Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Information Search Strategies on the Internet: A Critical Component of New Literacies
This article touched on the important job educators have in making sure students leave our classrooms with the knowledge and expertise necessary for the next grade and for their professional careers. One area in particular that this study, by Laurie A. Henry, referred to the most was literacy skills in the area of Internet research. I agreed with the study that was conducted on the several teachers, and probably would have had similar responses to the questions posed. The article brought up a good point stating that it "might be difficult to implement technology into the classroom because of the different skill levels of our students." Isn't this true in all aspects of education? As an educator, it is important to use small group instruction, cooperative/ flexible grouping, differentiated instruction, in order to meet the needs of all of our students. The same thing can be applied to technology. Technology is here to stay in our world. In order to show our understanding of this concept, we must start treating technology as one of our core subjects. Meaning, if one of our students was having difficulties with making predictions with a certain type of text, we would model effective strategies on how good readers make predictions while they read. The same thing can be applied to our Technology Standards. It is important to implement good teaching strategies that are researched based when planning for instruction. Model what you want your students to know and pull small groups based on observational assessment. We are never going to have the perfect classroom, where all of our students are reading on-grade level. We have to use the skills we already use in other aspects of our teaching to help bridge this gap so that our students are still learning, but on different levels.
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3 comments:
Do you think that we could fit technology as a core subject into the day? It would be ideal for the students and their future employers, if we could help them get computer savy.
I feel fortunate that I work in a school that supplies SMARTboards to all of their teachers. We also have a working computer lab for our K-3 students a well. The problems that I encounter when trying to implement teaching technology skills to my students are #1, that the technology available to kids in our school systems are anitquated to say the least. Beyond that, the 2nd problem and perhaps of even more importance is that there is NO time to teach technology in light of our core curriculum areas PLUS test prep and assessment times. I wish there was more time dedicated to life skills instruction inclusive of technology. You are absolutely correct, our workforce would certainly appreciate it.
Wouldn't it be awesome if we had the materials necessary to present and model to the kids. Oh, that would make our job so much easier! I also think it would be fabulous if we not only had the materials with which to teach the stuff, but also had the training, provided for free for teachers to feel comfortable modeling in front of the class how to use a search or some web project.
Another valuable thing that is beyond our control would be if the lower grade teachers felt that it was important for kids to have a background knowledge to be successful in our projects.
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