Multigenre and Mulitmodal Textual Lineage

• Explain how the Multigenre & Mulitmodal assignment related to each of the readings.

o    Writing Outside of School

I like the concept this reading emphasizes when it says that afterschool programs can add onto the strengths of the students.  In today’s society, kids are exposed to different types of media.  This reading says that we should use these types to emphasize help the kids understand and comprehend different learning standards. 

o    Literacy Learning in the 21^st Century

The assignments in this reading have students use different sources to enhance their use of technology.  In order for students to succeed in today’s world, they should be exposed to different technological assignments in the classroom.

o    Reading and Writing Differently

This reading is reemphasizes what the last reading said.  We as teachers should create an environment that focuses on the kids “extra-curricular” writing like blogs, texts, and social networking.  Another suggestion this reading offers is to use E-readers. 

o    Writing Now

This reading took myths about reading and writing and explained what they truly mean in todays’ schools.  We should focus on creating instruction to enforce the meaning of the writing.  I like the key points about what writing is: Holistic, Authentic, and Varied. 

o    Adolescent Literacy

Out of this reading, there is one point that stuck out to me.  “Writing prompts in which students reflect on their current understanding, questions, and learning processes help to improve content-area learning.” Basically I take this to mean we need to engage the students.  We should focus on what the student experiences and goes through on a daily basis in order for he or she to stay engaged. 

• Describe three ways the readings changed or reinforced your thinking about the role of digital technologies/media in teaching children adolescents to read and write.

1.       These reinforced my idea of building on what the students already know.  As a math teacher, I always tell my students to use what they know to figure out what they don’t know.  After reading these articles, I will continue to pursue that frame of mind in order to help my students succeed.

2.       One viewpoint that changed was the use of technology.  It is hard to use technology in most math classes.  But after reading these, I will try to incorporate more future use.  Technology, like iPads, is a great way to engage the students.

3.       Even though I am certified in Math, these readings provided me with ideas to incorporate writing into my class.  I could use journal prompts that deal with Math situations. I could also use different technological tools like Microsoft Powerpoint to help students understand concepts better. 

• Find an example (i.e lesson plan or students work sample) of how other teachers are using digital technologies/media to support reading and writing in a content area like Math, Science, Social studies, Art, Music, Health, Family and Consumer Science

Here is a link to a lesson plan called M&M Math.  This is an activity that has the students create different types of graph to display statistics using M&M’s.  Even though this is designed around a 5^th grade Math class, there are multiple ways this could be used for any middle school Math class.