Teaching+Two+Literacies

Colleen Larson

Teaching Two Literacies by Joanne Rooney

This article does a good job of supporting the need for literacy to be redefined while teaching traditional methods as well. This is important because if we choose to stay with traditional methods and ignore how much students can learn from using technology as part of our literacy curriculum, our students would be deprived of many opportunities that can help them succeed.

The article states the need to teach students to be literate by teaching two languages – that being pre and post digital world. I find this concept to be very true. Our students need to learn traditional methods and at the same time there are so many technology based methods that really help students to learn how to interact. I liked how this article touched on the point of keeping the traditional methods that work and getting rid of those that don’t. Students need to be motivated to read a good book. I myself love to read a book and still prefer reading from the book over an electronic version. On the other hand, the purchase of the Kindle Fire has proven to be very beneficial for my teenager. Yes, he uses it for games and at the same time has read more books in the last two months than he did in the last two school years. Yes, it includes games but Words with Friends is another way that he is learning and not even realizing it.

It is important to teach students to use correct language in their writing as well. It is alright to use technology as a resource to ensure they are correct.

Overall, I find that this article does a great job of supporting the need for teachers to implement two different sets of teaching for language – making sure not to forget the good traditional methods while incorporating the latest in technology as well.

Colleen, Many educators who have been in the field for so many years would greatly benefit from a professional development program that discusses that students need to be literate in both senses of before and with technology. You do a great job explaining the concepts. Do you feel that either traditional or contemporary methods of instruction should out way the other in classrooms?

Thanks for sharing your summary! Jessica Zumwalde