Book Review

I chose the book The Teachers Guide to Media Literacy Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World by Cyndy Scheibe and Faith Rogow.

I would give this book a two thumbs up rating across the board! It is a fantastic resource to supplement not only this class but to use as a tool for incorporating media literacy and 21^st Century skills into you classroom.  This book does a really great job to support this class; it seemed to mirror and supplement each week. It is very informative when it comes to offering strategies to implement technology into the classroom. It does a great job of explaining media literacy and how to use it, as well as incorporate technology in the classroom in very effective ways. I received a lot of valuable information from this book. For an additional bonus, the book offers a companion website that includes all of the curriculum and lessons included in the book to use as a reference. It is great because you can make adaptations to the lessons to best meet the needs of yourself and your class. The book was an easy read and it does a great job to get you hooked. I found myself wanting to read more and more. It offered numerous ways to use media as well as ideas of curriculum and lessons to use in the classroom. Besides offering many resources and instructional strategies, the book had “reflection boxes” throughout the book, which encouraged self-reflection to what was just discussed. “It is possible to teach media without taking time for self-reflection, but you will be much more effective if you engage in this important part of being a media literacy educator.” (Scheibe & Rogow 2012, p. 7) I couldn’t agree more with this statement and found that having the boxes throughout the text reminded me to take time to self-reflect, which created a better understanding of the material.

Summary:

       The book starts out by describing media literacy, the ISTE educational standards, the principles behind media literacy, the needs of educators and students when it comes to media literacy, and how to use the book effectively. Chapters 1-3 give in-depth reasoning about what they mean when they talk about media literacy education. They describe different types of media, going beyond technology and point out different types of media and the messages convey through all types of media. It discusses the components of media literacy and the importance critical thinking skills play when developing media literacy. The book discusses the topic of visual literacy. Taking into consideration the content of what you are looking at. “Replace the question, “What does it mean? with “When you see this, what do you do?” (Scheibe & Rogow 2012, p. 29) There was a great example about a yellow dot. Is it part of a traffic light, or the sun, or a smiley face? Visual literacy requires putting what you see into a relative context, which differs upon personal perspectives. In Chapter three the book discusses media literacy education, this is where they incorporated the ISTE standards and how they relate to teaching media literacy. Teaching students and yourself to ask questions when analyzing media messages. It talks about critical thinking and looking at the impact, context, and creditability of a source. This chapter laid the foundation for the following chapters in how to teach these skills in a classroom.

       Chapters 4-7 lay out the pedagogy and practices for achieving media literacy education. The first section discusses reading and interpreting media messages. Teaching students to build a skill set to decode media documents and media messages they read. Asking productive questions such as, Is it fact or opinion?, Is it a reliable source?, What is the author's point of view?, and to draw conclusions using document-based evidence. These skills are the same as in traditional ELA standards, but just as important when taking into consideration media literacy. Using these decoding skills to find media documents and analyze them to see if they are going to be useful and supportive in whatever they are researching. Using teaching strategies that are unbiased and developmentally appropriate. I felt that these chapters pointed out the use of effective teaching strategies for overall instruction. It is just as important to keep these strategies in mind when teaching media literacy and technology skills. It gave real life examples of decoding strategies related to art and history. The book offered detailed ways to incorporate media literacy into everyday curriculum, by using it in everyday teaching strategies such as KWL charts and self-assessments. It gave examples of advertising, news reports, video games, and website home pages. How they can be set up to be misleading or bias. All the scenarios are interpreted differently from children to adults. Overall, encouraging, teaching, and promoting critical thinking skills in students when it relates to their media and technology lives.

       Chapter 6 offered ways to incorporate media into every content area/ subject, giving examples of how to do it in each area. The ideas range from word clouds to electronic graphs and charts. Chapter 7 offers many detailed lesson plans that effectively used multimedia throughout the lesson and promotes opportunities for students to practice the media literacy skills they have learned. Oh my goodness they were all fantastic.

