Introduction:
Cycle 1 of this project focused mainly on using digital medias to gather information through research to form points of view, and present through various paper and pencil notes and reports. In Cycle 2 the students were pushed further by getting them to use a ‘real world digital technology’ in the form of blogs. Students have now gone form participating in digital litearcies to, still participating, but now also creating their own form of multimodal digital texts. As Carrington and Robinson cleverly point out, “In an era where these skills and texts are increasingly linked to employment, political access and the capacity to engage meaningfully in civic life, a literary education that incorporates digital literacies is essential.” (Carrington & Robinson, 2009)
One of the most important things that students need to be able to take away from their education is the ability to read and think critically, so that they can view the world from a social justice stand point and become, like Katherine and Randy Bomer argue, active democratic citizens of society. Using and creating digital literacies, such as the blogging students do in this research cycle, is moving students in the right direction to be active and reflective citizens in our world. “..the ability to work with and across print and digital forms of text, and to navigate their different affordances and applications, is a key skill for effective participation in the political and economical infrastructure of our societies.” (Carrington & Robinson, 2009) Cycle 2 will not take me further into helping me understand how I can further support my students in using digital literacy to further their research.
Action 1 Investigating Online Blogs as Critical Readers
In the last cycle the students were taught to critically read digital media sources in the form of websites, podcasts and film for position and point of view. In this first action of Cycle 2 the students transferred those critical reading skills to reading blog posts. The students read and analyzed blogs on websites such as nationalgeographickids.com. They generated a position statement for each blog they read, which was a statement that summarized what they believed the author of the blog was trying to get them to think and feel. They also analyzed the effectiveness of blogs and were critical of blogs that just seemed to be informative rather than persuasive. I noticed that some students were able to critique the blogs effortlessly, but some students still need support in this area. As Lucy Calkins says, "My colleagues and I know that if we want readers to question texts, to discuss their unspoken assumptions, to notice a particular author's angle of vision and feel empowered enough to critique the writing, we need to do more than simply support moments when readers say,...'I don't agree.'" (Calkins, 2001)
National Geographic Kids' Blogs
Cycle 2 Action 1 Teaching Points
Action 1 Student Data
The following examples of student data come from field notes I took while students were observing online blogs. I have included a snapshot of the blog that was being read, followed by the students' comments and points of view about the blogs, and my analysis of what the students said.
Data Sample 1
Anna-
"This is trying to make me think everyone should have fresh water, so they can. I think he wants the reader to maybe give water to people who don't have any fresh water and keep your water fresh. I think the author put some short links, so people could learn more than just reading. They can do activities to learn. When I read it, it made me feel sad because people can die, so I definitely want to find out more."
Anna is using critical literacy skills while she reads, but she definitely needs some support in fine tuning them. She is empathizing with the situation, but could probably be pushed to take action in some way, there by taking a democratic stance in society. Another aspect of critical literacy that Anna seemed to partake in, was interpreting why the author included other things in the blog besides text. She is seeing how this text is multimodal.
Data Sample 2
The next student, Ally, read and analyzed the same blog about fresh water as the one above.
-Ally
"It's making me feel that people don't have clean water and they can get sick or die. I feel sad about it. It makes me like want to get them clean water somehow. I wonder if he made the blog short cause he wanted us to expand it more with our own words."
Ally is at the beginning stages of critical literacy. She has let the blog move her some a way, but definitely needs to support her thoughts and perspective more with feeling and examples from the text. Ally also made an attempt to analyze the blog's structure. I was surprised that neither student who read this blog made a personal connection to the part about 1/3 of the world being affected by 2050. I thought for sure it would have caused them to worry about themselves, there by pushing themselves to think even more critically and perhaps take a social justice stance with the issue.
Data Sample 3
-Zack
"This is a cool thing to do when it is a big thing in your culture. When you accomplish something like weaving you can see you did a good job. It is something her family can compliment her on. I think the writer is trying to get us to think that weaving is cool and we should try it."
