The most striking revelation I have had about the teaching of new literacy skills to my students as a result of this course is that even in kindergarten, students need to learn the importance of citing their resources. I have never thought to employ this concept to my students. However, now we authenticate our drawings/writings, and I reiterate the sources we use in our classroom. I think it is vitally important to teach them now the importance of 'giving credit where credit is due' because it gives them a sound grasp on the concept as they become more and more advanced in thier writings and readings.
The knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence my teaching practices in that I am aware that the term "literacies" encompasses so much more than it did when I was in school. Dr. Douglas Hartman introduced the term 'new literacies' as the way we as educators need to support and prepare our students for THEIR future. Although their future will utilize books to a degree, their future is online. I am responsible for teaching my kids the new literacies: to question, how to search for reliable information, how to evaluate that information, to synthensize, and to communicate that information (Laureate, 2009).
One professional development goal I would like to persue is relating to my students how to determine relevant and nonrevelant information. This concept goes along with teaching students the difference in fact and fiction which is one of Georgia's kindergarten standards. During the development of my unit for this course, I was able to focus on developments I learned during this course. I will read fiction and non fiction books to my students then lead my students into asking questions about both books. I will also model relevant and non relevant websites explaining that some websites post opinions.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
