Readings for 11/15

Igoa

Powerful stuff.  We have a child in our field placement who, until the beginning of this year, spoke only Arabic.  It's amazing the progress he has made.  He hasn't really gone through the silent phase described in the chapters while we've been in class, but I'm not sure how long he was here before school started or what his background truly is.  Instead, he learned a few key phrases that didn't always have a meaning that made sense in that context, but he's always had SOMETHING to say.

I traveled to China as a 10-year-old and spent a day in a school while I was there.  How confusing!  I knew I was only going to be there for a day so it wasn't so tough, but I can only imagine what it feels like to be someplace where you are trapped inside your own head, unable to communicate.  I couldn't help but agree with the section about hurrying them up so they won't fall behind. Students can only learn what they are able to learn at a given point in their lives. Rushing only makes things take longer.

Hill

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be getting from this reading other than an example of what can be done with different forms of literacy.  If you'd like to see the actual multiliteracies map that's being discussed, I found it at an Australian website. It's interesting stuff, but maybe I'm not getting much out of it because I'm happy to try anything and everything to get my students excited about literacy in all its forms. I don't need convincing!

Evans

I saved my favorite for last. As the parent of two technology natives, I find that critical literacy is, well, more critical than ever. They don't watch much commercial television, so when they do get to see commercials (which they love--it's like frosting on a cupcake for them) we have to explain their purpose because they just don't get it. It's now become something of a habit to describe why a particular "text" has been created and what we're supposed to get out of it. I think many children in their age group would surprise adults with their critical literacy savvy. They've all already learned that the cool pictures on the web page are only trying to sell them something and don't really go to anything interesting.

The discussion on popular culture intrigued me. Personally, I don't like to see commercial stuff in school. I'd rather figure out what's so compelling about the commercial characters and products and create that for the classroom.

I also see loads of potential in some of the newer immersive instruction ideas. Augmented-reality "games" (which are really just ads right now) have some real potential to be educational and assessment tools. Allowing students to "paint" their knowledge onto real space would be particularly powerful for any studies involving the local community or the school. There are people working on educational versions of augmented reality, but I think it would be more useful as another way for students to demonstrate their learning than for them to be the recipients of a prepackaged reality. As far as I know, there aren't any handy tools for doing this with students, but I'm sure it's coming.

One thing I wonder about is reading. Futurists have been predicting for years that someday only a small portion of the population will learn to read because the rest just won't need it. We'll have other ways to get the information. The newest forms of literacy do seem to point in that direction, even if it's far off. What do you think?