How do I make my reading and language arts class fun? How do I help my students want to read and bring them up to a proficient standard? This is what I have been thinking about for the last few months. I want to introduce something different to my class, something that has not been done with this group of students. Unfortunately, this new year the school I will be working at is an F school. The scores are low and my students are struggling. Technology is something that has not been incorporated with this group. As I research on what to do in my class and what I can use to motivate my students where it’s just not me lecturing and making them read, I came across literacy and technology and the merging of the two. The more research into technology I find that literacy and technology actually make sense. When I think of literacy I think of pencil and paper, books, and read aloud but as I look further I see that new conceptions have changed the views of reading and writing. There are so many different text formats that extend literacy into the internet, communicating using e-mail, texts, and chats, and the use of word processing programs (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007). Even the electronic versions of stories can assist students with sound, speech, clicking on words to hear how they sound. Interactive reading is more engaging and interactive. Using technology to support writing in the classroom may reduce some difficulty for students that have fine motor skills, problems with penmanship. Word processing can help with all of that and brainstorming, and editing any final drafts with ease. This seems like a good idea and something for me to try in the classroom but for me bringing new literacies into a classroom is not an easy task because I do not feel prepared and not sure how to incorporate any of these things.
The Internet has changed the definition of literacy to include writers and readers of electronic texts not typically found in traditional forms of literacy. We need to be able to communicate through video, hyperlinks, animated and digital pronunciations, to name a few of the new literacy instruction Karchmer (2001). Once student’s have access to information and the ability to use the information effectively they will be able access more opportunities as they continue through school. Being able to bring together literacy and instruction and internet technology will help better prepare students for the future.
References:
“Integrating Technology and Literacy.” Edutopia. N.p., 25 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 July 2016.
“What Digital Literacy Looks Like in a Classroom.” Education Week Teacher. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2016.H