New Literacy Project on Cultural Literacy Using Voicethread

1) YOUR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

            At the beginning of this journey through exploring literacies, my definition of literacy only included the typical reading and writing.  Since I have exploring my fellow classmate’s projects I have learned so much more about the other literacies such as cultural, visual, emotional, and environmental.  All of these are so pivotal to teach our children and in this day and age, technology is going to be a teacher’s best friend.  Kids are learning about all the new resources just as fast as adults so it is our job to begin incorporating more of it into our classrooms.   I now understand how easily language arts can be taught through many of the tools explored in the new literacy projects.  After using my new technology Voicethread,  I was able to experience the many advantages and also amount of preperation went into creating a thoughtful presentation. I would definitely use Voicethread in the future because it is a great way to combine a powerpoint presentation with the availability to have voice commentary and written commentary.  There is also the option of making the presentation available to the class so they can comment on it as well.   Students could have the ability to collaborate during group projects using this tool.  Also, if this presentation were used in class, the students could give the teacher feedback directly on the powerpoint about what they connected with and what material appeared unclear.  I decided to incorporate cultural literacy for my project.  I learned that this literacy is every aspect of one's personal life that makes a person who they are.  This literacy can help students identify differences in all of the regions, countries, and continents in our world.  Cultural literacy includes the appreciation of music, art, food, community, reading, writing, history, norms, and pictures from one's life.  The majority of my project was easy to put together.  However, one of the biggest challenges I ran into was the amount of space the free version of Voicethread allowed me to upload from my computer.  My original powerpoint I planned to upload had multiple pictures per slide as well as some written slides.  Then I found out I was about way over the limit.  The limit for Voicethread is only 25MB for the uploaded space.  I think the commentary voice choice is also semi-limited to a few minutes.  There is the option to upgrade and pay a certain amount, but I found that the free version could suffice because that is still a decent amount to work with.  If I had done more research before beginning my presentation I would have initially prepared for the amount of space available.  I had to significantly cut out a bunch of material in order to upload my presentation.  There also isn’t the ability to edit the slides once they are uploaded, and I caught enough mistakes that I had to edit the slides back on powerpoint and then re-upload the presentation.  Overall even though I faced a few challenges while putting together my presentation, I would still recommend using this tool in the classroom as well as teaching students how to use this for future group work and individual presentations. 

2) EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

L.CN.02.03 listen to or view knowledgeably while demonstrating appropriate social skills

of audience behaviors (e.g., eye contact, attentive, supportive) in small and large group settings; listen to the comments of peers and respond on topic adding a connected idea.

            I created this presentation with the mindset that my students would be engaged enough to listen and comprehend the information presented to them while connecting to each of the slides.  If I were to present this material to my class, I would pause each slide to ask the class questions and have them talk about this own cultural literacy so we could all learn a little more about each other.  In order to be successful at this literacy, students would need to be aware that not everyone’s cultural literacy is the same.  I would need to provide, or have the class share a few of their own examples ir experiences in order to get the point across.  The technology incorporated in this lesson would also need some background knowledge explained.  I would tell the students Voicethread is a good way to create a presentation by using powerpoint and one’s own voice recordings to send a message to the audience.  Students would need to see what powerpoint is, how to add pictures to the class, and shown how to record their voice on a computer to fully understand how this technology was created. This technology is a great way to show diverse learners of just one of the ways technology can be incorporated in their lives.  With voicethread, there are many options for student's to explore.  Just to name a few, experience with powerpoint, researching ideas on the internet, pictures, typing up commentary, and recording one's voice can all be incorporated into this tool

3) LESSON PLAN: 

• Target area and rationale:  Through the introduction of voicethread, students will be able to see how technology can be incorporated into their own learning through the use of powerpoint, and voice recordings.  Technology is user-friendly for many ages, the teacher will show the students how this technology's home page can walk new users through the process.
• List your objective(s)
• Students would comprehend cultural literacy through digital storytelling using the tool Voicethread.
• Students will listen and and write a brief reflection about their own cultural literacy after the lesson
• Materials: laptops (teacher’s & one for each student), projector, paper, pencil
• Outline of the lesson:
• 1. Students will be asked what they know about cultural literacy
• 2. Try to come up with their own brief definition
• 3. Students will be introduced to Voicethread (homepage will be shown, and powerpoint, and voice recordings will be breifly explained)
• 4. Presentation shown
• 5. Students will be asked to share experiences throughout presentation
• 6. Reflection on lesson will be shared
• 7. Students will spend 10-15 minutes creating their own reflection on a laptop, which will be printed off at the end of the lesson.
• Closing summary:  The teacher will wrap up the lesson by explaining cultural literacy is includes an individual’s, history, music, art, food preferences, norms, reading, writing, and community.  Technology is a great way to show a group of people our ideas.  Voicethread is a powerpoint presentation where you can record your own voice to explain the slides.  Also, typing up our ideas is a great way to become comfortable with using a computer which will be used more in more throughout the children's schooling experience.
• Ongoing assessment: Student’s reflections will be evaluated to see whether or not they understand the definition of cultural literacy.  Perhaps the next day the teacher will read a book about a character from another country to see if the students can recognize how he/she has a different cultural literacy than them.