       Chapters 8 and 9 are about assessment. Specifically, how to determine if your approaches to teaching media literacy have been effective. They also describe the challenges and benefits to media literacy education in the classroom. They offer assessing habits of inquiry with a traditional scale of inadequate, emerging, proficient, advanced, and elementary. Chapter nine was awesome because it challenged the question, “Sounds great, but I don’t have time! Getting past the barriers and why it’s worth it.” (Scheibe & Rogow 2012, p. 201) Teachers have excuses and reasons to why they are fearful or don’t work on creating a differentiated classroom. When I was reading the chapter they were all similar to those and they offered the same advice. Start slow, do one step at a time, and tweak it to fit your needs and those of your students, that way it will be less overwhelming and more effective.

Reference:

Scheibe, C., & Rogow, F. (2012). The teacher's guide to media literacy: Critical thinking in a multimedia world. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Standards Based Interacrive Game

This is an interactive Jeopardy game based on the fifth-grade science standards, “Physical Sciences 1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know that during chemical reactions the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form products with different properties. c. Students know metals have properties in common, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity. Some metals, such as aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au), are pure elements; others, such as steel and brass, are composed of a combination of elemental metals. i. Students know the common properties of salts, such as sodium chloride (NaCl).” 

I found the Jeopardy template on the Internet; in Google Slides. A blank copy of the template can be found in the link below, so you can use it in your classroom. The game and template, are extremely user friendly and has all the links already set in place, all you need to do if fill in the questions, answers, and final Jeopardy question. Then you are ready to play with your students. Just click on the square they choose and the question appears, then to see the answer you click on the answer link. To get back to the home screen you click on the back to home link on the answer slide. The only drawback to this game is that it doesn’t blank out the square that has been previously chosen. Using a white board marker and placing an X over the box easily remedied this. 

 Blank Jeopardy Game Template

I used this template to create a 5th grade Science lesson on metals and alloys. I used the text to create the questions. To begin the lesson I had the students’ frontloaded with information from the chapter. The students were tasked to fill in a chapter notes sheet. This sheet consisted of 6 general questions that covered the material. The students read the chapter and watched the correlating video; they took notes based on the information learned. The students were allowed to use their notes while playing the game. 

On game day I had the students play the game in their table groups, they had to work together as a group to come up with the answers, which they then wrote down on their white boards. I had a time limit of a 1:30 minutes, when the buzzer went off I used pick me sticks to pick a student/ group to flash their white board. If they got the right answer, the group was awarded the corresponding points. The group with the most points was awarded $50 Yankees (the classroom monetary system). 

Metals and Alloys Jeopardy Board

I used the Jeopardy game again in a subsequent lesson, but decided to kick it up a knock. I wanted to provide the students with the opportunity to use a higher order of thinking in Bloom’s Taxonomy, synthesis. I had the students take the same notes based off reading and watching the chapter video for salts. This time I had the students create the questions for the Jeopardy categories. I had them work in cooperative groups and assigned each group a category from the note worksheet. They then gave me the questions, which I inputted into the Jeopardy board. When we played the game we followed all the same rules as before. The students used were able to use their notes when answering the questions.

Student Created Questions Jeopardy- Salts 

I was able to assess the students throughout the entire process. I assess the students while they were coming up with the answers. I was able to use informal observation of their conversations and answers. I also had each group flash their white boards, so I could see that all of the groups answers. Checking all of the answers enabled me to check for understanding of all the students. When I had the students create the questions, I checked the questions and answers as another form of assessment. I used the unit test as a summative assessment, which the students rocked! The lesson provided many opportunities for differentiation, through cooperative group work, content input and output, as well as technology. The game was a great tool for meeting the standards because all of the questions/ information included in the lesson is based on the content standards set forth by the State in fifth grade. Best of all it makes learning fun, engaging and promotes motivation in students.

Refrence:

CDE. (2009, June). Science Content Standards for California Public School. Retrieved June 17, 2016, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd.pdf

21st Century Skills- assignment 1B

21^st century skills are the skills that students need develop and apply to be able to succeed in the information age. They are the skills that prepare students to be successful in their college and careers. There are, what is considered by most, the 4c’s of the 21^st century skills. They are Critical thinking, Creative thinking, Collaborating, and Communication. In general, these skills require students to be able to work effectively with people, to be able to solve problems, to use technology, and have digital literacy.

