Multi-Modal Literacies: Little Brother Post 2

I'm so interested in this book! It has so many issues worthy of discussion I don't know where to begin.  One thing I've found particularly interesting is the censorship of the press and the references to the Declaration of Independence and the first amendment.  The situations in this book remind me of the state of America directly following the attacks of September 11, 2001.  Everyone was overly paranoid about terrorism which led to the passage of the Patriot Act which took away certain civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution.  The situations in the book are obviously on a much higher scale than they were after 911 but I think the message remains:  Citizens' civil liberties should not be taken away under any circumstances.

Multi-Modal Literacies: History of Facebook

I thought this article was really interesting.  Before reading this the only thing I knew about the development of facebook was the fact that it was developed in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg.  However, I think this article shed light on a lot of important issues.  First of all, I think it's really amazing that a person younger than I am now was able to create something that is so influential and widely used today.  However, I also thought all the legal issues were interesting.  I think the fact that Zuckerberg had so many confrontations with close friends and associates proves that he wasn't a very good person which makes him difficult to admire for his work.  I have a lot of mixed feelings about this because I think facebook is a really impressive invention but I don't admire the ways in which it was created.  I think this article also brings up important issues about the nature of facebook in general.  For teachers, I believe it's important for teachers to teach students acceptable use of facebook.  It can be a great way to communicate with friends and work towards educational goals, but students need to be aware of the way in which they are representing themselves and be careful not to post pictures or statuses that can be incriminating or represent themselves in a way they would not want.  I think facebook is a great tool that needs to be used responsibly.

Multi-Modal Literacies: An Oral History of the Internet

I think this was a really interesting article which contains a large amount of information.  I liked the fact that the authors combined factual information with interviews from the different people involved with the development of the internet.  It must have taken a lot of research to create this article due to all the people that were interviewed.  One thing this article really did for me as that it showed me how new the internet really is. I was born in 1989 and the internet basically grew up along with me, which is something unique about my generation.  Reading this article showed me that different online services such as youtube, facebook, wikipedia, ebay, and amazon were really only developed in about the last decade.  It's amazing to me because these are websites and services that I use regularly and have become things that I have taken for granted.  However, ten years ago, when I was eleven years old all of these things were in their early development.  I think the internet has really changed the way in which college campuses are run as well.  When I think about colleges twenty years ago, they didn't have the same technology we have.  We communicate with professors and receive memos through e-mail and vista.  We have numerous online assignments such as our blog assignment in our class. We also have access to research databases in the comfort of our homes. I think these things have really aided in my learning experience and I plan to utilize the educational services the internet has to offer in my future classroom.

Multi-Modal Literacies: Little Brother

So far, I've read about one-third of the book "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.  At this point in the novel, I have a lot of positive things to say.  I think this book is a great example of a  book that could be used in a high school classroom.  It addresses a lot of key issues such as the country's increasing reliance on technology and the idea that many fear that technology is becoming too powerful.  The book also touches on the idea of human rights and what people can do to stand up for their rights.  Furthermore, I also think the book touches on the idea of the importance of each individual.  I think this would be important for high school students to read because it provides students with an example of a teenager who can make a difference.  I think teenagers often think they aren't important and they can't make a difference in regards to world events, and I think this book shows that teenagers are very important.  This book was interesting because it's very different from a lot of books I've read.  At the beginning of the book, it seems like the events take place a long time in America's future.  However, after reading more of the book I'm beginning to think it takes place in present day America because of references to historical events in relation to the lives of the characters.  Overall, I think this book is very thought-provoking and can lead to interesting discussions with high school students.  It will be interesting to see how the book turns out as I continue reading.

Final Semester Reflection

Overall, I thought I learned a lot about teaching reading to adolescents.  I really liked the strategies in Beers' book.  I thought that the book taught me a number of different strategies I can use as a future teacher to help students learn to read better. I also liked the fact that the book focused on specific areas in which students generally have trouble reading and ways to help students fix these problem areas.  Furthermore, I think our class in general focused a lot on ways to engage students in reading.  I think this is important because learning to enjoy reading is one of the most important things students can get out of a language arts class. I think students really need to read more outside of school because it teaches them so much and allows them to engage in an activity that is good for them cognitively.  I know I will use the skills I learned in this class to help teach  my future students to be better readers and to enjoy reading.

When Kids Can't Read: Chapter 10

I thought this was an interesting chapter, because it focused on an area that most high school teachers don't often think of.  I thought it was important that she mentioned the importance of fluency.  I thought Beers made a good point when she said that readers can't focus on comprehension if they spend all their time focusing on decoding.  Therefore, as teachers it's important to make sure our students are fluent readers.  I thought Beers suggested some good strategies for teaching fluency and automaticity.  I like her suggestion of reading out loud to a class, because this can be a useful strategy for a class of students with mixed ability levels.  For students that need help with automaticy, this will give them extra practice at hearing the words, for students that don't need this help, they can learn from the teacher's reading and practice their listening.  In my opinion, it's harder to listen to a text than to read a text and efficient readers can benefit from this.  I also liked Beers idea of using high-frequency word lists and word walls.  However, the only problem I see with this is that the strategies seem a bit "elementary" for high school students.  If high school teachers use these strategies, they should be sure to present them in such a way to high schools students can identify with them and not feel too babied.  All in all, I thought her strategies were useful and will be helpful in teaching students to improve their reading fluency and automaticity.

When Kids Can't Read: Chapter 14

I thought this was a very important chapter because it discussed the issue of recommending the right books to students.  I think Beers raised an important point when she said that teachers need to understand that they shouldn't just recommend books that they like to students, but they should pay attention to students' individual interests. I liked the idea of talking with students at the beginning of the school year to get an idea of their interests which could eventually lead to book recommendations.  I also liked the point she raised about students not knowing how to navigate through a library.  I thought this was an important topic that teachers don't often think to address.  I liked the idea of using a Good Books box to raise students' interest in reading and then eventually steer them to the section of the library that they find most interesting.  I think another issue this chapter raised was that students should be given a choice in what they read.  If they're constantly forced to read classics with adult characters who they can't identify with, they will never learn to enjoy reading.  Therefore, it's important for teachers to be prepared with young adult literature in order to gain student interest in reading.  I plan on having my own classroom library when I'm a teacher so I can be prepared to recommend books to students. I also think book talks are a great way to get students interested in reading who simply don't know where to look.