Since last week, after a post on David Warlick’s blog……..I have been stewing about a comment asked about whether or not we think that there might be new literacies. I have never (in a long while) devoted as much thought and time thinking about this……….deciding one way, and then finding an argument to change my mind. Making lists, reading other blogs, reading books, forming an opinion and then changing my mind again. And tonight — the conversation came up again on twitter……….and just when I was ready to jump in — the conversation came to a abrupt close…..so I came here to extend it.
First of all — after hemming and hawing and thinking I had made a decision……..I am going to say YES, there is a new literacy……….and in a while you will know what I think it is.
A back story if I may.
I was brought up in a very strict family atmosphere — there were certain ways to do certain things and certain things discussed and certain things not discussed. Very early on — I learned not to think (well think outside of the box!) I was pretty obedient and consequences were sharp if I ever did venture an opinion….so you can guess which way I chose to think.
I attended church each week (every week) and there, also, there were certain ways to do things and certain things discussed and certain things not discussed. And again, I learned….not to think.
I attended elementary school in the late 60′s and junior high and high school in the 1970′s. I learned to think a bit — but got better grades if I gave back information which pleased the teacher and did not rock the boat……and again, I learned not to think.
I went from High School to a private Christian college. I had excellent professors, I learned a great deal, but I also learned……….to get an A you give back teacher content to the teacher to show you learned what was presented to you.
I could continue — but I am sure you get the point. However, I don’t think I am that different from many many people who learned to act the exact same way. Don’t rock the boat — produce content that is equal to the content you were given. And for 20 some years, I was in jobs that pretty much were the same environment. I was content — but ……. well, you understand my dismay now.
Jump forward to Fall 2007. I cannot tell you the place, the exact date, or the moment — but suddenly I was forced to start thinking. To start taking other people’s ideas, weigh them with my own, sift through them and come up with a conclusion. I did not always agree with others and they did not always agree with me. I learned to challenge yet I also learned to yield. I learned that just because “so and so” said something was “so” on twitter, or a blog, or a wiki, or even in a classroom (or shock of shocks in a church) did I have to agree with it, accept it, believe it……..etc etc etc.
And it has been hard………I have to admit, it is easier not to think. It is easier to give back content to please rather than content that sticks, that has comprehension and not just the ability to pass the test or get an A.
So — if I accept the definition of literacy as “read, write, speak, and listen” as Wikipedia says, the 21st century literacies to me still overlap with those. Even with all the fancy new names we name literacy — I still can boil them all down to “read, write, speak, listen”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy)
So during the conversation tonight, a comment was made on twitter tonight that took my thoughts finally and gelled them into what I would name as a new literacy. And what was interesting was I did not agree entirely with the comment!!
The comment basically said Being able to write is part of being literate. And that is when it clicked.
“NO” it is more than being able to just write. I was able to write write write my heart’s content out. I was able to spew out content that made teacher’s proud and earned me “A’s” and approval. I could speak at seminars, lecture in classrooms, have discussions many a place — but was it mine or was it repeated information.
SO………If I had to add another literacy it would be “THINK.” Not just to read, write, speak, or listen………but then to take that data and make it your own and present in a way that shows comprehension, understanding, more than just being a clone of content.
If we teach our students (at any age) to think our thoughts, to speak our thoughts, to write our thoughts, and to listen only to our thoughts………we might as well raise robots.
We need to teach kids to think.………….no, we need to allow our kids to think. Even if their thoughts differ from EVERYONE else.
That would be my new literacy.
What do you think??
Jen
Whether or not a student can think for themselves is one of the biggest worries I have in the classroom. It isn’t objectively measurable. It isn’t standardized. For some, it isn’t culturally acceptable. It IS one of the most important skills we can help students to develop.
When a student gives an “incorrect” answer, we should be asking why they chose it. It may be more right than we thought. When a student disagrees with us, we should be asking why they feel that way. They may have a very valid point.
IMHO the more we help/allow students to think, the better chance they have of building, contributing to, and living in a world that is peaceful, productive, and thoughtful ;^)
In our district, as we discuss the ’21st Century Literacies’– and I stress a point made by Jeff Utecht recently- http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=765– we’re nearly 10 years into 21st Century!!– we constantly come back to the fact that kids are assessed almost exclusively on facts, and not on how well they can think and solve problems. In an industrial age, you didn’t want people who could “think,” because they caused problems. You needed a worker who could do what he was told. Today, we need to produce problem-solvers, because we have a world full of problems to solve.
Paula White recently posted about how she challenged some students’ thinking to get them to solve a problem– http://tzstchr.edublogs.org/20.....sure-i-do/ — and I have been using this example to help others to understand it isn’t that complicated. As educators, why WOULDN’T we do the same thing Paula does every single day?
Sometimes, I call myself the black sheep of our district, because I say things that tend to ruffle some feathers. Everyday, I joke that someone will probably fire me, because I don’t accept the status quo and I challenge people who don’t want to be challenged. And I have to say, that may be the thing that makes me most proud in my career.
Great post, Jen! I worry the same as you and Adina, but I’m optimistic that there are enough of us out there to make a difference for kids.
I too have been thinking a lot about this topic. I haven’t yet gone back to search Dave Warlick’s blog (url?) nor have I heard your conversation yet (assume it’s on a WoW2.0 podcast). So lacking context your post appears to be considering literacy in the dimension of writing (definitely important) and also processing (an ability to think critically about what one is taking in and then writing about). I look forward to learning more of the context, but I’m thinking in terms of multiliteracies, which basically apply emerging technology to communicating that message and a welter of collateral issues such as being able to function in that technology, awareness of socio-political constraints, & etc etc. Let me leave traces to a few artifacts here rather than go on in this space about these other literacies. But if you follow these traces, is this relevant to the track you were going down?
I hope this post will accept html (if not this is going to look odd) but in consideration of these other aspects I’ve written many articles on the topic, two in TESL-EJ where the word multiliteracies was overtly in the title:
Stevens, Vance. (2005). Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments. TESL-EJ Vol. 9. No. 2 (September 2005) On the Internet. http://tesl-ej.org/ej34/int.htmlStevens, Vance. (2006). Revisiting multiliteracies in collaborative
learning environments: Impact on teacher professional development. TESL-EJ,
Volume 10, Number 2: http://www.tesl-ej.org/ej38/int.html
Plus, my last rendition of a course on multilteracies taught for TESOL:
http://prosites-vstevens.homes.....al2007.htm
And a Moodle for that course allowing Guest access:
http://www.opensource.idv.tw/m......php?id=23
Hopefully this won’t be rendered all garbage (have to hit submit before we’ll know
Still battling with kids who have learned to give back the “right” answer when I require them to think for themselves. Somewhere between now and Christmas about 60% of the learners will suddenly get it. By the end of the year in May, 90% will get it.
I am just so different. I rock the boat. The principal (when we had one) used to say I was disruptive. Guess I am.