M3 Blog 3: Leveraging Tools, Texts and Talk

Based on this modules readings, my understanding of designing and implementing digital literacy and instruction is that this cannot effectively occur on it's own without prior scaffolding and analog learning experiences. Digital literacy and new medias also doesn't have to mean having students simply sit behind a laptop, computer, tablet, etc. to take in new instruction. It can be shown through play-based learning (Coggin et al., 2014) or watching films (Hernandez, 2017), or listening to books (Semingson, 2017), or in an affinity space with no formal constraints (Magnifico et al., 2018). Our society is moving beyond traditional and formal learning experiences to promote better learning outcomes that are formed through digital literacies and technology.  

I can engage students in meaningful conversations around new literacies practices, helping them to navigate in a purposeful and informed manner by directly modeling these practices and thinking aloud as I'm doing so. A huge part of direct instruction is "showing your thinking" in any subject/content area. Students learn by example, so extensively showing them around these tools can help with proper student engagement. Something as simple as introducing audiobooks, I shared my screen for my students and showed them step by step, how to access this content and all the tools to personalize it. When we need to research any information online, I model how to do so and how to evaluate our sources. It's great to have students explore on their own but to effectively learn, students need to have some direct instruction and scaffolding before going off on their own. Conversations and questions will arise as we navigate through using new practices in a multimodal way. Once students are engaging in new literacies practices, they will learn from observing others work, receiving feedback, giving feedback, and overall collaborating (Magnifico et al., 2018). 

I'm always keeping the idea of equity in my mind in my special education classroom and evaluating the possible concerns of my lessons. For my current school, every student has their own device that they take home each night. When I was a student, I also had my own laptop that I was able to take to and from school each day, starting in 7th grade. Before 7th grade, we had class sets of laptops in each classroom. So, my point is that I have been lucky enough to experience a constant source of technology in my personal and professional life. Some districts aren't as lucky, and I'm seeing this more and more in my classmates discussion and blog posts. An educator needs to keep in mind the accessibility of technology. This also includes a students understanding of how to access the technology at hand. It would be unfair to assign my students to create a digital story without providing them the support of what is included in a digital story, what platform or app to use, the requirements of the assignment, etc. Physically accessing the activity will look different for each student. An educator needs to troubleshoot the design and provide accommodations for those students who may not be able to physically access the content like other students. This could include allowing varied methods of response where students can verbally provide information and record themselves instead of typing. Or maybe they are including drawings, symbols, or illustrations in place of words. 

I mentioned in my discussion post how I have used a form of play based learning (Coggin et al., 2014) by having students create skits when learning new vocabulary or creating a prediction about an upcoming class unit. My students recently finished a unit about failure and success where they read multiple short stories, poems, and articles about overcoming failures with hard work and dedication. Their summative assessment was to write a personal narrative about a time they have failed and what was their response to this failure. Building off of this, a project that I could've assigned was for my students to create a digital story, recreating or retelling this story, in a way that they chose instead of limiting them to typing. Digital storytelling can be a tool for early literacy learners who are still learning how to write (Semingson, 2017). Although my students are 11-12 years old, in 6th grade, they are still struggling with writing. Digital storytelling allows them to learn how to form narratives and plots without having to put their thoughts into writing (Semingson, 2017). This can include them role-playing and creating skits of themselves or using digital resources to create aspects of their narrative to include in their digital story. This is a flexible assignment that combines analog and digital learning experiences. This makes the goal of this assignment more accessible to my students. Many of my students were easily able to verbally tell me the story they wanted to write about, and then struggled when it was time to write. A tension to this type of activity/assignment will be the grading process (Magnifico et al., 2018). This current summative assessment (the written personal narrative) was a part of our MYP unit which followed an MYP grading rubric. A new rubric would need to be created based on the digital story. I would attempt to find a website or app that has all the necessary tools so all the students are working on the same platform. It would be a lot more manageable to create a grading rubric if I was familiar with the site and all of it's tools that are made available to the students. Or, this may be an affinity space (Magnifico et al., 2018) where students are graded throughout the assignment by observations, conversations, drafts, etc. Another possible tension may be the absence of scaffolding (Magnifico et al., 2018). My students have never completed an assignment like this before, or at least in my classroom, so I would need to ensure that I was introducing them to the platform and integrating exemplar student examples. They would need time to explore the tools and play around before drafting their creation. The more students are comfortable with what the end product should contain and the steps to get there, they should succeed. 

References

Coggin, L. S., Wohlwend, K. E., Buchholz, B. A., Wessel-Powell, C., & Husbye, N. E. (2014). Expanding early childhood literacy curriculum through play-based film-making and popular media. In C. Felderman (Ed.), Perspectives and provocations on early childhood education, Early Childhood Education Assembly of National Council of Teachers of English Yearbook (Vol. 3). 

Hernandez, M. (2017). REFRAMING THE MEDIUM. Literacy Today, 35(3), 16-17. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Freframing-medium%2Fdocview%2F1966007223%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067 

Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., & Fields, D. A. (2018). Affinity spaces, literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities. Literacy, 52(3), 145–152. https://doiorg.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/lit.12133 

Semingson, P. (2017). DIGITAL LITERACIES FOR YOUNG READERS AND WRITERS. Literacy Today, 35(3), 30-31. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/loginqurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fdigital-literacies-young-readers-writers%2Fdocview%2F1966005551%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067