Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms

Diane Lafferty, guest blogger

Literacy 2.0:

Literacy 2.0 represents a shift, not a replacement. Where literacy 1.0 was about access to information, literacy 2.0 is about finding, using, producing and sharing information. Literacy 2.0 builds on the concepts and operating systems used in older versions, but does so in different venues. New methods and new venues required knowledge of 21st century skills pertaining to and allowing students to collaborate, create, listen, view, share, locate and store information. Thanks to the internet, our audience is larger than ever and students need to be aware of their increased presence on this public stage. The dividing line between literacy and technology has dissolved, and teachers are now responsible for understanding this dissolution to effectively educate 21st century students and prepare them to function at higher cognitive levels. Learning in the 21st century can no longer be limited to mimicking existing knowledge; it requires innovative applications of timeless functions.

Three-Dimensional Reading:

Critical to teaching students about reading and researching via the internet, is understanding the concept of three-dimensional reading. With print based reading, we read in two dimensions – right to left and top to bottom. For much of today’s reading, which is Internet based, we read in three dimensions: across, down and into. Hyperlinks to other related (or not related) content allow readers to journey through much more than the originating webpage. Students and teachers alike need to expand their three-dimensional reading skills, because two-dimensional skills are no match for the searching, filtering, and reading requirements of Internet based learning.

Modeling with Wikipedia:

While many educators believe that Wikipedia articles are full of inaccuracies and often forbid students from referencing the site, recent research reveals that entries in Wikipedia are only slightly less accurate than those found in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. There are a number of ways teachers can use these online encyclopedia entries to model thinking. Modeling should provide students with access to academic language and thinking as well as information. Wikipedia can be used as an excellent resource to model with, and serves as a jumping off point for further research.

Example scenario: a teacher opens a Wikipedia article, the image related to the topic activates the teacher’s background knowledge and he is able to make predictions and inferences from context clues, and create connections between the Wikipedia article and information provided in the text book. The Discussion tab on a Wikipedia page is an excellent tool that can be used to analyze ways in which people engage one another. Often these discussions model expected behavior in the classroom regarding civil, educated discussion. With a Wikipedia article open, a teacher may select a hyperlinked word that leads to related content such a word origin, term definition, and references to similar content.

Briefly view the Pulaski Academy Wikipedia entry to see a variety of hyperlinked items.  Clicking this link is an example of three-dimensional reading.

If you need a little clarification on what Wikipedia is and it's purposes, here is a great summary of the site including some tips for getting started in your search. http://websearch.about.com/od/referencesearch/qt/wikipedia.htm