My own literacy practice involves
visual need. Even when reading the directions and outline of this assignment I
needed to rewrite exactly what I was reading on paper in order to fully
comprehend. Growing up in school there were times where I could reread the same
page of a book three times and still not be able to tell you what I read. It
wasn’t until high school when a particular teacher introduced me to the usage
of sticky notes and jotting main points down which tended to help my literacy
comprehension. Over the years I developed my own method of note taking while
reading which has helped me throughout my learning path.
"The distinctive contribution of the
approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves
careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make
sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning
lives"
(Gillen and Barton, 2010, p.
9)
When I read this quote it made me
think about how society pays attentions to its citizens, their literacy levels
and also what these citizens do for themselves for their own literacy skills.
In regards to literacy habits when reading I had to take notes for outline and
clarification, I had to highlight to trigger understanding and look up
definitions to words that were unfamiliar. Those steps were all necessary for
me to complete and understand all of the five readings for this week. Without
using those literacy techniques, points may have been misinterpreted or
completely forgotten. Each reading is different and my specific note taking
allows for myself to break down each one as well as compare them. I do this to
complete assignments accurately and also to expand my long term knowledge. If
fully understood properly, this is information that I can remember, which will
give me the opportunity to refer back to and utilize for life. Placing the text
information in long term memory for use is important to me. While I pointed out
how I break down the texts to accomplish this, the most important thing that I
do for myself to really understand the information provided, enabling me to use
within my educational career is to relate personally. I did this with almost
all of the readings and personally relating in my opinion is what really
separates information from being short term to long term.
The selected articles and chapters made
several points which related to my personal literacy practice and its history.
Literacy has become more than just reading print on paper. It is constantly
developing and its biggest strive which has affected me the most has been the
expansion of the internet and computers which was discussed several times. My bachelor’s
degree required myself to observe classrooms and teaching habits. The school I observed
had more computers than teachers. That
has to speak to its effectiveness and reliability. The schools trusts computers
to provide students with the tools that they need to enhance their learning. Computers
have the potential to help with students that require visual literacy as
myself. Both articles addressed how teaching and learning are more effective
with technology. The use of multimedia improving increases the results of
critical thinking. The chapters paid attention to illiteracy especially adult
illiteracy. How some countries such as New Zealand recognized theirs problem
and took measures. Others discussed the effectiveness of new literacy
techniques, paying close attention to what they can do to help not just in the
classroom but also outside of the classroom. This I took heart too. Being
literate is so necessary to further yourself in life. There are different
levels of literacy just how there are different types of teachers. There are
teachers who want you to know how to read and there are teachers who want you
to know how to read and understand what you’re reading. Those are the teachers
that want you to personally progress. That’s how I related to the majority of
these readings. I asked myself…why do these readings matter to me? How do I
relate? One day in my future I want to be able to be that teacher that helps to
understand, advances your literacy, encourages you to go on beyond basic
learning and understanding and that’s what all of these studies on literacy are
about.
Similar to what Alonda was saying, many of us are familiar with manipulating and making sense of our text in a common way that include: printing out, highlighting, and making notes in the margins etc.
ReplyDeleteI think for many of us, we are also essentially venturing down a new literacy path by beginning a blog and learning about literacy through this format. "Weblogs provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy...to express experiences and feelings in an engaging way, help to understand the world, and develop peer relationships" (Huffaker, 2005, p.96). The learning community that is encouraged through blogging will allow us to possibly learn new ways to interpret and make meaning of texts.
I hope we all want to be that teacher, Courtney. That is why we are venturing down the new literacy path that Alexis refers to in her response. "New literacies emerge quickly and diverse users adopt them accordingly." (Wilber, 2010, p. 6) We are here because we understand as educators that if we want to be relevant in this generation, we must be as diverse as those we desire to teach.
ReplyDeleteAll of the comments and the discussion here is so meaningful. I hope that you all are inspired by the difference you can make in a learners life. NO MATTER WHO the student. The research is really showing exciting things about digital and computer interfaced and the area that I want to explore and get large research grant money is to create full body immersion learning centers/studios where the are multiple synchronous sensory data which surrounds and engulfs the learner while they engage in both verbal, physical and emotive responses as they learn. This 'studio/classroom' allows for multiple intelligence and various learning modalities to be experienced so there are more potential ways for the learning to grasp, learn and actually maintain integrate the knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHi, Courtney. I also had to write down the assignment before I began the assignment. I am a huge note taker as well, and I think that for those of us that are, there's something to be said about physically writing down the material that you are trying to retaining. You're giving yourself a second chance to soak up the material when you write it down, and for me, that leads to better retention.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about relating to the reading personally. It's always important to do that, and if a reader can connect personally with a text, it's that much easier to understand!
Courtney, I print out every assignment and write notes on the assignment page. I also read aloud the assignment as I go over my notes to make sure that I am following directions.
ReplyDelete