Zack is able to form his own thoughts and ideas about this blog, but he is not yet partaking in critical literacy. There are no signs of Zack digger deeper to figure out what the writer is really trying to get across in the piece. He will definitely need further support with critical literacy before he can begin writing his own blogs, trying to get a reader to think and feel.
Data Sample 4
-Sara's comment about the weaving blog
"I'm thinking that this writer is getting us to think that weaving in her country is an important tradition for girls. That it takes practice, and you feel great once it is done. They don't simply buy clothes at the store for special events, they take their time making it themselves. I think that people in the world have traditions that mean a lot to them."
Sara clearly was able to dig deeper into this blog to interpret the author's possible purpose for writing it. Her extraction of the main idea "people in the world have traditions that mean a lot to them" shows the critical reading that took place.
Action 1 Reflection
It is clear that students are allowing themselves to think deeply about the blogs they are reading, and they are doing or at least attempting to do interpretation work with them. Some of the students are using their critical literacy skills as they navigate through the various blogs, but others still need support in this area. Some of these students are still reading the online blogs they encounter in a neutral way, and need to be pushed further through conferring and small group work to help them see the value of reading critically, which in turn can influence and lift the level of their own blog writing. "Neutrality of texts needs to be challenged for the underlying ideologies, and for the economic and cultural influences that play upon them, in order that the reader/writer can become effectively literate within the local and global communities." (Carrington & Robinson, 2009)
Another thing that I was hoping that the students would see from their readings of blogs is that it is a way for all of us to communicate and learn from each other across the globe. The little girl even said so explicitly in her blog about weaving when she stated, "I am so happy you are reading this. I feel like I have friends all over the world." I don't think I got across to the students clearly that when we are blogging we are publishing to a vast audience and contributing information to a collective whole. "We are creating a 'society of authorship' where every person will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet....we will be writing the human story, in real time, together - a vision that asks each of us to participate." (Richardson, 2010) This is a concept I plan to explicitly teach, model and talk to the students about before they begin creating their own blogs in which they try to get their readers to think and feel.
Action 2 Critical Bloggers: Creating Blogs with a Perspective About Their Research Topic
The second action of Cycle 2 is a transition from reading and studying blogs with a critical literacy lens, to writing their own blogs about the research topics they have become experts on. The students have been working with these nonfiction topics, on and off, since the end of December and know various things about their topics. I began this action by showing the class the blog I wrote and posted about the plight of the black bear in the north east. We studied the blog carefully for perspective and after turn and talk discussions the class was able to see, with their critical literacy lenses, the point of view I was trying to convey and the possible action or 'social justice' stance that could be taken. As Randy and Katherine Bomer argue, "We have not concentrated enough on learning about social problems, caring about them, and trying to do something to help...We want them to believe that the world will respond to their action...a passion for making the world better." (Bomer & Bomer, 2001) I then explicitly modeled how I created and posted the blog on blogger.com. The students were then given a sheet of directions that would help them to create and post their own blog, step by step, on our class blogger account blog spot. The students first needed to return to their research, which included notes, saved websites, podcasts, the information books they created, etc... to find a subtopic that they felt strongly about it. They needed a subtopic that they felt would get their reader to think and feel, there by opening the lines of on-going communication on the blog. This action is meant to show the students the power they have in their thoughts, words and writing.
Cycle 2 Action 2 Teaching Points
Data Sample 1
This student did a nice job of taking a stance on how she felt about the dangers that penguins face. She backed up her thoughts with examples from her research to really drive the point home. It is clear that her point of view is one in which she wants the reader to feel sorry for penguins, especially mothers and their babies. The impressiveness behind this piece of data, is that this particular student is a struggling reader and writer who is below grade level proficiency in both areas. This shows clearly that working with these digital literacies has given her confidence to push herself to do deeper work, and the multimodal texts that digital literacies provide have clearly scaffolded her learning along the way, in order to help her achieve this higher level work.
