New Literacies Final Blog

1) Conceptual Understandings

My understanding of literacy has really broadened up since this project. At the beginning of this class I thought of literacy as simply being whether a person was able to read and write. To be considered literate, I thought it meant you could read and write fluently. While I know this is still one kind of literacy, after doing this project and exploring many types of literacy, I now know literacy can mean many different things because there are many types of literacy. The new literacy I focused on was emotional literacy but by exploring my classmates projects I saw the wide variety of literacies that there are. Before completing this project I would not have known what emotional literacy is and why it is important to be emotionally literate, or emotionally intelligent. Now I know that emotional literacy involves being able to identify your own emotions and how to handle them as well as being able to tell how other people are feeling. I also found that exploring a new digital literacy that I have never heard of before helped me to broaden my definition of literacy as well. Technology is extremely popular today, so therefore it should definitely be included in literacy.  Being able to use technology is basically expected of people nowadays so therefore, I found it very helpful to learn and explore a new digital technology I had never heard of to expand my digital literacy knowledge.

2) Classroom Implications

After learning that there are many different types of literacy, I would try to teach as many as possible in my classroom. I think it would be possible to include many literacies into lesson plans. For example, emotional literacy could be discussed during language arts time. One way I might do this in my classroom is discuss how characters are feeling, and why. Ask the students how they could make them feel better, or how they would handle the situation that is making the character feel what they are feeling. Visual literacy could also be used in many lessons, by making many things visual. Even though many visual items would be used in the lesson, I would keep in mind that all students are diverse learners, which means I would still use words for those who learn better with audio. Using Edmodo.com for my digital literacy I really saw how useful and helpful technology can be in the classroom. In order for students to become more digitally literate I think it is important to include technology in the classroom all of the time. For example, I could see myself using Edmodo.com in my own classroom for a space that we can all communicate together as a class outside of the actual classroom in a safe environment. In order for students to be able to use Edmodo.com they would need to have internet access. I would also give them explicit lessons during class time on how to use the website correctly, and they would be given time to practice in class so I could help as needed.