Cultural Literacy

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

This class has changed my understanding of literacy in a few ways. First, I never knew that literacy incorporated so many areas. When I think about language arts, and literacy, two subjects come to my mind, reading and writing. I have learned however, that this is a misconception in my thinking. I have learned that literacy involves a deeper understanding of reading, writing, speaking, cultural, emotion, and more. The multiple components of literacy are wonderful to learn about, and I am glad I had the chance to do so.

Partaking in this assignment was great. It gave me an opportunity to discover how I can utilize technology in my future classroom while learning about a new literacy. It has informed my thinking by causing me to realize the endless options of teaching available. I created one slideshow about cultural literacy. This not only engaged my learning on cultural literacy, but engaged and challenged me with a new technological medium. This assignment transformed my thinking, it allowed me to be more creative with how I wanted to express my learning, and it allowed me to explore my subject in a way that best suits my learning style. For those previous listed reasons this project has truly benefited me. I know now, that when it comes to teaching I do not have to simply put up a slide on the overhead and have students copy information or hand out a worksheet, or even have students open a book. I can inform them through their own inquiry by using technology, and allowing them to make discovers in a way that best suits their learning style.

This assignment has opened my eyes. Prior to this project I was only aware of teaching literacy in a more traditional way. My experiences had leaded me to believe that teaching literacy is a dry process, where you have students read a book, and write a response. Occasionally I would see some vocabulary learning, or fluency testing, but for the most part, incredibly dull and boring. Now, I have acquired new skills. I know how to incorporate technology into my classroom to engage students and challenge their learning. As a result of this assignment I will now take a more creative approach to lesson planning. I have gained skills to teach students through technology, now I need to apply those skills so students can learn through technology. This is a challenge I look forward to.  




2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

I feel that providing effective literacy instruction to diverse learners means accessing learner’s strengths through literacy. This could be done in many ways, but it should always challenge learners to explore and understand your, (the teachers) goals. Effective literacy instruction comes when students are engaged in what they are doing and have an opportunity to absorb, challenge, and be challenged by the information they are learning. My research on a new literacy has informed my thinking by providing me just that sort of challenge. Prior to this assignment I knew nothing about cultural literacy, or how to create an effective slideshow. However, now I feel more than comfortable talking about both. To understand my topic I first needed to research it. I learned what cultural literacy was, and then I began to plan how I would like to promote it in the classroom using my slideshow. This approach has informed my thinking. I realized that I was attempting to learn and do multiple things during this project. In order to make sure the knowledge I learned about my literacy and my technology were strong, I needed to prioritize and commit myself to a full understanding of both. This approach has not only informed my thinking on research, but on teaching as well. If I were teaching younger students, there is no way I could give them similar instructions and have them perform tasks without the proper modeling and demonstrating, at the very least, this I have realized that I need to have patience when it comes to lesson planning. A lot of the time I just want to “jam” everything into one lesson. I see the end result and I want it to happen in a one hour lesson. I know now, that thinking that way will only hinder my students, and it needs to change, and because of this assignment, it has.



3) LESSON PLAN:

My lesson is a called “Knowing Me.” It utilizes the ideas of cultural literacy and will give students the opportunity to explore their culture and present it to the class using their own original slideshow.

Target area and rationale:  Cultural literacy is a great way to promote an understanding of differences in the classroom. It can be achieved many ways, through reading, writing, discussion, and technology, students can learn about their culture, and the culture of their classmates. This understanding of one’s culture can help promote a healthy strong community and can help promote a thirst for research and understanding.

This lesson will be completed in two ways. Students will research their own culture. They can do this by talking to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, researching online, and any other way they want to gain knowledge about their culture. Following the research period, students will begin to create an informative slideshow presentation about their culture. It can include, picture and moving film to help provide an understanding of who they are and where they come from.

List your objective(s)

o     Performance: Students will perform research to discover their culture. Students will then present their finding using a slideshow type presentation.

o    Conditions: Students will incorporate into their presentation what their culture is, why it is significant to them, how they celebrate it, and any other interesting facts they deem valuable.

o    Criterion: Students must draw on their own culture and understanding to help other students understand their background.

List the materials and supplies needed: Access to the internet, Pinnacle Studios 15, IMOVIE, or SlideRoll, a projector, computer

Outline of key events (use bullets)

·         First students will be introduced to the lesson

·         They will have One week to research their culture.

·         Students will gather information about themselves and prepare to create a slideshow of their culture

·         Once Students have researched and gathered information, they will be shown how to use one of the above editing software

·         Proper editing will be modeled to the students along with many examples so they can have an idea of what they project can look like.

·         Students will be give time to create their slideshow

·         After students have completed their slideshows, we will have a “culture day”

·         Here students will be able to show off their presentations and talk a little bit about their culture.

·         During “culture day” students can bring in snacks from their culture, to help promote an understanding of what their culture is.

·         Every student will have the opportunity to talk about their culture and answer any questions that may arise.

Closing summary

           

            The end goal of this lesson would be to create a classroom culture slideshow. For this, the entire class would work on one giant slideshow. It would incorporate all the members of the class and what special attributes they bring to the classroom. Here students would be using their cultural understanding of each other and themselves to help create a video of whom they are and why everyone is important.