe learning certain things, such as typing properly on a keyboard, is vital for them to learn. In order to advocate for both, I have my students write rough drafts on paper to practice handwriting and develop stamina in writing. After that, I have them transfer their writing onto the computer. I also struggle with students who can't form complete sentences. Thankfully, we have GoGuardian and the students know we can see everything on their screens. They don't even try to test their boundaries because they think we are always looking haha. My coworker's son is in 3rd grade, and everything except their homework is done online. I can't imagine doing this with my third graders. They need to build the fundamental skills of handwriting, stamina and reading physical copies.
Delete