Reflecting on New Literacy in the 21st Century

Teaching new literacy skills to young minds of the 21st century is a task that cannot be overlooked by educators. In this digital world, children will continue to seek out the tools they need to be current with technology, but wouldn’t we as educators want to teach them technology skills that will ensure they know how to compete in the 21st century work force? We have an obligation to teach students how to collaborate with other individuals, create, inquire, and dig for meaning.

To become an educator that is capable of teaching these eager minds, I have to strive to teach students to think creatively and independently. My goal is to teach students problem solving skills so that they may become independent seekers. To accomplish this goal, I must challenge my students to “learn new strategies for managing new technologies as they emerge” (Eagleton and Dobler, 2007, p. 44). From this day forward, I will remember the importance of first modeling new content, then allowing students the opportunity for guided practice, and finally challenging students to independently apply their newly acquired knowledge. This process is called the “gradual release of responsibility for strategy instruction” (Eagleton and Dobler, 2007, p. 34). Giving students the skills to use the teacher as a guide is equally important; the teacher can provide guidance without releasing all of the information in full. I believe this teaching is important so that students do not rely on teachers always having the information. They can learn to question and think, searching for the answers to their own questions.

Another change I will implement into my classroom is the project based learning approach. Students learn best by doing, not just listening and watching. Sara Armstrong emphasizes the need for students to develop questions that truly intrigue them, so that they are motivated to discover (Laureate Education, 2009). It is best to have inquiry driven projects that are real world problems. Students can collaboratively work together to solve problems, finding research to answer their questions. I can provide a general topic that students can narrow their focus, create meaningful questions, collect valuable resources, effectively evaluate the reliability of the resources, and finally communicate the knowledge learned. Students become even more involved when they get to make decisions on the final product that will best communicate their findings (Eagleton and Dobler, 2007).

I will allow my students to have choices of blogs, wikis, digital storytelling, glogs, PhotoStory, podcasts, or other forms of multi-media and “expand the boundaries” (November, 2008, p. 79). I cannot forget to also allow my students time to reflect, which allows students to create meaning from their learning (Coiro, 2007). I desire for my students to develop a love for learning that explodes beyond my classroom!

References

Coiro, J. L . (2003). Rethinking comprehension strategies to better prepare students for critically evaluating content on the Internet. New England Reading Association Journal, 39(2), 29–34.

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Learning Moves beyond Words into Action

My technological skills have increased exponentially in the last 8 weeks. I have become so excited about technology, because we as classmates were expected to try new things! Learning new things can present many struggles. Without the opportunity to explore the new world of technology, many of my classmates (including myself) may have reverted back to the comfortable ways of teaching. We must move “from a didactic teacher-driven world to a more inquiry-driven project-based world” (Luarate Education, 2008). The discussions and applications I have completed throughout this course presented information that I can no longer ignore. I began to truly transform my classroom into a 21st century learning environment because of the knowledge learned in this class.

To increase my knowledge on providing and integrating 21st century skills, I have to continue providing opportunities for my students to create. I also must continue using the technology in my personal time (Richardson, 2009). In my language arts class, I have implemented a class blog that currently students can only comment on at home. After Christmas break, my learners will have their school laptops unblocked to our class blogging site. When the computers are able to access the blog, I know the learning in my classroom will skyrocket! I already feel as though my students have learned so many valuable 21st century learning skills including problem solving and collaboration, but when the blog is active in the classroom we will begin critically analyzing one another’s work. Since we already do analyzing of writing verbally, they will understand the expectations and be able to expand on that knowledge to communicating their comments in writing. To increase student achievement, students must be motivated to learn. Students are motivated when teachers are “encouraging decision making among students, involving students in designing instruction, and getting input from students about how they would teach” (Prensky, 2005). I will use my classroom blog to get ideas from students, allowing them to take control of what and how they want to learn to exhibit their knowledge in a unique way (Laurate Education, 2008).

