1. Increasing Engagement and Improving Outcomes 1. What does it mean to be a teacher of Literacy now and why should I bother about creating an environment of multiliteracy in my classroom? 2. How can I ensure that my classroom reflects current pedagogy surroundingMultiliteracies? 3. How can I increase engagement and improve student outcomes?
3. ‘there is no reading or writing in any meaningful sense outside social practices.’ (Knobel and Lankshear,2007, p2) Literacy and literate practices are dynamic. (Anstey and Bull, 2006) ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 ‘literacy has been divisive until this time, creating the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of society.’ Anstey and Bull, 2006, p.4 Literacy - Crucial link between ‘lifeworld’ and the world of school – failing to make that link in the classroom is failing to engage. If we don’t make the connection, we can’t help students to transfer learning across domains. (Anstey and Bull, 2006) To be active citizens, we need to be highly literate. (Healy, 2008)
4. dynamic ‘there is no reading or writing in any meaningful sense outside social practices.’ (Knobel and Lankshear,2007, p2) ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 ‘literacy has been divisive until this time, creating the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of society.’ Anstey and Bull, 2006, p.4 Literacy - Crucial link between ‘lifeworld’ and the world of school – failing to make that link in the classroom is failing to engage. If we don’t make the connection, we can’t help students to transfer learning across domains. (Anstey and Bull, 2006) To be active citizens, we need to be highly literate. (Healy, 2008)
5. dynamic is a social practice ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 ‘literacy has been divisive until this time, creating the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of society.’ Anstey and Bull, 2006, p.4 Literacy - Crucial link between ‘lifeworld’ and the world of school – failing to make that link in the classroom is failing to engage. If we don’t make the connection, we can’t help students to transfer learning across domains. (Anstey and Bull, 2006) To be active citizens, we need to be highly literate. (Healy, 2008)
6. dynamic is a social practice ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 inclusive + differentiated Literacy - Crucial link between ‘lifeworld’ and the world of school – failing to make that link in the classroom is failing to engage. If we don’t make the connection, we can’t help students to transfer learning across domains. (Anstey and Bull, 2006) To be active citizens, we need to be highly literate. (Healy, 2008)
7. dynamic is a social practice ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 inclusive + differentiated Literacy relevant To be active citizens, we need to be highly literate. (Healy, 2008)
8. dynamic is a social practice ‘the demand is to re-examine what being literate means today.” Healy 2008 p6 inclusive + differentiated Literacy builds citizenship relevant
9. dynamic is a social practice needs to be reassessed inclusive + differentiated Literacy builds citizenship relevant
Notas do Editor
We have agreed this in principle, but what does in mean in practice? How does literacy present itself in our classrooms? What does ‘literacy’ even mean?What did we all think about the video?? GIVE OUT THE TWITTER ACCOUNT DETAILS, GET EVERYONE TO SIGN IN AND GET THEM TO TWEET THEIR INSPIRATION/CHALLENGE FINDINGS FROM THE PRE-WORKSHOP LOOK AT THE MOVIE CLIP. BRIEF DISCUSSION ABOUT TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM AND
From these six quotations, we begin to build a picture of what literacy is and the place it has in our society and, therefore our school.
Literacy is a fluid activity. It constantly changes because it is a reflection of the society in which we live. Globalisation, economic change…… all require that we engage with text in a different way and this ‘way’ will continue to change in reflection of the changes that take place in society. In our classrooms, students need to be equipped for the world in which they live (Bull and Anstey 2006)
The key objective of literacy is communication – constructing meaning, understanding ourselves, our communities and the wider world in which we live.
Literacy teaching, in our classrooms, should reflect the needs of all our students – question the literary canon approach, ensure that the texts we use are of relevance, ensure that we understand the frames of reference of our students. Developing a sense of belonging in a diverse classroom is one of the many challenges of literacy.
The world of ‘school’ needs to reflect the world beyond school – if it does not, students can become disengaged, Students want to understand why they are learning something and why they are learning something in a particular way. Most crucially, students need to see the link between the world they live in at home - multimodal and the world they inhabit in school – very focused on written text. Research teaches us that text-rich environments are off-putting for students, but we don’t need research to tell us that, do we!
Language is a reflection of our society – in the Danish language, there are a great many different words for ‘snow’ because an understanding of snowfall is vital for survival in that harsh climate. What is more, through language, we construct our worlds, developing and displaying a sense of who we are. We cannot play an active role in society unless we understand that society and how it works and how we are able to participate in it. Strong literacy skills are crucial.
To meet its communicative goal, to truly be relevant and inclusive and in order to maintain relevance, literacy education needs to keep abreast of communication changes that emerge from new technologies and societal values (Healy, 2008) and a literacy programme that is not linked to new and emerging technologies is not fulfilling the essential goals of literacy.
