IDK my bff Jill?

Even though we have spent a lot of time learning about new digital literacies throughout this program, the articles (especially Beach) continue to remind me that it is important to keep thinking about how to use these new literacies in the classroom effectively, and aren't used just for the sake of using them. I can definitely see how using some new digital literacies (such as blogs, iMovie, Voicethread, ect.) can be super exciting when us future teachers think about how we can use them in out classrooms, but it is always important for us to take a step back, and look at the overall picture that we want our students to understand. Yes, it's a nice break from the typical Language Arts classroom, but to make these new digital literacies useful, we need to make sure that it enhances our lessons instead of just giving the kids something to do that isn't really at all related to the content (remember RAT from 5007??).

In the classroom that I will be student teaching in, my cooperating teacher (Ms. M-L) has set up the 9th grade curriculum to include independent reading alongside a new digital literacy. Students are expected to continue reading throughout the semester, and the only assessment that they will ever have on it is more of a participation grade. They get points for writing about what they are experiencing while reading, or make recommendations to their classmates by posting it onto their blogs. While Ms. M-L could have just had students get into discussion groups once a week to report on what they have read, she is aware and sensitive to the fact that students today are from a more media enriched culture that we were in while growing up. Nearly everything revolves around some sort of media form, and Ms. M-L realizes that it is best to use these digital literacies to her (and her students') advantage. Even though students are able to go about posting on their blogs and finding their individual voices in nearly any way they want, Ms. M-L makes sure to remind them that this should be semi-academic writing and that what they post can be seen by anyone and the materials should be appropriate. They are allowed to find their own style of writing, but it should still be comprehensible, and not include texting lingo (i.e., IDK, lol, ect.). This is the English department's first year using the blogs in the class, and so far there has only been one problem resulting in a student getting into trouble about what he posted.

Beach describes at the beginning of his introduction to new digital literacies the story about Kathleen and her experience with student blogs. "Kathleen's students were much more engaged than they had been in their face-to-face discussions. For on, the discussion was not based on answering Kathleen's questions. The students' own questions were driving the discussions. They were also using their writing to formulate and extend their responses" (Beach). I can see many similarities between the advantages Kathleen's students have had in comparison to my cooperating teacher's students. The students love the fact that they have their own space to have their own works published for people to see. They have an audience that is more than just their instructor and they are allowed to find their own voice through their blogs. Even though I am definitely all for using these new digital literacies in my own classrooms, it is also important to remember that students need to have that face-to-face discussions, otherwise our students will not be prepared properly for when they leave high school.

RESOURCE LINK:

Spelling and grammar is important no matter what career field you go into! My link this week goes to my favorite blog E.V.E.R. (who doesn't love a good cake with spelling AND grammar mistakes piped on it in icing?) While it might not be a traditional way to show your students why it is important to be aware of your spelling and grammar, I think that they would understand how dumb you can look if you can't master the quotation mark or how simple spelling mistakes can affect more than the offender! The two links go to her "Mithspellings" and "Creative Grammar" categories on the site. Enjoy!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/search/label/Mithspellings
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/search/label/Creative%20Grammar