EDC534: Summer Institute in Digital Literacy Data Analaysis

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For my final project of this semester in EDC534, I dug into the quantitative and qualitative data of a very specific set of survey questions and responses from last year’s 2014 Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. The questions in focus pertain to participants’ conceptualizations of what types of classroom and learning scenarios are able to be classified as digital literacy. EDC534_FinalPaper_Viens

Ignite Presentation: Educators’ Conceptions of Digital Literacy in Action

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By: Stephanie Viens

April 28, 2015.

In this brief screencast presentation, I provide an overview of my research paper, which draws on qualitative and quantitative survey data from participants of the 2014 Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. The numbers and dialogue tell an inspiring story about how educators’ conceptualizations of what “counts” as digital literacy have shifted as a result of participating in the Institute.

This presentation has served as a pre-writing tool for me, as well as a brief synthesis for other. I truly enjoy putting together these succinct slideshows as a pre-writing tool, because they help me to pinpoint the 20 most important soundbites from and often-messy body of knowledge, data, literature, and discussion. I am looking forward to how the ideas presented to here relate to educators’ experiences in the upcoming 2015 Summer Institute in Digital Literacy.

#EDC534 Leap 4: Collaborate and Connect

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This assignment instructed us, students of EDC534, to “capture a dialogue” about the key concepts we have grappling with in our readings: youth media production, authenticity, power, and engagement. After some deliberation on how to tackle this assignment, we thought: What better way to capture a dialogue than, well, to capture it! And so we did.

After collaboratively coming up with a very “loose” agenda of ideas that jumped out at both of us, we put ourselves On Air with Google Hangout and…well, talked! The end result is our 20+ minute podcast discussion, which may be length for some people’s cups of tea, but we both felt it was cathartic and necessary to unpack our complex thoughts. In an online learning environment, such as our EDC534 class, it can often be difficult to have the rich back-and-forth dialogues that we accomplished with this project.

The back-and-forth nature of our dialogue allowed to bounce ideas off of each other, and while the ideas of authenticity and empowerment have certainly been problematized, we did both leave with some clarity about the perpetual “messiness” of such endeavors. Check it out here: Youth Voice and Power Podcast

EDC534: Deconstructing YouTube Videos

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In this production, I deconstructed a youth media production video, titled “Is The Bus Coming?” This video, produced by the youth at the Mystic Learning Center in Somerville, MA, is a great example of youth using media to engage in civic action. After many trials and tribulations, with a determination to have clear video clips within my screencast, I decided to use the iPad app ‘Explain Everything.’ Very challenging, very fun!

Here it is:

Reflection Essay: Reflections, Connections, and New Ideas

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#EDC534, Reflection Essay #1

Stephanie Viens

My EDC534 experience thus far has been a whirlwind of eye-opening ideas, as well as a constant reorganization of preexisting ideas. I have expanded my definition of authorship, reflected on the themes surrounding critical media analysis, pondered the relationship between critical analysis and creative production, and thought long and hard about fair use and transformativeness. Throughout my coursework in digital literacy thus far, I’ve expanded my definitions of both “text” and “literacy.” I am now expanding my conceptualization of “authorship” as well. The notion that we can become authors through remixing, commenting on, and transforming media brought to light my lack of prior thinking about authorship; I did not think that authorship didn’t include these things – I simply hadn’t thought much about defining authorship at all! In my experiences with exploring digital literacy, I have referred to participants in the digital culture as media makers, creators, producers, contributors, and learners, but rarely authors. That has changed, and I now understand authorship to mean, essentially, putting something of value into the world that wasn’t there before (cue video clip of Natalie Portman’s “original dance” in the film Garden State):

An original creative work? Maybe? 

