Why should educators use multimodal and digital literacies in primary classrooms?

      Students should feel empowered and confident each day as they enter the classroom. The door to the classroom should be an invitation to exploration and growth so that every individual learner can experience daily successes that lead to reaching goals evident through academic growth. Teachers should have high standards for all learners and give each child equal opportunity to demonstrate personal growth. As I discussed in my last post, text used for learning in classrooms has evolved over time to include multi-modal and digital text. This includes web reading and with that the digital skill necessary to use the always changing available tools to navigate and interact with these texts (Colwell et al., 2020). It is important to begin utilizing these available tools to help ensure our young learners are ready for what lies ahead in their educational years. Barbara Moss and Diana Lapp found that primary grade teachers show great interest in new literacies and the ever-changing technologies. These authors state that this includes students having the ability to access a wide range of genres including informational, graphic, visual, and electronic texts (Moss & Lapp, 2010). Research tells us that we are seeing a shift in text from "logic of the page" to "logic of the screen" as even traditional books and newspaper are also digitally available to readers (Hafner, 2014).

The personal digital inquiry units shared in chapter 7 of From Curiosity to Deep

Learning Personal Digital Inquiry in Grades K-8 includes testimony from students 

after they have participated in the units by using multiple genres that included 

traditional and digital text to research for answers to their own inquiry question. 

After participating in a unit that included hand pollinating flowers one first grade 

student wrote "It was so fun. I felt like a bee." (Coiro et al., 2019, p138). A 

researcher shared this quote "I like doing this. I wish I could write everyday."

from a low level student after she successfully used a digital tool to help with 

writing(Baker,2016, p.300). These student quotes answer the question as to why

teachers should include multi-modal and digital literacies in the primary classrooms.

These students spoke with joy about a school experience. The love and passion

for learning develops in our early classrooms therefore, we as teachers should

be willing to try anything that excites our students and sets them up for future

successes.

 


 I created the news letter above to share what is new in my classroom. I too am constantly learning and for me this includes adding new things to my classroom to help my students be the best that they can be! As an educator, I want my students to be engaged and excited about learning. Most importantly I want them to be enthusiastic about showing their creations. When a child shows anxiety about the idea of participating in daily tasks it is my job to encourage them and guide them toward success. I wanted to create change for my student so that he didn’t have to go through a whole school year avoiding writing. I am hopeful that with this digital tool he will be willing to attempt writing and enthusiastic after each success.

 

Bibliography

 

Baker, E. B. A. (2016) "Apps, iPads, and Literacy: Examing the Feasibility Speech 

 

Recognition in a First-Grade Classroom. Reading Research Quarterly. 52(3), 291-310

 

https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq. 170

 

Corio, J., Dobler, E., & Pelekis, K. (2019). From curiosity to deep learning: personal

 

digital inquiry in grades K-5. Stenhouse Publisher

 

Colwell, J., Hutchinson, A., Woodard, L. (2020). Digitally supported

 

Disciplinary literacy for diverse K-5 classrooms. Teachers College Press.

 

Forzani, E., & Leu, D.J. (2012). New Literacies for New Learners: The Need for Digital

 

Technologies in Primary Classrooms. The Educational Forum: New Literacies, New

 

Learning. 76(4), 421-424 https://doi.org/10/1080/00131725.2012,708623


Hafner, C.A. (2014). Embedding Digital Literacies in English Language Teaching:


Students' Digital Video Projects as Multimodal Ensembles. TESOL Quarterly. 48(4),


655-685. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.138


Moss, B. & Lapp, D. (2010). Teaching New literacies in grades K-3. Guilford.

 


 

Comments

  1. Sally BeachOctober 19, 2020 at 3:49 PM

    Great example! really brings the ideas to life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mandy BartlettOctober 30, 2020 at 6:19 PM

    I really like how you connected the importance of empowerment and self-esteem with the use of digital and multimodal literacies. Referring to the newsletter, did you personally use text-to-speech with your student, or was that someone else's example? It reminded me of one of my students who is diagnosed with dysgraphia. Anytime we write more than basic notes, he uses the computer. This has helped in SO many ways with his confidence, attitude, and overall performance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kimberly HagerOctober 30, 2020 at 7:01 PM

      I am currently using it in my classroom. The pictures included are my own. It has been really helpful. We did switch to just using notes on the ipad because the background color works better for my student.

      Delete

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