Classrooms without Books

The traditional teacher in me is thinking whoa! Hold on! How in the world can I teach English without books? How can I get my kids to read if they can't even take the book home? (which is happening in an urban school I observe right now) so I keep thinking, instead of panicking and being outraged at the system, I need to rise to the challenge and figure out how I am going to teach the ELA skills to kids for 1-so they can excel on the Regents Exam, and 2-so they can develop a lifelong love of reading and learn that writing is a powerful tool of communication.

But first, I think teachers need to step out of the box of the old ways and learn new ways to assess students. We say kids are not reading anymore--sure they aren't reading what we expect--which is the old cover to cover paperbook--but this is old school. In this new world, the Read/Write Web, the Flat World of internet and high tech media devices--kids are doing so much more stuff that confounds the older generation(teachers). We look at their ipods and scoff at them, tell them to turn them off--why are we so angry? Because they are so far above us in this new world. We don't know how to use ipods so we scoff at the whole notion and try to sweep it under the rug and go back to our chalkboards.

But we will never reach kids that way. We need to get to them at a medium they can understand--and that medium is through ipods and cell phones with cameras, glossy magazines, TV, video games, internet societies like myspace, facebook, google, Youtube, yahoo, wikipedia--virtual realities where people are chatting with others all the way across the world from their bedrooms--and not just chatting--viewing too. As teachers, we need to "face the music" and admit that we don't know as much as our students now because this new generation has grown up with all this information at their fingertips--with the touch of a button and NOT through opening a PAPERbook. These books are history now!

We need to redefine what literacy is. What literacy is to our students now is understanding what is out there on the web-- how to decipher truth from fiction, who is just trying to sell us something versus someone who just wants to get the truth out there. We need to teach our students to be critical thinkers and viewers--to critically analyze everything that passes in front of their nose (and it's alot!) Reading the media is a new type of literacy we need to be teaching with our students.

Media literacy is a favorite medium to students. It is highly engaging and highly motivating so they will learn naturally because it is fun. It is essential to teach them to read the media critically to understand the whys and hows behind everything being sent out in front of people. If we want people to be productive citizens in the world, we need to teach them how to use these new technologies to their advantage.

It isn't about paper and pens anymore. It is about typing and shorthand and video--we have enterned a new world of literacy--the Reading/Writing on the Web to a flat world of listeners and responders.