The key ideas surrounding critical analysis, particularly in Buckingham’s chapter “Becoming Critical” and the Hobbs, Donnelly, Friesem, and Moen article “Learning to Engage,” allowed me to meaningfully reflect on my experiences with my own teachers and in my own teaching practices. It is evident to me, now, that we as teachers convey our own beliefs and ideas about the “right answer” when it comes to media criticism. I was particularly intrigued by Buckingham’s discussion of how media analysis becomes a “game” in which students believe that teachers want to hear responses indicating that media is oppressive, perpetuates stereotypes, and incorrectly represents certain groups. Despite teachers (including myself), stating that there is “no right answer” when it comes to media analysis, there clearly is a “right” answer that students aim for. As an undergrad, I had a host of communication studies professors for whom the “right answer” was clearly one that supported the “media effects” perspective (i.e., media sets unrealistic standards, oppresses women, misrepresents minority groups, commodifies happiness, etc). I was warned about the effects of media, rather than encouraged to build my own civic skills and agency.

Capture
We are warned about the dangers of the media. What about opportunity and empowerment? (source: Media Education Foundation)

Since I, as a student, learned that these were the right answers, I unknowingly carried that perspective over into my own teaching. Each semester my students complete a project in which they “revamp” an ad campaign or brand, creatively coming up with new ideas for ads, commercials, slogans, and overall messages. To do this, they need to reflect on the existing media, and I prompt them with questions such as, “Who does this message leave out?” “How might this interpreted differently?” and “Are these messages making truthful claims?” This assignment, in my opinion, has great potential for learning about message construction and audience  – however, I believe that in my language describing the assignment, I perpetuate the perspective that media/advertising messages are harmful., and I wish a much more open-minded approach and positive attitude for my students.

With my fresh ideas about media analysis in mind, I have also pondered the relationship between critical analysis and creative production. I think many educators adopt the belief that a student has to make an end product for something to be considered a creative accomplishment or an instance of authorship (or digital literacy). The course readings have shown us that while using one’s critical insight to create a product can be extremely rewarding and has limitless creative potential, students can also be creative authors just in the way they provide commentary or analysis of a piece of media. In some of the responses to Summer Institute survey questions, particular an example scenario in which students analyze a movie review, many participants said it did not “count” as digital literacy because the student “did not make something.” My thoughts about this topic are still taking shape, but I wonder where the divide lies between “doing something” and “making something” for students and teachers alike.

Lange’s (2014) chapter on representational ideologies has me thinking about the ways in which we interpret media content, and how we can never truly absorb all of the nuances of media’s original creation and intent. Like Verdi explained in Lange’s chapter about his video blogging, which often involved his daughters, viewers can never fully understand nor put themselves into the true context of the media. We are interpreting, understanding, and judging media at face value without seeing any of the “behind-the-scenes” footage. This idea also brings to mind questions I had about transformativeness, when reading about copyright and fair use. From my understanding, a work is considered original, even if it repurposes borrowed material, when it transforms the work into something with new or different value. This concept is completely logical, since I wholeheartedly believe that there are no purely “original” ideas and that we live and grow by borrowing and repurposing ideas over and over. However, what I find interesting and perhaps concerning is the difficulty that comes with “assessing” an individual’s creative work for transformativeness. For instance, if I were tasked with explaining how a student has transformed a piece of media, who would I be to attempt and interpret their creative intentions without being able to see all of the “behind-the-scenes” action that Lange eloquently discussed? I think it would be a great lesson to teach students about transformation, repurposing, and fair use; however I also feel that it would be tricky trying to explain the transformative nature of someone else’s work – at least in a way that is accurate and envelopes the creation’s context. This very idea brings me back to where we started the course, wondering what is creativity? Is creativity in the eye of the beholder, or the creator? To me, this seems like one of those questions that will eternally be answered with “it depends.” 🙂

The Little Author That Could

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#EDC534, Leap 1: My Identity as a Media Maker
Stephanie Viens

I’m eight years old, tucked into the tiny chair-desk combo in my bedroom. I’ve just finished folding a cover onto and stapling a makeshift “binding” for my latest work: a book called The Vampire. The outer cover is hot pink cardstock, folded in half. Inside, pages of 8 ½ x 11 printer paper are folded and stapled in. It is one of many “books” I’ve produced, this one taking shape at a time when my friends and I liked to scare ourselves by chatting on the schoolbus about ghosts and vampires and demons. As I created this book, the faintest notions of authorship and genre conventions began to emerge.

