Integrating Technology

Technology is more present now than it has ever been in our schools and in our society in general. Many people may see issues with using technology within the classroom, and there may be disadvantages, but it would be a waste of a resource to not utilize it. In the book Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, Fenice Boyd and Andrea Tochelli address the advantages of using multimodal instruction in the classroom. They tell the story of a teacher who had her students look beyond their given text to really investigate and understand the Little Rock Nine. She found that her students were able to relate better to that event in history through the use of videos, pictures, and other types of resources available outside the text. Literacy does not just involve the use of textbooks, it involves using outside sources to help you better understand the text that you are analyzing.

Sara Kajder also looks into the ways in which technology can benefit students in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Some teachers have implemented the use of blogs in their classrooms. This allows students to express their thoughts about academic topics in a more informal way. Their peers can then read and respond or reflect upon what their classmates are saying. Another example that Kajder gives is podcasting. In this activity, technology is integrated into classroom group discussions. Students record group conversations that take place in class, and then they, along with the teacher, can go back and analyze the discussion.

Math is another subject that has greatly benefitted from the use of technology within the classroom. Math is often a difficult subject for many students to grasp. However, if we have resources that provide us with interactive means for students to practice it, we increase the likelihood of their success. Another way technology has helped the math world, is through the visual representation of complex problems. As you get into higher-level math courses, you deal with a lot of graphs and objects being represented through equations. For students (and myself!) it is very difficult to see how these letters and numbers represent a shape, but when there is a visual that goes along with it, it becomes much more clear. 

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Beyond English

Teachers need to be prepared to have students in their classroom for whom English is not their first language. English might not be much of a language at all for them. Many teachers may think that they don’t have to worry about being put in these situations because of the location of their school (maybe it is out in the middle of nowhere), but you cannot make generalizations like this. Our country is comprised of many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, so it is something that teachers need to be prepared for.

In Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, Leckie discusses strategies for teaching students who have English as an additional language. Leckie highlights the fact that students in this “category” are already proficient in at least one language and are learning a second, which is more than most English-speaking citizens can say. Leckie suggests that we take advantage of these students’ abilities to understand how languages work in order to teach them. It’s the same idea as using a student’s strengths to help them learn.

In Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, Aguilar focuses more on the actual language development of English Language Learners. On thing that was mentioned in the text, was that vocabulary is a key to success for these students. They need to focus on vocabulary words that they don’t understand while reading different texts, so that they can identify it both broadly and in the specific context with which it was used.

American classrooms are diverse in today’s society. There are many students in the American school system that do not speak English at home or have not grown up speaking English. Teachers need to be ready to know how to teach these students and help them in their developing English language.

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary plays a huge role in students' ability to comprehend literature. There are many different ways that students can develop an advanced vocabulary. Ideally, students will have built upon their language skills over the years, but unfortunately many students will arrive in their high school English classroom very unprepared. This is difficult for their teachers because the material they need to teach requires advanced vocabulary. 
Hinchman provides many different ideas about how teachers can present vocabulary to their students. Some of the ideas mentioned in her book, Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, include; a word a day, K-W-L (which stands for know, want to know, and learn), Teach-Teach-Trade, root words, and digital words (ch. 7). Teachers will be able to know what works best for their students in their classroom after trying these different approaches. What works well for one teacher might not work for another depending on the environment and the students.
Beers also discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Beers focuses more on how students learn vocabulary and what general methods best work in successfully teaching them. An interesting question that was brought up in chapter seven was, "What does it mean to know a word? (Beers, p. 91)." We talk all the time about the importance of vocabulary, but we fail to address what it means for a student to know a word. They may be able to use it in a sentence and spell it, but that doesn't mean that they know what it means. I'm sure there are still some words that I use just because I have heard other people use them all the time so I know the context with which they apply, yet I don't get the entire meaning. We need to make sure students understand the meaning of words. Just being able to read the word and say it aloud does not make it known to the student.



Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Motivation

It would be nice if all students got excited about learning, but unfortunately this is not the case. As students get older and school gets harder, the general atmosphere about education goes downhill. Think about; it’s easy to enjoy something that you are good at, but when difficulties arise, you generally don’t look forward to it as much. It is for this reason that motivation is a vital ingredient in teaching students.

According to Hinchman in the book Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, “Developmental trends indicate that a marked change occurs in students’ motivation as they progress through school. Research findings show us that the school learning climate becomes increasingly performance oriented (vs. mastery driven) as students move through the grades (p. 38).” Students who grow up struggling with reading and writing are going to come across performance issues quickly as these skills are involved in everything. These students believe themselves to be less capable and competent in higher-level education (Hinchman, p.39). It is important that teachers motivate their students so that they don’t hit these “road blocks” and lose courage at the first sign of difficulty. Junior high and high school students particularly look for approval from their peers. This can also influence their desire to do well or bad.

Teachers need to be aware of the ways in which they can motivate their students to do their best. One issue that often interferes with motivation is the stereotypes that shape teachers’ opinions. Beers talks about this in the book Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice. They suggest that teachers can easily give up on students who are lower-achieving students, rather than learning how they can help those students. However, when teachers give up and stop engaging with their students, they are depriving them of one of the most important forms of motivation they might receive in their education. “The type of engagement so vital to them for school learning is the engagement that comes through relationships with their teachers (Beers, p. 246).” Teachers need to leave stereotypes behind and “argue against those who believe that some students deserve less because they are less deserving or less able (Beers, p. 256).”

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.