One of my goals is to inspire other teachers to also transform their learning environments into a digital learner’s workplace. To meet this goal, I must be willing to spend extra hours outside of school teaching skills to interested teachers. I already have 3 sixth grade teachers who are ready to expand their knowledge on blogging, and we will be meeting ever break. My passion goes beyond my students to all students in every classroom. If I teach other teachers who then provide 21st century learning in their classrooms, my students will be able to communicate and collaborate with students in other classrooms through technology (Nussbaum-Beach, 2008). The classroom walls begin to deteriorate, as students become part of a whole digital workplace that will be leaders in a digital world. This leads to my second goal. If classroom walls are no longer an issue, our students will be able to integrate subject areas on a wiki. In this course, working with people I have never seen on a wiki provided much learning for me. I know my students would benefit greatly from collaborating in groups with other students in the school on a wiki. If I work with the math teacher, we can create wikis where students from her class meet on wikis with my students to integrate math with language arts in project-based learning. The opportunities are truly endless, and I am ready to take these goals and act upon them!

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Bringing the fun into teaching(motion picture). In Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society. Baltimore, MD.

Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2008). No limits. Technology & Learning, 28(7), 14–18. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8466

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the Natives. Educational Leadership, 63 (4) , 8-13.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

My First Podcast!

My 6th grade students answered 15 questions regarding technology on the clickers technology. The questions were posted, and the students loved being able to point their remote-like clickers to answer questions for my survey. My 3rd period language arts class data was compiled by the computer, and I have recorded the information on my first podcast. Although it is a bit long, I felt the information was valuable, and the five students who were interviewed provide the podcast with an honest look into a sixth grade mind. Check out the podcast at http://tritzman.podbean.com/!

Let's Unite...Partnership for 21st Century Skills!

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has a variety of information to help all people from businesses to policy makers to educators come together to implement 21st century skills. I love the idea that all people should come together to actively get something important done. I was surprised to see a website with more than just educators figuring out how to teach these technological skills to the broader U.S. If we all come together, I believe a lot more can be done about the technological gap in education today. As Dr. David Thornburg discusses, we need to teach the 21st century skills “The whole is more than the sum of it’s parts” (Laurate Inc, 2007). I was also surprised to see that there were only 14 states who have joined this partnership, and Colorado (where I teach) is not one of the states. Perhaps this website should be passed along to our principals who can then pass it on to the higher administration of the school districts. Those who see this website have the responsibility to deliver this information to others. In my opinion, all states, policy makers, administration, teachers need to view this site and jump on board. If everyone works together for the common good, we may begin preparing our young students for the technological changes and 21st century skills that they will need to compete in this global economy. Schools should review the New MILE guide on the Partnership for 21st century skills’ site. The 21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems diagram, allowed me to visualize how the holistic view of education in the 21st century should look. As a teacher, I can use this website as a reference to keep current on what other states are doing to lessen the gap. I can also use Route 21 on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills site to find resources I can use in my own classroom. I hope other educators will take this opportunity to discover the possibilities! Click on my blog post title to get connected now!

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Program 10. Skills for the 21st Century. [Motion Picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society. Baltimore: Author.

One step forward… I’m a RISK TAKER!

This is my very first blog! In my 6th grade class, I teach the character trait risk taker. If I am not a risk taker myself, how can I teach kids to take on this role? Now that I see the benefit of a blog, such an amazing communication tool, my head is swimming with new ideas for my students to begin using this tool to learn literacy as well as 21st century skills!

My 6th grade language arts classroom is a perfect place for students to begin learning the tools needed to become contributors in this ever changing world. My students respond daily to a writing prompt that I post on the board. They already have the skills to appropriately respond with paper and pencil to prompts given. A first step to teach my students how to blog would be to begin posting my prompts as a blog posts. The students would then get to learn how to comment by typing their usually written responses. Being on the internet, getting to do the same task in a different way, will enhance my writing routine by providing the confidence students will need to begin and the motivation of learning something new. Students will become better editors of their own sentence fluency, mechanics, and organization, as blogs are posted for all to see. Every day students will have an audience, so I believe they will write with more voice and passion! Content objectives are being met (writing for a purpose) while students get to practice reading other comments for meaning. They will be excited to receive comments from others, which will deepen their perspectives. Communicating through written posts is an important skill students in this technological environment should possess. All student work will be located in one location…under each blog’s prompt posting! I cannot wait to begin!