Inside the book, I recall writing on the left-hand pages, and illustrating on the right-hand pages. While I don’t recall exactly what the storyline was (there was definitely a red, ominous-looking potion involved!), I do recall the painstaking process of choosing images that fit just right with the corresponding text. I remember thinking, “I want people to be able to look at the picture and know what the page is about before they read it. If the picture is wrong, they’ll be confused when they start reading.” In retrospect, it would appear that my eight-year-old brain was considering representation and text-previewing strategies.

The cover was the last component that I worked on, which had a title across the top and an illustration below it, with “By: Stephanie Viens” written carefully across the bottom. I had the same analytical thought process when designing the cover as I did with the page illustrations. I was initially going to draw a vampire doing a particular thing, but thought, “No, no, then that will make it seem like that thing is what the whole book is about!” I ended up drawing a bust of a vampire, with the classic widow’s peak, squinty eyes, black and white collar, and two downward-pointing fangs dripping blood, because I had learned that that’s how vampires were supposed to look.

I do not remember if I showed the book to my parents. I do know that they were not happy with my newfound obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I have reason to believe that I hid my masterpiece from them. However, I did bring it to school, where I shared it with my friend Dylan, who shared with me a book that he had created. We did this often – creating short stories with illustrations and sharing them with each other. I only wish I remembered more!

I had never thought about these childhood experiences as bearing relevance to my identity as an author, but in retrospect I can clearly see the progression of my interests and skills as a media-maker. Writing is my “thing,” for better or for worse. I love music, but have merely muddled in creating my own, whether digitally or with instruments. I have never been very engaged with video games, computer games, or technology in general. Reflecting on my past experiences and where I am now as a media-maker, it makes perfect sense that I was writing “books” as a child. While I often doubt that I have any out-of-the-ordinary talent for writing, I do own the fact that I’m wordy and have a knack for proper grammar. I articulate myself best through writing, and concision is my absolute weakness.  Word limitations freak me out!

Taking ownership of all of the writing that I did as a child brings me peace of mind. I have often become frustrated that I’m not more of a “digi” media maker, and less of a wordsmith. However, when I look back and so clearly see that this is who I’ve been all along, I find assurance in the fact that while I may not be the techiest of the techies, I do have a fairly stable identity as an author.

Classroom Website Reviews for EDC586

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Stephanie Viens
LEAP2: Classroom Website Review

Before detailing the sites I have chosen to review, I feel it’s necessary to explain my search process a bit. I began by searching with terms like “best teacher websites” and “award-winning teacher websites,” and found many great elementary-level sites. I specifically wanted to find websites of high school English classes, since that is the context I eventually hope to be in (I think!). I had much more trouble finding sites for this grade level; perhaps my search strategy wasn’t effective? Perhaps there are less instances of course websites at higher grade levels? Maybe high schools tend to use closed-environment learning management systems? In any event, I began adding “wikispace” to my search keywords to narrow the hunt a bit. I found one wikispace, reviewed here, for a 9th and 11th grade History/English teacher that I enjoyed. After that, I randomly got the idea to search the names of a few of my former English teachers, and came across a Teacher Web made by my 8th grade English teacher. My justification for selecting that one is elaborated on with my review of the site.

One course website I have chosen to review is Mrs. Jennifer Barnett’s wikispace titled, “FHS Wolves Den.” Mrs. Barnett teaches English and World History in grades 9 and 11 at Fayetteville High School in Talladega County, Alabama. The site can be found at http://fhswolvesden.wikispaces.com. On the home page, there is a “Welcome” section describing the aforementioned information, which immediately informs the audience of where they are in the “space” of the Internet. Mrs. Barnett also briefly states the site’s purpose in this welcome section: “…to learn, discuss issues, keep up with class news, deadlines, and project outlines, find handouts, resources, and games for learning, and collaborate with other students on class projects.”

