Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (9-22)

I have heard many people talking about how students have changed over the pass 20 years.  Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach but teach we must.  Today's students are the first generation to grow up with this new technology.  For the most part, they have spent their entire lives surrounded by computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and, of course, the Internet.  They are indeed, digital natives, whose thinking patterns have changed.  The scary part for me, is the looming question of is it helpful or hurtful for students to be so plugged in.  I am one of those digital immigrant who speak a different language but am acutely aware that I must learn to speak their language.  I do believe that it will require teachers to walk and talk the student;s language in order to keep their attention and interest in learning.

Preparing Tomorrow's Language Arts Teachers Today (9-22)

Today teachers and students are learning together and from one another.  The classroom has become a shared teaching/learning environment.  Interestingly enough, teachers have been a part of the digital world yet we are for the most part not as comfortable with technology as most students.  Teachers that are using technology in the English language arts classroom are not only improving their instruction for their students; they are changing the very nature of that instruction.  Teaching and learning English language arts is our goal; technology is a means by which we can reach that goal.  The students of today are "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet.

Semiotic representations, building comples literacy practices through the arts (9-15)

Integrating visual arts, drama, and movement into English language arts instruction can enhance learning and increase interest in learning.  Semiotic representations give students opportunities to have experiences in which they construct and translate meaning across sign systems.  When students represent meaning semiotically, they demonstrate knowledge of and facility with communication systems including art, language, math, drama, and dance.  Amazingly, these are all the things students are interested in and can build a well-rounded student.  It is important to note that teaching from a semiotic experience requires a genuine belief that sign systems are essential to student's development as readers and writers.

The Arts, New Literacies (9-8)

Today more than at any other time,  teachers are trying to define literacy in the 21st century.  There is a sense of urgency about the arts and technology and the English language arts classroom.  Classrooms must be prepared to work with how messages are sent, received, and interpreted and how media and technology position us as viewers and users of multimedia texts in the world. Today's students are learning about literacy through electronic and digital devices.  The teacher must be prepared to link student learning to such devices.  In today's literacies we as teacher must be prepared to use the technology which today's students bring to the classroom.  Classroom spaces that encourage multimodality allow students across ages to learn as well as play in a world where technology is commonplace.  We must build on a wide range of media and our class has given us new opportunities to engage students in the new age literacy. 

The Writer's Notebook (9-1)

I love the idea of the writer's notebook.  I am a person of quotes and having them in one location will give me many opportunities to to refer to them often especially after a hard day.  There are a few quotes that I try to live by as a teacher.  I will share them later.  What a great opportunity for me personally to be in graduate school!

Everyday Literacies (9-1)

Well, well, well I finally got own this_____blog!!!!!!!
Literacy means different things to different groups.  Even here in the United States we frame literacy in unique yet different lights.  Literacy is communication, a social meaning-making process if you will.  In the 21st-century classroom students will have lots of opportunities to read and writing as well as the form of visual-text literacies.  When I was in undergraduate school, I use to hear one of my classmates say all the time that "anything you say can be written down".  In the article Harste, has expressed in difference words the very same ideas.  "If you can get students to write what is on their minds, the rest may not take care of itself, but you will have come a long way toward creating a potentially great literacy program!"  That should have profound implications for all classroom teachers.

Could our two professors have chosen any better books for us to be reading at the present!!!!!!!
Reading is a sequential process and I happen to be the lucky teacher that gets to see that process begin.  I just love the author of Engaging the Eye Generation.  She is much like I am.  I think we have all known, especially those of us who have gone through Reading First that the writing conponent being left out was a critial piece to enhancing reading.  This year the writing it back in workstation and Johanna has valided that beuauifully.