New Literacies in the Classroom

This week's article, "Teaching Two Literacies," by Joanne Rooney would have been just as effective as an introduction to our class as it was a conclusion to our class. It might have been more helpful for me to have this information in the beginning than at t he end; the article provides a sense of focus for teaching students to become literate - no matter what the content is. What I enjoyed most about the article, and this class, is the focus on teaching students literacy skills, rather than using technology to create engaging lessons - just because it is available.
As I look back over the last eight weeks, the most striking revelation that I had involves how much sooner our students are expected to learn higher level literacy skills. I remember not being exposed to the concept of propaganda and biases until high school. We cannot afford to wait that long today! Yet, many of the Language Arts teachers I know only briefly touch on propaganda. If we would strengthen the concepts of propaganda at a much younger age, K-2 even, through exposure to cereal advertisements, then noticing biases, while not necessarily second nature, would be less difficult for my students. Another surprise for me was to discover that I am more technologically literate than my students. For most teachers my age and having never even seen a computer until the late 1980's, I expected it to be the other way around. Many teachers my age are stereotyped into the computer illiterate group; I need to avid stereotyping my students as being computer literate; just because technology is their future doesn't mean they have the financial means or educational inclination to embrace technology and the New Literacies.
What I enjoyed the most about this class was that literacy skills were more important than the technology being used. Every teacher in my district has a SmartBoard in his or her room; so much is possible on one. Yet, in many rooms, it is utilized as a glorified worksheet with one student at the board demonstrating his or her recall skills. "Oh, but I'm using the technology," is what I hear teachers saying... The philosophy of literacy first and technology second is what I intend to take to my classroom. Having two different processes to teach my students, QUEST and REAL, provides an avenue for scaffolding student learning with strong, relevant strategies that will serve them outside of my classroom. I am looking forward to exploring Boolean search strategies with my students; I will not longer assume they know as much, or more, than me just because this is supposed to be their world.
One goal that I need to start looking into is how to ask relevant question. This could be as simple as requesting a mentor from my district, if possible. Often the mentors are assigned to "new" teachers. I feel this is valuable, but if the district wants to develop better staff, then these mentors should not be limited to only the new teachers. Even though I have been teaching for 16 years, I can still recognize the need for improvement. A mentor would be a good choice for helping me develop better questioning skills and passing these skills onto my students. Guess it is time to go talk to my principal ans see what she says...