Teaching New Literacy

Popplet Website Typically, my first thought regarding graphic organizers is one in which a student uses it to organize his or her own thoughts or information. Creating and using digital graphic organizers for presentation purposes opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. The software mentioned in this post may be used to convey information, systems, and processes (among other possibilities) - as well as the ability to create custom graphic organizers when none exists for a teacher's purposes. There are thousands available online, but the idea of a custom one is, in my opinion, a valuable targeted tool. In addition, this is a fabulous way for students to present and organize information in a way that they wish to, rather than a premade and classroom-wide handout. Custom graphic organizers are good for specific lessons, as well as for individual students (particularly special needs) or group work. My own creation of a custom (and easily printable) gra...

Aside from the obvious benefit for auditory learners, there are unlimited ways to use audio tools, software, and platforms to better engage students in their work. In addition, they are of permanent record once recorded, and classrooms can even create their own library of storybook tellings, interviews, subject mini-lectures, as well as archive projects either individually or collectively. I particularly like the text's suggestion of a "This Day in History" podcast - classrooms could even create their own digital time capsules, which would remain undamaged by time, unlike traditional buried boxes and collections (as fun as they are also). In addition, it also suggests using audio tools for Reader's Theater, an excellent idea, and one in which it could be replayed for others (including a classroom of a younger grade) with a sense of pride. And, finally, the text makes a wonderful and creative suggestion for using integrating audio narratives by embedding the recordi...

A Victorian Classroom by Thomas Webster, circa 1845. According to Dave Gray, author of three books and founder of Xplane  (a " visual thinking company ") - has called our society "visually illiterate." I would agree, as a recent powerpoint on visual literacy I recently viewed taught me quite more than I expected. I was unaware how little I knew about evaluating and understanding visual images and art - and I consider myself a generally well-educated person. Elements like depth (foreground, mid-ground background), angles, clothing (which can indicate time periods), objects, symbols, colors, settings, and more are all powerful clues that add meaning and understanding when they are known to be looked for. Images (like music) are powerful in that they can inspire, alter, and enrich our understanding of not only the image itself - but also any accompanying text, subject, or lesson it might be related to. In addition, other benefits for students are that some be...