Hello - Professor Clayton has unlocked the secret of Blogger to turn us all into bloggers and asked me to try out the process, so here goes.
Like Krystina, the Beers article made a big impact on me - I liked her personal involvement in the issues and her passionate advocacy for Derick and Collin, who sound so real. And Collin was blogging - despite his marginalization by his teacher, in his technological literacy he is probably way ahead of us, who are getting certified to be his teachers, in effect. The story reminded me of when I visited Peekskill High School last semester and saw lots and lots of students-three or four to each computer-clustered around the library computers at lunch time, while the bookshelves were relatively unvisited. There was a lot of reading, writing, and viewing going on at those computers. Yet most classrooms had only one desktop for student use, and only once in many visits did I see a teacher suggest to a student that he use it during class.
The article made me wonder if Beers has her own blog - she is a much-published and highly regarded author/educator who writes on reluctant readers. If she has a blog, I couldn't find it with Google search. I did find (type in Kylene Beers in Google search and click on "Search Blogs") many blogs by English teachers that cite Beers' strategies and how the teachers have used them with their students. I randomly clicked this one and found that Kylene Beers in a workshop had shown this YouTube video:
What do you think?
Cheers, Anita
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I'm not sure if I should post this separately or as a comment, but since it is related to what Anita wrote, I will post it here.
Our dependency on and use of computers is certainly on the increase. Although computer technology has opened up a whole new world to us in an easily accessible manner, is it OK for our students to not have practice with penmanship? So much is being done on computers that penmanship has taken a back seat. I remember hearing a story of a supervisor who was hiring for a position at a county office building. One of the applicants, who was around 18 years old or so, was unable to complete the application legibly. Is this acceptable?
Putnam Valley Schools give laptops to all of their students and teachers from 5th grade on. The teachers I have observed often have their students put their laptops away during class. When students do have access to their laptops during class, about a handful of them are playing games like Tetris or typing notes to their friends.
Do computers serve as an aid to literacy and understanding, or do they serve as a distraction and a way to get around having to remember how to construct proper sentences (i.e. grammar and spell checks)? I personally can argue both sides of that!
Katie - You state the dilemma really well - here's another - since the time I posted the link to the YouTube video, some people have used the f word in making comments on it (on YouTube, not here) - I feel badly about exposing people to unnecessary bad language, even thought I didn't mean to.
Well, you write very well, anyway.
Anita
Anita-
Don't feel badly about the posts on YouTube. You have no control over what has been posted on there and I'm sure everyone understands that. I see the dilemma, though! How much control do we have over the material that we see online? Sites like Wikipedia allow you to make changes to the site to alter information or to submit posts. I have seen very inaccurate posts. This further stresses the need to illustrate to students how to decipher the quality of sources and that they may need to use of more than one source to verify information. Students might be able to navigate to and through sites and understand the information, but if it is misinformation that they accept as truth (it's easy for all of us to accept what we see in writing as truth!), will computer/Internet literacy aid or hinder their intellectual growth?
I really enjoyed reading your blogs, Anita. They really got me thinking! Thank you for your feedback!
Computers can have a tremendous positive impact on the teaching of math. Computer software, such as Mathematica, can be used to illutrate abstract mathematical concepts. For example, the notion of a function becomes real when a specific function is represented on a computer. Using software, such as Geometer's Sketchpad, is a great way to illustrate concepts presented in geometry class. Even certain computer games can be an excellent way to introduce students to mathematical reasoning and problem-solving techniques.
I like the point Al points out. As a future English teacher(with an old soul of sorts) I loathe many of the reasons why students use technology, especially computers. I'd rather have students write an essay as opposed to typing it. However, although I was a tremendous idiot when it came to Algebra, I still feel to this day that the subject of math warrants a "by any means necessary" approach to lesson planning. I say allow the computer software because it may liven things up a bit. If only Shakespeare pondered trigonometry...
I also like the concept of the journal in math - using it to ask students to think about the way problems are solved and linking into real life concepts.
picking up on what Eric said, I have to be truthful...I'm really a bit of a luddite at heart. I'm not sure I totally get all this technology stuff but I am intrigued and I feel like we are at a disservice if we don't try "by any means necessary" with all of our subject areas. For me,perhaps, the most compelling rationale for literacy development at the secondary level is simply the moral argument - literacy is a gatekeeper for so many subjects and for success in much of life. What good is content without the ability to use it? To use it requires literacy. And what "use" means is constantly changing and potentially quite different in the next decade and beyond ... Thanks for this post, Anita, that started all this commentary.
It's almost ironic that anita had posted a YouTube video that had bad language associated with it because it is really something that is almost impossible to prevent. Even if there was no such profanity before she posted it and she check it out, it is still open to comments that people could post after she posted it. This is ironic because students are using technology more and more in the classrooms and outside the school. Resources on the internet (even though these may not be reliable sources) can produce all kinds of poor information and language. For example, I'm sure everyone is familiar with Wikipedia; however, we are also aware never to use this when citing or writing a formal paper because it is open for anyone to comment on. Site like this should be blocked from the school's computers, whether it be 3 or 30 available computers (which is a wholeeee 'nother story).
Post a Comment