It is that time of the year to reflect on what I have received from this class as a whole throughout the semester. So a few things I would like to share that I learned about literacy and teaching include literacy between technology, adolescence, gaming, and making.

             Literacy is often known has the ability to read and write. However, throughout this course I have encounter many different ideas and perspectives on how to view literacy and I know that there is not just one definition to literacy. This class has expanded my knowledge by allowing me to explore these different methods.

             To start of with, technology and literacy. We often believe that technology is taking away our ability to read and write. On the other hand, we also see that the technology is giving us other opportunities to read and express ourselves. What I have learned from this class, that I will not forget is that technology is a form of literacy and that it is an addition to our literacy definition. Teenagers are stuck in the world of Instagram, twitter, Facebook, tumblr, etc. and not knowing that they are also revolving in the world of literacy. Just because it is not physically on a paper or with a writing utensils, teens are expressing themselves just in a different format.

              Next stop, adolescence and literacy. I really enjoyed the article groups and book club that allowed me to go in deep details with this topic. Especially, because it gave me different perspectives and ideas from my classmates as we worked on our powerpoint for the article group. Reading our articles independently and then coming together and sharing what we each grabbed from the reading was beneficial because it gave us an idea of the main focus in our topic. The book club was my favorite assignment because it included a video that was entertaining and at the same time it wrapped up on what we got from the book. It was a great way to get to the point in a small amount of time.

               Once again, my favorite connection is gaming and literacy. As a future teacher this was the most helpful and extremely beneficial to me. I am honestly not a video gamer but I  have played before and I never got the thrill of playing it. That is why I cannot believe how much my perspective has changed. I know view gaming as an opportunity to gain new ideas and different ways to start all over. Failure is not a negative thing but rather something that has been seen positive.

              Lastly, making and literacy has given me ways of exploring different ideas with different scenarios. Working with a group or team is helpful because you gather ideas that you have not thought about or even imagined. I really enjoyed ignite and maker night because it was very engaging to listen to the speakers different views and connecting to their way of viewing their topic.

As a future teacher, I mentioned that the idea of failure is essentially important in my opinion, simply because I would want my students to know that they should not be afraid to fail. They should be aware that it can open new ideas for them especially if they decide to start all over instead of giving up on their first time. Overall, I am pleased with my decision of taking this course this semester because I was able to explore literacy with a great group of students and of course with the help of Kim. I believe that teachers are suppose to be a guide to the students that offer and supply resources for them. I was able to see this process at first hand throughout the course. Furthermore, giving us the opportunity to make decisions from choosing our own groups to blogging in our own style was a way of allowing us to use the resources supplied by Kim. 

During the group presentations, I was able to obtain a lot of information I was still unfamiliar about. For example, the gaming and literacy group was a topic I could not wrap my head around until the day of their presentation. Honestly, I feel like I could not understand it because gaming is not something that is in my whole interest (I do think it is cool). However, It stood out to me the most when JD was playing the video game because the video game itself looked very interesting to learn. Meanwhile, he was explaining the process of the game which is, if you fail then you are allowed to try again and you are given the opportunity to get a better score and improve your skills. On the other hand, our school system does not allow you to do that, instead you fail and are not allowed to prove or improve yourself again. The idea of getting another opportunity to improve is something important for students, in order for them to not give up after one failed attempt.

The hip/hop and literacy group was very fun to watch because they included modern music and music from the past. Once you look into the lyrics of the music, you are able to notice the connection of literary devices. What stood out to me the most was when we started to make our own rap and it was entertaining to see what other groups came up with.

Lastly, the make/hack/play group made the experience of creating something from a scenario and a few items enjoyable. The scenarios that they came up with were complicated but once we started making something as a team it made it less complicated. In this group, what stood out to me the most was when we started to share our ideas. I was impressed on what other group members had came up with.

Overall, the presentations had me engaged and made me think of the connection with literacy.

 

For my article group, I decided to go for adolescent identity and literacy because I wanted to be able to use my what I learned from my readings of Just Girls for the article groups. In addition, the book was around girls finding their identity through different social groups. Furthermore, in most of our article readings, we are finding a connection with social media and finding or creating your own identity. We watched a TED Talk that stated how boys find their own identity.  Social media is a great impact of our society today and it is becoming an even greater impact on young teens. We are currently discussing the difference between how you view yourself now compared to how you viewed yourself in the past. We are also touching topics like self-confidence, judgement, self-identity etc. Through these topics we are noticing how and why young teens are becoming more involved with Instagram, twitter, and/or other social media.

 

In my group, I read Youth Identity & Digital Media (edited volume . Through this reading I found more of a connection with young teens and social media. It stated that many teens decided to turn to social media in order to stay connected with their peers. However, they are using social media to also “fit in” or stay updated on what is going on. They use social media to build something around them like they see others do.

 

Overall, the readings of the articles have helped us know different view points regarding social media and young teens today. Now the question is, Is it becoming a problem or is it helping young teens find or create their identity?

 

In the text Just Girls, there is a separation of queens and cookies. In the book we start to read about each characteristic and how they can be similar. Mostly the queens are considered “not smart” and more popular. On the other hand the cookies are considered smart but “not popular” We then go into how the classrooms effect the girls. Also, how girls grow up differently than men because of social expectations. In this text we notice how girls grow up faster and more different than in other surroundings.

 

What we talked in my group was mostly about the literacy practice the girls receive in passing notes or reading. However, the separation in the both the groups causes it to be different in each group. For example,  the literacy practice in the queens includes magazines while in the cookies, it includes homework.

Theses two types of literacy practices are important because that is how most teenagers receive literacy. Why? Well, because at that age all you want to do is fit in and you’ll do what you believe is right to fit in. This is only in some occasions. It is also important because it is still a form of literacy that girls are doing while in junior high.

I believe the purpose of this book is to help us understand girls in junior high and what they are doing with literacy other than school work. It also, gives us a clear understanding of students rapid need of fitting in how they do. Overall, girls grow up faster and we are now seeing they are developing much differently due to social surroundings.

             From the readings in class, I was able to grab many different perspectives in describing literacy. There are no wrong answers when defining literacy because you can view it in many ways, either in a positive or negative way. However, I grabbed literacy in a positive way. At first, I had thought that literacy had only one correct answer but I was wrong once I started to learn the different perspectives there are to literacy. Literacy evolves throughout time and starts to spread in different directions. There is digital literacy, which is sometimes viewed as a negative way because many believe writing and reading a hard copy book will soon die out due to this. I view digital literacy as a positive way because you can take so much from it and it is something that is spreading rapidly.

            As a social view of literacy, I started to realize different perspectives other than mine. while reading Hamilton. For example, Hamilton states, “ sponsorship deals often require the wearing of brand logos and this impose marking is akin to the branding of property and to the public branding used to shame those defined as deviant,” from this I started to notice two sides of wearing logos. The two sides would be finically beneficial to the brand logo or simple satisfaction to the person that has bought or has decided to wear the brand logos. I have noticed these two sides before, however I only noticed more my perspective, which is wearing the logo for satisfaction. On the other hand, many people start to notice these brand logos on other people and decide to wear them as well, which means more money for the brand logo. Furthermore, wearing literacy can have more to it than just for satisfaction.

               What am I still mulling over? I am still wanting to know more perspectives on digital literacy in a positive way. I mentioned this to Kim earlier in the week. What is her view on the internet v.s teachers? I got this from a twitter post and it has been haunting me since. The twitter post mentioned something about teachers not teaching students and that you learn more from the internet. It also mentioned that teachers are not even needed. What is your view on this twitter post?