Williams Reading Lesson Overview

Reading Lesson Overview

·     Focus Students:

For my reading lessons, I am using one of my focus students from math, Student M. He is a student who transitioned into this class at the beginning of the semester. The class was a 1^st/2^nd split, and he was in a K/1^st split. Now the first graders form one whole class. From working with him and talking to my CT, I have learned that he does not deal with new adults very well. M refuses to do any of his work and most of the time misses out on going outside so that he will finish it. I have had very little luck with getting him to talk and/or work with me, but my CT tells me that I am the only other adult besides her that he has talked to. With the work he has turned in, it does appear that he is a little behind his classmates academically. His reading level is one of the lowest in the class. The thing that has seemed to get the best results thus far is small quiet settings. He needs someone that will work directly with him, but also that he feels comfortable with. I have also learned that you really have to be careful how to give corrective feedback. If he feels like you are telling him “you’re wrong,” he freezes up, buries his head, turns away, closes his eyes, and/or crosses his arms and refuses to speak anymore. So, I feel that he really needs someone to stress his strengths and not sound judgmental when providing feedback. If he doesn’t feel comfortable in the situation, no learning is going to take place.

I decided to also use a student who I haven’t worked with as a focus student before. Student A is a student that I go to when I want to know things about what they did yesterday, or what numbers were assigned for math, etc. She is very on top of things. Based on watching her work, looking at her assignments, and talking with my CT, it seems as though A needs to be challenged a little more. She enjoys helping others, and has a lot of patience (which is why I think she would be a good match for M to work with). However, sometimes I feel like others just try to go to her to find answers, not help. I think A needs a push to think deeper about literature, because she has shown great insight on other assignments. I also feel that A is sometimes forgotten about in the class because she doesn’t need help. I think this can be discouraging and I would like to see how she works in a small group setting with me, since most students that work one-on-one with adults are those who need the extra help. I think that this will give her a little more confidence and the extra push to think deeper.

·     Target areas
     The two target areas I have chosen for my lessons are “After-reading activities for ESL” and “picture walks.”

My students are not learning English; instead they are native English learners learning Spanish. They are in a Spanish Immersion program, which means all instruction is in Spanish right now. Based on assessments and student work, it appears that students are further behind in their Spanish literacy than English. So, I chose to use an after reading activity for ESL students, since it is the same situation. It seems that as they read, they are focusing more on pronouncing the words and then they don’t comprehend as much. Because of this, I would like to do a choral reading (to hopefully make M more comfortable) and then a story map. The story map will help them piece the story together and make within text connections.
I chose “picture walks,” first because I feel that the students all always like to look at the pictures, but they do it while reading and not as a predicting strategy. Second, I think that it takes a little more for these two students to become engaged in reading and predicting aids comprehension because “readers become more engaged in the reading experience and want to continue reading” (pg 262, Tompkins).

·     Article Based on the Miller article, I really think that I will need to use some explicit modeling (especially for the second lesson). This should also be beneficial because my CT has been recently interested in explicit instruction since attending a conference. I need to show the kids how to think aloud. Also, the Stahl article listed both of these strategies as commonly used and I wanted to gain a better insight on them.

Fluency

PART A:

The three components of fluency are accuracy, reading speed, and prosody. From reviewing my Literacy Reference project from TE 301 and the Tompkins book, I have remembered and learned more about effective approaches for assessing these components. I find it hard to choose one approach that best asseses all components; it seems like many have specific foci.

Running records help to assess word identification and fluency. Teachers calculate the percentage of words students read correctly and analyze the miscues. This is most effective for reading accuracy.

I've never used Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs), but they help to assess accuracy and prosody. The test consists of two parts: word lists and passages. Unlike running records, this also assesses comprehension as well as fluency because of the types of questions that are asked.

These two approaches of assessment do not address reading speed. However, the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills): Oral reading fluency subtest, along with Fluency Checks, do address reading speed. DIBELS is used solely to measure reading speed. Students read aloud for one minute and teachres mark errors. The reading rate is then the number of words they read correctly.
Fluency checks assess comprehension, as well as reading speed, accuracy, and prosody. Although it assesses all of them, I dont know that it is the most effective for all. Students read for one minute (as with DIBELS), but teachers mark errors, calculate reading speed, and rate phrasing and expression from strong to weak.
I think I would really like to try this last one. If we can effectively assess all components of fluency in one minute, I feel this would be the best approach to use.