I feel that communication is one of the most important skills for learners to have to be successful in the 21^st century. Communication skills involve a number of skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Communication skills are an essential part of being a 21^st Century learner. Students need to be able to communicate verbally and via technology.  Students need to effectively collaborate and communicate with other people digitally through technology as well as in person. This requires learning of social skills, how to effectively interact with people, as well as the traditional reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 21st century learners need to be able communicate their thoughts and feelings clearly, articulately, and effectively with a diverse people and in diverse environments. These skills will cross over from the real life world to the digital world. 21^st century learners also need to know how to listen effectively to diverse people and environments to decipher, interpret, and understanding meaning being communicated to them. They must also be able to create positive interactions and communications with diverse populations of people and digital sources. The best ways for students to learn these skills is to practice them in their own lives.

One way for students to practice this is through cooperative group learning activities. With cooperative group activities students are given the opportunity to work with a diverse population of students and personalities. Students learn communication and collaboration skills needed to be successful in their careers, by getting practice with it throughout their education. By incorporating technology into the classroom and working cooperatively with other students it promote creative and critical thinking in the students. 

I have confidence in my abilities as a teacher and learner of 21^st century skills and digital literacy because I assist my students in gaining these skills by modeling and explicitly teaching the skills needed to communicate and interact well with others both in person and via the digital world. By teaching and modeling them how to effectively work well with diverse personalities, use technology; think creatively and critically I feel the students will be better prepared for their future. 

Education- Am I a 21st century teacher? 

Teaching in the 21st century

Upon taking the self-assessment questions based upon the ISTE and NETS standards I have learned a lot about my abilities towards mastery of those standards. When it comes to ISTE Standard One, level one: Technology operations and concepts, topics 1 (mouse & keyboard/ file management/ computer network/ windows operating system/ basic operations), 2 (word processing), 3 (Internet), and 4 (email) I am confident in my abilities to perform all of the functions described in each categories proficiently and effectively. I use them often in my everyday life.

       In self-assessment of level two section 1 (computer network/ computer terminology/ hardware & software/ windows operating system/ basic operation) I rate myself proficient and knowledgeable. In level two section 2 (Internet/ word processing/ presentation software/ spreadsheets) I would rate myself proficient, I am comfortable and use all of the categories in my classroom on a regular basis except for spreadsheets.  When it comes to spreadsheets I would classify my abilities as emerging. I have a basic knowledge and understanding of how they work, I able to create, read, and use spreadsheets, however I feel as though I do not use them to their full potential. With more practice and knowledge in the creation of spreadsheets, I feel that I can become more efficient in using them. As of now I can make them, but it can be time consuming and takes me a lot of trail and error when it comes to streamlining the format. I feel that I am proficient and knowledgeable in sections 3 (Productivity and professional practice) and section 4 (Social, ethical, and human issues) I model, practice, and teach responsible and ethical use of technology in the classroom. I believe this standard it of the utmost importance when incorporating technology in the classroom.

       In self-assessment of level three section 1 (ISTE Standard III: Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum), section 2 (ISTE Standard IV: assessment and evaluation), section 3 (ISTE Standard V: productivity and professional practice), and section 4 (ISTE Standard VI: Social, Ethical, Legal, and human issues) are the areas in which I have the most to learn. When starting this program I had a beginning knowledge of how to utilize these skills and standards in the classroom. As I come to the completion of this program I have learned many new skills related to the subcategories in each topic, but know that there is a lot more for me to learn and practice to consider myself proficient in all of these categories.  Learning is an ongoing process and to keep current in today’s digital world I need to keep learning.

 ISTE and NETS Self-Assessment 

  To become more confident in my skills as a 21^st century learner and teacher I plan to take a proactive approach to seeking out opportunities to enhance my knowledge and abilities in ALL of the areas. I plan to seek professional development to enhance my knowledge and abilities in these areas as well as using my colleagues as resources. As teachers we can use each other as resources to gain knowledge to enhance our teaching strategies and abilities. Another way I plan to become more confident in my skills as a 21^st century teacher and learner is to explore and research different tools myself. To learn new skills by being an active participant in my own learning. I need to get out there and try new technology, not fear or be intimidated by it. Use trial and error to discover how things work. In essence start creating and experiencing new technology tools myself to gain practice and become familiar in using them. With any new skill learned it takes practice and guidance to refine and become proficient in the skill. In doing these things I will become more confident in my abilities as a 21^st century learner and teacher of digital literacy.

