Traditional Instruction for Student-Driven Projects

          I am now enrolled in a course called ‘21^st Century Literacies Across the Primary Junior Curriculum’. Throughout the course I will be blogging to document my learning journey. I look forward to seeing how these critical reflections will inspire me, as a future teacher, to incorporate 21^st century literacies into the curriculum.

Word and image. (2012, August 17). Working both sides of the brain. Web. 13. Jan 2016. Retrieved from https://wordandimage.wordpress.com/category/media-literacy/

          During elementary school, I listened as my teachers taught information that was important to remember in order to perform well on assessment tasks. Therefore, the majority of my learning involved memorization and repetition.  This method of transferring information reflects traditional beliefs that teachers/adults must provide students/children with concrete answers.  Throughout High School and now during University, I have been introduced to the benefits that complement progressive philosophies of teaching. This shift in how knowledge is obtained links to our lecture discussion on students driving their own learning and pursuing research on topics that they find interesting. Moreover, this learning approach instills a sense of independence for students as teachers help guide and motivate students toward self-discovery via modern day technologies. This being said, I feel that encouraging students to research their interests using 21^st century technology/resources requires elements of traditional teaching.   

          In order to appropriately navigate 21^st century resources, such as Youtube, Google searches and social media sites, students need to be formally taught how to practice critical literacy skills. This involves students recognizing how societal constructions and political power imbalances influence the material that they are reading online. Although traditional methods of teaching are being replaced with progressive teaching approaches, being critical of different perspectives is a skill that must be formally taught. I question how teachers can formally teach this information in ways that remain engaging and creative for students.

          In addition to the societal and political issues that influence online literacy, classroom lessons could also involve conversations about media advertisements, credibility concerns and contextual factors. These discussions would help advance students’ critical literacy skills so that they can make informed decisions about what online texts are reliable to use during independent student-driven projects. Therefore, I suggest that teacher-driven instruction will provide a foundation that students need in order to be critically literate during student-driven projects.   

References

Word and image. (2012, August 17). Working both sides of the brain. Web. 13. Jan 2016.

Retrieved from https://wordandimage.wordpress.com/category/media-literacy/