In addition, an interesting topic within the reading was that the perceptions of adolescents effect how well they read and write, as well as their motivation to do so. And it was explained that "if academic literacy instruction is to be effective it must
address issues of self-efficacy and engagement."
Some questions that came to mind as I watched the following Ted Talk were about education and that he discusses that education should in the future be about opportunity. Does education mean literacy to us? To us as teachers? This Tedtalk argues that literacy is not enough, and that we should be questioning the way we perceive literacy and the way that education is taught.
These two related Ted Talks discusses literacy in an interesting way and discusses the issues that have developed with the rise of the e-book and how we experience reading in a different way as a result of reading on a screen.
This last Ted Talk I believe to be extremely important in a relation to how to explain literacy now and in the future. This video exemplifies how literacy is defined again as not just reading, but that media and technology are especially important when it comes to being a literate individual currently.
Self-efficacy is an important aspect when teaching young students and something to continously consider when creating lesson plans. This sense of self-efficacy reminded me a lot of Education 210 and the aspects of social cognitive theories that promote the belief in ones ability in situations. Viewing difficult assignments and exams with the perspective that you can master the material rather than giving up is something we have to promote continously in the classroom. Encouraging involvement throughout the courses we teach is an aspect I find intriguing, but difficult to implement. It is easier to tell students they are capable of conquering any task in the classroom, but it is very difficult to make them believe this, and have them work to master the material provided. Some students have inherently bad self-efficacy and this is difficult to change in a lot of cases.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting in the article was the stigma around the term, "struggling reader" and all the negative connotations that surround it. Is a struggling reader a student who lacks motivation, or do they possess a learning disability? Are they an at risk student or are they in ESL? I agree with the author who points out that this term tells very little about the student and if anything, disenfranchises them with this classification. It happened to me in elementary school after all.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a diverse learning environment encourages students to participate more. I think a lot of students don't voice their opinions because they don't want to be ridiculed for having a different opinion on a subject matter. If the teachers encourage students to voice their opinions and have respect towards their peers:I don't see why students should not want to participate. Furthermore, differences of opinion add more depth to a conversation, and isn't that how we want our students to be thinking? to have as many different perception on a topic?
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