Literacy 2.0 in the Classroom

As I sat in my car on my hour long ride home today I was thinking to myself how am I going to discuss teaching literacy in a Social Studies classroom.  Now ELA and Social Studies tend to mesh well together and as I reflect on my career and think back to how many times I've met with ELA teachers on my team to collaborate on specific assignments.  I've discussed how to help students construct thesis statements, how to support an argument with evidence, how to work on a conclusion, you name it I've probably done it.  Then it occurred to me that isn't what we are really talking about when we discuss literacy 2.0.  Literacy 2.0 seems to truly be about what I'm going to call creative learning.  As I come to this realization I also realize that I am currently listening to an episode of History in 28 Minutes on the revolutionary war on my way home from work.  This is exactly what literacy 2.0 is all about.

Teachers, students, parents, really everybody today is participating in this global exchange of information and the way that we receive our information is changing just as quickly as the technology that delivers it to us (I had to ban smartwatches from students during tests last year because I caught students "just checking the time" a bit too often.  I suppose kudos to them for their creativity.) As I write this my mind drifts to CNN's website.  Despite whatever your personal politics may be if you go there you will notice a few things.  For starters you will see a variety of text articles, digital photos, video content, and participation from consumers posting a variety of comments on various articles.  I chose to use this website specifically as my example because it very clearly demonstrates that in today's digital environment everyone is potentially a producer as well as a consumer.  People have a voice and an ability to convey their thoughts to a global audience.

What I also noticed while perusing today's news is that a lot of the information was delivered in multiple formats.  Video, check. Text, Check. Pictures, yup those too.  Can you say differentiation?  I think I've heard that word a time or three in faculty meetings.  The point is that in order for students to really be literate with technology they must be able to display a variety of skills that enables them to interact effectively in this globally digitized community.  And they are doing it!  Many of our students are not only ahead of the curve when it comes to digital proficiency but they are way ahead of us (us meaning me; the one who is supposed to be doing the teaching...).  Imagine my surprise when I found out that both my daughters had YouTube accounts with videos that they made.  This is a very exciting time to be an educator.

So how do we integrate literacy instruction in the classroom?  My first and probably most important piece of advice is this, have a plan.  Make sure you know what you want your students to learn as well as what you want them to get out of the experience.  There are a variety of tools and applications at your students disposal.  On my teacher website I created a resources tab for my kiddos so they could easily find some of the most common as well as a few of my favorites.  I also encourage them and tell them that if they know an amazing tool that I don't have listed that they need to let me know so I can add it for other kids.  I could list a plethora of tools for you but a quick google search of web 2.0 will unleash enough of those to make your brain cry uncle.

My next suggestion is to encourage students to diversify what they are doing.  Students are going to cling to what they are comfortable with so don't feel bad about making them uncomfortable.  Simply telling them I don't want anyone to make a slides presentation is often enough.  I tell my students that I want them to have fun doing their work.  I have done the worksheet thing for years and hated grading them about as much as my students hated doing them.  I would rather see an activity that my students really enjoyed doing while working hard.  I always get a big smile when I see something my students produced and am stuck wondering how did they do this and why don't I know how?  Our students know how to make video, podcasts, websites, etc., encourage this in your activities.

My last piece of advice is after giving your students their direction and a little bit of guidance get out of their way.  If they need you they will come to you I promise.  Check up on them and keep them on task by all means but let them be free to create.  I have discovered that my students will often surprise me at the level of effort they give me. Our students have grown up playing with computers like I played with toys and they are more skilled than we usually are.  I have taken to pointing them in a direction, clearly identifying my expectations, and then letting them go.  Be sure to check in on them to make sure they understand your directions and that they are covering what you want them to learn but if they are on target let them go.  One thing I have started doing is that I provide a Google Form on my Google Classroom called a progress report.  At the end of a session where students worked in groups I require my students to fill out the progress report which indicates what they accomplished in that session and what each participant was responsible for.  I have found that this helps keep my students pointed in the right direction and working productively.

I am going to end this with a quote.  I have been teaching now for 13 years and I've been training martial arts for 20, and in my art we have a soke (he is the ancestral head of the school).  Soke's name is Masaaki Hatsumi and he is famous for saying (in his very limited English) "Understand? Good. Now play!"  That quote sums up the environment that I hope to create for my new generation of students.  Students for whom a pen, notebook, textbook, and a truckload of worksheets are insufficient for preparing them to interact in a world that demands their participation.