In my field placement, I unfortunately haven't noticed too much about students' development in word identification and fluency. My CT does DRAs, but I haven't had the opportunity to view them over time. When I go in next week, I will see if she will let me compare for progress. Although my CT reads with much expression, most of the students show none at all. I feel that this is an area where they could benefit from explicit instruction. I wonder if she will get there now because she just went to a three day conference with Anita Archer (http://www.explicitinstruction.org/), which she loved and has already started to put some of her suggestions and approaches into action. I can definitely say that I have noticed progress in a few specific students' word identification. One of the students just started in the Spanish immersion program this year and had so much trouble at the beginning of the year, since she had no prior knowlege of even the spanish alphabet. Now, she is almost caught up with her classmates in identifying words and pronouncing them accurately.

PART B:
The book I am reading for my book club is "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." The following is an outline of a lesson plan for a mini-lesson on fluency using this book.

-Target area and rationale:

Using Fluency Checks to target all three components of fluency

Rationale: I want to be able to see how students do with all three components in relation to each other. I like the idea of using the same assessment for all three. This also checks for their comphrension of the book. I would like to give a greater focus on prosody, since I feel like my students do not read with any expression or emotion.

-Objectives:

R.FL.01.02 use punctuation cues (periods and question marks) when reading aloud with intonation, pauses, and emphasis.

R.FL.01.03 read aloud unfamiliar text with a minimum of 90% accuracy in word recognition at an independent reading level.

-Materials/Supplies:

"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" (Coerr) - Copies for teacher and for student

Pre-made copy of the words in Chapter 2 of the book to use as a score sheet (similar to that of the running records example on page 87).

Timer

-Key events

• Introduce students to the book
• Ask students to pay attention to teacher's expression and phrasing. Give explicit explanation of what these mean.
• Read aloud to student the Prologue and Chapter 1. This gives students background before attempting to read it themselves. It also lets them follow along to observe how the teacher reads.
• Instruct student to begin reading Chapter 2, thinking about showing expression when they read.
• Keep track of reading (accuracy) errors, prosody, and then at the end count number of correct words for reading speed.

-Closing summary

As a closing summary, I would ask the student comprehension questions.

"What do you think is going to happen in the rest of the book?"

"What was Peace Day?"

"What happened in Japan that made people die or become very sick?"

-Ongoing assessment

The Fluency Check is what would be used as an assessment. Then, as an ongoing assessment, I could do the same assessment for the next books that they read. I could also have students form book groups (as we have in class right now).

New Literacy Project Reflection

1) My Conceptual Understanding

When this class began, I thought of literacy mostly as the ability to read and write. Through this project, I have learned that there are many different kinds of literacy that tie into the four main areas of literacy that are explored in language arts (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). These other literacies help students develop the ability to comprehend when they read, write, listen, or speak. They include the three literacies I explored (cultural, emotional, and digital literacy), as well as many more. I now know that students must know more than simply how to read and write in order to be fully literate. They must have knowledge of the culture that the book they’re reading is from, or they may not be able to understand it. In order to effectively speak, they need to be able to “read” the emotions of the people in the room with them and have control over their own emotions. In order to effectively communicate in writing these days, students need to be able to use different digital presentations of information, such as websites, wikis, blogs, or interactive maps. The world is changing; literacy is changing. In order to keep up, we need to teach our students about these new literacies.

2) Effective Literacy Instruction

“Effective literacy instruction” is more than just teaching students to read and write, especially when keeping the diversity of learners in mind. The GLCEs I used in my lesson show that students are expected not only to be able to read and write, but to make connections with the books they read, both emotionally and personally. Teachers need to be teaching these new literacies to their students if they expect the students to really become literate and completely be able to fulfill all the GLCEs.

If I were to do this project with elementary students, I think they would need a lot of modeling of how to use the specific technology. To use an interactive map in particular, they would need to be able to read so that they could read what the caption is and where the summary goes. They would need to be able to write in order to put text in the areas on the map that they are talking about. I do not think an interactive map would be helpful for students until they got to 3rd or 4th grade. Younger students would struggle too much, as they have not learned how to read and write effectively yet.

To learn about cultural literacy, students would need to be able to have an open mind about different cultures and view other cultures as separate from their own. One way I may tie digital literacy and cultural literacy into a lesson for my 5th grade class would be to have the students make an interactive map of where each character in a story is from and present some cultural elements of the character’s background through that venue. In order to do this, I would need to choose books with characters from diverse backgrounds, and probably from different countries. I would also need to show the students beforehand at least one example of an interactive map (it would be helpful if I made an example before class). I would probably show them how to make one marker as a class before letting them explore on their own. I would also have to define culture and cultural literacy for them and show them websites where they can learn more about cultural literacy. To scaffold the lesson a little more, I would make this activity into a group project, so that they can work together to understand cultural literacy and interactive maps. To make it easy, I would have the students use their reading groups and the book that they are reading in class to do this.

