Chapter 3: TPCK in K-6 Literacy Education: It’s not that elementary!

There was a time when the term literacy referred to one’s ability to read and write.  This cannot be the case is education today.  Students and teachers both need to learn to read and write using books, newspapers, magazines, and other printed literature, but they also need to learn how to read webpages and navigate hyperlinks and other web resources.  Teaching literacy now means teaching technological literacy as well.  The definition of literacy is constantly changing with the state technology. Therefore, our teaching must as well.

A quote from the International Reading Association is used in chapter 3.  It states: “Literacy educators have a responsibility to effectively integrate these technologies into the literacy curriculum in order to prepare students for the literacy future they deserve.”  While I believe this to be absolutely true, it is my experience that in some instances students knowledge of the technology surpasses their teachers.  Educators need to be open to their students having many more skills than teachers do about some technology strategies.  I’ve found that many educators are more apt to shy away from programs they have little experience with.  Students having more skills than them seems to scare them, so they just say no.  This kind of mindset is much more harmful to our students than those educators realize.

I understand that this chapter focuses on K-6 grade levels, but I if I’m to relate this to my teaching I need to talk about secondary grade levels.  I still hear, at middle and high school levels, teachers who are more apt to say that teaching reading should be left to English teachers.  Literacy initiatives are happening at many schools, (Mt. Blue included), and the goals hold all teachers accountable for the literacy of students.  I’m not saying accountability is ALL there, but educators need to understand that the expectation is that we all do need to start making sure that students are engaged with literacy strategies...in all content areas.

One last thing I wanted to mention about this chapter are just a few opinions about some of the technology mentioned in this chapter.  I personally use ReadWriteThink in my classroom.  I find it to be quite affective with students at certain levels.  However, I personally find Rubistar (which was also mentioned) to be quite a dated program.  It just doesn’t work for me.  The English department at Mt. Blue High School uses common rubrics in each grade level, broken up by standards anyway, which makes Rubistar obsolete really.