Data Sample 2
This student is making an attempt to get the reader to think and feel that insect are not as bad as people usually think they are. In further analysis of the data, I think the student got a little bogged down in trying to get the reader to feel, and there by neglected to include specific data from his research to really drive his point of view home.
Data Sample 3
This student is clearly writing from the perspective that insects are needed in this world. She includes specific examples to prove their importance. She then goes on to give readers a possible way to take an 'active stance' in protecting insects and there by protecting our world. This blog provides a good resource for readers to practice their critical literacy skills.
Data Sample 4
This post shows a student who was clearly working with critical literacy skills while he was researching as well as posting. He makes strong points as to why he believes hurricanes can sometimes be helpful. One strong thing he did as a writer was to validate what he knew most readers would think, "Most people think hurricanes are very, very dangerous. I agree with them." It is a very powerful thing to validate someone's thoughts before giving your point of view. I believe this writer knows that he has a good chance of hooking his reader in. This blog actually became a teaching point for a lesson. I even let the student know that he was the one that inspired the teaching point, and I even used his blog in my minilesson.
Data Sample 5
In this post the student tried to drive home the point that castles are not the greatest places to live in, even though most people think they are fancy glamorous places. She even managed to find a picture to represent the example she wrote about the leaky roofs of the castles. This a true example of a multimodal text and drives home the point that pictures, as well as text, convey meaning and feeling.
Cycle 2 Action 2 Reflection
This action was quite successful in its attempt to elicit critical literacy strategies from the participants. It was interesting to see how some of the struggling students actually did better than some of the higher achieving students when it came to writing blogs with perspective and points of view they were trying to get across to their reader. This is a piece of data that might be worth pursuing and putting into its own action, research and analysis cycle. In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Will Richardson argues that, "Through the unique process of blogging students are learning to read more critically, think about the reading more analytically, and write more clearly. And, they are building relationships with peers, teachers, mentors, and professionals within the Weblog environment." (Richardson, 2010) I am seeing this across the boards as the students continue to participate in blogging.
There are definitely still areas in which I feel I can push my students further in order to lift the level of their work. Most of the blogs that the students are creating are not calling for social justice stances. We know from research that taking social justice stances in our world helps us to become democratic citizens in society. This is an important responsibility for all teachers to convey and teach to their students. Pushing students in this direction may even influence their choice of topic as they choose topics to blog about that kids their age can take social action on in the world. The new literacies of the 21st open doors for this that were never before imaginable. In the future I would also push students to include links in their blogs to other websites or other relevant blogs. This is good blogging practice and it helps add validity to the blogs they are writing. In the next action I will be exploring the importance of utilizing digital literacies and media, specifically blogs, to open the doors for global communication.
Action 3 Using Blogs to Foster Collaborative/Social Learning: Opening the Doors for Global Communication
The third action in this cycle is probably the most important part of blogging and that is commenting on each other’s posts. By posting comments the students are seeing that this is an ongoing process and, “an important entry into the global conversation.” (Richardson, 2010) The students are beginning to learn that writing, especially for purposes such as these, is not a means to an end. It is the beginning of a social collaborative process that literacy truly is. As Richardson argues in his book Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts: and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, “…a true blog is never really finished, that as long as it’s out there for others to interact with, the potential for deeper insight exists.” (Richardson, 2010) I want students to understand that through blogs we can communicate and learn from each other, and this can happen across the globe. The students learned in this action that blogging is more than just writing and posting their writing to the blog. It is opening up an ongoing conversation and collaborative learning process. Gone are the days of traditional classroom instruction where the teacher does all of the teaching and the students are learning from a single textbook. The teacher’s job is to structure and plan activities accordingly so that students can learn on their own as well as from each other. Posting blogs and commenting on each other’s research is an effective way to keep the learning process going in engaging, motivating and collaborative ways.
