Lazy Teachers produce Lazy Students

When I first read/skimmed the New London Group article, I really wasn’t getting much from it. Once I got to class, though, some interesting conversations came up and really got me thinking. We made sense of the article by saying that this group wanted to change the way we teach and think about literacy. The idea of a metalanguage made up of more than just reading and writing really got me excited/nervous about my future teaching career.

In today’s culture, kids are inundated with material all day long. With internet, smartphones, music, etc. it’s hard to impress them with something as “archaic” as a book. What is even harder than getting their attention in class, is successfully getting students to participate outside of class by actually reading it. When video games, internet, social media, texting and more are at their fingertips how do we teach reading skills? The idea of using these technologies to teach is what probably sparked my interest most in the New London piece. Even though technology wasn’t what it is today when they wrote the text, it applies perfectly.

“They need a metalanguage – a language for talking about language, images, texts, and meaning making actions.”

“…a metalanguage that describes meaning in multiple realms.”  (77)

Since metalanguage stuck out to me, so did these quotes. The idea that there is a need for social language, work language, and academic language is completely true. We are expected to switch seamlessly between them all, yet school only teaches us the grammar and curriculum for academic writing and reading. While that form of literacy is probably the least likely to be used anywhere else in life. Teaching what is appropriate for what context and what type of literacy works for what is more important that the five paragraph essay. So, I’m wondering why none of the teachers I had ever thought about this? Why do teachers use the same lesson plans 40 years in a row? Every class is different, the dynamic and students make up a different body of kids needing different information, skills, and literacy practices. The only reason I could think of is that it’s easy. Adapting to students is hard and takes a lot of work out of teachers especially when each student is so different. Finding books to accommodate them all, or assignments that seem relevant to all their goals is challenging. I don’t want to be a lazy teacher who gives my students few skills that they can use in the real world. I would rather use a metalanguage of images, technologies, videos, texts, until I find the ones that work for each student and makes them learn something useful.

What is school for if not to teach students how to interact in society and the workplace?