IW: January - The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies

Even though not everyone in Inspired Writing is a Language Arts teacher, we all still write in our content areas.

It is interesting to see how NCTE  (National Council of Teachers of English ) define 21st Century Literacies.

Updated February 2013

Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to

• Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
• Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.

This definition for me shows the strong connection to the TPACK model we spoke about in August     ( refer to the following post for a review of TPACK )

1) Which of the six bullet points in the NCTE definition aligns the most with what your students have been doing/working on this fall?

2) Why? Is there something else that you feel should be in the list?

IW: October - Reflections on the start of the year

As the month of October wraps up.  

1) How has the beginning of the year started?  What successes and challenges have you faced integrating technology?

2) What online writing tools have you tried or plan on trying this fall?

3) What are you still wanting/needing to learn?

IW: November Why Digital Writing Matters in Education

The article Why Digital Writing Matters in Education talks about teachers being pulled in different directions.  ( The meaning of writing and the meaning of writing on assessments ).  

1) Do you feel this pull in different directions?

The National Commission of Writing - Pew Internet and American Life Project

Part 1. Introduction

Part 2. The Lives of Teens and Their Technology

Part 3. Teens and Their Writing Habits

Part 4. Electronic Communication

Part 5. The Relationship between Writing, Communication

and Technology Ownership

Part 6. Parental Attitudes Toward Writing and Technology

Part 7. The Way Teens See Their Writing and What Would

Improve It

Part 8. What Teens Tell Us Encourages Them to Write

2) Choose one of the Parts in the National Commission of Writing document to read and reflect on.  (This article was written in 2008). What are your take aways? Does the fact that this article is 5 years old change how you feel about the data?

Flipping Cohort - October 22nd Blog Post

October 22nd, 2013

Here are a few blog posts written by other teachers working on Flipping as well.  Take a look at a few of their posts.

- How My Flipped Classroom Works Until I Change It!
- WSQ ( Watch, Summarize and Question )
- Moving to a Mastery-based Model

Reflections:

Choose an article to reflect on.
1) What "ah ha's" or new thinking did you encounter?
2) What can you take back to your classroom and use?
3) What questions do you have?

IL: How Strong is Your PLN?

An essential part of any teacher's 21st century professional development should include an active Personal Learning Network (PLN).  By loose definition, a PLN is the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online.  PLN's can include any number of sources that a teacher can patricipate in including (but not limited to): social networking, blogging, tweeting, RSS feeds, webinars, social bookmarking and even face-to-face interactions.  The continuum over which you may or may n ot participate can vary widely depending on your comfort level;  Consider the 5 c's below:

Where would you rank your participation in PLN's on this continuum?

Now make a copy of the spreadsheet linked below and rate your own PLN.

PLN Worksheet

Where did you score?  Remember there is NOT a good score or bad score.  Everyone is at a different level of developing their own PLN.

What we would like to hear from you is ... what importance do you place on a PLN in your own professional development?  Also, given your current level what steps do you plan on taking to enhance and expand your PLN in the next year.