New Literacies Project

As I assumed, from the being of the class and in my literacy concept map, literacy is every changing with the world around us, and my definition of literacy this semester has broadened. I am now looking at literacy with an open mind that everything surrounding us can play a role: such as technology, people, food clothing, and field trips. Literacy seems to surround us in one way or another in our every day interactions. To my surprise finding out that safety is also apart of literacy was a big bonus for me not only for the present, but for working with students in the future. My understanding of Cultural Literacy and Scrapblogg has some how merged into an area where they can coexist. I really had fun thinking about and portraying the different terms in my project. This site was set up in such away that there were not too many obstacles besides the transition speed from slide to slide. And for me it was a bonus having my kids’ school field trips pictures which tied the past and the present together in many ways. Cultural Literacy isn't being able to classify culture and identify it. It is being able to appreciate culture in all aspects of life. Wikipedia defines it as the ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture. Someone outside of America might not understand Sept. 11^th, yet someone outside of my family may not understand its meaning to my family. The historical reference is what brings meaning to this date. Norms, figurative language, and knowledge base all play important roles in cultural literacy. I can understand for the many projects that were done how technology should be use in every class to enhance students learning. I now see scrap blogging as a way for students to communicate with pictures, symbols, as well as text. They can use their experiences with scrapblogging to communicate and help others appreciate their culture. With my frustration I understand that it is not good to assume anything that we should give students the opportunity to learn about technology before we give them a project. Similarly to our Math class where there are many ways to solve a problem and get the right answer I feel that there are many different forms of literacy and we have been exposed to a wide-range.

My Ct really does not allow the students to use technology in her classroom. I feel that I can successfully help them learn the basic about a scrapblogging and scaffold them into doing a simple project. As I stated the site is well organized and easy to follow. This project really proved that “pictures are worth a thousand words”. Since my students are so young; I would have resources such as pictures and text available for their projects. The materials they would need would be a computer, and a few volunteers. I would have everything on it set up and ready to go. I would use the smart board in their classroom to demonstrate what could be done. I would also have a finished sample of words and pictures describing culture. Food, clothes, signs, places and a few others would be familiar to them and a good way to activate their prior knowledge. My objective is for each student to be able to explore scrap blogging and make a basic project. My rational for doing this project is not only scaffolding my students but also to expose them to a new way of learning and using information. I would also be making sure that I am available to guide them through using this new technology. We would at the end of the project view them as a class giving positive feedback to each other, which can be my form of assessment.