Digital Literacy Project

        When I was first introduced to the idea of spiral education in a different class, I was very fascinated by it and I was automatically for the idea because I agreed that students master their skills and knowledge by accumulating what they learn from one level to the next.  A kindergartener can't master writing a persuasive essay all at once.  They need to learn a little bit in one grade and more in the next grade and so on.  Therefore, I was very much in favor of the spiral curriculum until I read Smagorinsky's chapter.  As I was reading the Smagorinsky chapter, I started to imagine how this curriculum would look like; I thought the spiral curriculum might beget a very structured and controlled curriculum across all grades because all teachers at all grades would make sure that students are accumulating their skills and knowledge from one level to the next, and so teachers will have to ensure which content they're teaching. So, I was not really sure about the rigidness and inflexibility of the spiral education when I was imagining how it might look like.

         In addition to Smagorinsky's interesting idea, another idea that Hicks mentions in his chapter got my attention.  Hicks argued that students could learn the same writing process that they learn via print writing by learning the multimodal writings because “any kind of composing—whether print alone or any combination of media—requires a similar thinking process. The MAPS heuristic mentioned requires us to help students think about how, when, and why they are producing messages for different audiences” (p.135).  I agree that there is definitely an awareness of the audience in both print writing and multi-modal writing; however, I think there are definitely certain things that multi-modal writings cannot fully achieve as print-writings could, or things that multi-modals lack.  For example, multi-modal writings are great for providing students with visualization but they hinder students from making their own visualization because they present one type of visualization for the students. 

       I'd like to try to have students create their own multi-modal writings just to inform them that both types of writing that seem to be very different can have the same or similar writing process and writing strategies.  However, I wouldn't rely on the multi-modal writing wholly though because I believe that print-only-writings and multi-modal writings have unique value in each of them although they may share some qualities. I think it would be challenging for me to incorporate digital writing in my lesson plans because it would require a number of hours to educate students not only how to write their papers but also transfer their writing to the digital means.  However, I can see the value in introducing this type of writing and how to create one to the students, and I think I will definitely try to teach it someday.

Case Study Paragraph Revision

Original Paragraph:

            Another way to engage students and help them find interests in class activities is to allow the students to offer evidence of their knowledge and application in the way that they feel most comfortable with.  Teachers, or even teacher candidates who feel relatively younger and more up-to-date, often overlook the power of new literacy.  According to Bailey, without understanding the students' ways, "teachers cannot expect to offer consistently meaningful instruction to their students, partly because they do not understand the ways in which their digital native students learn best and partly because they don't know that new literacies are, and will continue to be, what their students need for future work, leisure, and lives as citizens" (Bailey, 2012, p. 46).  Teachers need to develop "the kind of thinking and doing that their students who are 'insiders' or digital natives' engage in regularly" (Bailey, 2012, p. 45) in order to stay updated to their students' new literacies.

Revised Paragraph:
 

            Another way to engage students and help them find interests in class activities is to allow the students to offer evidence of their knowledge and application in the way that they feel most comfortable with.  Teachers, or even teacher candidates who feel relatively younger and more up-to-date, often overlook the power of new literacy.  According to Bailey, without understanding the students' ways, "teachers cannot expect to offer consistently meaningful instruction to their students, partly because they do not understand the ways in which their digital native students learn best and partly because they don't know that new literacies are, and will continue to be, what their students need for future work, leisure, and lives as citizens" (Bailey, 2012, p. 46).  Teachers need to develop "the kind of thinking and doing that their students who are 'insiders' or digital natives' engage in regularly" (Bailey, 2012, p. 45) in order to stay updated to their students' new literacies.  Students are more interested in learning what matters to their lives or, at least, what relates to their lives.  Therefore, incorporating new literacies with which students are familiar will increase student engagement and therefore improve their performance as well.  In Jamal's case, he likes to read Sci-fi novels, especially the Harry Potter series and the Percy Jackson series.  Although he is usually disengaged and disinterested in class activities, he will definitely show interest in working in class if it is related to books or TV shows of his interests.  Being aware not only of what digital means students are familiar with but also of their interests in general will greatly benefit teachers' planning. 


