"Am I prepared to teach in a technologically advanced classroom?"
As I read through the book I discovered that I did have some ideas about how I want to integrate technology into my future classroom, but I am not where I need to be in order to provide the very best learning experience for my student. And even though I am part of a very technologically savvy generation, I myself am not so savvy.
What can I do to grow into the "new literacies teacher" I need to be? One way to become more of a "new literacies teacher" is to study and someday put into practice some of the activities listed in the book that will allow my classroom to be more of a "new literacies classroom".
Here are a few of the activities that stuck out to me and I hope to use in my classroom:
"Julius Caesar, The Musical"
Looking back over the play Julius Caesar and selecting a musical piece for each scene is a great activity. Music is an intricate part of our society and is especially relevant for younger generations who always seem to have ear buds in. I like this activity because it allows students to review the play and by selecting music of their choice they have to understand what is happening in the play in order to find an appropriate selection. This activity can be done with or without a lot of technology, so it is easy to use in any classroom. Also, giving the students an opportunity to choose a "soundtrack" for Shakespeare's play makes it a little more personal and involved; after all, how many of us consider our music to be an intricate part of our identity?
"Text Categories Activity"
In this activity students are given a list of categories: for example, favorite poet, favorite film maker, favorite blog etc. The students then works on the list throughout the semester. Kist suggests adding Genre's to the list and this should include texting, IMing, and even sticky notes. At first I didn't understand why a student would need to do this activity other than it allows them to see what kind of text they enjoy; but reading a little farther I found that Dr. Kist suggests putting the lists online and making them public. I loved this idea because, as Dr. Kist suggests, all sorts of different people from different parts of the country and world will be able to read the lists and comment on them. This could lead to building a "community" and also could help expand and shape the student's list allowing them to grow.
"Canonical Text Wiki"
I actually done this activity for one of my classes and it was so much fun! I was assigned the text Romeo and Juliet and finding 20 hyperlinks was easy and actually fun. This activity is great because it allows students to explore the internet for credible sources that open up a variety of ways to learn about the text. Here is an example of one of the hyperlinks I used in my Canonical Wiki http://www.julietclub.com/index_en.asp
"Online Literature Circles"
I like this assignment because I believe discussing literature with fellow classmates or the other members of the literature circle provides the student with new views of the text and various interpretations of the text. Because the student is posting about the book to a group of people and not just taking a test that involves just themselves, the student may concentrate more on the text and attempt to understand more fully.
The above activities are exciting and fun and I hope to someday incorporate them into my classroom. I also believe these activities will better equip me when I ask the question, "Am I prepared to teach in a technologically advanced classroom?"
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