Literacy Now

Like many of you, I am always looking for a new tool to place in my teacher toolbox, something that will help me reach each of my students more effectively. However, we see trends come and go as educators, and often we see strategies repackaged and given a new name. So when I began hearing things like “gamification” and “gaming in the classroom,” I was skeptical at first. My mind was filled with images of students spending hours in front of screens with little reaction to those living in our three-dimensional world.

I would not call myself a gamer. Sure, I enjoy playing games—digital and otherwise—but I have learned how easily one can get sucked into them. I asked myself, does this “new” idea have merit? Will it support my students’ learning goals, give them a voice, and help them make the world a better place?

With that skepticism in mind, I began attending gaming sessions at conferences, reading articles and blogs, and engaging with other educators through social media to learn more. I heard about complex systems of badges and rewards in addition to detailed directions for student-designed video games. Although hearing about how this was working for other teachers was impressive, I, like many of my colleagues, was failing to see the connection between these ideas and the practicality of my middle school classroom. I wondered how bringing gaming into my classroom would support student learning.

Then, in an Edcamp session facilitated by Laren Hammonds, I learned that by taking the principles that make a game exciting for players and translating them into classroom practice, a teacher can foster an environment where students are engaged. Does this include a teacher or student using games to support learning? Yes, sometimes. Does this include students creating games to prove mastery of standards? It absolutely can.

Here are a few practices that game makers use that translate well into classroom practices. My bet is that you are already using most of these with your students.

Competition

Many of our students thrive on competition. In our sixth-grade classroom, my male students tend to work much harder when there is a competition in place, even for something as small as bragging rights. For some of our students, competition is the way to reach them and get them to connect with our content. It can help to build relationships among team members, and it teaches them a valuable life lesson: how to win or lose gracefully.

Challenge

Like with any task, if you make it too easy, the audience will lose interest. We want our students, the next generation, to have the opportunity to fail, learn from their failures, make new plans, grow, and work toward success. Yes, our students need our support and their peers’ support along the way. This not only engages them in a growth mind-set, but also helps to build a strong work ethic. They become stronger, self-motivated, and more independent.

Communication

Our students are no longer dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Today’s games include connecting with others in real time. Our learners need that opportunity. Today’s learners expect to be able to get timely feedback. They crave the opportunity to have real-time sessions to discuss, analyze, plan, and strategize their next move. They write, speak, listen, and learn about putting all of their literacy lessons into practice in a meaningful manner with an authentic audience.

Camaraderie

Our students want to belong. In today’s games, they have the opportunity to build teams, chat with others, and learn from one another. In our classrooms, we have the opportunity to provide our learners with opportunities to collaborate, both face-to-face and through digital tools. Our students want to feel that they belong to something bigger than themselves. And isn’t that what we want our classrooms to be—a safe environment that includes and supports everyone?

Do all of these strategies work with all students? Not more than any other strategy. However, games have been around for centuries. To dismiss them would be to deprive our students of rich learning opportunities.

With this in mind, I may be a gamer after all. How about you?

Julie D. Ramsay is a National Board Certified Teacher and the author of “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?”: Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3–8.She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, AL. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog, eduflections.

In a recent study, nearly 8 out of 10 parents reported their kids watch videos or play games on an electronic device. As the parent of a 14-year-old, I would fall into this demographic, as my son seems to be perpetually on his phone or computer. Given my profession, I have stressed to him that he needs to be cautious when online on any device, and we have an open technology policy, meaning I can examine his devices at any time. Yet, even with my careful approach, we found out how quickly a mouse click can turn into a very problematic situation.

As a bit of background, for a recent birthday, my son received a computer that we selected specifically for his online gaming. He was in the process of searching for content and game downloads when a pop-up window appeared on the screen, informing him that his “computer was at risk.” The message indicated that he needed to speak with a representative to fix the problem. Taken aback, my son obeyed the message. Within 10 minutes, he had made two phone calls and allowed an unknown individual to access his new computer remotely. Realizing something did not feel quite right, he called me on a different phone, and I told him to shut off the computer immediately and hang up on whoever was impersonating technical support.

Thankfully all appears OK, but this situation underscores the need for parents and teachers to remain vigilant and educate children on the nine themes associated with digital citizenship. Various documents provide some foundational support in this process (see AASL, ISTE, or Manitoba, Canada’s LwICT,); however, my recommendation for a truly comprehensive resource is Common Sense Education’s website. Given my space constraints, I’ll only briefly describe elements associated with the Digital Citizenship Scope and Sequence and Family Toolbox, but would suggest you give yourself a few hours to explore the many resources on the website.

The Digital Citizenship Scope and Sequence represents a free curriculum built around eight categories, including Internet safety, privacy and security, relationships and communication, and information literacy. In total, there are 80 lessons in units that teach skills ranging from sending an e-mail to identifying cyberbullying within grade bands of K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. The lessons are aligned with the Common Core Standards as well as the AASL and ISTE standards, providing a solid basis for their use in the classroom. Each lesson is available in .pdf format in English and Spanish, yet there is the potential for greater interactivity using digital workbooks in iBooks or accessing content through Nearpod, although these require purchase. On the other hand, the Family Toolbox was created to enable connections between home and school. Resources, which are designed for parents, include videos, conversation-starters, and guidelines that will help them talk to children about how to make good digital choices. I especially like the Family Activity Worksheets, as each contains a three-step activity that involves a child and adult working together to learn a skill or concept related to the lessons within the scope and sequence.