The wikispace appears to be fulfilling the proclaimed purpose. The main sections of the site, which are listed with their corresponding sub-sections in a left-hand column, are English, History, General, and Links. Each section, which is listed with its corresponding sub-headings in a left-hand navigational menu, consists of project sites and resources, as well as “housekeeping” materials like calendars, links to other school sites, and a “Call Me” link. The wikispace serves as both an information resource and an instructional resource, as it houses both logistical information as well as content-related activities and agendas.

The content is created by the teacher with spaces for students to edit, add, and create their own content. Mrs. Barnet provides very thorough resources to assist students, parents, and other teachers in understanding her approach to teaching and the overall framework of her classes. Under the “General” section of the wikispace, along with a calendar, handouts, and course-related games, two links truly stand out: “Barnett 101” and “Real World.”

The full title of the Barnett 101 page, which is a wikipage that opens within the space upon clicking the menu link, is “Barnett 101: What you need to know” (to be successful in her class). She has embedded a slideshow that reviews her “procedures, methods, and preferences,” and provides links to “Cool Tools” and “Technology” pages (within the wikispace) that serve as lists of her favorite tools that are linked to the tool’s websites.

The “Real World” section addresses the question, “So, can you really use anything you learn in school in the real world?” A YouTube video, which I unfortunately could not play, allegedly depicts the “real world in 2018” (which, frighteningly, we are not so far from!) as a means of showing what skills students will need. This page links to “Real World English” and “Real World History,” which are pages within the wiki that are designed for student contribution. Students are provided with a template (below) to follow to add their insights about what skills they will need in the real world:

Real World Rules
I’m glad I know _ , because one day I will _. (first name last initial)
Must come up with something different than all the other posts
Must be specific
Underline what you know and what one day you will…

The English and History sections contain resources that pertain particularly to the respective subject matter, and contain both explicit implicit efforts to promote literacy development. The English section has links to wikipages for Writing and Language, which contain hyperlinks to online resources like “Grammar Practice,” “Active and Passive Voice,” and “Basic Guide to Essay Writing.” The Writing Section also details the online tool “Delicious” and explains how the class will use it for social bookmarking. One unit in the English class revolves around The Hunger Games, and the page for this unit contains links to multimedia resources such as the film trailer, podcasts, and fan sites. On the more “traditional” side, the Hunger Games section also includes links to Vocabulary, Chapter Questions, Discussion Questions, and Character pages all in Word docs. The English section also contains a unit called “Our Story,” which is a digital storytelling unit using the online tool “OurStory.”

Many of the English sub-pages offer opportunities for student participation and dialogue. One section, “Personal Poetry,” is a collection of student poems and also provides links to poetry-writing resources. Another section, “Novel Notes,” contains images, titles, and descriptions of the novels and plays in the 11th grade curriculum, and invites students to visit FHS’s online book club where they can engage in online book chats about self-selected books.

The History content is equally as engaging and encourages multiple forms of literacies. One sub-page, “History Headquarters,” serves as a “good place to review topics covered in Modern US History.” These topic reviews, according to Mrs. Barnett, “are a combination of class activities, student generated reviews, sample tests questions, and links for further review and study.” Clicking through various links related to different topics in history (imperialism, baby boomers, Harlem Renaissance, Berlin Airlift, Iwo Jima, among others), I found graphs, maps, images, and links to videos. There appears to be something for every type of learner, and though the pages do not have “by lines,” many of them appear to be collaboratively student-generated. Another History page, “Scribe Notes” has one wikipage for each day of class, for which one student is assigned to be the “daily scribe.” The student adds notes to the corresponding page, and other students are invited to add to and edit the daily scribe’s notes for accuracy. Yet another History segment titled “Learning with Music” details learning projects related to specific songs that help student understand history.

