New Literacies

Thinking of incorporating the new literacies in my classroom and it seems obvious that the most beneficial way to show first graders would be through the Internet Workshop. It’s easiest for me to go through the list one at a time, so here goes what I think would be a great learning opportunity for my students:

Asking Questions: This works perfectly with our reading essential questions each week. I’ve wanted to take my class to a dairy farm outside of Lincoln and have put in a grant in the Fund-A-Need project but it was unsuccessful so why not create somewhat of a virtual field trip that answers the question, “Where Does Food Come From?” This could be the first workshop and once students are more familiar with the concept, they could take over the questions and create their own.

Locating Information: Given my students’ age and knowledge of the internet, I would provide specific web pages that students would visit to answer our question. This could go several different ways… We could explore one topic in depth. For example, students could learn about how milk is made, specifically. Going through the milking process, the heating process, bottling, etc… OR we could skim the surface of many different kinds of products and focus on how they get from the farm to the table. So many options! And although I will provide the resources, it’s important to discuss with my students why I chose them and how I know that they are good resources.

Evaluating: This literacy correlates perfectly with our Habits of Mind sourcing strategy where students look at a document and answer questions about who created it, when, and why they created it. Students are familiar with this skill and can apply their knowledge when looking closely at webpages. It would be meaningful to find a website with false information so that students realize not everything they read on the internet is true.

Synthesizing: This literacy seems to produce the greatest challenge for students at this age level. It would be easy to just set students free on a search engine to find information but that would be extremely unethical to do and would create chaos. In order for young students to practice this skill, I would have to create a limited amount of websites for students to visit and learn through. Possibly along the lines of a Symbaloo page. Then students have choices in which sites they use and can build that external text, but it’s a safe search for them as well.

Communicating: Throughout this process, students will be gaining available insight into how food begins and what happens to it along the way, just before we see it in grocery stores. Students will share this information through a workshop session where they can present their information to the rest of the class.