Required Readings - 1/26/12 class

Required Readings:

Of the many required readings this week, the following caught my attention...

Leu, D. J., O'Byrne, W. I, Zawilinski, L. J., McVerry, J. G., Everett-Cacopardo, H. (2009). Expanding the New Literacies Conversation. Educational Researcher, 38(4), 264-269.

·        Challenged readers who possess online reading comprehension skills may read online better than do students who perform at higher levels with offline reading comprehension but lack online reading skills. (p. 266)

o   This statement intrigues me. I work with two reading groups 30 minutes five days a week—one in second grade, one in third grade. Both groups are considered “basic.” I’d like to try this out in the classroom and have the challenged readers read online, then have the “proficient” readers read the same passage online and test their comprehension skills. I’m not sure what the outcome would be, but I wouldn’t bet it would be this cut and dry.

1.      Not a single state in the United States measures students’ ability to read search engine results during state reading assessments.

2.      Not a single state in the United States measures students’ ability to evaluate critically information that is found online to determine its reliability.

3.      No state writing assessment in the United States measures students’ ability to compose effective e-mail messages.

4.      Few, if any, states in the United States permit all students to use a word processor on the state writing assessment. (p. 266)

     These statements are worrisome to me. Each of these sound like state standards to me and, as such, should be written into technology standards at each grade level. However, no mention is made in the article of when or how this will happen.



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·         It is the cruelest irony of No Child Left Behind that the students who most need to be prepared at school for an online age of information are precisely those who are being prepared the least. (p. 267)

o   Again, this is a worrisome point. What is being done at the state level to combat these inequalities and injustices? Why isn’t a task force being put together to work on changing this? 

“C's of Change": An Extended Interview with Members of the New Literacies Research Lab

1. What are the main differences between 20th century and 21st century education?

·         It is an unfortunate fact that there are only minimal differences in classrooms today, compared to classrooms of the previous century. Students continue to be asked to master basic, factual knowledge in the classroom and then are assessed on this knowledge. This, despite the fact that a number of profound differences between the two centuries should have redefined the nature of classroom learning: localization vs. globalization; labor as capital vs. intelligence as capital; information as knowledge to be mastered vs. information as a tool with which to develop new knowledge; and, most importantly, the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs). (Donald Leu)

o   I completely disagree with this statement. I don’t believe it’s “fact” that minimal differences exist in classrooms today than a generation ago. The author clearly is looking at specific schools where basic facts are mastered, not at progressive public schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and so on.

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·         One method to creating these pedagogies in the classroom is through inquiry learning. For example, students could choose to investigate a problem they would like to improve and then research this problem online. Finally, students could create video podcasts to share student-created public service announcements. (Greg McVerry)

o   Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement! Inquiry-based learning is incredibly important. It’s what my school is based on—“Hands-on, minds-on learning.” We’ve re-crafted our mission to reflect the 5E Inquiry Model—Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate. This is a core tenet of the constructivist philosophy. Although I feel we do an exemplary job of incorporating the 5E’s into all the disciplines, the one area that’s lacking is technology. My school is working towards enhancing the use of technology in the classrooms, but as a brand-new magnet school in our first year of implementation, our focus has been mostly on the theme (museum).

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