As a soon to be language arts teacher I know how important literacy is. However, within the last 10 years or so a debate has started to arise: what does literacy mean? Looking it up on Merriam-Webster.com simply tells us that it is the act of being able to read and write. This is a very vague definition. What exactly are students supposed to be able to read and write at the end of the day? This is the constant debate that language arts teachers are having.
Let's be realistic for a moment. How many of us remember the five paragraph essays that were drilled into us in middle and high school? "An essay must include an introduction with a thesis, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion." Honestly, who really writes like that in real life? I have not meant a single person who writes like that on a day to day basis. And moving on to reading? While I read The Odyssey back as a freshman and I just taught it again to my freshman, what do they learn from it? Honestly, you can cheat on your wife and still be a hero is what most of them took away from it.
What it means to be literate is changing. It no longer means to be able to write a five paragraph essay and to read ancient texts. In an article by Rebecca Mullen and Linda Wedwick, "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories and Blogs," discusses how literacy is changing and what it means for teachers: "Being literate no longer only involves being able to read and write. The literate of the twenty-first century must be able to download, upload, rip, bum, chat, save, blog, Skype, IM, and share" (2008, p. 66). While I certainly don't think that it falls on the shoulders of the language art teachers to teach all of these things in his or her classroom, I do feel it necessary that they are covered in some way, shape, or form.
Moving into just the writing portion of "literacy" is also the concern with having students create authentic writing. The aforementioned five paragraph essay is what a lot of up and coming language arts teachers would consider as not authentic writing. A way to try to introduce authentic writing is by have students use and create blogs: "blogs are highly effective communication tools that create a variety of authentic writing
experiences for students and teachers" (Mullen &Wedwick, 2008, pg 69). Students have a forum in which they can get advice from other students, the teacher, ask for homework help and share interesting information that they find--all this writing would be a lot more authentic than a five paragraph essay.
Mullen, R., Wedwick, L. "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with Youtube, Digital Stories, and Blogs." Clearing House 82.2 (2008). 66-69. EBSCOhost, January 13, 2012.
Those are some pretty strong statements about blogs being highly effective communication tools. Although I don't remember writing the five paragraph essay as an instructor I write it frequently as letters of recommendation. I state my opening case, offer supportive details and conclude with a reinforcement and summary. Admittedly I had to think hard to find that writing style in my repertoire.
ReplyDeleteI started my first blog as a series of webpages that I created to keep my family and friends abreast of my travels at various times. There was no room for comments and so it was very static and lacked interest or feedback. It lacked the five paragraph format, probably because I didn't remember my middle high lesson.
So what is authentic writing? And how exactly do blogs support that?
It's so funny you ask what authentic writing is. As part of a professional development day with Salem-Keizer school district, I went to an authentic writing workshop and one of the breakout sessions was an introduction to the reading work sample, "the focus of this session will be the ways in which teachers can prepare their students for the reading work sample through daily classroom instruction" is the direct quote from one of the hand outs I received. I literally cannot think of anything less authentic that being given a prompt and being told to write about it in 1,000-2,000 words, can you? Authentic writing is supposed to writing that is practical for life, i.e. letter to the editors, book reviews for peers, thank you notes, students news letters, etc. As a teachers I need to teach my students abilities that we prepare them for life post-high school (while a book review may not be the best example, it teaches students how to write to a particular audience). Teacher writing that has value is what I hope to do and in my opinion that is the best form of authentic writing.
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