Reading together

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Time photoOur course invites you to work with data collection and analysis, readings, and discussion around the field of literacy studies

Author: Tiffany

Peace out homies, it has been real.

Peace out homies, it has been real.

At this moment and time, my whole world has changed about literacy. At this moment I feel enlightened about literacy. There are so many different things that play into this one little word that is forever changing. Also, I believe that gaming and literacy can go hand in hand!
First, I think that the most interesting thing that I did for this class was the book club. I learned a lot about teaching and the development of learning. In Brothers and Sisters I learned that not all kids learn the same, not saying that I didn’t know that already but it did give a better insight. For example how one of the kids in the class was into sports teams and that’s how he remembered each state or two best friends in the class would use music lyrics to convey certain emotions to each other. I really liked how there were so many different things and techniques these kids use to learn. This brings me to teaching, and how my teacher that I am interning for uses these techniques. Mrs. Hislop used diagrams and ample amount of writing to get the students to understand Shakespeare. It helped some of them understand by using the pictures and the diagrams to understand the story and then she let them write about the relationships over again to see if they understood. Another thing that I thought was interesting about my internship was the fact that Mrs. Hislop let her students use there phones in class. If they wanted to look up a word on their internet then they could or if they were doing some silent work she would let them use their phones moderately but they would still have to get their work done. Which, I thought was pretty fair and they all did get their work done.
Something else that I thought was pretty intriguing was the movie we watched about Hobart Shakespeareans. I thought the way that the class room was set up was interesting. The teacher of that class I believe puts all his faith into teaching his class and giving them a taste of the real world by having currency in his class. Some people might disagree with that but I strongly believe that if you are doing your homework, reading, and learning then it should be fine to get rewarded for that. Plus, I think it prepares them for the real world. I think that teaching them dedication will help go very far in life.
In my internship I learned about classroom democracy, which was surprising to me. My teacher would give her students a choice to read their assigned reading for homework that night or to move on with lecture. They had to write a complete sentence and give a supporting reason why. I think that giving the students a choice made them more invested in learning.
I the biggest two things that I learned in this class was that literacy is forever changing. I don’t think one thing can just define it. Another thing that I learned was about literacy and technology. In a lot of our discussions we talked about how technology is changing the way that we learn today and also about integrating technology into the class room setting and not run from the new things that are occurring. I think when I become a teacher I want to integrate every genre of teaching there is. I want to teach them how to write a well written five paragraph essay, I want to teach them about fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in an interesting way, I want them to use music and break it down into their interpretation, I want them to know that video games can help them learn, I want them to read different books than the generic ones that everyone read and still learn from them and I want them to see the bigger picture of English. I don’t want my students to leave my class without leaving with something they will take with them and remember that they had fun learning. I still want to know one thing about literacy, when will everyone know or find out that literacy is something that can be acquired in many different ways?
This was one of my favorite classes ever since I have started my college journey! Thank you so much for having hands on learning as well as showing and being invested in the class Kim!
-Tiffany F.

OUTSIDE THE BOXX #9

OUTSIDE THE BOXX #9

Some things that I learned from my article group reading are how influential hip-hop is and how it goes hand in hand with literacy. You can see that lyrics can be decoded into poetry and have a deeper meaning than just a “song” that you have heard a million of times. Another thing that I learned was that there was a website that did annotate the meaning of the lyrics which I think is pretty cool! Also, something I learned is that hip-hop makes learning fun and more interesting like in the video we showed about the rap that was made about DNA.

I can honestly say that these class presentations have taught me to look outside my box. At the beginning of the year I though video games were just for fun and served no “learning” practices. I used to think that they were just for fun and games and nothing else. That has changed and I can see that video games do serve a purpose and do have some educational uses. The Gamer group really nailed that down for me. They talked about how you have to think about new ways to beat a level or how it relates back to reality. In reality if you mess up something you can try and start over and make it better. Another group that was really interesting was the adolescent identity and literacy. I really liked how they had us make a collaborative story with each other and how they talked about how boys and girls differ.

In all I think this whole class assignment was really awesome. It made me really think outside my comfort zone and realize that thinking differently might not be such a bad idea.

The Revolution Begins

The Revolution Begins

I thought it was pretty interesting how Sean Morris in Left Behind made it seem like a “revolution” was going on. I think the people are pushing for new ways for teaching and learning higher education. I believe what the article is saying is that it is hard to push for change, I agree with the statement “new approaches need consideration.” I thought it was interesting how they are on twitter sharing ideas and opinions about this revolution, for example someone tweeted:
“Every time I hear someone invoke “revolution” in discussions about education, I want to remind them that people die in revolutions”
-Audrey Watters @audreywatters

I thought it was interesting because I do feel like talking about change in education is taboo or looked down on. In the education world I think that it is hard to push for change, and I am glad people are out there pushing for new things. I just think it is going to take some time because people may be so grounded in what education should be that there could be a type of revolution between educators. “We call for change like wildfire because that’s the only good way to call for it. But the truth is, any revolt here will start very, very quietly,” Morris writes. I consider that it will take a while before the wheels begin turning. Rome wasn’t built in a day and I don’t think Education is going to change overnight like some kind of great revelation.
This article was about a push for change which relates to the Pedagogy piece we read on the 25th. It’s all about Old school vs new school and how they are looking how to change the way of teaching and education. How are they going to go about this? Can they start from scratch? How are they all going to consider the things that work and don’t work? Which side are you on?

Breath of fresh air

Breath of fresh air

In the short film Hobart Shakespeareans I really thought it was interesting. Not just how he taught but how much he cared about the students and how he took pride in them. I feel like that ‘caring’ teachers are rare and I think that is why his class was so interesting. He made it fun and understandable. Some literary practices that I found very intriguing, is when he was teaching them guitar. I think that reading music and understanding every note is hard but still rewarding at the same time. Also, I think when they were reading Shakespeare that they really understood the depth of what they were reading. I think “doing” was the literacy focus in this movie. The teacher was not just standing up there and teaching but engaging the students. He is creating a new kind of environment which is constructed around having fun and taking pride in what they are doing. I think that if a student is not fully engaged within a class then they will not take away the literacy knowledge they may or might need.
Rather, we must think consciously (and practically) about how our students’ conceptions of (and contexts for) writing are changing, and we must approach the teaching of grammar in new and innovative ways.
-Twitter Essay, JESSE STOMMEL
I think this quote explains what is happening in Hobart Shakespeareans. They teacher is teaching them in new and innovated ways. I think the teacher in H.S is making things fresh and new which is a breath of fresh air.

#4

#4

I think Keri Franklin’s makes me think of when I found out about Facebook, instagram and twitter. I feel like with these websites you never think of learning anything from there. Actually, at some point I thought they were stupid. I think of trying to figure out how to get to my inbox… or decoding slang that people used on the internet… LOL… NVM… I think that everyone sponsors my literacies. I learn something new every day by learning something new. I think that teachers also sponsor my literacy, because they make me think about things I would not normally think about. So then it will become my mission to figure the secret meanings that they are talking about. Friends, because they come from so many different walks of life. They all have different dialects and I feel like I should know different dialects or I will not be included. Prints based is I feel is getting left behind because people today want to find things quickly and flipping through every chapter of a textbook is going to be a lot harder than typing in the exact thing you are looking for on the internet. I also think that they are the same because both contain a lot of information