For this lesson, each group would need their own computer to research on and to make the interactive map on. I would have to show the students a rubric when I assign the project so that they know what is expected of them. In order for the students to get the full experience, I would have them find pictures that went along with their captions for the interactive map. As they are working on it, I would have to walk around the room and be available to answer questions because using new technology requires lots of scaffolding. I can see the students needing a couple days to work on this project. When they are finished, I would have them present their project to the class, as they would most likely be very proud of it. This would allow the students to see what their classmates’ books are like and may encourage them to read. I would also have the classmates write a short review of each group’s presentation, so that they can reflect on their learning and presenting using the new technology.

New Literacy Project

1. MY CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

My conceptual understanding of literacy has changed since beginning this class. I hadn’t really thought of literacy as so many layers and aspects. In TE 301, literacy had been the smaller components that we wrote about in our literacy projects. This class showed that literacy is broader than that and that these new literacies affect the way students and people in general learn.

My research on a new literacy and the development of my own digital literacy (using my new technology) informed my thinking. A lot of my college experience has been focused on multiculturalism so I understood what that meant and how to implement it in the classroom, however, I hadn’t ever really thought about how it affected students’ literacy if they were multicultural. The connection hadn’t been made until this project that what my students bring into the classroom based on their cultural background (and from the other projects, also their emotions, their social networks, relations with the environment around them, and through what lens they are looking to see the world) really effects their literacy.

New knowledge, skills, strategies and dispositions that I am now aware of are definitely prezi and how important making sure my students can relate to what they are learning as well as become engaged in rather than lectured to during their learning is. I think this contrasts to more traditional literacies which focuses on reading books that have been deemed important by society (the canon), while cultural literacy explains the importance of incorporating other societies and cultures into the classroom in different ways, like through pen pal letters or visual tours of other countries. This gets students involved and interested so they may be reading and not even realizing it.

My own growth in what I understand to be literacy (or literacies) has changed. I see that the basics are still important, but the methods and ways you get to those basic understandings aren’t as important. Students should feel comfortable yet challenged in their learning and using these new literacies they can become engaged and passionate about their learning so it’s less of a chore and more of an adventure of growth in the classroom. This growth has altered my conception of learning in English language arts. I have discovered so many great things that I can use in my classroom that will tie so many different subjects together. One thing that I really worried about was how hard teaching social studies would be for me as a teacher because it was the subject I most disliked in school. Now I have gained so much knowledge on how to incorporate the two together using the many classroom supplements that discovered based around and focusing on cultural literacy and technology.

2. EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

Providing “effective literacy instruction” to diverse learners means giving students something they can relate to or compare to their own lives in order to understand. If it seems like it’s coming from a different planet to the students, they won’t know what they are supposed to take out of it. My research on a new literacy and development of your own digital literacy (using my new technology) informs my thinking because it provided me many different angles to approach literacy from. If the goal is to be proficient and literate in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, the question is more how to effectively and peacefully get there with little struggle and defiance.

I am placed in a second/third grade classroom. I focused on the GLCEs make text-to-self and text-to-text connections and comparisons by activating prior knowledge, connecting personal knowledge, experience, and understanding of others to ideas in text through oral and written responses (R.CM.02.01), and connect personal knowledge, experiences, and understanding of the world to themes and perspectives in text through oral and written responses (R.CM.03.01). My lesson focused on culture and I expected my students to think about their own culture and what that means in terms of where their family is from and what foods they eat. Since I talked about pictures, I think it would be cool to do a slide show of photos as a mini lesson off of the lesson I taught to show foods and people from the places that my students said thief family was from to show them what it looks like there.

Now that I have engaged in this project and have reflected on my own learning, I could definitely see myself doing a similar project. I want to teach in a middle school classroom. I could see myself having students spend time in the computer lab, making a prezi about their own culture or lifestyle, or just what makes them a different learner in general than their other classmates. In order to be successful for this project, students would need to know how to use prezi, use a search site, type on a computer, and understand how to relate or what make them different. I know that my second and third graders don’t really know how to use a computer right now. They can play games on it and that’s about it. I’ve never seen them in a computer lab at all so I don’t even know if they can type. One lesson last semester I brought my lap top and a projection screen for my lesson and they seemed pretty excited about that, so I don’t know how much technology (outside of the overhead projector) is incorporated into their learning.

