Liz's New Literacy Project Reflection

At the beginning of this class, I thought of Literacy in terms of reading and writing. I expected to have a long list of texts to purchase for this class and expected to use those texts to discuss ways we could implement them in the classroom. Using the book Shades of Gray to organize a Book Club was exactly what I thought the whole class would be modeled after. As we began the New Literacies project, I realized that my idea of Literacy was very limited. The presentations from my peers really opened my eyes to the ways technology can be used to enhance literacy learning in the classroom.
For our New Literacies Project, Kailey, Tara, and I chose to do a digital story about England because Kailey and Tara are studying abroad in England this summer. To tell our digital story, we used iMovie on Kailey's iMac computer. The three of us had never used iMovie before so it was completely new to us. We found that the format was easy to use after watching the tutorial. We were able to add pictures, music, text, and transitions to enhance the entertainment of our story and to capture the attention of our viewers. We found pictures on Googles Images and used The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" as our background music. I think the iMovie turned out really well and I would use iMovie or a similar program (such as Windows Movie Maker) to teach lessons in any grade. Additionally, iMovie could be introduced as early as second or third grade for the students to do presentations. iMovie is a new way to showcase work in an entertaining way and I think students would have fun with an assignment that they are able to do creatively with iMovie.
Using iMovie was a new spin on an old idea, in my opinion. The idea of presenting a topic by using research was still the same, but the presentation in general was different. The organization was still an important aspect, but was made easier by using iMovie to switch around slides and add captions. Using iMoving is a great way to give the presenters creative control over their research and a way for the viewers to enjoy the presentation.
The grade level I am planning my literacy instruction for is Kindergarten so iMovie would be best used to enhance my instruction as opposed to having the students creative an iMovie of their own. A great way for me to do this would be to use Brittany's idea of compiling the students' work (like drawings) into a movie in order for the teacher, students, and parents to enjoy. I plan on doing this for a part of my lesson so the students could enjoy their hard work and the parents could get a peek into what their child has been doing, as well as what my role in their child's classroom has been.
After viewing the presentations of my peers, I can see that technology is important in the classroom. I feel like if technology is introduced to students beginning from Kindergarten (for example, the Kindergarteners at my field placement used a SmartBoard in library) and continually used throughout the rest of their academic career, then they would be very strong in terms of technologically literate. As the students move through their elementary career, their capacity for learning more literacies through technology will grow. Using these technologies to make literacy more challenging and exciting will give students motivation to keep trying new things. I also believe these students will continue to want to learn more.
Academic support could be necessary for E.L.L. students but they too would find excitement in the creativity allowed through technology. With the support, I feel as if they would flourish with their English language learning.