Purpose:
What we are supposed to do is far more beyond utilizing computers and the Internet in ways that we had not before. Doing something old with new technology does not mean that I`m teaching with technology and that I m doing so in a way as to really improve the writing skills of the students in my classroom.
Our purpose is not just making our writing class fun with the help of new technology, but making students learn more and love writing. The tools themselves should never be the focus of the class.
And we should be clear what we want those tools to do. Our goal is to build a comfortable writing community for students to do their writing, to share their thoughts, to give peer feedback or review, and to help each other with revision as well, with the new assistant, technology.
How can new literacies help?
Create writing community(online and on campus)
Create writing community(online and on campus)
- Create opportunities for students to reach out to a larger scale of audiences(cross classrooms or cross grades, or reading or writing clubs)
- Create opportunities for students to communicate with other student-writers and writers. (Writing Today, Twitter Chat with Hicks)
- Fostering choice about topic and genre and inquiry through online website( RSS, Social Bookmarking, and Blooging)
- Conferring and having active revision with constant feedback between peer and teacher through Blogs, Wikis, and Collaborative Word Processors
- Examining author`s craft through multimedia composition and facilitating through mini lessons and conferences
- Designing and publishing digital writing and documenting students digital writing work in a portfolio in a centralized location such as class wiki
- Enabling assessment(both formative and summative one) over time with digital writing tools( Vocaroo, Podcast)
- TPACK-----ECI546 New Literacies and Media
- Multi Genre Writing Project--- ECI520 Teaching composition with the help of Cool Tools (ECI546)
Modeling of digital writing ----My multi genre writing project
Connect writing to reading---scaffolded reading( ECI 541)
There are many long-existing problems for ESLs writing, such as vocabulary and grammar. And the best way to solve these problems is to lead them and engage them to read, think and learn.
Teachers can demystify literacy-related learning in content areas by scaffolding instruction so that ALL students become aware of and competent in the use of strategies necessary to be successful. The word scaffold is used as a metaphor in teaching and learning to suggest helping students to do what they cannot do alone at first. Scaffolding reading, writing, and discussion experiences is key to initiating and sustaining students' successful interaction with texts.
Learned helplessness is a term often used to describe the behavior of students who struggle with content area materials (digital or print). Unsuccessful readers struggle because they possess a limited repertoire of strategies to use while processing demanding text. They often remain passive and disengaged and perceive themselves as incapable of overcoming their difficulty. Teachers can prevent students from developing learned helplessness with texts by providing scaffolded instruction. This way students acquire the appropriate strategies to deal with challenging reading assignments and gain a sense of being successful as they read.
The following PDF file is my Scaffolded reading teaching plan for high school ESLs in China.
There are many long-existing problems for ESLs writing, such as vocabulary and grammar. And the best way to solve these problems is to lead them and engage them to read, think and learn.
Teachers can demystify literacy-related learning in content areas by scaffolding instruction so that ALL students become aware of and competent in the use of strategies necessary to be successful. The word scaffold is used as a metaphor in teaching and learning to suggest helping students to do what they cannot do alone at first. Scaffolding reading, writing, and discussion experiences is key to initiating and sustaining students' successful interaction with texts.
Learned helplessness is a term often used to describe the behavior of students who struggle with content area materials (digital or print). Unsuccessful readers struggle because they possess a limited repertoire of strategies to use while processing demanding text. They often remain passive and disengaged and perceive themselves as incapable of overcoming their difficulty. Teachers can prevent students from developing learned helplessness with texts by providing scaffolded instruction. This way students acquire the appropriate strategies to deal with challenging reading assignments and gain a sense of being successful as they read.
The following PDF file is my Scaffolded reading teaching plan for high school ESLs in China.
eci541_yan`s_final_draft_of_sre.pdf | |
File Size: | 132 kb |
File Type: |
Collaborate with colleagues
The reason why it called "new" literacies is that it hash`t been practiced for a long time and it will keep changing. So it will be normal for teachers to meet many new problems. Only collaboration can provide wisdom and solve problems efficiently. "No aspect of teaching is more debilitating for teachers than the isolation form other adults that is so often part of the job." (Z&R, ECI 508)What teachers need as professionals is to talk about new literacies and their effect that matter most for their kids` learning, to exchange ideas and experiences and philosophies about their practice. Initiating this exchange with other colleagues is a powerful leadership act, and will better the whole writing community including both teachers and students.
Teachers can cooperate by:
The reason why it called "new" literacies is that it hash`t been practiced for a long time and it will keep changing. So it will be normal for teachers to meet many new problems. Only collaboration can provide wisdom and solve problems efficiently. "No aspect of teaching is more debilitating for teachers than the isolation form other adults that is so often part of the job." (Z&R, ECI 508)What teachers need as professionals is to talk about new literacies and their effect that matter most for their kids` learning, to exchange ideas and experiences and philosophies about their practice. Initiating this exchange with other colleagues is a powerful leadership act, and will better the whole writing community including both teachers and students.
Teachers can cooperate by:
- Visiting and observing classes( Open my classroom door)
- Shadowing a students
- Having small conference discussing strategies