3. LESSON PLAN

Because it would take more than a single lesson to address cultural literacy, I would need to provide instruction and scaffolding over time. Below is a sample lesson that I could use in my classroom to expand my students’ knowledge and understanding of cultural literacy. I am going to make this lesson for 6^th graders because my target grades are in middle school.

Target area and rational:

-Exploring the new technology of Prezi and the website http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

-Discussing and examining how students’ language variations can be used as a resource

-I think that stereotypes are very common about language learners or dialects of the same language. I think that I will have students from many different areas in my classroom so I will show how all their ways of speaking are important and show a bit of where they come from and who they are.

Objectives:

-Students will respond to multiple text types when listened to or viewed knowledgeably, by discussing, illustrating, and/or writing in order to compare/contrast similarities and differences in idea, form, and style to evaluate quality and to identify personal and universal themes (L.RP.06.05)

-Students will exhibit personal style and voice to enhance the written message in both narrative (e.g., personification, humor, element of surprise) and informational writing (e.g., emotional appeal, strong opinion, credible support) (W.PS.06.01)

Materials:

-Computers with internet

-www.prezi.com

-http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Key events:

-introduce prezi by showing them a shorter version of the one that I made (see below)

-students will explore prezi by making a very short “About Me” prezi that will dive into who they are as a person, a learner, and a part of their family

-students will already understand what culture is, but we will discuss more how their language that they bring to the classroom is part of that culture

-students will each pick a story from the International Children’s Digital Library from a different language than they know or have experienced

-students will read the stories and make a new prezi about how the language effected how it was read and what it meant.

-students will rewrite the stories from their background based around the way they would have experienced during their lives

-students will then switch stories and add to their own prezis how now this story had been influenced by the writer’s life

Closing summary:

-To finish the lesson, I will have students silently reflect on how different languages are an advantage to the way a story is understood. They will reflect on the effect the language and experience has on the story and the effect their own experiences have on the way they themselves read the story.

Ongoing assessment:

-students will finish their prezi a different day by piecing everything they have learned together, including their thought processes during the whole lesson. Later on in the year we will revisit the projects and add on to them about other areas of culture, other than language, and how that created visions in our minds that affect the way we view things, as well as how our own experiences affect the way we view things.

THIS IS MY PREZI FOR CULTURAL LITERACY:

Cultural Literacy on Prezi

New Literacies Noteblog

1)      MY CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

Before this project, I really thought of literacy as being able to read, write, listen, and speak. However, through the investigation of definitions, our discussions in class, and my investigation of numeracy, I have come to realize that it is so much more. I now look at literacy as being able to use the things we learn about language in order to communicate in a variety of ways. I also like how so many of the definitions focused on the continual change and growth (which reflects the changes in our society). I feel that this is what helped me to understand numeracy.

I originally chose numeracy because math is one of my teaching minors and numeracy is something that we have never talked about. I have come to really appreciate it and feel that it is something that should have been a major focus in my math classes! In relation to my new understanding of literacy, numeracy is the ability to use mathematics for communication purposes. I feel like I had a more difficult time looking at the graphic organizer I used as a literacy. However, it is a digital literacy. The way I look at it now is using this digital resource for communication purposes.

I believe that my research on a new literacy (numeracy) and development of my own digital literacy (graphic organizer) have really informed and impacted my thinking about literacy. After TE 301, I felt that I had a really good understanding of literacy. So, when I started, I thought that my thinking wouldn’t change much. Now, though, I realize that there is so much more to literacy and it is going to keep evolving and growing as I continue to teach. This project has made me realize that just because we can read, write, speak, and listen, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can effectively communicate through these things. It also doesn’t mean that we can reason about language. These are some of the skills or knowledge that I am now aware of.

In thinking about teaching students to be ‘numerate,’ I have realized how important it is to teach them to be literate (in my new way of thinking of literacy). Learning language arts should have a focus on using language to communicate and reason. If students are taught this way, they will be able to apply their language skills when being taught other literacies. Numeracy, I now understand, means to be able to communicate and reason through mathematics. Just as knowing about a language doesn’t imply literacy, knowing about math does not imply numeracy. From my research, I personally don’t feel that there is a difference between numeracy and mathematical literacy. I think that they mean the same thing, but that it is important to distinguish them from mathematics in general.

I feel that my conceptual understanding of technology did not change as drastically as my understanding of literacy. From taking CEP 416 this past summer, I had developed an understanding of technology in teaching. However, I didn’t think of it as a digital literacy until now. I think that before this project, I looked at technologies thinking about how I could use them in my teaching. I didn’t look at them as a means for communication, though. I now think it is important to not only use them in our teaching, but to let students us them to communicate with as well.