21st Century Learner & Teacher- 1A

How would I describe myself as a 21^st Century learner? I would say that I am semi-active 21^st Century learner. I say this because after researching information about digital literacies, I realized that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to becoming a creator in the digital world and not just a consumer and user of products in the digital world. Throughout my Masters classes I feel that I am on my way to learn the information and skills needed to become more of a creator in the digital world and not just a consumer.

I feel that I am a very efficient consumer/ user of technology in the 21^st century. I have learned how to effectively navigate and use computers, iPads, iPods, satellite TV, fitness gadgets, video games, digital cameras, smart phones, and much more. I have taught myself how to be successful in using many of these devices. If I get stuck I can go to the Internet and look up information or videos of how to fix it or how to use the device to it’s fullest potential. I love using technology and the Internet, I fee that it has opened up my world to so many great possibilities, especially the Internet. I use the Internet daily to gain information relative to my everyday life. Ranging from using social media to getting directions. I use it to research and learn information relating to work, home, school, and play the possibilities are endless.

I would like to learn more about how to become an effective creator in the digital world. My first thoughts on this topic were, “I am a creator in this world! I use technology and make things all the time!” After watching and learning more about what a creator is, in the digital world, I discovered that I have way more to learn to consider myself a creator in the 21^st century digital world. I know nothing about writing code or what goes on behind the scenes of the Internet. I hear things such as HTML, PHP, Python, or Ruby and I have absolutely no idea what they mean or how they work. These words, and the thought of going behind the scenes of the Internet intimidate and overwhelm me. I now know that learning these skills are essential to becoming an effective creator in the digital world. I will need to know them to take me to the next level to achieve success in the 21^st Century and the digital world. This knowledge is what motivates me to learn these skills.

 

Technology is everywhere and there is the need to be a responsible digital citizen. I feel that I am a responsible digital citizen. I use social media often, I am very mindful of how I present as well as protect myself on social media and the Internet. I am very careful in protecting my digital identity. I am also very mindful of how I represent myself in social media or on the Internet. I make sure that anything I post or do on any sort of social media is appropriate for all audiences. I ask myself these questions, "Would I want my boss to see this? Would I want my 8 year old nephew to see this? Would I want my family to see this? Would I want my friends to see this?” Once it is out there for the world to see it cannot be taken back. You have to really be proactive and think about consequences to your actions or reactions before putting them out there in the digital world.

       This brings me to how I view myself as a teacher in the 21st Century. In order to be an effective teacher in the 21^st Century and the digital world I need to have a strong foundation and knowledge of how to effectively use, as well as create technology, to benefit from it. A 21^st Century teacher is tech savvy and knowledgeable on how to incorporate it into the classroom to utilize it with students to create a learning environment that promotes student learning to be successful in the 21^st Century. As a teacher I want my students to learn the required skills and knowledge to become productive, responsible citizens in the 21^st Century and the digital world.

       I strive to be an effective teacher in the 21^st Century. I want to facilitate and guide students in their learning. I consistently model behaviors that I expect my students to demonstrate. I create a classroom environment that encourages cooperative group work. I choose curriculum that is based on student’s interest to create motivation for student learning. If students are interested in topic and see the relevance the learning has in their lives it acts as a natural motivator. They in turn have a need and want to learn about a topic, which can push them to a higher order of thinking and create initiative in students. 

    Technology and the Internet are all around today’s students and they have grown up in the digital age. When students use their intrinsic motivation to take initiative in their learning, they are more likely to explore and expand on their knowledge and learning of the digital world by being active participants in it. They can manipulate and use digital media tools to learn. The learning builds upon their natural curiosity of discovering how things work. They can use trial and error to learn on a first hand basis how it works. As a teacher I can be used as a resource to guide and support their learning. Having the students teach each other is another great way to facilitate this in the classroom. I see students teaching other students how to use digital media sources more effectively in my classroom all the time. They see something someone else has created and they want to learn how to do it. They as the student how they did that and the other student will show them. It is absolutely amazing!