Mrs. Barnett’s teaching philosophy and encouragement of multiple literacies is explicitly present in her “Barnett 101” page, but is also implicitly woven throughout her subject matter pages and projects for English and History. It is clear that she is an avid fan of “cool tools,” and tries to make these tools as accessible as possible by embedding links to tools within lessons where relevant, and also as a compiled collection (“Cool Tools” links in “Barnett 101”). There are also several tools linked in the left-hand navigation menu under “Links,” such as Voki, Quizlet, and Voicethread. I did not see an explicit connection of these tools to a particular lesson, but I imagine that these tools are discussed/used in class, and the wikispace serves as a quick resource to access them from the “main hub” of the class.

All finished and current classroom projects are documented via links to project sites (for example, a link to a “Mixbook” created for a WWI project). These resources can serve as valuable examples to other educators, and to keep parents informed of what their children are doing. Online documentation of work through the wikispace also allows students to see their work online and be proud of what they have accomplished.

I have little to suggest to improve this website, except for perhaps some navigational clarity. Though the left-hand menu provides a navigational road map to the site, acting much like a table of contents, there are a great number of links both in the menu and in the subpages that are accessed through the menu. If I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, I might easily feel lost and overwhelmed by the choices and resources. It would be easier to navigate if the links in the left-hand menu could open up and collapse so that you could preview the contents without digging through all of the pages. If I were a student in either Mrs. Barnett’s History or English class, I would find this wikispace to be a valuable “headquarters” for actual project work, and also an important information resource for understanding the overarching scope and goals of the course.

I also chose to review the Teacher Web site created by my very own 8th grade English teacher, Ms. Denise Turner. Ms. Turner still 8th grade English, at Dr. Kevin Hurley Middle School in Seekonk, MA. The site can be found here: http://teacherweb.com/MA/DrKevinMHurleyMiddleSchool/dsturner/apt29.aspx

Before reviewing in detail the contents of this site, I have to share my excitement and justification for why I have selected it. Ms. Turner’s English class was my favorite class EVER, though I could not quite articulate why. She seemed to have a different grasp on “English” as a subject, which I now understand, in retrospect, as the concept of multiliteracies. She always encouraged us to express ourselves in ways that “made sense to us,” whether it was drawing, painting, photography, rap music, poetry, or other writing. One example of a project that I recall revolved around The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. We pulled quotes from the book (our own choices), and used these quotes as springboards for self-expression. I remember typing and cutting out these quotes, and pasting them into a paper-mache book that I made. The book had photos of myself from my childhood, images I pulled from the Internet, drawings I had made, and two poems by different authors that I felt related to the quotes I had chosen. While this project did not require the use of digital technology, I believe it activated “multiple literacies.” Ms. Turner also promotes authentic inquiry. I remember one writing assignment in which we were instructed to write about something we were passionate about. One student, probably trying to be funny, said, “Ms. Turner, what if I’m really passionate about cheese?” Without hesitating, she rattled off several avenues that he could take to pursue and express his interest in cheese.

Coming back to the present, I was delighted to find this website after so many years of losing touch. We did not use a class website when I was in this class, and I am pleased to find this one as it truly captures her essence in one place. Students often describe her as “out-there,” “expressive,” and “artsy,” and this website is helping me to put rhyme and reason to those evaluations.

With all that said, I did not select this page for it’s ease-of-use, “looks,” or because I think it is the “best.” In fact, the navigation menu is fairly chaotic and has several dozen links – some that are marked by letters (A, B, C), some that are numbered, and still others that are lettered and number (1a, 1b, 1c) – which makes it quite overwhelming, probably moreso for someone who is not currently in the class.

The site, I believe, serves as a headquarters for her 8th grade English classes, containing mostly project- and activity-related resources. There are links in the upper corner to email Turner and to get to the main Seekonk School District page, though the Teacher Web site appears to be aimed mostly at students as opposed to parents or other educators.

