I just got done with my cultural literacies project for the new technologies assignment. I spent a lot of time on this project. The majority of the time was spent trying to decide what to do. I wanted to focus on another culture but I haven't traveled that much so I was unsure what to do. And then I had a meeting for my study abroad program that I am doing this summer and I realized that I might as well do my project on that because I am learning so much about the Malaysian culture. I know that I have not been there yet, but I have so many resources that I could still make my materials authentic.
I wanted to do a digital story because I like visual things. I also think the best way to learn something new about a culture is to fully immerse yourself in it, and the best way I could think to do that was through pictures. I used the Malay language to enrich the pictures, but I really wanted to focus on the pictures.
To use this in my classroom i would show the students this digital story before I left to travel. I would want my students to know where I am going and to know things about where I am going to be. I plan on using this experience when I am a teacher so I would want my students to know where it came from. I can't really say that my concept of literacy has changed after this project. My concept of literacy has always been pretty large and encompasses a number of things.
I think this is just one example of one way you could provide an effective litearcy instruction to your students. I know one theory of literacy is just to immerse your students into the subject and let them absorb the knowledge wtih guidance. I know this isn't practical for everything, but i feel as if it is ok for this kind of literacy. I think that learning about new cultures is hard, and the best way is to throw yourself into it and just absorb everything like a sponge.
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2 comments:
I completely can relate to the difficulties with deciding what to do ... it really was difficult for me as well. I think that even if you had traveled (as i have), it may have been kind of difficult to come up with all that much info about any given culture (and i did cultural studies while i was on study abroad). It's cool that you used the materials and resources you had from researching your trip ahead of time, i liked that idea a lot.
I really enjoyed your digital story, it was really cool. I'm jealous youre going to malaysia now!
I also think that one of the hardest things about this project was trying to figure out what to do it on. I really like that you applied this project to something that you are really interested in! It was obvious that you spent a lot of time researching different things about the Malay culture. I think that will really help you when you start to travel! I thought it was really interesting; I know I said this in you review, but I really like the Malay words throughout the digital story. Man, I'm so jealous now. Have fun!
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