Cycle 2 Action 3 Teaching Points
Data Sample 1
This student commented about a blog that another student wrote that was putting sharks in a good light. This commenter is leaving herself open to letting the author influence her views, but she is not backing up her agreement with any reasons.
Data Sample 2
Stephanie is as the very early stages of leaving comments on blogs. Her comment is not descriptive or clear. She needs to be writing as if the reader of her comment can't even see the original post. Stephanie also needs to learn how to include content in her comments that will keep the conversation going.
Data Sample 3
The 2nd comment was left by a student in my class named Pam. Pam is making a stronger agreement comment than other students. She is stating what she agrees with, and she is beginning to include supporting details from the blog back up her reason for agreeing with the author. I think Pam can still take this further by expanding her details a bit and including some of her own background knowledge or other research she has done on penguins.
Data Sample 4
Paul was the student that commented on Jack's blog. He is putting some of his background knowledge and personal experience into his comments. Paul is also starting to put a little disagreement into is comment by saying, "...if my mom or dad were reading this blog they would not agree with you at all." If Paul had put some specific reasons in his comments about why they wouldn't agree it would make it much easier to open up this online communication further. The author or other reader would have something more specific to respond back to.
Data Sample 5
This student Peter is an ELL student, but this student was able to express his thoughts about the insect blog he read. He was able to express how he read the blog and used it to reflect back to something he had down the previous day. Peter then went on to state how his actions would be different now because of reading Amy's blog, which is definitely showing signs of social justice. "Some texts are designed to make us look at the world and see things we have not noticed before. They point out blind spots in our big, national conversation. They push us to see things about the world that could be better." (Bomer & Bomer, 2001) He is definitely leaving his comment open for a response from the author.
Cycle 2 Action 3 Reflection
The students are off to a positive start with commenting on blogs because their engagement and motivation was quite high. They are excited to read because they know that when they are finished reading they will get to have their own voice heard about the subject. "When you celebrate good work, or use students' unique ideas to drive further discussion, it goes a long way towards creating a community of learners." (Richardson, 2010)
More work needs to be done to teach students how to comment on blogs more deeply in order to truly make this experience a social and collaborative one. I think one of the things that needs to come into play first, before I can expect the students to improve further, is more direct modeling of the blog medium by yours truly. My own blogging practice is just beginning and I need to build a repertoire or online portfolio to use in my instruction. Just as I use my own writer's and reader's notebooks in my workshop teaching, I need a blog portfolio to use in my teaching of digital literacy. By having this portfolio I will be able to model ways in which the students should be commenting in order to get an ongoing and critical conversation going. In order to get students engaging further with their posts and comments there are a few things that I will be trying. First I will teach them how to include questions in their comments that can keep the online conversation moving. For instance in data sample 3, above, Pam could have asked a question such as, "Why are penguins pushing each other into the water? Is there a reason behind it, or are they just being mean?"