The “home” page is labeled “8th Grade Orientation” and paints a picture of her vision for the class and her teaching philosophy. The four pillars of her vision, education, participation, involvement, and philosophy, are each followed by a quote. For instance, next to participation, instead of concretely detailing point-based expectations, she simply writes “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand – Chinese Proverb.” She even includes her “wish:”

            My wish: Have you ever thought about how many instructional days have been          replaced by standardized tests?

            Perhaps one day educators will be able to teach – once again, instead of proctoring             standardized tests.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those who teach had 180 days to educate children!

 

There are a few similar pages that provide more “General Information” as opposed to subject-matter content. One of these includes information on “The Art of Education,” “Text Complexity,” and “Common Core SWBAT.” This page has several videos, images, and information that links educational philosophy to common core standards to digital literacy. It is really wonderful information, but I would argue that it’s almost too much – I can’t take it all in at once, and I can only imagine how her 8th graders must feel viewing this page.

Turner appears to frame her 8th grade curriculum around an “essential question,” though I admittedly having difficulty figure out exactly what this question is amidst the navigational chaos. Following the syllabus-type pages, there are “virtual bulletin board” pages for classwork and homework. There are topic resources for various “informational texts,” which contain information, links, videos, and images (if you view this page, you will see how confusing it is to understand what you are actually looking at).

Turner’s encouragement of fundamental literacies is also explicitly present, even within the media-filled site. She provides menu links to Vocabulary Exercises and Reading Guides, and various handouts for things like grammar, composition, poetry.

She also clearly encourages information literacy, by including pages and links to internet research resources for using primary source documentation. Her love of “multiple literacies” is again explicitly seen in the pages she includes (towards the bottom of the navigation menu), for “Video & Photography,” which detail the importance of documenting information through multiple formats. I continued to have “surprise” moments when I stumbled upon various bits of “AHA!”-moment content. For example, buried in one of these Video & Photography pages, at the bottom of the navigation menu, is the following statement:
An English class is ultimately about communication and in the 21st century communication is presented in many different formats.   My challenge to you is to understand different modes of communication.  Discover something about yourself – your likes and dislikes. Yes. Your own likes and dislikes, not the likes and dislikes that might make you popular.  Who will you be in the 21st century and how will you get there?

 

Coming across this statement has a particular sentimental effect for me; I feel as though so many things have come “full circle.” When I was in Ms. Turner’s class, I had absolutely no idea what my interests were and what I wanted to pursue in life. I did know I appreciated her non-traditional methods, and the way she encouraged us to express ourselves through multiple formats. Here I am, over ten years later, engaging in scholarship on 21st century literacies.

As I have mentioned throughout this review, the layout and abundance of information is a bit haphazard, but we can clearly see that this is an educator who wants her students to be active, expressive, digitally literate citizens.

I ran into Ms. Turner, for the first time in about twelve years, a few weeks ago (prior to this assignment) when I went in to substitute at the middle school. I didn’t have much time to talk to her, but we had a brief sentimental reunion, and I mentally vowed to get in touch with her in the coming weeks. I am so happy that I found her website and now understand her attitudes towards literacy. I am hopeful that I can create a working relationship with her around our similar interests. Perhaps we can work on her website together 😉

Personal Literacy Statement

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Stephanie Viens
Reading Reflection #3: Personal Literacy Statement

My Beliefs About Reading On The Internet

I believe that children need to be familiar with “new” conventions of reading, texts, and literacy.

A key component of reading comprehension development and metacognitive skill is “children’s early awareness about the conventions of print and the nature of reading” (Paris et al, 1996, p. 616). I would argue that it is no longer sufficient for young children to understand reading in terms of books, and text in terms of print. Hammerberg calls for “an expanding notion of what it means to read,” where “reading means knowing how to be and act and think appropriately with the type of text, situation, or discourse at hand” (Hammerberg, 2004, p. 649; Gee, 1996).

I believe that children need an explicit understanding of basic cognitive reading comprehension strategies that are applicable across texts.

