Reading and Writing and All that Other Stuff

Response to: iWrite by Dana J. Wilber

Here I am again, hanging out with Wilber and iWrite. I must admit I am growing tired of this book since I feel like some of the chapters are already outdated beyond belief. Alas, I do have some thoughts on "Chapter 5: Using Technology to Address Ten Key Issues in Reading and Writing Instruction." I don't plan to hit all ten issues, but this chapter is available here if you don't have access to the book.

Safety

Well, I have mixed feelings on this topic. I felt like "privacy" might have been a better heading, but  I think some of the ideas are about self-esteem and emotional safety. Wilber writes about making students feel safe when sharing their writing but then talks about sharing on blogs and wikis. I don't think it is realistic to have students all create individual, private blogs or wikis for one teacher to monitor. Realistically, the number of students per teach would prohibit this from being monitored regularly. If the average class size is 35 students and every teacher has six classes, that is more than 200 students which would mean monitoring up to 200 blogs or wikis regularly. I think a more realistic way to promote emotional safety for students would be to share documents on Google Documents. This would allow the teacher to have access to all the writing in one location and still allow for student privacy as the student (document owner) controls who can view the document. I think there has to come a time when students share their work, but I feel like they should make that decision on their own.

Authenticity

In this topic, Wilber writes about students and teachers having a disconnect on the way writing should be. Teachers feel like it should be scholarly while students don't see how that is applicable to their lives. Allowing students to write in the same way they communicate only makes sense. Students apparently don't read books anymore, so why should they be expected to turn in papers that mimic something obsolete to them? If this is the digital generation, school assignments should reflect that. If students have access to the internet there is no need for a printer. If students can find a YouTube video to relate to something in class, why not have them share it? I think it is important to speak the language of these digital natives. I may be a foreigner in this digital age, but I should learn the language if I am going to survive here.

Practice

Here Wilber talks about practice in terms of making writing a habit. The recommendation is to use weekly blog posts similar to journal entries that would allow for peer comments. I like this idea a lot. However, we have already addressed privacy/safety which I would see as a major concern. In addition, I have no idea how one teach could monitor 200 different blogs each week to make sure that students posted and responded regularly. This is where I want to stand on my soap box and complain about class size, but let's face it: class size isn't going to go down in the state of Georgia before my children graduate. I wonder if this is also something that could be shared in Google Documents that would allow a teacher to track changes but also allow students to choose the peers who could read and respond to their writing. Personally I still write in my journal with a pen on real paper, but I also still write letters that I actually mail with real stamps. 

As far as students using familiar and authentic communication, I can see digital writing as appropriate and necessary. At the same time, I am starting to better understand why educators are always playing catch up with technology since we are monitoring literally hundreds of students. The bottom line here for me is that I agree wholeheartedly that students need to practice their writing in safe and nonjudgmental arenas to improve their skills.

Relevance

I little part of my heart breaks to accept Wilber's assertion that students care little for the curriculum that involves traditional reading and writing, but again I have to agree. In the iPad generation, I shouldn't expect anything less. If the goal of educating students is to make them critical thinkers and advocates for change, we should be teaching them in their language. What I mean by that is we, as teachers, should teach them to use their blogs and wikis and social networks for constructive purposes as well as social. I want students to share their voice, so I have accepted that I have a lot to learn about how they convey their message. I am the immigrant here. After all, I was born in the 70s. I want students to know that they don't have to follow a formula to get their message across. They just have to have a meaningful thought which they are willing to share. I think a big problem with this plugged in generation is that they share every thought they have. Who cares that you are bored? Does that justify a status update on Facebook? I don't think so, but it seems that an entire generation thinks it is important to share it with everyone they know. I guess I want to see students using this technology for good positive change instead of evil lazy socializing.

Process

This is an area where I struggle. How can I teach process and not promote formula writing. I know that I quickly grow tired of this write, share, and respond process, so I can only imagine how monotonous it can become for teenagers. I also worry that sharing too much with peers sets an expectation for conformity, which is the complete opposite of my intention in a classroom. 

Web 2.0 and Beyond

Response to: iWrite by Dana J. Wilber

Here I am again, hanging out with Wilber again. Initially, I thought I would break up my responses every couple of chapters. I liked Chapter 2, but felt like I should spread the love a little. Then I read Chapters 3 and 4. I am back to the chapter that actually had some interesting info. I get that technology is an ever-evolving monster, but I feel like so much of what is included in this book is already outdated. This is more of a review statement, but let's go with it for a moment. I think iWrite is a fast and easy read, but I feel like I should have read it two years before it was written. Will educators always be playing catch up with technology? When will we ever be on the cutting edge of technology? Now, let me step off my soapbox and get back to business.

After my previous rant, it might sound like I am saying there is nothing of use in this book. I am not saying that AT ALL! I just found chapter 2 much more response worthy. There are TWO things I want to address in this post. Web 2.0 and "Essential Literacies."

Web 2.0

Okay, so we've all heard it, but are we 100 percent sure we understand that it means? I thought I had an understanding, but I missed a key component. Here are a couple of clips that make it crystal clear rather than muddy water.