2)      EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

I feel that to provide “effective literacy instruction” to diverse learners, first means that we need to know our students. I feel that my research on numeracy and development of a graphic organizer has really made me think about the different ways to provide effective literacy instruction. In the beginning, I feel like I was a little lost with the question ‘what is effective literacy instruction?’ Now, I think that it is important for us, as teachers, to provide students with not only the means to communicate through language, but also experiences in which they DO communicate and reason with language.

I am placed in a first grade classroom. For my lesson, I focused on the GLCE (S.DS.01.01) engage in substantive conversations, remaining focused on subject matter, with interchanges building on prior responses in literature discussions, paired conversations, or other interactions. One of the first words in the GLCE is ‘conversations.’ Students are expected to be able to converse and communicate about literature. In order to do this, especially at this grade level, I feel that modeling is very important in providing effective literacy instruction. Another important factor is providing a variety of opportunities for students. We, as teachers, have to use a variety of approaches and teaching methods and techniques. This includes using different technologies in our teaching – to communicate with our students about our lessons.

Now that I have engaged in this project and reflected on my own learning, I have realized a few implications for me, as a teacher, doing a similar project with K-8 students. Imagining my first grade students learning about numeracy and learning to use graphic organizers to teach their peers about the new literacy, there is much to take into consideration in order for them to be successful. Most of all, they would need to develop their writing skills. There is not much speaking or listening involved in using the technology. The main way in which they communicate to their peers is through their writing. It is somewhat difficult to base it on what I know from my students because from what I have seen, they are much further behind in their writing skills in Spanish than in English, yet all of their work is supposed to be done in Spanish. Many of their sentences are still very few words. So, I think much more instruction would be needed on writing and sentence structure. Also, much of what the students write is written phonetically. An example from my lesson is “I AM UPSet BeKAS UOYWR not shoRen BateF uoY WR hoRen uoY KO hoAVTWOTns” which is supposed to be I am upset because you were not sharing, but if you were sharing you could have two turns. This particular student also needs to work on spacing between words. If they are to write/type for the graphic organizers, their writing needs to be ‘readable’ for their peers. In addition, the students also would need to develop their reading skills in order to read their peers’ projects. The class can read, but comprehension is difficult because they have to spend so much time decoding words. When I worked with one student last week, he could read a story to me, sounding out all of the words, but had a very difficult time recalling what he read after. I have observed them during computers, so I have a pretty good idea what they are familiar with when it comes to ‘digital literacies.’ They recently made ‘posters’ to give information about a famous person for Black History Month. They did research on their person and then wrote about them. Their poster consisted of a heading, picture, and short paragraph.

These areas of learning that I have identified for my students could not be addressed in one single lesson, but instead I would need to provide instruction and scaffolding over time. I would do this, by using a series of lessons taught over time, which included support students need. An integrated approach where students could explore the new literacy as they learn to work with the new technology would be explaining what they know about numeracy by using a graphic organizer using bubbl.us. One example of a specific lesson would be beginning by exploring bubbl.us by creating the outline of their graphic organizer, with a title/main bubble and then the big ideas they know are involved in numeracy which they will further explore.

3)      LESSON PLAN:

In order to help students at my grade level (1^st) learn something new that would help them be successful in using a new technology to teach peers about a new literacy, my lesson would include the integrate approach I talked about above: explaining numeracy through use of a graphic organizer on bubbl.us. The outline of the plan of one specific lesson is as follows

-Target area and rationale:

Exploration and explanation of the technology

Brainstorming the ‘outline’ of the graphic organizer

Rationale: These areas would be needed for my learners to learn to use the technology to teach peers about the new literacy. I would have already introduced a hard copy of a graphic organizer for other assignments (they actually used one of these to organize their Black History posters). I think it is important to not only be taught about the technology, but to explore it first-hand to get a feel for what they can do with it. Also, as they are unfamiliar with what numeracy is, I think they could use the graphic organizer to brainstorm an outline of what they would like to research. This will get them thinking about the new literacy as well as learn how to use the technology.

-Objectives: (W.PR.01.01) with teacher support, set a purpose, consider audience, and incorporate literary language when writing a narrative or informational piece; begin to use specific strategies including graphic organizers when planning.

-Materials/Supplies:

computers with internet access

(website: www.bubbl.us)

-Key events

• Introduce students to website www.bubbl.us
• Let students explore by adding bubbles, deleting, changing colors, etc.
• Show students example and how to add ‘child’ or ‘sibling’ bubbles
• Ask students to think about what numeracy could be.
• Tell students to, with a partner, discuss how they could teach about numeracy to their classmates through this graphic organizer. They should think about the purpose and their audience.
• Tell students to create a bubble with a title. Then tell them to create a ‘child’ bubble for the things they wish to explore about numeracy (or what they already know).
• Tell students to save their projects and write down their usernames and passwords.

