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Literacy Learning in Networked Classrooms
ă 2006 International Reading Association This book is intended to help teachers of middle-level students know how to respond to the following questions:
The book’s intended audience is primarily English language arts teachers working with young adolescents ranging in age from 10 to 15 in the middle grades (4–8). Secondary audiences for the book are other middle-level teachers, librarians and media specialists, and teacher preparation faculty interested in literacy development across the curriculum. The focus is on supporting students with learning opportunities that will continue to expand their literacy abilities because it takes more than the basics to be literate citizens of networked cultures. Although literacy learning on
the Internet involves the basic processes of comprehending and writing text,
it differs from print-based literacy in significant ways. Text, as defined in
this book, includes sources of digital information in print or multimedia
formats. Reading and writing text online is highly interactive. Writing
becomes more fluent as students engage in online dialogues involving short
writing–reading cycles. Online drafting and revising involve a social
collaborative process between a writer and his or her immediate audience.
Information research becomes a critical reading process useful for sorting
through volumes of online texts to find and synthesize reliable data, rather
than a memorization of the print encyclopedia. Reading through hypertexts or
interactive multimedia is an active process in which the reader
develops an internal narrator who synthesizes meaning and decides which link
to follow next and why. The Book’s
Research Base
The insights in this book stem from my background in the field of educational technology and educational psychology and my program evaluation work during the past decade. Particularly informative to me was a study I organized in the late 1990s to hear firsthand from literacy leaders and classroom teachers about the benefits that accrue from their Internet use with students. I had seen and heard much about the impact of computers on literacy, but the Internet seemed to make a quantum leap over word processing and interactive multimedia CD-ROMs. Literature about the Internet was scarce, so my fellow researchers and I set out to investigate the literacy skills students need to use the Internet effectively, applicable instructional strategies, and the professional development teachers believe they need to capitalize on the Internet’s potential for literacy education (McNabb, Hassel, & Steiner, 2002). The focal points for our study were gleaned from current English language arts and technology learning standards as well as previous research (Becker, 1999; Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, 1998; Norris & Soloway, 2000), which informed the questions asked during the study. Interviews with well-known literacy researchers and pioneering teachers further shaped questions for an online survey targeting teachers who had significant experience in classroom uses of the Internet. We employed a snowball sampling technique—which involved gathering referrals to exemplary Internet-using teachers—and found 93 educators in 25 states to participate. The findings from our study indicate a number of educational benefits that participants associated with using the Internet to support students’ literacy development. Teachers said they observed that Internet-based activities make reading enjoyable for students, foster active reading, and facilitate reading fluency. They also stated that Internet use enables students to engage in collaborative discussions and authentic information research experiences that enhance understanding of content. The teachers and researchers emphasized that many conventional reading and writing skills are essential but are just a starting place when using the Internet in the middle grades. Vocabulary development, process writing skills, and comprehension of a variety of texts representing multiple perspectives are typical literacy activities teachers assigned to students online. Our results also indicated that higher-order literacy skills, such as organizing information research around a research question, comparing and contrasting, and evaluating and synthesizing information into new and meaningful structures, are important uses of the Internet in literacy education. We found three primary areas in which the Internet provides curricular benefits. These were information research, writing and publishing, and participating in online learning communities. We (McNabb, Hassel, et al., 2002) also discovered prevalent instructional practices such as:
The types of practices teachers
and literacy researchers emphasized in the study paralleled, in many
respects, the principles of effective learning environments, derived
from cumulative research about how people learn (see Bransford,
Brown, & Cocking, 1999). The more I investigated the dynamics of
networked classrooms, the more I came to understand how these research-based
principles could provide the basis of a framework for designing literacy
opportunities in networked classrooms. That framework is applied throughout
this book to guide teachers’ pedagogical practices in networked classrooms. In addition to these findings,
the study revealed that most of the participating teachers taught themselves
how to use the Internet in literacy education despite the many shifts in
literacy conventions and norms and classroom dynamics typically present to
those new to teaching in networked classrooms. Despite their progress in
understanding how the Internet can facilitate literacy development, teachers
in the study reported high levels of frustration and anxiety because they did
not have a guide to help them along the way. They learned by trial and error,
and teachers new to using the Internet in literacy education can benefit from
theirs and others’ experiences in networked classrooms described for readers
in the book. Given the challenging mandates
of current educational policies regarding technology, such as the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001 in the United States, teachers need to
understand how the Internet and converging technologies transform learning
environments. They must be prepared to provide equitable literacy learning
opportunities in networked classrooms. Overview of the Book
This book is intended to
inspire and guide teachers who grapple with how to get started using the
Internet in ways that will benefit students’ literacy development. From
theory to practice, the book presents a research-based framework to guide the
design and implementation of Internet-based literacy learning opportunities
for students. I took this approach because experience tells me new methods
are easier for teachers to understand when they are presented with the
theoretical background and how it is applied in practice. Thus, the book
begins with an overview of the Internet’s short history within education and
how the Internet transforms teaching–learning processes related to literacy
development. Chapters 3–5 highlight how teachers have taken existing
curriculum methods such as literature circles, collaborative research teams,
and writing workshops into the online learning environment. Starting with
these types of units enables teachers to experience necessary shifts in
classroom dynamics and to learn how to scaffold the diverse learning
processes of engaged literacy learners. Only after teachers are
comfortable with organizing and scaffolding students’ online learning
