Opening the Oyster

When Shakespeare said, “The world's mine oyster,” he wasn’t kidding.  Today, we have the ability to virtually be anywhere we would like to with Internet access.  Search engines and social media open up cultures and ideas by connecting us through interaction.  Beyond social lessons to learn, the Internet, digital text, and new literacies provide educators with opportunities to expand their classrooms beyond walls and into the minds of our youth.

As I read the chapters and articles for this week, I was continually stuck by the awareness of the authors to the fact that digital text and new literacies allowed access into places before impossible.  One aspect of a traditional classroom that I have struggled with is getting to every student and addressing his or her needs during a lesson.  While using Ning with Literature circles, Shoulder (2014) noted “I can actually ‘pop-in’ during group discussions, then later I can look at what actually took place” (Gura, 2014, p. 72).  This allowed the teacher to monitor what students were discussing, but in a way that provides students with the ability to engage in authentic conversations.  Because students view online platforms like Ning and Edmodo as social by nature, they “help with analytic skills necessary for reading comprehension, but are used in a setting that appeals to the teen personality” (Gura, 2014, p. 76). 

Another area that becomes observable is a student’s thought process.  Children with expressive language issues struggle with the ability to voice what they are thinking. Therefore, it becomes difficult to access how they ended drawing a certain conclusion or ended up at an answer.  In using e-books, Larson (2012) noted that highlighting and notes recorded on e-books offers insight into a reader’s comprehension process (Larson, 2012, p. 286).  As one pre-service teacher remarked, “I don’t ever highlight in storybooks, because I was always taught to respect books,” but in an e-book, nothing is permanent (Larson, 2012, 285).  Students can highlight what they find important as they read and make notes about how the story relates to their lives, but as they discuss and re-interact with it, they can modify and alter those original notes.   If a teacher monitors this, she/he can monitor a student’s thought process and assess how well they comprehend the text.

A flipped classroom flops instruction and homework.  Students use technology at home to take notes and activities are completed at school.  I am very interested in this for two reasons. First, many of my students’ parents are wonderful at helping their children and having their needs met, but they can also become too involved in projects completed at home.  Second, I hate spending an entire class period “prepping” with a lecture.  (Here is a great website further explaining a flipped classroom.) So, I love the idea of using technologies, with the assumption they are available to your students, to meet the demands of a modern classroom.  Extensions like blogging allow students to dig deeper into texts such as “analyzing characters actions and synthesizing quotes” in their own time rather than in the a 50 minute class period (Gura, 2014, p. 84).  In addition, an activity that utilizes new literacies, levels the playing field. “Students who rarely raised their hand to participate during class [can] post well developed comments and challenge classmates with questions of their own” (Gura, 2014, p. 82).   

If the world is ours for the taking, we need to know how to access and analyze it.  “We should acknowledge multiple types of digital texts and support students as they discern which reading strategies to apply” (Larson, 2012, p. 288).  We can’t rely on a set of traditional education practices to prepare our students for the world emerging at their finger tips.

We know how important background knowledge is for readers. Unfortunately, many of our students won’t have a chance to explore the entire world before reading texts about various places and cultures. The following Pinterest Page, aptly named, “Why then the world’s mine oyster” is a great example of using apps and tools to broaden our students knowledge.

http://www.pinterest.com/morgankitchens/why-then-the-world-s-mine-oyster/