I want the students to see that in order for there to be an ongoing conversation and a collaborative learning environment to exist, we need to go far beyond leaving comments that are just praising the author for a good post. The students need to be taught ways in which they can challenge each other's thoughts to get their focus of the subject even deeper. One strategy that might work is to really model for the students how to disagree respectfully with an author in order to make the conversation lasting. Students need to realize that we all have our own identities which often times force us to look at similar content in very different ways. As Bomer & Bomer argue, "...acculturating students to becoming active, involved, purposeful, deliberative citizens requires that they be allowed to make decisions about what they are learning and what they are doing as their identities evolve." (Bomer & Bomer, 2001)
Right now the students have been posting and commenting on a class blog. A next step will be to give their students individual blogs to post about various things and invite others to comment on them. Student engagement, I feel, will be higher if students have their own personal blog space to create and foster. "Allowing students to personalize their spaces makes them more vested in their blogs." (Richardson, 2010) Blogging and commenting on blog posts has been successful in my classroom because motivation and engagement with this type of reading and writing has been high. The students may still have a lot to learn in order to become fully literate in this form of digital literacy and to get that continued learning and communication going, but the interest is there and that is more than half the battle. "...blogging can transform learning in the classroom by providing connections to learners in other contexts, experts in different settings, and their own families and communities." (Carrington & Robinson, 2009)
Cycle 2 Final Reflection and Themes
The use of blogs in my classroom has been very successful in it's implementation The students were highly engaged, motivated and eager to participate in this form of digital literacy. Struggling students were even more excited to participate and pushed themselves further than I had seen them do in other aspects of literacy. Students were able to read critically and write multi-modal texts. Through working with and creating these multi-modal digital texts, the students learned even further about the topics they have been researching on and off since December. "...text production can be a multi-modal endeavour, where words, images, music and sound can combine to create rich texts that are driven by a desire to communicate powerfully and appropriately within a given medium." (Carrington & Robinson, 2009) There are many areas of blogging that the students need to improve on, especially their use of leaving comments to further the social and collaborative communication that needs to take place, however these will eventually come to pass because the students' motivation and willingness is so high. "Blogs are only one of many tools of the Read/Write Web, but I would argue that they are the most important, and the most reasonable place to start your travels." (Richardson, 2010) There are some themes that seem to have emerged from this cycle as well as former themes from cycle 1 that have been reinforced further.
I. Critical Literacy
Critical literacy is a huge theme that began to emerge in cycle one of this study, but has full emerged during cycle 2. The students were critical readers of blogs, trying to figure out what the author was trying to get the reader to think and feel about the topic being presented. They then went on to creating and posting their own blogs about their research topics. They drafted their blogs with a slant or perspective that they wanted to get across to their readers. For example the girl who wanted her readers to know that castles were not all that they were cracked up to be. Students were also pushed to respond critically to the blogs they read, in order to open an ongoing communication piece. Most students were responding in agreement, and need to be taught to disagree respectfully in order to be critical. Gee argues that, "The New Literacy Studies paradigm requires us to regard acts of text creation as socially motivated behavior, enacted as part of a large 'D' Discourse, where 'language-in-use' and the 'other stuff' of communication (gesture, symbols, attitudes, experiences) combine to allow meaningful communication within a context. (Gee, 1996)
II. Analysis and Social Justice
Another theme that began to emerge in this cycle was the aspect of social justice that is slowly beginning to embed itself in the students work, collaboration and communication. When Amy wrote her blog about how people should treat insect with more respect and not just kill them, she was beginning to infuse social justice into her work. Amy not only wanted us to think and feel as a reader, but she also wanted us to do something about it. The student who commented on her blog did take action. Bomer and Bomer argue that these types of texts, "...push us to see things about the world that could be better." They help us in, "...learning about social problems, caring about them, and trying to do something to help." (Bomer & Bomer 2001)
III. Collaboration and Literacy as a Social Process
Strong themes in Cycle 1, collaboration and literacy as a social process, continue to reign supreme in Cycle 2. The entire process of blogging from research to writing to posting to commenting is a collaborative and social effort that cannot be done in a solitary fashion. Digital literacy, even more specific the Web, is an area that thrives on collaboration and social processes. "No matter how you look at it, we are creating a 'society of authorship' where every teacher and every student - every person with access - will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet....we will be writing the human story, in real time, together - a vision that asks each of us to participate. (Rushkoff, 2004)
Next Steps
The students have been doing a good job of sharing their information, research and feelings through digital mediums such as blogs and podcasts. I want students to see that this has just been the tip of the ice-burg. The students need to know that the days of just learning directly from the teacher and a printed text are gone. Besides learning from the teacher and print, the students and teacher together learn through collaboration and social interaction with the various digital literacies. The next step in this process is getting students to analyze websites about their topics and then getting them to create their own website with a Wiki. Using a Wiki will expand the concept of social, collaborative and critical learning to new heights.