Short version? Web 2.0 relies on user interaction, contribution, and opinion to thrive. Users create content. Another important component to this Web 2.0 idea is that there is no user cost. Wilber states on page 32, "Web 2.0 is marked by technologies and tools that are free and allow the user to create content, share it with others, and make it publicly available." This makes me wonder......does that mean everyone has access since it is free? Ideally, yes. Students have cell phones that surely connect to the web. But is access to social media the same as access to information? Schools all have access to the internet, but do all students have that same access at home? Is the access skewed by internet safety filters in schools? When will internet access be free to everyone? This goes back to my previous comment about educators playing catch up. Depending on where we land in our teaching careers surely will impact the way we utilize technology in our classrooms.

A big part of the section on Web 2.0, Wilber spends time explaining multimodal texts. This blog post would be classified as multimodal because of the text, links, pictures and videos. In chapter one, Wilber said students need to read traditional texts (page 11). I completely agree. However, if our students are living in the age of multimodal texts, how can we expect them to read traditionally presented texts? In the age of e-readers and SparkNotes, is it necessary to read canonical texts? Should we settle for our students reading anything as long as they are reading and making meaning? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I have to ask. Maybe you know. Do you?

Let's move to the next point.

"Essential Literacies"

Let's define literacies before I move forward. Dictionary.com defines literacy as the ability to read and write. That hardly seems adequate in this day and age. So let's see what else the world wide web can provide. Our good friends at wikipedia have a much more detailed response. To sum up their definition, literacy includes the dictionary.com definition but also broadens it to include all forms of communication whether written, visual, auditory or multi-sensory. Now that I know what literacy means, I can respond like an informed intellectual. 

Wilber starts the section with visual literacy. Anytime we talk about hieroglyphics I think about my kids as toddlers. They saw pictures and told their gibberish stories. It seems rational to think that visual literacy is innate. But then kids go to school. They are taught that they can't depend on the pictures to tell the story. But isn't that what pictures are supposed to do? Help us understand what words cannot communicate to us? Wilber goes on to explain how visual information on websites can help struggling readers form mental images when the text is too complicated (page 37).  I think the appeal of these websites is more because of the interaction than just visuals. If a student can click around to find what interests them aren't they more inclined to stick to it? I don't know. Maybe I am too old. Wilber talks about  emails and text messages like they are new and exciting technology. If we want students to learn in the classroom, I think it is essential that we learn to teach in their language. That seems to mean short, attention grabbing gimmicks or profound status updates. Check out the video below. It is meant to sell you a book, but just absorb the message.

First, let's be honest. I loved this clip because they used the work Millennial which I used far too many times in my last post. More importantly, they focused on social media. iWrite doesn't specifically have a section on social media, rather a variety of blurbs on social networking. Here is my question for you: How can we make learning in the classroom as interactive are social media? How can we use tools like Facebook or Twitter, with their short, snarky comments and updates that rarely venture beyond 100 characters, to our advantage? Again, I don't have the answers. But if the next generation can multi-task as long as the multitask are simple, repetitious routines, how can we use that to our advantage??

Millennials. What are they anyway?

Response to: iWrite by Dana J. Wilber

Specifically, I am responding to a small section from "Chapter 1: What It Means to Teach Reading and Writing Today."  I wrote so many notes in the margins of the section "The Millennials" that I couldn't resist my first response being all about these crazy kids.

What are The Millennials anyway? According to Wilber, who borrowed the term from Howe and Strauss, people born after 1982 are considered Millennials. I always thought of this group as Generation Y. The basic concept is the same. These people don't know what it was like to live in an age that didn't allow for immediate access to their every desire. I am giving away a little too much about myself when I say this, but I actually know what a card catalog is and I remember what it was like before every living creature had a means of instant communication. I remember the days of using an encyclopedia instead of Google. I remember waiting for my mom in the nurse's office for hours because she wasn't home when I got sick. Millennials will think I was born in 1877. But alas, I was not. But these are the people I am expected to teach one day.

Here is some food for thought.

Okay, here are some questions I have......

1. Why do Millennials feel like they have to be "plugged in" to everything and everyone all the time? And I mean All. The. Time. Wilber writes about their constant interactions, but I didn't read anything about face-to-face interactions. This leads to my next question.
2. Is it easier for Millennials to communicate in a more "anonymous" forum that allows for responses to be vague and lacking in human emotion, save the randomly inserted smiley icon? 
3. If the Millennials are able to multi-task (which Wilber does acknowledge as impossible on page 10) are they really understanding what they are doing? I think it is more of a "search until I find the answer" sort of mentality because they all seem to think that cut and paste is the solution to all of their work. Enjoy this nugget of truth:

There is no way around the fact that eventually I will be teaching. And I will be teaching kids who are infinitely more savvy than I am with technology. I am trying to have an open mind about it, but how can I teach a generation of kids that writing is hard work when everything has been a few mouse clicks away and no more difficult than typing into an autocorrecting box? How do I get them to understand that they can have their own opinions about literature and text that may be different from the SparkNotes version?

With a mobile app, SparkNotes is more easily accessible than individual thought, I guess.