Transcript MAKING IT RELEVANT Connecting Learning; Incorporating Multiliteracies into

MAKING IT RELEVANT
Connecting Learning; Incorporating Multiliteracies into
the Middle Years Classroom – Considerations for
Teaching and Learning
Debra Evans
Mt Alvernia College
Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment in the Middle Years
MAKING IT RELEVANT
What does it mean to be Literate?
The information age school is one that is distinguished, not by its networked
information technology nor its access to multiple sources of information, but by its
capacity to develop students who are able to interact with and utilise this rich
information environment to develop their own understandings and knowledge, and
who are able to actively contribute to the ongoing development of a thinking,
knowledgeable, creative and empowered society. (Ross Todd 2002)
Multiliteracies - the ‘turf’ of our young adolescents?
‘The world’s 59million K-12 teachers and two billion
students who live in this world of instant communications,
still work mainly by themselves.’ (Dryden 2003:1)
‘Ultimately, to meet the needs of our adolescents,
we will need to meet them (and assess them) on
their own literacy turf. And their turf is wider and
more encompassing of different media than the turf
of older generations who gravitated to print - which
was itself once an “alternative” medium to orality.’
(Kist 2003:7)
Cultural and linguistic diversity - multiculturalism and
global integration, along with globalisation of
communications and labour markets makes language
diversity a critical issue.
New communication technologies - visual, audio, spatial
and written linguistic modes.
New London Group - Cope and Kalantzis (1997)
This demands a new open ended and
flexible approach to literacy for our
students for success in the 21st century.
‘In their out of school lives, computer games, websites,
chatrooms and other forms of digital culture present dynamic
and attractive worlds and possibilities, both textual and social;
powerful resources for identity formation and pleasure and
engagement of many kinds…..(Beavis 2001:2)
For PARTICIPATION AND SUCCESS
We must ensure our students - make meaning, comprehend,
articulate and present information that has real merit for
learning.
“Great teachers are using the whole world as a classroom;
and students are learning by doing.” (Dryden 2003:6 )
Literacy-technology (lITeracies) is one view of
multiliteracies.
Teachers need to teach more than the ‘how to’ of
lITeracies in today’s classrooms. (Durant et el 2000)
Three-Dimensional View of Literacy
OPERATIONAL - basic literacy skills, as well as communication
skills
CULTURAL - subject area particular community or discourse
CRITICAL - analyse and effectively construct some meaning
Operational
Critical
Cultural
Mr Fisher
New London Group - Implementing Multiliteracies
SITUATED PRACTICE - base learning in student’s own
experience
OVERT INSTRUCTION - explicit teaching of metalanguage
that describes design
CRITICAL FRAMING - investigation of cultural context
TRANSFORMED PRACTICE - applications of design in a
new context that students have created
Ms Jones
‘Adolescent learners relish autonomy. They become energised
when the goals of learning are self-determined or negotiated;
when the research topics to be investigated are of interest and of
use to them; when they are given real problems to solve and when
they are able to jointly negotiate both the nature of the learning
task and the assessment regime.’ (Curriculum Corporation 2001:34)
INFUSE MULTILITERACIES USING APPROPRIATE
PEDAGOGY
Employing the Principles guiding Middle Schooling (Barratt 1998)
and connecting with multiliteracies and digital literacies helps to
create a more engaging and relevant classroom experience.
Considerations into how and what educators should be
working on with our young adolescents to ensure that we are
moving towards becoming facilitators of ‘interactive learning’.
(Tapscott 1998:139)
Trusims and False Conclusions
Truism 1 - The problem with the school system go far beyond the schools.
False Conclusion - We should not take dramatic steps to transform
schools.
Truism 2 - We need to understand the purpose of schools - the ends
of education, not just the means.
False Conclusion - We should table any discussion of means until
we have agreement on the ends
Truism 3 - The solution to the problem of education is not technology
False Conclusion - We should abandon or delay efforts to infuse
schools with digital media
Trusims and False Conclusions
Truism 4 - It’s dumb to teach children how to use computers instead of
teaching them math, science, reading and writing.
False Conclusion - We should abandon or delay efforts to get the
digital media into the schools.
Truism 5 - Learning is social.
False Conclusion - Computers are used individually; therefore they
inhibit learning, which is done socially.
Truism 6 - Teachers are skilled, motivated professionals dedicated to the
advancement of their students.
False Conclusion - Teachers are not an obstacle.
MULTIMODAL LEARNING
MULTILITERACIES
Video Link
Local examples
MR FISHER’S CLASSROOM - Canada
Students need to be conversant in multiple forms of representation, collecting and
processing information, including non-print, such as photographs, video footage and
phone interview data. Students need to be able to think and talk about what they have
done, which is as much an expected achievement as is the product of work. In Mr
Fisher’s multiliteracies’ classroom, ‘school is not just about doing – it is about
thinking
and learning.’ (Kist 2003:3)
MS JONES’ CLASSROOM - Bamaga
‘The students examine naturalists’ photographs of animals, they examine traditional Torres
Strait and New Guinean art which represents stories about the natural world; they plan their own
designs, developing a metalanguage which describes abstraction and narrative; they write stories
that give their designs meaning and depth; and they make printed sarongs and designs for sports
shoes with their ideas.’ Here, the connection is being made between linguistic and visual design,
cross-cultural aspects of meaning making.
New Literacy Challenge (Green 1998)
CUSTOMIZED
STUDENT CENTRED
REAL WORLD CONTEXTS
STUDENT LEARNING
FUN
DISCOVERY BASED
CULTURALLY AWARE
TECHNOLOGICALLY INEPT
VISUALISE AND ANALYSE
DATA
From Broadcast Learning to Interactive Learning
1. From linear learning to hypermedia learning
2. From instruction to construction of discovery
3. From teacher-centred to learner-centred education
4. From absorbing material to learning how to navigate and how to learn
5. From school to lifelong learning
6. From one size fits all to customized learning
7. From learning as torture to learning as fun
8. From the teacher as transmitter to the teacher as facilitator
Tapscott (1998)
‘Retool Schooling’ (Green and Gigum 1998)
No other generation has grown up in a society where this high
level of technology existed. We as teachers must ‘catch up’
and ensure that our young adolescents are critical and
informed users of IT.’ (Durant et el 1998)