As I think back on the situation with my son, we both learned a valuable lesson and, in retrospect, I should have done more to prepare him. If there is any solace, it’s that through our conversations he suspected something was wrong during the interaction with “tech support” and knew to call me. Given a recent report revealing 72% of parents expressed concern about teens’ online interactions, I think it’s imperative for educators to highlight resources like those found on Common Sense Education and continue to help parents hold conversations with their children by providing other resources focused on Internet safety (e.g., the FTC's Protecting Kids Online page, Kids.gov, and NewSmartz Workshop). Given our children and youths’ use of digital resources is unlikely to diminish, we must do everything possible to enable them to make wise and responsible online choices.

For additional information and resources from Pew Research and Common Sense Media, visit:

• Teens & Technology
• Education
• Privacy & Safety
• Media Use by Tweens & Teens

S. Michael Putman, PhD, is an associate professor and interim chairperson in the Reading and Elementary Education Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His areas of research include the impact of teacher preparation and professional development on teacher self-efficacy, student dispositions toward online inquiry, and the effective use of technology within teaching practices.

Listen to the soundscape around you right now. What do you hear? Perhaps the subtle buzzing of lights, distant voices in the background, or maybe you have music softly streaming on your computer. No matter where you are in the world, life is rich with sound.

Creating soundscapes has been a longstanding practice in cinema by foley artists. Most sounds you hear in a movie were not there to begin with and are made post-production. Just as music, sound effects, and ambience amplifies the experience for moviegoers, sound is important in students’ multimodal composition.

This New York Times piece highlights the power of aural environments in our lives, and at the same time illustrates the power that sound can play in multimodal composition. Composing with and through sound is often overlooked in the classroom. How might we engage students in thoughtful sonic composing to develop a stronger, more embodied sense of audience, cultural soundscapes, and emotional impact of tone and mood when digitally writing?

The #hearmyhome Project

Two digital trailblazers in the area of (re)imagining sound and sonic composing in classrooms are Jon M. Wargo, a doctoral candidate in Teacher Education at Michigan State University (as well as one of ILA’s inaugural 30 Under 30 awardees), and Cassie J. Brownell, a doctoral student in Teacher Education at Michigan State University.

Wargo and Brownell’s 2016 #hearmyhome project is a unique networked soundscapes inquiry that encourages people around the globe to share everyday soundscapes using the #hearmyhome tag on various social media. By hearing and listening to the community soundscapes collected, Wargo believes it may reeducate the senses and attune us towards cultural difference. Participants with geotagging services on will have their audio, comments, usernames, and locations generated on a live map on the #hearmyhome website, planned to go live late January).

You can follow #hearmyhome across multiple social networks (Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram) and can join an up-to-date mailing list to learn about the list of participatory “sonic events” for your classroom to get involved in.

Using Booktrack Classroom to Soundscape Text

Booktrack Classroom is a free Web-based Chrome app (also available for iOS and Android devices) that combines written words and synchronized sounds into an immersive reading experience. This is not an audio book in which a recorded voice reads the text to the listener, but instead the reader reads the text on his/her own while hearing sounds that correspond with the print on the screen. Simply put: a soundtrack for the book!

To keep sounds in sync with the text, Booktrack can be adjusted to the reader’s pace. The reading speed and volume of sounds can be manipulated by the reader. When the text is paused, a setting gear appears which allows the reader to turn on/off the text tracking indicator and more.

To experience a Booktrack for yourself, scroll about halfway down the page and click on one of the free samples.

Not only does Booktrack Classroom provide students with access to a number of books with soundtracks, but students can create brand new soundscapes to books housed in their library or  create their own Booktrack with an original piece of writing that can be published for others to read.

Creating a Booktrack

Students can either type in their own story or select a book from the library. Next, they layer in sound–ambience, music, and sound effects–by highlighting specific parts of the text they want the sound to accompany (see screenshot below). As they soundscape the text, students engage in many critical skills: analytical listening, determining where to add sound and include sound effects, deciding what specific sound will create the right ambience, , understanding how to evoke the right emotion with music, and in the end, discerning whether their sound choices will enhance the overall reading experience for the intended audience.

There are a few considerations to be made before bringing Booktrack into the classroom, such as how can soundtracks and soundscaping assist students with comprehension? Furthermore, teachers will need to model and discuss with students how to efficiently search, listen, and select sounds from the more than 120,000 clips available on the site. Also, students will need headphones/earbuds for composing and listening. Some students might find these soundtracks to be a distraction; the sound can be turned all the way down to eliminate this issue.

Getting our students to tune in and become better listeners and producers of sound will help them grow as thoughtful digital composers, and #hearmyhome and Booktrack Classroom are just two of the many ways you can explore sonic literacy with your students.