Children should learn and practice reading strategies that can carry across various types of reading environments. Skills such as previewing text, activating prior knowledge, summarizing, grasping main ideas, text inspection, making inferences, and reflecting are important cognitive skills that are applicable to various reading tasks, and that enable students to become more efficient readers (Paris, Wasik, & Turner, 1996).

I believe that children should develop a “toolkit” of reading practices, and be able to discern when and where to employ strategies effectively.

While reading in a digital environment does map onto existing frameworks for nondigital environments, new thought processes are required to interact with different formats of text, new searching strategies, and different activities (Coiro, 2003). As Denise Johnson states in Reading, Writing, and Literacy 2.0, “It is important to understand that the structure, or genre, of digital text is different from printed text…therefore, it is important for children to understand the concept and structure of digital text before they attempt to make meaning from it” (2014, p. 6). Children need an awareness of the differences between digital and nondigital environments, and linear and nonlinear texts, so that they may able make effective decisions about how to approach a text and adjust their strategies.

I believe that being “literate” should be understood by both teachers and students as the ability to access, comprehend, evaluate, create, and communicate information in a socioculturally diverse, globally connected, digital society.

Rooted in Paulo Friere’s concept of literacy as “reading the word and world,” I believe that literacy is more than just linguistically-based. It is socially and culturally based, and what is considered “literate” behavior in one context may vary in another. “In all cases,” state Lankshear and Knobel, “being literate means being able to use the ‘right’ language in the ‘right’ ways within a discourse” (2008, p. 18). Green’s (1997, 1998) three-dimensional model of literacy captures the operational, language-based aspect of literacy, the cultural, context-based aspect of literacy, and the critical element that promotes awareness of social construction (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008).

My Emerging Beliefs About Teaching Reading on the Internet

I believe that online reading should be taught through modeling and collaboration, and should be integrated across academic content in an ongoing manner.

Collaboration and reciprocity of teaching and learning can, and should, occur across multiple dimensions: students can learn from teachers, students can learn from students, and teachers can learn from students. By teaching and learning from each other, we can harness classrooms’ sociocultural diversity to create a rich learning experience for all. Collaboration is one of the five essential components of effective instruction proposed by Langer and Applebee (1986), and is crucial to the development of metacognitive and self-regulative strategies (Paris et al, 1996).

I believe that once a foundation of basic, cross-context comprehension strategies are developed, instruction should explicitly acknowledge the differences between digital and nondigital environments and promote skills accordingly.

The structure of digital text is different from printed text, and thus requires distinctly different instructional strategies. The three-phase approach of Internet Reciprocal Teaching, as adapted from single-phase Reciprocal Teaching, illustrates this difference in the way that it focuses on questioning, locating, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating, as opposed to the print-based model that focuses on predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing (McVerry, Zawilinski, & O’Byrne, 2009; Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008).

I believe that the teaching of reading comprehension should involve inquiries, texts, and tools that are socially and culturally relevant to children.

Harnessing ideas, questions, and texts that are interesting to students can foster greater engagement and connection of formal and informal learning spaces and opportunities (Mizuko, Gutiérrez, Livingstone, Penuel, Rhodes, Salen, Schor, Juliet, Sefton-Green, & Watkins, 2013). Reading comprehension instruction can also be implemented in ways that connect subject areas, even when subjects are taught by different teachers (“Reciprocal Teaching: Lesson Plan,” n.d.). Elements of online reading comprehension should not operate as a standalone subject, but rather be woven into lessons that cut across digital and nondigital environments, to demonstrate that the skills required are all part of a larger “literacy,” and not unrelated due to format.

Personal Reflection:

This assignment, and the last four weeks of this course, have served a “self-awareness boot camp” of sorts. I have critically examined my own beliefs and behaviors as a reader, in relation to what I belief about teaching and students’ learning.

