exploring new literacies with only concrete, material resources
When we think of New Literacies, I believe that most people's first thought would be something involving technology. Technology is great...when it works! As technology is not always reliable, it is important for teachers to have a back-up plan ready. There are also circumstances that we, as teachers, may find ourselves in a school with a miniscule budget and little to no access to technology. Now what? We will question how we go about exposing our students to New Literacies without technology. Bomer, Zoh, David & Ok (2010) examine this predicament in their article, "New Literacies in the Material World".
In their article, they explain a case study in multimodal literacy in which "a fourth-grade class, within a memoir unit of study in writing workshop, integrated literacy practices common in digital environments and used ordinary concrete materials to compose texts with features like those of electronic literature" (Bomer et al, 2010, p. 9).
The children were able to use multi-modality to represent their memoires. They could use photos, concrete artifacts, stickers, cardboard cut-outs etc. When one is able to think outside the box, the possibilities are endless. Students could create a concrete "webpage" on paper by drawing photo's, indicating hyperlinks, demonstrating a drop-down menu with Post-It's, or any other possibility. This lesson would teach children to reflect on any experience they have had with technology, and put their knowledge to use as they develop a comprehensive, user-friendly concrete document. The results would be incredible.
In summary, Bomer et al. (2010) note "the ways with which students took up text seemed to comport with practices we have observed in people who are exploring the potential of text in these emergent digital networks. We believe, moreover, that many elementary educators would be at least as comfortable with the sorts of explorations in which we engaged here as they are with computers and other digital devices. There are many impediments to creating new literacy practices in schools, and teacher courage and understanding is as important as the availability of machines. But the kind of work we have described here just might provide a needed alternative avenue into the new" (p. 19).
As an emerging teacher, I would use these sort of multi-modal activities in many different circumstances. This resource will be excellent to have so as to provide my students with many diverse possibilities. I would also keep these types of activities in my toolkit in case of a technology failure. Multimodality provides excellent avenues for different types of thinkers to express themselves in whatever way suits them; while still completing the necessary learning outcomes in the curriculum.
In their article, they explain a case study in multimodal literacy in which "a fourth-grade class, within a memoir unit of study in writing workshop, integrated literacy practices common in digital environments and used ordinary concrete materials to compose texts with features like those of electronic literature" (Bomer et al, 2010, p. 9).
The children were able to use multi-modality to represent their memoires. They could use photos, concrete artifacts, stickers, cardboard cut-outs etc. When one is able to think outside the box, the possibilities are endless. Students could create a concrete "webpage" on paper by drawing photo's, indicating hyperlinks, demonstrating a drop-down menu with Post-It's, or any other possibility. This lesson would teach children to reflect on any experience they have had with technology, and put their knowledge to use as they develop a comprehensive, user-friendly concrete document. The results would be incredible.
In summary, Bomer et al. (2010) note "the ways with which students took up text seemed to comport with practices we have observed in people who are exploring the potential of text in these emergent digital networks. We believe, moreover, that many elementary educators would be at least as comfortable with the sorts of explorations in which we engaged here as they are with computers and other digital devices. There are many impediments to creating new literacy practices in schools, and teacher courage and understanding is as important as the availability of machines. But the kind of work we have described here just might provide a needed alternative avenue into the new" (p. 19).
As an emerging teacher, I would use these sort of multi-modal activities in many different circumstances. This resource will be excellent to have so as to provide my students with many diverse possibilities. I would also keep these types of activities in my toolkit in case of a technology failure. Multimodality provides excellent avenues for different types of thinkers to express themselves in whatever way suits them; while still completing the necessary learning outcomes in the curriculum.
REFERENCE
Bomer, R., Zoch, M., David, A. & Ok, H. (2010). New Literacies in the Material World. Language Arts, 88(1), 9-20.