Research Article

I've been doing a lot of reading on differentiated literacy instruction for my field study. I am looking at differential learning through the use of literacy centers that accommodate the learning styles and interests of boys and girls. One article is titled Accommodating differences: variations in differentiated literacy instruction in Grade 2/3 classrooms by Ruthanne Tobin and Alison McInnes. The article addresses how to support student's literacy needs with differentiated instruction (DI) and the varied approaches to DI. Teachers provided more scaffolding for struggling literacy learners by offering a variety of tiered work products, tutoring, and additional supports. Two teachers were discussed, each one approaching DI in a different way. One teacher gives her students book bundles. She teaches a skill to all the students and the students have the same activity but a varying degrees of difficulty. The second teacher used literacy centers. The articles have changed my practice in that it made me reflect on the organization of my class and whether is promotes literacy for boys and girls. As well, I wondered how my teaching practice was accommodating the literacy needs of my students and in particular the struggling learners. I began to think of literacy centers that would engage grade three students.
The article links to 2 capacities. They are:
• engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop your practice
• draw on educational theories, research and philosophies to inform your use of technologies to support teaching and learning

Who Owns Information on the web?

Information on the web has become a free for all. People are posting information and people are taking information. Whether the information is accurate is something the user needs to determine and also be critical of. Information on the web often has pdf files to download which implies the author would like you to access it. Personally I feel comfortable using ideas from the internet but when I do several questions come to mind such as: What is the author's intent? Is the information valid? How much should I use before it becomes plagiarizing or cheating? Now, I know I will use information keeping in mind the author's purpose for posting the content and not take a part of it and use it out of context for my own personal gain. But there will be people who use the web information out of context, for commercial use, or for reasons other than the author's original intent. Now that I know more about Creative Commons, as a teacher I will make students aware what is out there that can be used and what is protected.

How Do We Help Our Students Gather Information Using Digital Resources?

I think before students are given the opportunity to use digital media to gather information for reports etc. A lot of time should be spent front loading the activity with the skills students will need. Nobody owns the information on the web, it is public domain and most authors are no even mentioned. Therefre skills such as the ability to discern what sites would be appropriate and reliable is very important as well, vocabulary students might come across needs to be taught, and how to pick out main ideas or key words from the passages needs to be taught. Once students have a strong foundation, the next step should be for the teacher to decide what is it she/he wants the students to learn and what digital resources would effectively support the outcome and just as importantly, what digital resources are available to the teacher to use. The older the student the lesson ownership the teacher needs to take for laying out sites to visit and types of information to gather. However, regardless, the teacher will need to have clearly laid out expectations and information for students to access. Things to plan for are: predetermined sites to be used, paragraphs tagged, graphic organizers, adaptations in place for struggling students and what is going to be the final project for assessment.

Should We Use Popular Culture In Our Classroom?

I think using popular culture in the classroom can be an interesting way of capturing students' attention and engaging them in the lesson. However, like any media, whether on the internet, radio, or TV, it needs to be critically assessed by the teacher. What is the purpose of the site and it's usefulness to the lesson? Can the message be misinterpreted? Who is the intended audience of the message? Since the meaning presented in the media can be taken differently by different viewers, the teacher has a difficult job in not only justifying the use of the media to support her curriculum and lesson but ensuring that it is appropriate for her students. As well, students need to be educated to critically view media so as not to be misdirected or misinformed. It comes down to what is media literacy and how are schools going to address it? I think the Ministry of Education needs to look at developing curriculum as part of the technology outcomes, on media literacy. What do we want students to know that is appropriate for their age group? Where can teachers access resources to teach media literacy? Filtering and critically reflecting depends largely on the viewer's developmental stage. For example, preschoolers typically have media controlled by their parents while teenagers are given more freedom and are more able to grasp critically thinking skills and ideas with more understanding. It is not solely the responsibility of the teacher to develop media literacy but also of parents and the producers of the media. It is impossible to take every example and teach the embedded purpose of created media in each one. The main goal is the teach the skills for students to be able to apply them the situations on their own.

What literacies are you addressing in your field study?

My field study is looking at bridging the gap between how girls and boys engage and value reading. I am taking into account the different learning styles in my classroom and what activities are more "boy friendly". After having done some research, I am developing literacy centers. Centers will allow for students to choose activities that encourage differentiated learning. It will also provide me with the time I need to pull small groups aside for guided reading. I am looking at the layout of my classroom that will allow for movement between the centers as well as areas for group work, buddy work, and independent work. A variety of reading materials ( magazines, fiction, non fiction books) have been organized into bins. I have planned for the use of game boards, computer, ipods, lego, plastercine, and drawing paper to be used to develop writing and word study skills. I hope to evaluate the centers them in a few weeks and make any adjustments.