One thing I have learned about myself is that I am what I have dubbed a “bigger picture” learner. I have a very difficult time engaging in a project, task, or even a bit of reading without having a thorough idea of what I am going to “do with it.” When I am assigned readings and I know that there are prompts to address afterwards, I read the prompts first to try and prime myself for key insights. While this is sometimes a strength and admittedly can be used as an efficient “shortcut” to identifying key ideas, it also hinders my ability to freely explore. For example, in both my learning and my teaching, “trial-and-error” is not my strong suit. I am hesitant to implement new instructional strategies unless I am 100% confident that they are going to work. I see this as a weakness; moving away from what is “tried and true” and trying something new in the classroom can yield powerful results. I first noticed this about myself at the Summer Institute, when, working hurriedly with my dyad partner, I continued to ask questions about our finished product and she would reply, “We can talk more about that when we get there!” Through reading about strategic comprehension, I have come to believe that grasping the “bigger picture” may be a strategic habit that I picked up during my earlier schooling. Reflecting on the models of technology integration that we explored this week, I am undoubtedly more drawn to models such as Hutchinson’s that are formatted as a sequential cycle in which you can see the end from the beginning. I do believe that all instructional endeavors should begin with the end in mind, but becoming too stuck on what a finished product will “look like” can easily hinder the planning and instructional process itself.

My greatest takeaway thus far has been the concept of “multiple literacies” (Hammerberg, 2004). I believe that “to be literate in many different circumstances and with many different types of texts mean to become accustomed to the rules and appropriate ways of being in each situation and with each text: a way of “reading” the conditions that lead to understanding” (p. 649). This notion is directly related to student identity and the management of student strengths and weaknesses by students themselves (metacognitively and by teachers. Sociocultural theories of literacy see identity as fluid and changing based on context; likewise, being a “struggling” or “efficient” student can shift based on context. A student who is labeled as a “poor reader” in print environments may excel in a digital environment, and vice versa (Hammerberg, 2004; Coiro, 2013, “Online Reading Comprehension Challenges”). From my own observations, I understand how deeply students can internalize academic labels such as “good” and “bad,” “ability” and “disability.” By moving towards a notion of “multiple literacies” in which each student is capable of having multiple strengths in various contexts, I believe that we can stop labeling students based on their abilities in one static context.

My openness to the notion of multiple literacies will allow me to design curriculum and activities in a way that allows for multiple strengths and abilities to excel. I do not believe that any student is inherently unintelligent; rather, each student needs to recognize and build their existing capacities. I can promote multiple literacies by including various forms of texts and tools, and having students use multiple modes of expression that integrate both print and digital elements. In addition to academic strengths and skills, I believe that promoting multiple literacies also involves acknowledging students’ diverse backgrounds, cultural values, and preexisting knowledge. By allowing students to partake in genuine inquiry, they can approach tasks from the standpoint of who they are as an individual.

References

Coiro, J. (2003). Expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies.

Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D. J. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of research on new literacies.   Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Coiro (2013). Video of online reading comprehension challenges

Gregory, J., McVerry, L., Zawalinksi, W., O’Byrne, I. (2009) Navigating the C’s of change. Teaching for      the 21st Century. 67(1).

Hammerberg, D. (2004). Comprehension instruction for sociocultural diverse classrooms: A review of          what we know.

Ito, Mizuko, I., Gutiérrez, K., Livingstone, S., Penuel, B., Rhodes, J., Salen, K., Schor, J., Sefton-Green, J., Watkins, S. C. (2013) Connected learning: an agenda for research and design. Digital Media            and Learning Research Hub, Irvine, CA, USA. ISBN 9780988725508

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2008). From ‘reading’ to ‘new literacy studies. In C. Lankshear & M.   Knobel, New literacies: Everyday practices and classroom learning. Berkshire, England: Open   University Press/McGraw-Hill Education.

Paris, Wasik, & Turner (1996). The development of strategic readers. Handbook of Reading           Research, Volume II.

Reciprocal Teaching Lesson Plan. N.d. Anchorage School District: Middle Link. Retrieved 14 Oct 2014             http://www.asdk12.org/MiddleLink/HighFive/Reciprocal/lesson_plan.asp