The "4E's" are an easy way to include disciplinary literacy into a classroom. Engaging, Eliciting/Engineering, Examining, Evaluating. To me, this seems like a good way to ease a teacher into learning how to include disciplinary literacy into daily practice. Engaging a student, to me, is always important and should be a priority to every teacher. For me personally, it will be very challenging to, not only figure what are the key disciplines are, but to become well-versed in those as well. There are six practices that are shared among disciplines and I found the chart in the article so helpful. It was one of those charts I would keep for my classroom later on down the road. The chart is included way at the bottom because I was not going to try and sit here for an hour while I tried to format it.
My personal favorite of the practices was using different types of media. We live in an age now where being social media savvy and understanding "text lingo" is super important. Also, I think "text lingo" is a terrible way to describe it but had no idea what was a better phrase. But being able to teach students how to take the knowledge they have and being able to communicate that in a variety of ways is pretty much a life skill. I think it is important to also teach when to use and when not to use more informal language. I was a perfect example of this earlier today. I had to text my boss at work that I would have to change my schedule. And while he is very laid back and we have a chill work relationship, he is still my boss. I had to sit there and analyze my text message 12 times and have somebody proofread it for me to make sure I used capital letters and punctuation. I had to make sure I typed "because" instead of "bcuz". This is just one example but I think it is important to be flexible and be able to communicate knowledge in more than one way. Every student learns differently and every student should be taught to share ideas in different ways as well. Maybe it is just me, and while I think that all of the practices are important, this would be my number one practice if I had to sit there and rank them. I am curious to see what other people's most important practice would be.
Here is the chart because I am not good at computers:
hey guys thanks for reading (and why are there not any fun emojis?)
Hi, Kim~I totally agree with your point that using multiple media is beneficial to consult disciplinary literacy. I am not a real "text person" (not sure what it calls), I prefer books that contain some pictures. Pictures are very necessary when we lead children to think about the concept and make connections to their own experiences. As we know, showing and teaching students how to use technology is one of standards for a standard classroom. Personally, a classroom with multi-media, such as computers, tablets, and calculators will motivate teaching and learning of disciplinary literature.
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ReplyDeleteKim,
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the 4E's was a great way to include disciplinary literacy into the classroom. Since this concept is fairly new, teachers need a way to learn how to slowly introduce it into their classroom without confusing the students. I also agree with you that engaging students in the material is important. I have seen many different techniques that teachers have used in order to engage their students. From my point of view, the teachers made it look easy; however, I know that it is a challenge. In order to engage the students effectively, you need to really get to know your students. The practice that involved using different type of media is perfect for the students in schools during this time. Technology has pretty much taken over kids lives. So, I think it is important to bring it in the classroom and show the students ways that it can benefit their education careers. You mentioned a good point about teaching the students when the appropriate and inappropriate time to use informal language is. Students need to understand that their is a time and place to use text lingo. They cannot write a paper or their resume using the same techniques that they use to text. I think that this issue of teaching students when to use informal language is going to grow at a faster rate now because most students communicate using technology rather than face to face interaction. Overall, bringing different media in the classroom can benefit the students in the long run.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteAwesome Blog!!!!! Our students are in a world full of digital literacies that they are already masters at! I found the 4 E's very useful and a bit confusing at the same time to implement disciplinary literacy into the classroom. My biggest take away understanding is looking at what out students already know how to do as an asset in the classroom and using various literacies to appeal to a classroom of diverse learners by providing different opportunities to use different texts to teach a lesson. Since times are always changing I find it hard to distinguish what is "appropriate" or "inappropriate" like Tina has also mentioned because it just reminds me of all our work with code switching from last year. I believe this kind of teaching requires a lot of creativity on the teacher's side but like Moje explained, teachers need the practice teaching this way. Ultimately, bringing in the students' background knowledge of technology and media is a great way to implement imagination back into the curriculum that standards have neglected.
Hey Kim, I really liked how you mentioned the 4E's because it's is a great overview on how to begin teaching disciplinary literacy and monitoring oneself during the process. For me, the most important one is Engage because students need to feel motivated in beginning to ask questions and or frame a problem about a certain text, topic, subject etc. Like the author says, "Students of discipline need a reason to read and write" pg. 262. As teachers we need to personally take the time and space to listen and understand their feelings, cultural backgrounds, experiences, and interests in order to make they learning process meaningful.
ReplyDeleteLike Moje says, we must "drive an investigation." So that to me begins with the voices of our students. What sparks imagination, creativity, and motivation for them?
Hello Kim!
ReplyDeleteI like the picture add in for your post. But I do agree with you, this generation that we live in, with technology and everything, it can make life just seem so much "easier". On the contrast, it can also become a huge distraction. I agree with you that implementing the media and technology practice is a good practice to have, but of course, nothing in this world is perfect. We all know that, but having technology and any sort of media can be beneficial to us as teachers when we start teaching. Whether it's a video or it's an interactive program, which probably will be handy and can calm down the students when they begin to get a little bit rowdy. I think also we are creative enough to always have a back-up plan even when our technologies seem to fail us.
I totally agree with your thoughts on technology in the classroom especially where you say "But being able to teach students how to take the knowledge they have and being able to communicate that in a variety of ways is pretty much a life skill". Because if we're honest technology has taken our society by storm and our students come from a generation that doesn't know what it was like before iPads and smart phones so why not have them use that knowledge not to mention love for technology. I have seen how excited students can be when allowed to have multi media projects versus a traditional poster board project. And if were being honest part of schooling is preparing our students for success in the real world and out there technology is a part of everything.
ReplyDeleteHey Kim!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog and gow you focused on the 4 E's and how it is a good start into learning the literacy practices. I feel like it's a bit confusing when we start to think of how to implement disciplinary literacy but the 4 E's and even then chart you posted is a good way to begin understanding. I think the importance of engaging your students is a great predictor of whether or not the lesson will be successful or if the students will be able to really grasp the new material. How engaged the students are will determine their interest leve and how much effort they are willing to put in. I don't know if this is exactly the same but last semester my students were having a little bit of difficulty when it came to writing, the teacher could not get them to write more than a few sentences. She then taught then how to conduct an experiment and write like scientists. They would start of by performing the experiment and then they would gather to talk about what they had done, and whether or not their hypothesis had be correct. They would then go back to their desks to write, all of the students ended up writing a couple of pages and were even happy to back to revise it and see if they could add in more detail. It honestly just depends how you are able to present the material to engage the students.