Reflection on Revision:

            While revising, I tried to connect the ideas and the readings more directly to Jamal because the main purpose of this Case Study paper is to show the experiment that I did with Jamal, the analysis of the experiment, and the conclusions made from the analysis, rather than simply explaining what the readings are about.  I didn’t go too specific or too detailed with the examples because I further them in the next paragraph.  However, I decided to, at least, mention them in this paragraph so that the readers can be continuously aware that this paper is about Jamal.  I tried to re-read my paragraph as though a reader—someone else other than myself—was reading it because they are the audience, not me.  Therefore, I needed to “outline the reader, not [my] paper” (firstyearcomp.com) as mentioned in a blog post titled “How To Write An Outline.” I tried to re-read it like a first-time reader and figure out where seemed to need more explanation or additional transitions for the reader’s better understanding.   

            Both readings for this week, “How To Write An Outline” and “The Best Writing Teachers Are Writers Themselves” seem to have a message in common: good writers write like a reader, and good readers read like a writer.  It sounds like a really obvious message, but people including myself often forget to do so.  When writing, we often write in our head, therefore only elaborating on what we are confused with and simplifying what we are clear about.  However, readers might need more elaboration on what we are clear about and might not need any more clarification on what we are yet confused with.  Thus, this message given by the two readings is something we need to keep in mind when we read or write: Be objective; Think about others before yourself; Read like a writer, and write like a reader!

Writing Conferences

My only concern with having writing conferences in a typical ELA classroom in a public school is that there might be not enough time to spend as much time I'd like on writing conferences because there is a list of things that teachers are required to teach in ELA class for the year.  Despite the time limit, however, I think it is important to let the students be exposed to writing conference experiences at least because writing conferences can do multiple things like it did to me.  I had my first writing conference when I was a freshman in college.  The professor who held these writing conferences for us still remains as my favorite English teacher till today because he helped to spark my interest in studying English--reading and especially writing.  He helped me see and realize what first drafts are supposed to look like, how revising should be done, and how revising is different from editing, and what I need to pay attention to when I am revising to prevent both mistakes that most people make and mistakes that I personally tend to make.  He also allowed me many opportunities to look at writings of different levels through peer-review sessions and helped me develop the skills to distinguish "good" writing from "bad" writing.  I am glad that I had this professor in my freshman year, and I am also appreciative that I got to experience such a living model of a productively and effectively run writing conference before it's too late because I know and can envision what  a good writing conference should look like for my own classroom.

Rough Draft of Case Study Paper

1. Section One: General Information

•    Interview:

-          Name: Jamal

-          Grade: 7^th grade

-          Age: 12 years old

-          Family: 4^th child of 6 siblings

-          School background: transferred from Hillsman Middle School this year.

-          He reads about 2 hours a day everyday and finishes a book/week.

-          Favorite Genre: Sci-fi

-          Favorite Book: The Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson series.

-          He usually checks out books from the school library; he usually checks out one book a week.

-          He’s not involved in any extra-curricular activities, but he is taking Family/Consumer Science, P.E., and Spanish for his Connections.

-          He prefers reading to writing.

-          His family doesn’t read as much as he does, but his family reads a little bit.

-          Favorite Subject: Social Studies

-          Favorite Teacher: Ms. Barr (ELA teacher, “because she is fun and plays cool videos”)

-          Least Favorite Subject: Mathematics

-          Least Favorite Teacher: (not comfortable answering)

-          He likes to and often does read any kind of texts like cereal box, prescriptions, milk carton, etc.

-          Why do you like reading? “I just like to read.”

-          Why do you not like writing? “Because I’m bad at writing.”