We've been doing a lot of talking and reading about literacy and learning. The talking has centered around what we define as learning and what we want our students to learn. As part of our reading, we looked at an article titled 21st Century Literacy and Myths. The article outlines 3 myths.
#1: 21st century literacy is about technology only. An easily disputed myth, in fact, I am wondering how it even can be thought of as a logical assumption. Technology is developing at a rapid pace but there are still people who don't rely on technology to do their work or live their lives. Even in today's job market, employers are looking for employees with a good knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication.
#2: The digital divide is closed. Socio-economic level has such an affect on who is able to purchase and use technology. Variables such as money, importance and priority in one's live, interest and comfort level, all impact access to technology and digital media.
#3: Teachers who use technology in their personal lives will use it in their classes. Now this one I would have thought to be true but then I reflected on my own experience. Personally I have developed my knowledge and use of technology at home and in the classroom. I think I use technology in the classroom more, however, I don't believe I use technology significantly more in my practice than before. I just don’t feel like its a part of my teaching style yet. I have to work hard at incorporating technology in my practice. It does not come second nature to me, as it may to some of my colleagues who grew up with computers.

Reflection

Today is the last day of our summer course. It's been a good learning experience. I have learned so much about what is available to me on the web to support my teaching, collaborated through PLN's, read interesting articles, and blogged! All of what we have done has led each one of us toward a inquiry. I enjoyed hearing my colleagues tell about their field study proposals. As always I am inspired, amazed, and proud of the hard work and passion teachers put into improving their practice and the compassion they feel for their students.
For my fall study I have decided to concentrate on developing a "boy friendly" classroom by incorporating activities that lend to the
potential differences in learning styles and thereby providing more equitable learning opportunities for both boys and girls. I am going to look at the research for how boys learn best and incorporate ideas into learning centers and into my reading activities.
My hope is to keep all my students engaged and motivated but more importantly to develop a love for learning and a feeling that they all can achieve.

Assessment

Today we read 4 links on assessment. Each one had valuable points about what we assess, why we should assess, when we should assess, and how. In my class, I spend some time doing formative assessment each day. Scanning the room asking students to explain their work, having students reflect in a learning log, or developing activities or questions that requires them to think of what they have learned and apply the knowledge to new ideas. I do feel I should be doing more. I also do summative assessment but only when I need it to guide whether the students are grasping the concepts and who needs additional support. Three ideas from my readings that I found interesting are: 1. some teachers are working too hard on the wrong things. 2. People who participate in a global community will show more advancement than those that stay on the sidelines. 3. Assessment is not an interruption of learning if and when it can positively and directly influence the current or future learning and work of students. The article on Technocontructivism talked about the difference between cause and effect learning and discovery learning. It challenged my assumption that both can be assessed in the classroom, however the article explains that cause and effect learning is assessable because it uses the process of trial and error, but discovery learning can not be assessed because it does stem from trial and error.

Today we read 4 links on assessment. Each one had valuable points about what we assess, why we should assess, when we should assess, and how. In my class, I spend a lot of time doing formative assessment each day. Scanning the room asking students to explain their work, having students reflect in a learning log, or developing activities or questions that requires them to think of what they have learned and apply the knowledge to new ideas. I do sometimes do summative assessment but only when I need it to guide whether the students are grasping the concepts and who needs additional support. Some ideas from my readings that I found interesting are: 1. some teachers are working too hard on the wrong things. 2. People who participate in a global community will show more advancement than those that stay on the sidelines. 3. Assessment is not an interruption of learning if and when it can positively and directly influence the current or future learning and work of students. The article on Technocontructivism talked about the difference between cause and effect learning and discovery learning. It challenged my assumption that both can be assessed in the classroom, however the article explains that cause and effect learning is assessable because it uses the process of trial and error, but discovery learning can not be assessed because it does stem from trial and error.

PLN Links

Today in LTT (Learning and Teaching with Technology) we explored 8 new sites to promote teacher collaboration and iGoogle. IGoogle is great. I prefer it to netvibes. It is easier to learn and set up. Our group looked at http://teachersconnecting.com/. It allows teachers from all over to buddy up for a wide assortment of projects. I found this site as well as some of the others interesting. I made an account for www.teachersconnecting.com for future use to collaborate with someone in a similar grade level. My goal is at some point to develop a project that promotes writing and oral language. I liked the feature on choosing your comfort level in using technology and participating in projects. It really is tailored to find the best match for each teacher. The projects stretch across the content areas learning about different communities and people, as well as give the students an audience. It would be an exciting learning opportunity.
The other sites visited were also interesting, (http://edupln.ning.com/, http://www.classroom20.com/, http://www.jenuinetech.com/). All these sites basically offer teachers the same opportunity to chat, find resources, connect, and view projects.

