Tuesday, June 3, 2008

“For us to deny the continuing importance of conventional literacies and to otherwise denigrate them would be ingenious” (pg 61) is a quote from Lankshear and Knobel and it is nice to hear that statement. Kids nowadays need instant information and answers. They, and by saying they I mean most of my students, will not put the effort in to reading a good book for answers, or researching. They need it instantly by means of the internet, or by using cell phones. It is tough to balance all of these new literacies as teacher and kids. Most teachers are older and hate new technology and most kids hate books. As teachers we need to do a better job of teaching students to balance these new literacies. But it is hard and I can’t blame my students. Think about it….Should I play on the internet or read an old boring book? Along with balancing, we need to make sure that as students learn these new literacies and become acquainted with them they do not lose the skills needed for the literacies they don’t use. For example, I have 10th grade students that have a tough time reading but could text and use the internet with the best of them. This is a problem!! Anyone else witness this and what do you do about stressing the importance of reading in a secondary setting?

1 comment:

Genna said...

Hey Bob,
I do agree with you about the balance of new literacies and "old" literacies. Although I do see students in school reading a lot, I still find that their ability to read and understand what they are reading is not at the level it should be. I think until there is an increase in the ability of students to read and write, all clases do have to focus on reading and writing; not exclusively but intergrate them into our curriculum.