Amber White is a reading specialist/literacy coach for North Branch Area Schools and a teacher consultant for the Saginaw Bay Writing Project. You can follow her on Twitter.

Revision can be such a grueling process for middle school students, so I am always on the lookout for ways to make it more fun and engaging. Technology motivates my students, and I have found that if I use it in the right way, it can inspire and transform students’ writing.  One way that I have used apps is to have students to transmediate, or change, one aspect of their writing into another medium such as art, poetry, or song. The process of transmediation can help students reenvision an idea, a character, or a conflict and in turn help them revise their writing.

One app I use to foster transmediation is Faces iMake. After students write a first draft of their personal narratives, they use Faces iMake to transmediate one aspect of their writing: character’s descriptions. We have all used the mantra “show, don’t tell,” but sometimes I wonder if students truly know how to do this well. I found that using Faces iMake helps students take a step back from their original writing and consider alternative, unique ways to describe their characters and make their writing more colorful.  With this app, students create face collages using a variety of materials such as fruits and vegetables, musical instruments, different textured cloth, sports equipment, and the like.

At the revision stage of writing, I invite students to create collages for the characters in their narratives. After they create the collage, they write similes or metaphors to accompany their collages. For example, a student might drag and drop a xylophone to be the mouth of their iFace and accompany it with the simile “her speech was as punctuated as the percussion section of the orchestra.” Then I ask students to reread their drafts and contemplate whether any of the ideas they came up with during their collage making could be incorporated into their writing. I am often amazed at how students transform their writing based on this activity.

Another app I use is Lark, by Storybird. Lark is a poetry app that allows my students to transmediate an aspect of their writing into poetry during the revision stage. Students can select a background image, change the colors, and select vocabulary from a finite set of words to create a poem—think magnetic poetry set. At the revision stage, I invite students to choose a conflict in their narrative and turn it into a poem using Lark. This gives students an opportunity to consider the conflict in more depth. Often the poems produced are much more riveting than the description of the conflict in their narratives. Afterwards I ask students to consider using aspects of the poem in their narratives to bring their conflicts to life. They often use key phrases and vocabulary from their poems and imagery conjured up through the poetry and image in Lark working together.  

Transmediation is the process of transforming writing into another medium such as poetry, music, or art. This process can inspire students see their writing in a new light. Using apps to facilitate transmediation is a fun and rewarding activity to enhance students’ creativity during the revision process.

Noreen Moore is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Professional Studies at William Paterson University.

Each day tweets, blog posts, and other digital media suggest a myriad of new notions and emerging possibilities for digital teaching, thinking, learning, creating, and communicating in 21st-century classrooms. Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts our technological capabilities will frame the coming 25 years as one of the most exciting times in human history. This excitement, however, often loses its luster as teachers seek to integrate technology into their instructional practices with insufficient resources and aligned professional development.

What might be the factors or influences that encourage teachers to take risks involved not only to navigate the murky waters of technology integration, but also to put tech tools into the hands of their students? Across time and cultures, personal stories have transformed the minds, motivations, and actions of others. For this reason, our story of Maya offers inspiration and lessons learned for teachers with similar struggles. A fourth-grade teacher who sought to introduce her students to Web 2.0 research and publication, Maya persisted in challenging school administrative policies and was willing to learn to use an online publishing tool alongside her students (rather than teaching them how to use it), which were key factors leading to her successful efforts. Illustrating the evolution of emerging digital applications, the free online publication tool employed in her story was soon bought by a for-profit competitor.

So Maya and her students searched during the coming year for another online publishing option and their quest to navigate and publish together continued. However, the particular venue employed by this teacher and her students was not at the center of her story. Of greater importance was how Maya’s experiences aligned with guidelines for how teachers might use 21st-century literacies realistically in their classrooms, offered by eighth-grade teacher and framework guideline contributor, Sandy Hayes. They include the following:

• Do the usual work in a different way: Take a project or assignment you already do and use one tool to give the project a digital twist.
• Use the tools to learn: Don’t learn just to use the tools.
• Engage in meaningful assessment: Assess the work against skills and content learning, not by the finished product.
• Expect chaos: You are the nexus of chaos, so develop procedures to minimize the number of students clamoring for your help.
• Expect Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong probably will.
• Acknowledge your students as resources: You’ve heard the saying, “And the children shall lead you.” It’s truer than ever.

Meanwhile, as the spectrum of what was, what is, and what can be continues to broaden possibilities for literacy learners, motivated classroom teachers such as Maya persist and lead the way in implementing new literacies and pedagogies in schools. Savvy Media Education Lab professional developers such as Renee Hobbs are tuning into the power of such teacher motivations and how they shape digital learning. Using the Media Education Lab tool What’s Your Motivation?, made available via Powerful Voices for Kids, teachers gain better understandings of how their attitudes about and motivations for digital learning have an impact on instructional practices. Cutting-edge professional development tools like these have the potential to harness technology capabilities of the coming quarter century, leading to literacy teaching and learning that may dazzle the likes of Ray Kurzweil in years to come.

Terry S. Atkinson is an associate professor in the Department of Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.