The article, Knowledge, the Disciplines, and Learning in the Digital Age" by Jane Gilbert looks at why Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) implemented to improve schools has had little effect on revolutionizing teaching and learning for the Knowledge Age. The one big idea from the article is that schools are still teaching knowledge for product, that is teaching practices have change very little and the learning is similar to busy work. The focus in schools has not shifted much from regurgitating information to develop a product toward learning by showing the process. Each grade level has content areas with their learning outcomes. Although the content areas are separate and generally taught separately, when looking at the learning outcomes, there are many overlapping objectives and connections to be made. The general belief that the purpose of education is to develop students that are critical thinkers who are able to generate new knowledge by making connections between subject areas and applying knowledge to new situations ties with the push toward project based learning. Taking knowledge and applying it to show your understanding applies across the grade levels. The use of technology is only one way to develop knowledge through "performativity". Students will not be adding or rehashing old knowledge but using it in a new way to show learning with many innovative digital tools. As well, technology will help as another tool to support teachers as well as allow students, in all content areas, to show their learning and successes in variety of ways. I have been doing some reading on PBL. There are a lot of sites on the topic. I hope to implement it into my classroom this year.

A New Year a New Goal

My goal for the new year is to Model Digital-Age Work and Learning by communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age material and formats. I chose this goal to continue building on last years goal of developing a class web site for the first time. This relates with capacity #3: Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies in my practice.
Developing and maintaining a class web site was a big learning curve for me, especially when I decided to incorporate a blog and a wiki. I realize now I may have taken on too much. My first step was to learn the tool myself and then teach it to my students. I was pleased with how I used the wiki to support writing in the classroom. My goal this year is to take it one step further and use the web site to improve communication with my parents by getting them more involved. My hope is to organize a time to have parents come in and have their child teach them about the website. I will need to continue to improve my ability to use the wiki and to better apply it to support students’ learning and provide feedback. Lastly, I did not get to incorporate a blog with my last year's class. This year I’d like have it part of my web site as another learning tool.

Howard Rheingold on "Crap Detection"

Determining credibility of information on the internet and internet safety has always been a concern and will continue to be so. Can we or should we even try to control and monitor what is going on the internet? It would seem an impossible task. Rheingold suggests that instead we need to learn how to filter the information. He puts the responsibility on the user not the publisher. I agree with him in that we should be spending time teaching people to be critical consumers of the internet or as he puts it crap detectors. Developing literacy skills on internet use and teaching students what questions to ask, and how to search for credible information is going to be a lifelong skill not only for internet use but for everyday real life whether at school or later on in the work force. He backs up his ideas by giving examples of tools to enable people to find credible knowledge and to create a network of trusted people in a particular field. The impact of reading and following poor or wrong information can be catastrophic. Rheingold's blog is a good place to find ideas on how to start creating a network with filters and a good site to bookmark because of the many tools listed. Personally, I will take his advice on ways to protect myself from the web garbage.

The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature and Connectivism and Organization

I listened to the voicethread of people giving testimony to how great networking has been for them. I found it refreshing to hear people enthusiastic about learning something new and in developing professionally. The video by George Siemens on The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature made some clear and valid points. I enjoyed listening to what he had to say and it gave me food for thought. Some points I connected to were his thought on how humans desire or crave to externalize what's in our heads so we can connect with others. That being social is part of learning is something as teachers we sometimes forget in our focus to cover the curriculum. I found it very interesting to hear how learning occurs actually conflicts with the learning theories we have been following ie., the idea that learning takes place in our heads. I found his view on how acquiring knowledge has changed since we went to school interesting. Reflecting back to my elementary years, I don't remember a lot of cooperative learning activities only a lot of seat work. Stephen Downes suggests in his discussion on Connectivism and Organization, that we need to stay current in our field using the internet to have access to all the knowledge available, it is suggested that network learning is the key. He states that knowledge being shared and the learning that happens is only as good as the interaction of all the members of the network. As teachers we've used cooperative learning as a strategy to help students learn. It makes sense that with technology playing such a big role in students learning today that this cooperative learning strategy works is in a minor way the premise for networking. Both speakers convey very simple ideas to understand but so much harder to implement. Personally, and I'm sure I am not alone, to take that risk and the next step to network is overwhelming. To know where to start in preparing my young students in becoming critical thinkers of internet material is also a concern. So many questions come up like:
Where do I get the time to follow a network? How do I involve my young students in networking and becoming critical thinkers of the internet?

As I mentioned earlier, lots of food for thought but I better not think about it too long cuz times are a chang'n fast!

Developing Storytelling with ESL Students

I am working with ESL students on developing oral language through storytelling. It's been a great experience. Students are very engaged in developing their stories and recording them on ipods. Something I noticed was that storytelling is greatly influenced by personality. Those students who are generally talkative took risks with their language and their stories showed improvement with each retelling. The stories had better word choice and ideas were better developed from one retelling to another. I also noticed that students who were capable readers had a better story sense than my struggling readers. Capable readers not only found the storytelling process easier but also struggled less with their story map and story writing. All the students were engaged in the audio recording tasks and using ipods or the computer, if working alone. There was some reluctance when sharing their story with an audience whether they were confident with independently working on their audio recording or not.  I have read many articles explaining the benefits of storytelling in developing literacy. I am having trouble finding research articles showing measurable data. Perhaps you know of one?

http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/17/8f/3b.pdf