-          Do you see any connection between those books that you read outside of class and stuff that we read within ELA classes? “how the background is in the future?” –it seems that he either didn’t have any distinguishing line established between books outside of class and those inside of class or had hard time making the connection between the two.

-          What do you think can make your ELA class more interesting and engaging? “more activities like games and stuff.”

-          I asked him some questions about the writing assessment he had to do last week, and I asked him what about writing he thinks is the most difficult because he did very poorly on it—barely a paragraph.  “I think I get distracted easily” by people around him. 

•     Observation:

-          The student is larger in size compared to the other average middle school students, and he is a bit overweight. 

-          He is very quiet and usually shows calm, or a bit unmotivated, attitude in class.

-          He enjoys interacting with students who approach him friendly and smoothly, but he seems to lack confidence in approaching other people first.

-          He just transferred to BHL from Hillsman this year, so I think he is still in the process of getting used to the school and making friends.

-          On his record from 6^th grade, he scored 900 out of 930 on the CRCT.  However, I haven’t been seeing the same level of writing proficiency on his writing assignments.

-          I’ve seen him eating lunch alone at the cafeteria on the reward day, which means that students can sit wherever they want with their friends.

-          Despite his usual calm attitude, he was once with the principal all day for hitting somebody he doesn’t even know because the kid wanted to play with his pencil box without his permission.

2.      Investigate the Literacy Background and Current Literacy practices of student.

• ·         An event involving your student that gives us insight into your student’s attitudes towards reading 

: I was walking down the hall way to the buses after the classes were all finished, and Jamal came up to me and asked “did you know Humpty Dumpty was an egg?” And, he told me that he found out about it from reading milk cartons that morning. 

• ·         An event involving your student that gives us insight into your student’s attitudes toward writing

: This would be just about every class period where he needs to do some kind of, or any kind of, writing.  He would be very much engaged in class activity which has to do with reading, but he would be completely disengaged and unmotivated to follow any instruction if that activity has to do with writing regardless of the amount of writing. 

• ·         Data collected that revealed information about the student’s literacy background/past experiences, literacy attitudes

: 6^th grade CRCT score (900/930); his writing assessment (his sentences); observations (he is ALWAYS reading or carrying a book in his hand)

• Current ability to relate to literacy and learning in and out of school
• Assessment of this student’s current reading abilities and struggles
• Assessment of this student’s current writing abilities and struggles
• Assessment of how reading and writing transact with one other for this student

: Based on his writing assessment (prompt: school uniform choices), there seems to be a distinct gap between his reading level and his writing level.  He seems to be able to understand the writing prompt, but he struggles with coming up with his own ideas and examples and organizing them effectively. 

Based on his ‘Body Biography’ activity in which he had to describe how/what a character’s each body part symbolizes and support his symbolisms with textual evidence, it seems that he understood the story of the book, The Giver, but he didn’t finish the activity because there was much writing he had to do.  He drew the character, and he spent most of the class period drawing, picturing the character, and just chattering with a friend who sits next to him.  

3.      Revelations and Recommendations

• ·         For reading

-          how the student’s reading level is reflected through his/her activities

-          the teacher needs to not only encourage students to read inside and outside of class but also teach them how to read/analyze/close-read what they read because reading a lot doesn’t seem to guarantee a depth of reading comprehension.

-          For students who already enjoy reading, but probably only for their own pleasure, I think it is important to explain why it’s important to close-read and it might be even difficult to engage those kinds of students because they might be disengaged in the reading activities for being engaged in reading on their own.

• ·         For Writing

-          Reading and Writing do not transact automatically.  Reading would greatly help Writing, but they require different teachings. 

-          Writing lessons for Jamal- teaching writing for low-level writers; building confidence as writer.

-          I wonder how these avid reader students feel about standardized writings since they have seen various types of writing through books.

-          Do teachers need to emphasize different types of writing depending on their students’ literacy culture/background?