Technology Talks

Posting on Behalf of Autumn Baltimore 

How does one bridge literacy through the Arts and Technology classes? Better yet, how do you motive a creative and talented group to teach literacy in their Arts and Technology classes? Easy you bribe them, then you tell them it’s easier than they think. Literacy has so many facets that one can use to incorporate into their lessons or classroom. However, many teachers outside of the Literacy Department feel that bridging literacy is difficult, and also quite boring. With this, I am here to tell you that literacy my friends is not boring and using it as a support to the content that’s being taught increases motivation for learning for the students.

The simplest way to bridge literacy is to take what you already have created and add a component of literacy to the mix. One creative way to do this is by using 21^st century skills when you are bridging literacy into Arts and Technology. For example, music teachers can have the students write a reflection of their playing test on a music blog site, or the Theater teacher could video tape her students acting and have the students observe and write a reflection that could be recorded and played back as well. Literacy does not always have to be writing. Literacy could be students in a Physical Education class reading sports illustrated online and then reading ESPN magazine in print and then have the students compare and contrast print sources verses electronic sources.  Technology teachers have a plethora of options to bridge literacy because they have access to tech tools. A technology tool such as Storybird, which is an online storybook creation tool allows students to not only use technology, but bridge literacy into their class as well.

Oftentimes, by changing or adding one aspect such as 21^st century learning skills to the lesson or unit allows teachers the opportunity to bridge literacy. Not only are the small strategies effective, but it also keeps the students engaged and motivated to learn.

Being Different

Posting on behalf of Autumn Baltimore

Using one lesson in a universal design was the way to go when teaching students of all backgrounds. Universal design was a method that used a set of goals and instruction to develop curriculum that gave all individuals equal opportunities to learn. Although I teach one class now in my role as an Instructional Coach, I find that my freshman English class of twenty-six students was not as diverse by way of race, but more diverse by way of culture. With this, maintaining a class that was not only ethically sensitive, but culturally sensitive as well was necessary for motivating students to learn. For instance, I have ten White students, yet out of the ten students, one was American and the others are Bosnian, Albanian, and Italian. Ensuring that all my students including the students that fall into a separate sub category within one race was a priority.

Interestingly, making sure students know that you appreciate and honor both their personality and most importantly their ethnic and cultural background helped to build a community of trust. My classroom and the school were described as multiethnic community because there were a vast number of diverse ethnicities (Howard, 2007). For this reason, our Principal implemented professional development that was structured around supporting a multiethnic population. Generally, this was an appropriate step because many schools were becoming diverse not only in race, but in culture, as well. Yet many teachers have little experience with creating an environment that is culturally sensitive. Furthermore, there is a lack of understanding about students with diverse linguistics, as well. Paris (2011) suggested that we as a teachers and people need to think about how language, ethnicity, and multilingual speech impact the way students learn and communicate with each other. Long gone are the days where teachers assumed that students could be labeled as simply White and Black, but we needed to be cognizant of all backgrounds and languages while we are teaching.

In truth, being able to communicate with students that come from multiple walks of life could be realized by understanding who they were socially. Many students do identify with their culture and many do not, yet they all want to be socially accepted. Therefore, I found that relating topics and lessons around what they were interested in allowed me to teach to all of the students effectively. For example, when reciting Romeo and Juliet the students were put into groups of three and silently played out the lines within in the scene, and everyone else had to guess what they were doing and what scene they were portraying. Truthfully, all the students looked funny, but all were committed, and those who had problems speaking the language or interpreting the text could ask for help with their partners and use their artistic abilities to act out their lines. Instead of differentiating, I decided to use the universal design approach, which allowed all the students regardless of their ethnic or culturally linguistically diverse background to succeed in the task and collaborate. Respecting students’ different cultural backgrounds provided opportunities for innovation and creativity not only from the teacher, but also from the students as well (Moskal & Keneman, 2011).

References

Howard, G. R. (2007). As diversity grows, so must we. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 16–22. 
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Moskal, M. K., & Keneman, A. F. (2011). Literacy leadership to support reading improvement: Intervention programs and balanced instruction. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Used by permission of Guilford Press.

Paris, D. (2011). Language across difference (p. 15). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.