Blog #7

When looking up the definition of “literacy”, it provides the basic definition of “the ability to read and write”, but goes on to elaborate on the forms of literacy. 2 concepts discussed in the definition that I felt entirely define what we watched in the Hobart and Spellbound videos were semantics (word meaning) and orthography (spelling patterns). The orthography applies to the Hobart video because the teacher of that class was teaching them words and concepts those kids had never seen, heard, experienced before. By having them read Shakespeare and taking them on trips to the Grand Canyon and WA D.C., he was opening up their experience, comprehension, and vocabulary skills; therefore, increasing the full understanding of specific semantics. For example, having them read Shakespeare taught them lots of words they had likely not come across in basic 5th grade reading. They learned about concepts, such as death and Hamlet, and the meaning of Hamlet’s feelings/emotions and the whole dark aspect of that story (This might be kind of a stretch with my example, but I hope you understand the point I’m getting at with the semantics + kids = literacy).

The other form of literacy, orthography, is clearly evident with the Spellbound video. These kids were not only entertaining and brilliant, but used visual and reading literacy to get to the orthography part. They studied words through school assignments, reading from dictionaries, creating games (such as Angela did with the cross word puzzle), and competing with others to further their knowledge and advance as far as they did in the National Spelling Bee. They each represent a true love and appreciation of literacy in many forms and used/applied them to their daily lives and education.

I think the authors we have read from in this course would be just as impressed as I was with all of the kids in each of the videos, and the teacher from the 1st video. That teacher really gets the students involved in what they’re learning, rather than just lecturing and doing the same ‘ol routine of work sheets, reading, and listening to the teacher talk. His level of student involvement is quite impressive and there should be more teachers like him. The other students from the Spellbound video would impress the authors also because of the way they learn content and study. They also use active engagement in their learning process and use resources around them to aid them. That’s kind of what literacy has become, using what’s around us, such as the always evolving technology, to aid us in our path of learning. The students and teacher in the videos are not only actively engaged in literacy in different ways, but using what’s around them and changing with the literacy changes as well. Keeping up with literacy and utilizing it in different ways is important.