Week 1 Readings

After reading the beginnings of both of our text books, it has become very clear that literacy instruction is changing greatly.  No longer are we just teaching students to read and write, but we are teaching them to collaborate, investigate, communicate and much much more.  I found the information about the social-constructivist learning paradigm to be a perfect description of what I feel our school is trying to move towards.  I think that the Pearson book made it more clear and seem less intimidating.  As they said in the Literacy 2.0 book, "Many teachers teach as they themselves were taught-through a transmission model."  We grew up with a direct instruction learning environment, that is what we are familiar with.  It was nice to hear that in a social constructivist model, there is still a place for direct instruction, but that we need to allow the students to take a more active part in the learning.  I am looking forward to reading more about how to incorporate technology into my literacy program beyond simply typing stories and writing projects.  I found this website that shares more information about Literacy 2.0 and how it is being utilized across the United States. http://www.literacy20.com