Week Eight - Merging Classics with Technology
This week's post from Terry Heick addresses a topic that has been central to my work as a high school English teacher from the first.
Mr. Heick begins with some questions and answers driving his though processes regarding 21st century literacy, asserting that evolving media and modalities require canny teachers building bridges for contemporary students. Shifts in quantity and quality of communication being produced in these digital realms require new definitions of modern literacy and pedagogy.
Establishing this need, Heick provides examples of engagement in a range of text along four stages of complexity, from simple response / simple media to complex response / complex media.
He finishes with "a handful of underpinning ideas:" literacy in any century is decoding, comprehension, and transfer; kinds of media are expanding, and these media have clear connections regardless of form; modern technology and text can help teachers and students refigure class structures; and differentiation, self-direction, and extended thinking all benefit from students and teachers who can expand their sense of how to blend classic curricula with contemporary media.
This is among the best posts Mr. Heick has provided. While he remains loosely allegiant to notions of evidence or citation, his consideration of media shift, as it forces change in the classroom, is thought-provoking. It seems wise to scaffold students consideration of all texts by beginning with simple investigations in comfortable text scenarios. This technique will serve my students well when we start reading more complex texts in this final quarter of the year - we can feel comfortable beginning with the basics before trying our high complexity analysis.
Mr. Heick begins with some questions and answers driving his though processes regarding 21st century literacy, asserting that evolving media and modalities require canny teachers building bridges for contemporary students. Shifts in quantity and quality of communication being produced in these digital realms require new definitions of modern literacy and pedagogy.
Establishing this need, Heick provides examples of engagement in a range of text along four stages of complexity, from simple response / simple media to complex response / complex media.
He finishes with "a handful of underpinning ideas:" literacy in any century is decoding, comprehension, and transfer; kinds of media are expanding, and these media have clear connections regardless of form; modern technology and text can help teachers and students refigure class structures; and differentiation, self-direction, and extended thinking all benefit from students and teachers who can expand their sense of how to blend classic curricula with contemporary media.
This is among the best posts Mr. Heick has provided. While he remains loosely allegiant to notions of evidence or citation, his consideration of media shift, as it forces change in the classroom, is thought-provoking. It seems wise to scaffold students consideration of all texts by beginning with simple investigations in comfortable text scenarios. This technique will serve my students well when we start reading more complex texts in this final quarter of the year - we can feel comfortable beginning with the basics before trying our high complexity analysis.
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