New+Literacies+Practices

New Literacies Practices

A significant tool that people use to communicate, is through technology. It is the way of the future and why not use technology to educate our children. Mediums are fun and a creative way to help the children learn especially in literacy. In this generation "a person must be literate in traditional and new communications technologies" (Bull and Anstey 2010) to cope in society.

Having the opportunity to go on placement, gave me a different perspective on how I lived primary school. There was different types of computer programs that I observed that the children went on. This particular website: [|www.starfall.com] suited for preps and grade 1's. The website is designed to help children recognise the letters of the alphabet and letters in words. It involves visuals to help recognise letters but also audio so the child can know what the letters are called and what they sound like.

At the school where I had my placement they had a TV in each room. In the morning the children would enter the classroom, put their bags away and sit down to watch "The Morning Show". This was run by the students (Grade 6's) and it was a live broadcast on the news of the day. The news included which teacher had yard duty, teachers birthday's, maths quiz and also a literacy segment. In this school they were focusing on persuasive writing so the segment gave ideas on how they do write one. Even though the segment might of not being appropriate for preps to grade 2's it was a good way for the show to involve the children and have some relations on persuasive writing. This would only help them if the teacher in the classroom would have a discussion about the topic and relate it to what they do in their literacy class. The whole idea of "The Morning Show" is a great way to communicate through the whole school from preps to grade 6's. Even though some of the early years do not know how to read they are in a routine that has repetition and they will eventually recognise words on the television screen.

Another good medium to use in the classroom is a laptop or an Ipad. This is useful for teachers and students to have around when they both do not not know an answer to a question. It is a good way to research questions that a child has asked or even a teacher. The students and teacher can research the answers together and have an answer instantly, instead of the teacher having to give the child the answer later or making the child find out at home and report back the next day. I find that this is more important having to research something instantly, as the child's is engaged because they are interested in that moment. If they were to report back later or the next day the interest might have gone and would not be intrigued to know the answer.

One of the traditional ways I remember of having guided reading, was that I borrowed a book in the library that had a tape with it. This helped me to read the book and helped me pronounce some words, it also kept me entertained. These days teachers can upload story book's on ipods and have the child listen to it while they are reading the book, or just watch a video on the book. A good website to use is www.storylineonline.net, this website has books that children in the early years would of heard of. This website is great as the books has the animated look where it comes to life. Using this technology the child has control and independence, they also have that one on one reading.

For late grade 1's and 2's, a good way to use technology at home is to type up their work. If a teacher has an assignment  to give the children, the assignment could be to create a creative story.They can write up their story at home and get help from family members. This will teach them how to use a computer and how to actually create a word document. In class the teacher can delegate groups on which days they use the computer to make letters to people, typing up what they did on the weekend or even letters when it is mothers/fathers day.

 The smart board is the new white board. It is a new technology that most schools have embraced. It is easy to use, it is like having a big screen computer and your hand is the mouse. There are different options on how to use the smart board, all the suggestions made above can be used to demonstrate to the children on how to go on the websites or even how to type up their stories. It can be used as a scaffolding experience, research tool and used for group discussions. One way to use the smart board through literacy is having group reading. This means having the smart board read the book for the class instead of the teacher reading an enlarge book. The website is called www.sunshineonline.com.au and you have to be a member to sign up. When becoming a teacher or being a teacher I think it is good to sign up to this website as it has different literacy levels depending on the children that you are teaching. This website is interactive as the children can select together what book to read and the book they select has cartoons to go with the story.This also heaps with reading comprehension.

Overall having all these different ways of doing literacy is a fun and innovative way to get the children participating. These websites and suggests can also be used at home which is helpful as most homes have the internet. These suggestions are not just restricted from the classroom, teachers can encourage parents to help the child with literacy by having these ideas as a guideline.

 Each person in the group had different ways of using media. During assignment 2 three out of six people observed that there was no technology used during the literacy class. The other half either said that the teacher used the smart board to read to the children instead of using a big book. Also the other two people had said they used technology through computers in the room. Even though they were not observed in assignment 2, we had the opportunity to go on placements and view how technology was used. In my placement I was in a prep classroom and the only technology they used was the morning show in the morning and going on a starfall website on computer and learn letters. Another person in the group went to the same placement but had a grade 2 class, he also had the morning show in the morning which was the same but his teacher had a Ipad to research any questions the children had. They also had a specialist class where the class would go to a computer room and learn a new word relating to technology and this was the same for me and the grade 2 class.