Blog #3 for 7/19/2016

This week's readings focused in detail on the incorporation of internet tools like social media and wikis. There was also a large focus on multimedia. The idea that these technologies are important in keeping the language of an English class relevant in today's world seems like a given to me, so it was a little funny reading all these articles treating it like cutting edge, high-level stuff. That probably has more to do with experienced teachers and established practices ruling the day than anything else. I think we can learn from both sides, though; it is always good to err on the side of caution when implementing some of these technologies, especially if they potentially come at the risk of compromising classroom management. As an example, though Elizabeth Edmondson makes a strong case for using the wiki as a group project (one I may steal for my unit plan this semester) in "Wiki Literature Circles," we do need to watch out for students horsing around while editing the wiki, or worse, plagiarizing from the multitude of related wikis and other sources they are likely to reference while composing the wiki. With all that said, the wiki project does a particularly great job illustrating the benefits of working in a group and how much simpler it can make certain tasks. 

Chapter 7 of Cockrum's  Flipping Your English Class dealt with some methods of applying the flipped model to reading instruction. This chapter makes the good point that in some sense English teachers have always flipped reading lessons, as there is simply not time to read all of a book in class. Mostly, this chapter was useful for lesson plan references. Splitting the reading between class and home is naturally quite effective, especially for schools with short classes of 40 minutes or so. There are also a variety of reading supplements available that cannot fit in a class period, like different readings of poems from oral to graphic (78). While the argument still exists that we are depending on students to actually do this work independently, this was in fact always the case. Adding technology adds more possibilities.

P. L. Thomas's "Adventures with Text and Beyond: 'Like Reading' and Literacy Challenges in a Digital Age" delved further into the subject of the evolving classroom. This article discusses how English classrooms were slow to adapt to changing technology, and that the basic communication students have throughout a day is now more similar to writing and reading. As such, listening and speaking are becoming more challenging, unique tools for them. I thought this was a fascinating point, which begs the question of whether or not focused speech classes ought to be made part of the curriculum in high school. Robyn Campbell's "The Power of the Listening Ear" advocates teaching listening skills by using audiobooks and the creation of podcasts, as well as modeling active listening for students; since I did not have the internet at my fingertips during grade school, I remember it was much easier to sit through lectures and the like without distractions. Today's world moves much faster, and a listening competency needs to be expected from teachers; we can only foster that through modeling. Due to this diverse set of competencies students need to acquire, we may find it helpful to make use of many types of multimedia when reading single texts. For instance, Thomas's article details how different methods of absorbing Eliot's “The Waste Land” are now possible, such as an audio reading with sound effects added in. Multiple competencies and learning types are all at play in the decisions we make about how to present lessons. 

In Chapter 6 of "Teaching Literacy in the Digital Age," Debbie Shoulders discusses the use of various social media applications in classrooms. Shoulders uses a program called Ning, which is like a more private version of reddit or 4chan. This platform allows for an interactive discussion through the use of threads, which is of course something I am fluent in since I have been using web forums since the 90s. I believe this is useful tool for provoking class discussions, possibly n the form of bell work, but it can also mimic a blog or journal entry, just with the additional feedback from other students. Shoulders also advocates a rubric-sharing program called Rubistar to help front-load students. Transparency in rubric planning has been supported in all Education training I have received so far, so it does make sense to capitalize on this. Speaking personally, I really dislike rubrics as a student and almost never pay attention to what is in their text, but as rubrics seem to be typically expected in the modern classroom, I hope technology like this can help me simplify the language in my own rubrics and make everyone happy, myself included. 

All of these types of programs make sense to use for meeting communication standards. However, multimedia is always practical in reading and writing lessons as well. Jonathan Ostenson's "Making the Classics Matter to Students through Digital Literacies and Essential Questions" concerned a fairly typical conundrum in developing a unit plan. The challenge of communicating the relevancy of texts like The Scarlet Letter exists whether multimedia are used or not, and lessons must speak to a carefully selected theme. Ostenson suggests develop unit around a central, big question and not just a general idea. For instance, in The Scarlet Letter: “what is worth risking everything for?” (38). The article then describes a range of lessons in which this question is applicable and describes how students were engaged with the theme. I enjoyed reading about the lesson on gambling and searching for symbolism, as well as the final video construction project in which students distill the themes of the novel into short slides of pictures with audio. These are ideas that are both traditional and technologically-based, but they have synergy with one another. Money/risk lesson, looking for symbols in film, then a video making project based on notes student took about the risk-taking. Essentially, this structure lets students find “their own meaning” in the text through inquiry (42).