As Educ 6712 comes to a close, I am reflecting on what was learned and how that has affected my teaching. The literacy skills of the past, reading and writing, have evolved into the skills that our children will need to be successful in the future. With the amount of information available to everyone today, the skills have gone from reading to finding, analyzing, summarizing, synthesizing of information. Students need to filter through information, decide what is useful, and turn it into a product to be share. Inquiry is the direction we are taking to help students practice and master these skills.
Inquiry allows a student to take what they are interested in and turning it into a project to share with others, turning their learning into an opportunity to also practice communication skill that will be crucial in future careers. The assignment that was designed during the course of this class will allow my students to meet state standards in several areas while research a person of their choice. They will need to have opportunities to learn and practice these new literacy skills. The logistics of teaching the new literacy skills will require extra time in the computer lab and time during technology class to prior to the start of the research project.
My goal for the use of new literacy skills is to examine each unit that I currently teach and give my students a place to practice or use these skills. I will be, in fact, starting two new units this week in science and social studies and will have the chance to look at both. I have made a list of the new literacy skills to have on my desk while I am planning so that I can embed the skills as I do my lesson planning for the unit. I have shared this list with my colleagues so that as we are planning together in other areas we can ensure our students have chances to use the skills.
-Melissa
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