opportunities within their own class of students—as exemplified in chapters
3–5—do I recommend they expand their Internet use to include others from the
global village, as described in chapter 6. Participating in and facilitating
online teaching–learning processes takes some practice before teachers are
ready to manage learning activities in virtual communities. For teachers who
are already comfortable teaching in the networked classroom, I have created a
four-step design process (see chapter 6) to guide their thinking about how to
expand their students’ online learning opportunities to include others in the
global village. The practices described in this
book align with many of the Standards
for the English Language Arts and National Educational
Technology Standards for Students . Furthermore, teachers may use the
book in professional development settings to meet many of the National Educational Technology
Standards for Teachers. Each chapter ends with questions to guide
discussion among teachers who come together to study the book and share their
experiences with teaching in networked classrooms. In addition, a glossary of
Internet terminology provides definitions for the technology-related methods
discussed in this book. Many of the glossary terms also can be used as
keywords when conducting online research for further study about the book’s
topics and themes. I encourage readers to engage in
professional collaboration when designing and implementing literacy lessons
for networked classrooms because they will face many new challenges along the
way. In chapters 3, 4, and 5 I demonstrate how the
research-based framework applies to actual lessons that facilitate personal
ownership for literacy, with an emphasis on reading, information research,
and the writing process, respectively. Although these topics are addressed in
separate chapters, in actual practice Internet-based literacy activities often
draw upon students’ reading, writing, and information research abilities in
concert. I took an ethnographic approach with Balazs
Dibuz, Pamela McDermott, and Bonnie Thurber and
Carol Lee to create the descriptions of their curricular units and actual student
work in chapters 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Each of the curriculum units
highlighted in these chapters illustrates a different way to integrate the
Internet into literacy opportunities for middle-level students. As a result,
the amount and type of student work and curriculum samples differ for each
chapter. Each chapter has a specific
purpose and literacy focus meant to take the guesswork out of using the
Internet with middle-level students. CHAPTER 1 Exploring
the Internet in Literacy Learning Chapter 1 describes a
research-based framework to guide teachers’ understanding of effective
networked classrooms, with attention to the unique characteristics and needs
of middle-level students. This chapter includes a discussion of the vital
role the Internet plays in literacy education for students growing up to live
and work in networked cultures of the 21st century as well as historical and
cultural technology trends that influence the current nature of literacy and
approaches to learning. CHAPTER 2 The Pedagogy of Distributive Learning Communities Chapter 2 builds on the
theoretical framework by describing in more depth the pedagogical strategies
emerging in effective networked classrooms. Successful pedagogy in networked
classrooms integrates personalized literacy opportunities within a community
of learners. Teachers use scaffolding techniques to adapt their instruction
to individual students’ learning needs and developmental progress. They
manage group learning activities that are highly social by engaging students
and others in distributive learning communities. In addition, this chapter
describes common learning differences students may present while reading and
writing via the Internet and ways to address the differences. CHAPTER 3 Fostering Ownership of Literacy Online Chapter 3 explains how to apply
the pedagogical practices in chapter 2 to foster ownership of literacy in the
middle grades, which is fundamental to students’ continual development of
lifelong literacy habits. The chapter illustrates how online literature
circles enhance a unit titled Huck Finn’s Journey. Teachers Balazs Dibuz and Andrew Shilhanek use the unit to cultivate and
nurture students’ ownership of literacy through uses of online literature
circles. The unit also includes reading informational text students found
through online research about the time period of the characters in the book The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. CHAPTER 4 Conducting Information Research Online Chapter 4 describes how to
apply the essential conditions for effective networked classrooms to online
information research activities. The chapter describes how a teacher, Mary
Fran McBreen, and school librarian, Pamela
McDermott, teamed up to teach their students online information research
strategies by using a hoax website lesson. Students were presented with a
list of websites, some of which were hoaxes and some that were valid. They
learned how to locate and critique online information to determine its
reliability for a health science project about the human body. CHAPTER 5 Learning the Writing Process Online Chapter 5 describes how the
Internet can be used to provide a wonderful forum for engaging students in
interactive discourse and authentic audience response activities that can
help them develop their personal voice and autonomous expression through
writing. Highlights from an online Writers’ Workshop conducted by Bonnie
Thurber and Carol Lee include excerpts from online discussions between these
writing teachers and students as they critique students’ developing stories
that extend the characters and plots found in the popular novel series about
Harry Potter. When students learn to write, constructive feedback can help
them develop effective self-monitoring and revision strategies. These aspects
of the writing process are shown to illustrate how learning to write can be
greatly enhanced through engaging in online writing circles. CHAPTER 6 Designing Networked Classrooms Chapter 6 describes a four-step
process for designing your own networked classroom to provide students with
effective literacy learning opportunities appropriate to those growing up in
the global village. The process involves creating an interactive curriculum
based on 21st-century literacy standards and students’ particular learning
needs and identifying benchmarks for progress and appropriate methods of
embedded assessment. In addition, the various student and teacher roles
within the teaching–learning cycles found in distributive learning
communities are discussed. CHAPTER 7 Trends Influencing the Future of Literacy Education Finally,
chapter 7 is a brief look at pressing concerns and trends facing literacy
educators in networked cultures. These include understanding how technology,
specifically, the Internet, is changing the nature of literacy and the global
context for new literacy skills. While many nonnetworked
classrooms continue to operate under an outdated system for literacy
instruction, a literacy crisis is looming in many high schools. Middle-level
teachers are on the forefront to make the changes that can bridge students’
basic reading and writing skills with more advanced literacy knowledge and
skills necessary to cross the digital divide. The journey toward becoming literate citizens in the global
village starts in middle-level networked classrooms with well-prepared
teachers. |
