The Turkey and Dressing Edition November 2015

Literacy is a critical concept in education. For the better part of the 20th century, virtually no citizen could be considered effectively equipped for life without the ability to read and write proficiently. Certainly, these skills maintain their lofty importance for our students today. Even in a Youtube generation, students are avid readers (often digitally), bombarded with textual information. The need to write well has grown to include an understanding of contextual differences, such as how to write for publication, informal communication, or the ubiquitous language of the text message (We of “earlier” generations may loathe the LOLs and OMGs, but language is and always has been a dynamic, evolving thing.). Today, however, students are not sufficiently equipped for the world beyond if our view of literacy ends with reading and writing. Contemporary students are likely to be graduating into careers that require more diverse communication skills. They will also be inundated by exponentially more sources of information than earlier generations would

have imagined. Our children will need to additionally be verbally and

informationally literate.

Verbal Literacy In the days of factory assembly lines or even the solitary computer programmer, the only people who needed extensive communication skills were teachers, preachers, and politicians. Today, as our society continues to shift to an innovation economy, the worker of tomorrow will need to be a skilled communicator and collaborator. Often, they will need to communicate with customers, suppliers, or clients from different cultures or language groups. It simply is no longer sufficient to take a 1 semester speech class in high school. Students need regular

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(continued from page 1) …opportunities to share their work and ideas with diverse and authentic audiences, including peers, parents, and outside authorities. They need opportunities to engage in critical dialogue, discussions, and debates, sorting out differences and learning to articulate their viewpoints effectively. Many employers today bemoan the inability of recent graduates to speak confidently and effectively. Just as with written communication, it will be critical to coach students through the process. This goes way beyond having a student fumble their way through a bullet-riddled PowerPoint while reading copious notes. Here are a two examples of lessons & tips for teaching even young students how to be effective oral presenters:

• Listen to Me! (grades 3-5) • A New Twist on Sharing

(elementary) The key is to start teaching preparation, pacing, organization, clarity, eye contact, etc. beginning in elementary. Information Literacy. The abundance of information instantly available today is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we can learn in real time as the need or interest

dictates. We can view the results of the latest research, connect to distant cultures, view history as it unfolds, etc. On the other hand, the web has also created a repository for the less accurate, even purposely misleading. There is also often an overwhelming amount of information—needed knowledge becomes the needle in the haystack. As students tackle this mountain of resources, they need the skills to know the useful from the not so. They should be taught to ask:

• What type of resource will provide the most useful information? (website, blog, video, book, magazine, online journal, etc.)?

• How will I organize what I find? (Tools like Evernote or Diigo are very useful for this.)

• What will I do to check the validity of what I find? (The ICANN domain search tool can provide useful site ownership information.)

• What can I do with what I find? (Related: What permissions do I have to use what I find?)

Here are a couple of resources to help you teach information literacy:

• Reading Rockets • All About Explorers • Velcro Crop Challenge • Pacific Tree Octopus

Matador Science, Technology, & Innovation Fair 2016

Thursday, February 25, 5-8 PM* Oak Park Mall

More information to come!

(*--time subject to change)

TECH COMP TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES!

• Google Apps in the Classroom – 12/7 • Presenting Past PowerPoint--11/19 • Beyond Basics: Excel 2016—12/7, 12/10, 12/16 • Digital Storytelling: Empowered Student Writing—12/10 Classes will take place from 4:15-7:15 PM at the iMac Lab in the Administration Building.

Also, be sure to check out the online Tech Comp courses available in Eduphoria. These 1-hour courses are a very convenient way to learn a new tool or classroom strategy on your own schedule. Topics currently include:

• Communicate Better With Remind.com • Creating & Using Amazing Google Forms • Screencasting Simplified: Create Your Own Instructional Videos

App-solutely Amazing! Here are some great apps for students taking notes or brainstorming, alone or collaboratively. • Post-It Plus – Post It Notes are a fantastic tool for note-taking,

brainstorming, and much more. This app takes them even farther. Use your iPhone or iPad to take a picture of your group’s notes, and they become digitized. They can then be moved around, regrouped, printed, emailed, etc. FREE

• Mindly – Mindly is a very easy to learn, visually appealing app for brainstorming or creating mindmaps. Maps can include links, photos, or other graphics, and they can be printed or emailed for sharing. FREE

• iBrainstorm – Simple app lets users sketch, add text or notes, and share ideas from one iPad to another (with the iBrainstorm app). Very easy to use and collaborate. FREE

Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Age is a collaboration between Harvard educator Tony Wagner and venture capitalist-turned educational philanthropist Ted Dintersmith. The book looks at practices and beliefs in education that are grounded in judgments made at the turn of the 19th century and challenges contemporary educators to take a serious look at the purposes of education. The authors question our standards for “success” and quality instruction, while supporting project-based, interdisciplinary practices. All in all, an interesting read that asks valuable questions and proposes some compelling answers guaranteed to stir useful and important debate.

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5th grade students at Patlan Elementary got a unique opportunity to meet a real, live author face to virtual face. Librarian Sarah Hall arranged to have graphic novel author/illustrator George O’Connor connect to the library via FaceTime. Mr. O’Connor is the creator of the series, The Olympians. Students learned about Mr. O’Connor’s writing habits, his inspirations, his travels, cat, and more. They also got to see actual illustrations he is in the process of creating for a new book. The conversation was a perfect fit, as students have recently been studying ancient Greek mythology.