Week Two Assumptions before Class: What might literacies-based teaching of literature look like?
Element 1 – Before Reading Wells’ Paper Element 2 - After Reading Well's Paper What is literacy today? Literacy is reading, writing, viewing, visually representing, listening and speaking. It’s interpreting what’s going on around you (In text, images and sounds) to make sense of the world. It’s using text, images and sounds to communicate. Literacy is writing, reading, listening and speaking. It’s collaborative communication. It’s how we store memories and make the world a better place for ourselves and the generations to come. What is literature? Literature is anything that can be read, viewed, or interpreted and given meaning. I’m somewhat inclined to say that literature must include text, but we read icons, don’t we? When’s the last time you read the little words under the speech bubble icon in your phone? You don’t know that’s how to get to your texts because the word messages is there. The big green speech bubble icon is what you read. I feel like my definition of literature is pretty accurate. I would definitely add numbers to my definition of literacy. Math and reading expressions, equations, amounts, etc. is a type of literacy, so numbers could be considered literature. Isn’t that counterintuitive!? How do we connect real world/ out-of-school learning? Get the kids interested in what they’re learning. Make sure it applies to “life outside of school.” Teach them things they can and will use. Bring “life outside of school” into the school. It is essential that students aren’t taught the exact same thing in the exact same manner day in and day out. (“Down with direct instruction!” it seems to cry.) Students all have different personal experiences, exposures to literacy, and are at different ZPDs. As Wells said, there isn’t a formula for creating perfect lessons to teach children. Teachers must work together to come up with inquiry-based projects that suit the students’ ages, past experiences, and ability. Effective teaching of literacy means equipping the students with the ability to read, view, and listen to literature, to process it, and to create something with that newfound knowledge. It means not teaching them what, but teaching them how. Teaching isn’t giving the students information and telling them what to think. It’s providing an opportunity, teaching a process, scaffolding, and in effect, teaching them HOW to think and to construct meaning collaboratively. What is the most successful balance of the actual (in classroom) and the virtual (online?) I don’t think there’s a percentage. I am definitely more of an “in person” person when it comes to learning. Is there necessarily a clear dichotomy here? What about when students are online in the literal classroom, sitting next to their peers? I still don't know if there's a magic number out there. It's more about how you use your time with your students, be it online or in person. They need to use that time collaborating, researching, discussing, creating, presenting and reflecting. That can be done in an online community or in the classroom. I would definitely like to hear everyone's thoughts about this. What would literacy-based teaching look like? Keeping in mind my current understanding of literacy instruction, literacy-based teaching would involve personal choice, research and exploration, and the creation of some sort of product to demonstrate what was learned. Dialogic Inquiry! When I was reading Well’s article, I kept thinking about inquiry-based learning, where teachers create projects or problems for the students to solve or research. Through the process of research and discussion, the students make discoveries and master the teacher’s objectives. Dialogic Inquiry is the same and emphasizes collaboration and discussion. Wells would say that literacy-based teaching would look very individualized. It should be tailored to individual students’ abilities and interests. Personal choice, small group work, and project-based learning are all things you could expect to see in a literacy-based classroom. Perhaps most of all, students would collaborate with their teacher and peers. Why is collaboration important? Tomasello argues that humans have the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representation for doing so. The result of participating in these activities is species-unique forms of cultural cognition and evolution, enabling everything from the creation and use of linguistic symbols to the construction of social norms and individual beliefs to the establishment of social institutions (2004, p.675).
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