One of the first problems with textbook-only instruction that comes to mind is the inaccuracies. A few years back, my husband read a book that he insisted I also read. It was Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. The book was interesting, and I had never realized how much was misrepresented in some of today's textbooks for a variety of reasons. There definitely is a value to having and using textbooks, but they do have limitations. When using textbooks only, only one perspective is given. I've used textbooks while in school that were the exact same textbooks my parents used growing up (their classmates names were written in the front cover of the book along with the year used); the material was, needless to say, quite outdated. Another big problem is that many textbooks are boring. They don't lend themselves to allowing students to learn about what interests them.
I think that as teachers, we need to utilize a variety of resources. Textbooks can be one of those, but we need to branch out and use the numerous other resources we have available to us.
References
Loewen, J. W., (1995). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York: New Press.
Karchmer-Klein and Shinar (2012) propose four principles to guide teachers' thinking as they utilize technology to support teaching and literacy learning in modern classrooms. The principles include being aware of the constant changes in literacy due to technological advancements, recognizing the complexity of new literacies, even those growing up immersed in technology have much to learn, and reconsidering assessment methods.
I just missed the cutoff for being considered a digital native according to this article and others I've read on similar subjects. I remember using a computer for the first time (as a senior in high school). Yet over the course of my freshman year of college (immediately following high school), I learned to use the computer for a good variety of things including word processing, creating presentations (through programs such as PowerPoint), and email.
I can see the value in utilizing the new literacies as an individual, as a teacher, and through my teaching of students. Sometimes, it seems like there is some hesitation to embrace something new, such as the new literacies, because it's an unknown for some. Sometimes, it's a lack of knowing how to integrate them into teaching or even how to use a particular type of technology. There's also the problem of outdated technology equipment in classrooms or lack of enough equipment in classrooms.
The new literacies allow for students' learning to extend further than before and supports students' abilities to read and write for real purposes (Karchmer-Klein & Shinar, 2012).
References
Karchmer-Klein, R. & Shinar, V. H. (2012). Guiding
principles for supporting new literacies in
your classroom. The Reading Teacher, 65 (5), 288-293.
As a teacher of young students (all my experience has pretty much been with preschool and kindergarten students), I cannot recall ever using textbooks in a classroom. That said, I have used many, many trade books. Trade books provide rich narrative and informational content (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011). On a daily basis, I read trade books to my daughter (who I home school). There are so many to choose from, and the library is an excellent resource to gather trade books for teaching purposes. I've found that using trade books allows me to customize what I am teaching and allows for students to select books of interest.
References
Vacca,
R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M. (2011). Content area reading: literacy
and learning across
Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) discuss how students are expected to learn more with the texts at a higher frequency as they progress through their schooling. Students can merely read what is before them, or they can study it. What is the difference? Frequently, I read through news articles. I tend to gravitate towards articles on health related issues. When reading something that I find interesting, such as an Aleccia (2014) article today about a cluster of birth defects in Washington state, I will read through the article and then continue reading about the subject matter to gain more information about what I have read. If I had only read that particular article, I would have retained some of the information that I read. For that particular article, I studied the topic in greater depth and could tell you about what the article discussed plus additional information that I read by further reading about the subject through other sources. Is it necessary to study every text one reads? Definitely no. I think at times, we will study a text because we are required to and the other times we study a text is out of personal interest on a particular topic. References
Aleccia, J. (2014, February 17). 'Bizarre' Cluster of Severe Birth
Defects Haunts Health Experts,
NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/bizarre-cluster-severe-
birth-defects-haunts-health-experts-n24986
Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M. (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Using graphic organizers is something that I have used a lot over the years of teaching young students. They were used to highlight certain key points and to organize ideas into a visual way that could help students better comprehend a new concept. I can see how this could carry over to being helpful using within texts as well.
As a teacher of young learners (preschool, kindergarten), I often have first exposed students to learning how to take notes and why it's important to do so. Differentiating between what to take notes on and what not to include in the notes can be hard for students to understand and put into practice.
References
Vacca,
R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M. (2011). Content area reading: literacy
and learning across
This chapter got me thinking about the ways I use the new literacies.
I have had my own personal blog for several years and still maintain it. I have used it mainly as a diary. I enjoy looking back on what I've shared through my blog.
My daughter and I are working on a big geography project that we are documenting through a blog. Others seem to enjoy looking at the blog and seeing the progress. It's a nice way to share what we are learning with our family and friends (especially since more of them live far from us), and also share what we've received from our family and friends in the mail.
I have used blogs to share my assignments for several classes including this one
I'm frequently using the internet to gain more information for a variety of reasons (personal interest, class related, etc.).
The new skills necessary are play, performance,
simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition,
collective intelligence, judgement, transmedia navigation, networking,
and negotiation (Jenkins, Clinton,, Purushotma,, Robison, & Weigel,
2006). Last year at this time, I had never heard of the term new literacies or new media literacies. Over time, I have learned about these new literacies and what they mean for today's students. Interestingly, many of these literacies involve "writing to learn" activities (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011). I personally have participated in most of these literacies, even before I understood them as the "new literacies." Over the course of the past year, I have worked on integrating these into my teaching. Currently, I am homeschooling my daughter who is a kindergartener. Since she is so young, the new media literacies she exposed to currently is limited. She does write occasionally on her writing blog. Together, we engage in internet inquiries. Recently, we have been using Google Earth and Wikipedia to search for additional information for a geography project we are working on; more information on our project can be found on our Project Blog.
I am including a few additional resources that I have found helpful, and I wanted to include these in my learning log for this particular chapter.
I found this article very interesting and full of great information, much of it I was not aware of. I was not aware that inventive writing was not being used much in kindergarten and 1st grades. I've always used it with the preschoolers and kindergarteners that I have taught. To me, it seems like a logical way to motivate them to start writing, and I see it carry over into their reading as well.
Reading Recovery is the only program with strong evidence to improve reading achievement (Allington, 2013). The only time I have heard of a school using Reading Recovery was when I was student teaching. That's not to say that schools I have worked at have not used it, but if they do, I am not aware of this being implemented.
Allington (2013) stated that research has shown that the critical factor in the quality of reading lessons offered is correlated with the expertise of the teachers. In every school I have worked at, paraprofessionals work with our struggling readers. Sometimes reading coaches (or similar) work with our struggling students. In order to move our struggling readers to successful readers, we must have expert teachers working with them consistently and intensely. Allington (2013) discussed evidence that supported sufficient, expert tutoring moving struggling readers to readers reading on level. One-on-one tutoring, twice a week was what was suggested. I have never seen this done in any school that I have worked in. I have tutored students in the past, and the one-on-one lessons have shown to be helpful in my experience.
Allington (2013) stressed the importance of allowing readers many opportunities to read at a high level of word recognition accuracy (98%-100%). As adults, we nearly always read at that level when given the chance. Yet we too often expect students to read a a rate lower than 98%, which no doubt proves frustrating. I could see this leading to students not enjoying what they are reading and not being motivated to read.
References
Allington, R. L. (2013). What really matters when working with struggling readers. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 520-530.