-Closing summary

As a closing summary, I would explain to students that they will be researching and exploring what numeracy is. I will also explain that we will be focusing on what it means to be ‘numerate’ in our classroom math and literacy lessons. We will be tying it in by communicating and having discussions about mathematics and becoming numerate (not just learning what it is, but practicing it). I will also explain that they will be given time to research numeracy (with teacher support).

-Ongoing assessment

As an ongoing assessment, I would have access to their projects online, so I would continuously check in by viewing their work. I would also work directly with students, as the GLCE says ‘with teacher support.’

Cultural Literacy and Photos/Presentation

I am doing cultural literacy as well. I am really glad to see that I am not the only one because I understand that this can easily be left out of curriculum. Even last semester in the Social Studies section of 401, I had signed up for the group on race and was astounded when there were so few people who signed up for the group that it failed to be an option for class lessons.

After reviewing the definitions of literacy that my colleagues and I posted, I realized that pretty much all of them included reading, writing, speaking, and/or listening. They weren’t really specific about what, though. There are so many different things to read, write, talk about, and listen to, and so many different ways to do them all. That was definitely missing, and I think it’s really easy to miss all those different ways. Even though this project has been proven to be frustrating by other class’s comments, this is one of the things that I really like about the project. It dives into different ways to be literate; different things to be able to the read, write, speak, and listen about.

I am learning about cultural literacy. My pedagogy is focused around multiculturalism, so I find myself truing to include different cultures and the SIOP model into all of my lessons. i wan tot incorporate students’ different cultures into my classroom so that they are appreciated, not stereotyped, and learned more about.

This literacy area is very fascinating to me because I had never really thought about it as a separate type of literacy. I have pages and pages of notes so far, but here is a brief outline/list of what I have learned so far:

-All human societies have cultures and those cultures are 100% learned. While humans are genetically programmed to learn a culture, newborn babies can learn any culture that they are exposed to.

-Culture consists of learned patterns of behavior that allow us to be one of the most successful animals in the struggle for survival. However, culture is a fragile, changing thing in that it consists of ideas, information, and skills in our minds.

-A subculture is a regional, social, or ethnic group that is distinguishable from other groups in a society by the fact that its members share a common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come from their common ancestral background and experience. Members of a subculture share a common identity that partially sets them apart from other groups that share the same national culture. Subcultures are most likely to exist in complex, diverse societies such as the United States and Canada.

-The things that are listed in the other answers (the language that you speak, the kinds of clothes that you wear, and the specific knowledge that you acquired in school) are culture specific rather than universals. For instance, language is a human cultural universal, but a specific language is not.

-In the case of humans, societies are groups of people who directly or indirectly interact with each other. Culture is created and transmitted to others in a society--cultures are not the product of lone individuals.

-The word culture has many different meanings.

For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food.

For a biologist, it is likely to be a colony of bacteria or other microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory Petri dish.

For anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns.

Definition of cultural litacy: knowledge of history, contributions, and perspectives of different cultural groups, including one's own group, necessary for understanding of reading, writing, and other media

-one becomes more literate: by reading more, by reading about different subjects... when reading becomes a pleasure rather than a chore, one becomes more culturally literate... naturally. It's a simple fact that the more one reads, the more one can understand what is read, the more enjoyable reading becomes and... the more culturally literate one becomes.

I also read about neat ways to include this type of literacy into my classroom with assignments and projects that focus around both technology and cultural literacy. I have learned more about the definition of cultural in general and ideas that people may have about culture that may be misconstrued.

Originally I had put down photos as my technology to learn more about to teach about cultural literacy. While I want to include that into my learning device, I am going to include presentations as my method as well. Specifically I have decided to explore Prezi as my presentation option because it was an option for a CEP class and I hadn’t gotten a chance to understand how it works.

Thinking about my students in my placement, I can think of many ways that they would need support in order to become literate in this area. Not only do they not have the chance to explore technology in the classroom, they also are not very diverse. The entire class consists of black and white students and two Mexican students. That’s all. I think it would benefit all my students to become more literate in different cultures. This would help their mentality and understanding.

When I think of my other TE placement for 494, I think that this type of literacy is very much present. My CT in that class makes sure that students all understand or at least know about all the other students’ cultures with writings, projects, or presentations.

