Digital Literacy

I don’t use an I-Pad, I-Pod or I-Phone, but I do you my laptop computer and my MyTouch cell phone. I use my cell phone to make phone calls, receive calls, send texts, receive texts and now that I have this new phone with more abilities I can check my e-mail, check Facebook, check the weather and Google anything I need. I use my phone quite a bit to find information for classes or if I am just curious about something. I use my laptop to check and send e-mails, check Facebook and do homework. I am glued to my computer or cell phone probably for the majority of the day trying to keep in contact with friends and family and doing homework. I am often texting my husband, family and friends. I also e-mail my instructors on my laptop or cell phone. The online texts that read would mainly be e-mails and information for my class projects or papers I am doing.

Sometimes it is hard to think of implementing digital text into a classroom because I know there will be students that don’t have access to a computer or cell phone to use those things I require. But if that was not an issue, I think it would be fun to make a Facebook class page. Or just a webpage where students could go to post questions or see what they missed and what to do to make it up if they were absent. This way students could write back and forth if they needed help or feedback from me or another student. When I was in High School they had our grades posted online and we were able to go on and look at how we were doing. I would defiantly use that, plus I think it is required by most districts. In my own instruction I plan to have some PowerPoint, video clips and if I am lucky  I would love to have a Doc Cam to do demonstrations. If I know there is a student or two that does not have access to a computer or internet at home and I am requiring them to do a PowerPoint presentation in class then I will give them time in class and they will also have their “Flex” period they could work on it and get it done. I will not assign something to the students they cannot easily get finished in the time I set aside for them. If they are unfamiliar with the programs I am asking them to use I will be there to guide them through the process and answer any questions they have. I feel that it is very important to use Digital Literacy in the classroom because that is what students now connect with and use the most in their lives.

Affective Dimensions of Reading

I’ve never really thought about if I was considered a “good reader” or not. But after reflecting on it I would say that I am. I can read quickly and accurately. I don’t really stumble over words unless they are ones I am unfamiliar with. If I don’t know a word I can easily “sound it out” and move through it onto the next. I enjoy reading comics, short news summaries, text messages, Facebook posts and if I had to decided whether to read a text online or out of a book I would probably pick the online text over the book. There aren’t very many occasions that I’ve really enjoyed reading in my life. There has literally been two times since I was probably sixteen that I looked forward to reading books for pleasure. The texts were two different series. One was the Crystal of My Heart series that my boss at the time was actually the author of. I loved how she wrote and the detail she had. She always kept it clean so I never had to worry about any cursing or areas I needed to skip over. I enjoyed her writing because it was a mix of real life and a different realm sort of thing. It kept me hooked because of the innocent romance, and as a sixteen year old that is what was important to me. I enjoyed getting lost in another world for a little while instead of dealing with the high school drama at the time. On the other hand of enjoying reading there are many times where I have not enjoyed reading. Mainly if there was a reading assigned in school. I can remember as far back as elementary when we were forced to read certain books for A.R. (accelerated reader). I hated this so bad because I wanted to be able to decide what to read and when I wanted to read it rather than being forced to have a certain amount of books read and tested on by a certain time. Along with that, I hate doing readings out of textbooks and supplemental readings that professors assign. I know there is a ton of good information in those things they ask me to read (or they wouldn’t have us read it), but I would rather have someone just summarize it for me and be able to discuss it with them rather than hashing through it myself.

As for different social networks; growing up I was always encouraged to read by my church. We were encouraged, but not forced really to read the Scriptures, which contain many different books. Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to read by myself the school system had gotten to me and I didn’t want to do anymore reading than I absolutely had to. My friends actually all liked to read different books. No one ever looked down on me for wanting to read (maybe because I never did haha).

In my classroom I would love to give students options of different ways to get the information rather than just copy it out of a text book or something. I want to incorporate fun worksheets and have texts that are interesting to read rather than dull and hard to follow. It would be nice for them to be able to have the text online and hard copy and give them that choice. As a student now I love it when teachers give me options of assignments to do. I would like to have that in my classroom and have different types of texts connected to those different options so they can choose which one fits them best. The area I most want to focus on is nutrition. If I help students with the vocabulary at the beginning of the units they will feel more comfortable with reading the assigned texts and therefore have a better self-perception of themselves as a reader in my class.