New Literacies Blog Post

My group and I chose to create a Glogster web page about cultural literacy. It was an interesting experience that provided me with many new insights about my learning and how I am going to incorporate technology and teach cultural literacy to my future students.

Conceptual Understanding

At the beginning of class we were asked to find a definition of literacy that we thought matched our own ideas. The definition I found said that literacy is being knowledgeable about a certain topic, and having the ability to read, write, and use/create media about this topic. Now that I have completed my project on cultural literacy, I feel that the definition I chose is no longer as well rounded or appropriate as I thought it was.

I believe that I have experienced growth because of my choice to do cultural literacy. When I first began the New Literacies Project I chose cultural literacy simply because I enjoy learning about different cultures, languages, and traveling. Cultural literacy helped me to broaden my idea of what literacy actually is.

I learned that cultural literacy is being knowledgeable about the language, history, perspectives, and traditions of the people of a certain culture (and especially your own culture) so that you can interact and be integrated into many aspects of their society. I also learned that there are so many different cultures, even in one small area. For example, the people of the United States can have a collective culture, then the state of Michigan, then specific groups or types of people within Michigan, and so on.

Suddenly my responsibility in the classroom became even more gigantic! I realized that it would be impossible for me to teach my students about every culture. I have learned that it is one of my most important roles as a teacher to help students find tools to explore the different cultures that they are a part of, as well as how to immerse themselves and gain insights and appreciation for others cultures.

Classroom Implications

After this project I now have a much better idea of what it means to provide effective literacy instruction to all different learners in my classroom. One of the Common Core State Standards that I used in my Language Arts lesson was that students would have the ability to look at a text and make a connection to themselves, as well as understand what the overall theme and message of the text was.

Students will need to know their own cultures in order to be able to get started with cultural literacy. They will also need to be able to recognize how their culture is different or the same as the information that we will read in texts, their classmates, and people all over the world. I will support my students by providing them with real world examples of different cultures. This type of literacy is great for promoting field trips, guest speakers, group discussions, and online studies. I will give the students many experiences with culture to match all of the different cultures that there are out there.

Glogster, my digital tool, can be a great way for students to continue to explore outside of the classroom, or even a place where they can go to gather more information. Students will need to have a basic understanding of different websites and how to follow instructions to accomplish the building of a website as part of their digital literacy. I will provide support with digital literacy by using technology in many different ways in the classroom so that my students can get comfortable with it. I will also Provide tutorials and allow students to work in groups. Often in class we talk about how putting the right students together when using technology can allow the students to help each other, learn from one another, and create a beautiful and creative piece that they wouldn’t have been able to accomplish on their own.