Cultural Literacy and Interactive Maps

Cultural Literacy

Cultural literacy is defined as “knowledge of history, contributions, and perspectives of different cultural groups, including one's own group, necessary for understanding of reading, writing, and other media” (dictionary.com). This is different from most of the other definitions of literacy because the focus is on background knowledge needed to communicate, rather than the communication skills itself. The definitions on the wiki usually did not discuss history or culture, but focused on reading, writing, speaking, and other communication skills. Most of the definitions of literacy on our wiki said that reading and writing were part of literacy, but many did not mention other media, so the definition of cultural literacy differs in that way as well. The mention of other media makes me feel like cultural literacy is more modern.

Becoming literate in this literacy may involve any of the traditional literacies, but it must include at least one. For example, it may involve reading about the history or contributions of a particular cultural group. It could involve listening to a lecture or viewing a presentation about a culture. It may involve everyone in a room writing about their background and sharing their cultural perspective with others in that way. They could present their background in a short speech, or could interview someone about their culture, so becoming culturally literate could involve speaking as well.

I was really surprised as I was exploring to find out some of the things that are similar across all cultures (cultural universals). These included having a sexual division of labor, having a concept of privacy, having some sort of body ornamentation, and distinguishing between good and bad behavior. I had originally thought that all cultures were different and that maybe some cultures did not have separate roles for women and men. I thought that privacy was unique to cultures such as the US, since people from some countries seem to stand way to close and not understand that people in the US need more space. I also did not realize that all cultures had body ornamentation and had never quite thought of jewelry in quite those terms before. Since all cultures distinguish good and bad behavior, there must be no real barbarians in this world. Now it makes sense to me why good versus evil is a universal theme.

I think that most students already have a pretty solid background in this literacy. By 4th or 5th grade, almost all students know what culture is and have been learning about it in social studies for a while. Some things that the students might need to know to become literate in this area is the cultural universals and the method that would be used to study culture. There are multiple methods, but I think the best one is the cultural relativity approach. In this approach, you try to study a culture other than your own without comparing it to your own. This is very difficult to do, but I think it is important to be open minded when studying different cultures so that you can try to see others’ cultures through their eyes. One important thing to keep in mind is that culture is constantly changing. I do not know how anyone could really be culturally literate, because no one even knows everything about their own culture. I suppose the important thing to be culturally literate is to know how to learn about other cultures so that when you read or interact with someone from a different culture, you can research beforehand to try to understand their culture. Then you can learn from that person, or from the book more about the culture they portray.

Interactive Maps

Writing in an interactive map is different from normal writing because instead of writing a paper, only one or two paragraphs are necessary in each box. All the boxes read together can sound like a paper, but they do not necessarily have to flow like a paper. The only requirement is that they all have a common theme. Also, when viewing an interactive map, the main part is the map, not the text. This is different from most books, in which the text is the most important part. Interactive maps must be viewed as a whole, with the map, the pictures (if there are any) and the text. Also, instead of simply viewing the map, in order to get the information, you must click on markers so that the text box pops up.
An interactive map is similar to a book in that you read from left to right and up and down. It is also similar because there is sometimes a preconceived order that you must go in as you read. The difference is that on an interactive map, this order is displayed through numbered markers, while in a book it is shown through separate pages and page numbers.

As far as making the interactive map goes, I have found writing in the text box a challenge. There is no undo button for the text box, so if you make a big mistake (like deleting a bunch of information by accident) you must retype it in order to fix it. To overcome this problem, I have been writing my information in Word first and then copying and pasting it into the text boxes. I think my main challenge with interactive maps is simply figuring out how everything works. It has taken a lot of exploring for me to feel more comfortable with them and I still do not feel fluent with the technology.

I think that I can convey my literacy fairly well with this technology. The problem for me is figuring out how exactly to present it. Being able to connect the information that you are going to convey with a place on the map is key to using the interactive map format. For this project, I am going to have to be a little bit creative in how I present cultural literacy, so that I can connect my facts with places on the globe.

There are a lot more possibilities to customize interactive maps than I ever imagined. You can change the icons, make paths, view the map from satellite view as well as regular, a mix of the two, and terrain view. You can name your own categories for markers as well as add in photos and links to web pages. I never realized how much you could do with this technology. It’s making me excited about interactive maps.

If students were using this technology, they would need to know that the place on the map, the picture, and the print are all connected and would need to view all three together to get the complete story. They would need to know to follow the numbered markers while viewing it. They would need to be able to write in order to make the map and they would need to be able to read in order to interpret the map.

I think that if students were reading a book in which the character traveled a lot, it would be cool to have the students design an interactive map of the character’s travels. This would help the students visualize where the setting takes place and display their comprehension of where the character is and what is going on in the story. This is also a neat presentation format because the students could easily present what they made to their classmates. The interactive map could just be online and each student could have a laptop and look at it in their own time. Or it could be presented on a big screen, with the student clicking on each marker in order and describing it to their class like a powerpoint.

Through creating an interactive map, I learned that I have fun using new technology but it is quite difficult for me and it takes a long time for me to really get used to it. I learned that it’s possible to make a window with a webpage in it pop up within the interactive map. Best of all, I learned that I can make an interactive map. Before this project, I thought interactive maps had to be created by people who were really knowledgeable about computers and were not accessible to the general public. Working on this project has shown me that through the internet, I can do more than I had previously imagined. The sky’s the limit when it comes to technology.

New Literacies Learning

Numeracy
     At the beginning of this project, the definition of literacy that I found from  Bridgewater State College included "...Literacy is "not in isolated bits of knowledge but in students' growing ability to use language and literacy in more and broader activities" (Moll, 1994, p. 202).The definition of literacy is dynamic, evolving, and reflects the continual changes in our society."
     I chose to investigate Numeracy for my new literacies project. I was not familiar with this term at all so I had to do a lot of researching. One of the definitions I found was "Numeracy is to mathematics as literacy is to language. Each represents a distinctive means of communication that is indispensable to civilized life." (Lynn Arthur Steen) http://www.stolaf.edu/people/steen/Papers/numeracy.html So, in relation to the definition of literacy above, along with the class's definitions, they are both abilities and processes of using the 'subject' they are a part of. In addition, the National Numeracy Network defines it as "[The] ability to reason and solve sophisticated quantitative problems, their basic understanding of the scientific method, and their ability to communicate at a substantial level about quantitative issues in everyday life." According to the NSW Department of Education and Training, "a numerate person should understand some of the ways mathematics can be used for communication, and this required the possession of two attributes:
1.being 'at-ease' with all those aspects of mathematics that enable a person to cope with the practical demands of everyday life
2.the ability to understand information presented in mathematical terms."
In relation to this, another part of my definition was "A literate person can mediate their world by deliberately and flexibly orchestrating meaning from one linguistic knowledge base and apply or connect it to another knowledge base." So, numerate and literate people are alike in the sense that they are using, communicating with, applying, and understanding mathematics or language.
     I feel like all of the traditional literacies (reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing) all play parts in becoming literate in numeracy. In order to reason and communicate about mathematics, I feel like all of these literacies play an important role.
     One thing I am finding interesting is that there is a lot of material out there about the difference between numeracy and mathematical literacy - or the lack thereof. There are some people who believe they are the same and some who feel they are different. From the research I have done, I feel like they are different, but I am still having a difficult time backing up my opinions. This is what I want to investigate more still.
     Thinking about my field placement, I really do not feel that this type of literacy is already present in the curriculum (1st grade). This would definitely be a new learning area for the students, and I really think they would struggle with it. I have complained before that they do very little with any sort of story problems, so they rarely have context for their problems. I feel like if they are going to learn to communicate about math and have the ability to reason and solve problems, they need to be given different situations or contexts.
Graphic Organizers
      I have been working on my graphic organizer at bubbl.us. I tried working with mywebspiration and inspiration, but they weren't as interesting to me as bubbl. When using this technology, the main 'literacies' I am using are reading, writing, and viewing. I'm using these in new/different ways, however, because I am writing in bubbles in a web format. I am viewing my information in a different way because I view it in these bubbles as well. The thing I really like about this particular website is that you can 'hide' bubbles. So, I am creating it so that when you first see it, you only see one bubble. Then when you expand, you see the next bubbles, which you can then also expand to find out additional information.
     The thing I am finding especially challenging is how I am going to embed it or show it to the class and not let them see everything at once. I have tried embedding it into my personal website and right now it shows up with everything expanded first.
     I think I am definitely able to use this technology as a medium to teach about numeracy. I already have my main outline of it done with most of the explanations and quotes that go along with the different parts. I am taking advantage of the expandable bubbles to add additional information about the different aspects of numeracy. Since I can organize it as a web, I am able to show how things are connected and/or related.
     If students in my field placement were learning to use this technology, I think the main skill they would need to develop is writing. They would need to be able to communicate their ideas through print, since there is no place for adding voice. I think they would also need to develop viewing skills so that they would be able to create a visual appealing graphic organizer with connections that make sense. I think a good way to incorporate that learning into language arts curriculum and instruciton is to make concept maps. I could first provide them with blank ones which they need to fill in about a language arts assignment such as a book. Then, they could work on creating their own.