Reading Response 2/18

Leu 4

This chapter explains the various ways people can communicate with each other via the Internet. The first form of communication that is explained is email. The section on the email was very basic. It talked about your email address, email software programs, identifying yourself, setting preferences, reading, receiving, and replying to messages, original messages with your reply, forwarding mail, composing and sending new messages, printing, attaching files, working with folders, deleting messages, and so on. The authors feel that email is the most effective way to get ideas for websites, resources and activities through other teachers.
Suggestions for email use are to remember your purpose, write concisely, write explicitly, be careful when you are using humor, proofread your messages before you send them, and pay attention to netiquette.
Emailing keypals was discussed as a positive collaborative venture.
The second form of communication was subscribing to a mailing list. When you become a subscriber you are able to discuss a topic of common interest with other subscribers. The rest of this section explained how to subscribe to a mailing list, the welcome message, unsubscribing, posting a message, and mailing list netiquette.
Privacy issues were mentioned with a warning to consider email as an open postcard instead of a sealed letter.
Newsgroups are the third communication category. Newsgroups are available to anyone whose server receives and stores them. They are like bulletin boards where people can post and read material over an extended period of time. More people belong to newsgroups than mailing lists. The rest of this section explains how to read newsgroups, subscribe, post messages, and respond with the proper netiquette.
Weblogs are the last category of communication addressed in this chapter. Weblogs can be described as online journals on any topic with no links to actual news. They are popular because they are inexpensive, free and very user friendly.
Real time communication venues such as radio broadcasts, reading and writing through chat rooms or instant messaging, and audio and video conferencing were mentioned as other communication options on the Internet.
The email section was something I already knew how to use so there was no interest for me there. However, the other three sections had information I had never seen before, so I gained some new information on how to access information on the Internet through mailing lists, newsgroups, and weblogs. I do like the website references and the easy to follow instructions on how to do different functions on the Internet. This book is an invaluable resource for me to use when I am trying out these new literacies on my computer.

Xu 3

I think this chapter was exciting for a variety of reasons. This fourth grade teacher was able to tap into her students' comic book interest and meet the state standards at the same time.
The teacher did a good job of planning the unit. Prior background knowledge was activated with the help of the KWL chart. Questions were sorted by categories. Students interviewed the comic animator artist to get facts for their writing. The animator demonstrated how to draw a comic strip for the students. Guided writing and research followd the demonstration.
Students self selected the business they wanted to start and they wrote an expository piece using the comic strip format as a graphic organizer. At the end of the unit each child wrote a reflections piece on what they had learned. Students finished the project by giving other people tours of their class book and website. They shared their learning with others.
I liked the teacher's final comment at the end of the chapter where she (Rachael) says that she doesn't know if she will do the same unit next year because the next class may have a different popular culture text interest than this year's class. I don't see much of this personal interest factor when teachers design their lessons. It is more work to teach this way, but it is also more meaningful and interesting for kids. Those students will never forget that unit and the things they learned because it was so fun and interesting for them. Vignettes like this inspire teachers to try different things and think outside the box. I'm going to survey my Kindergartners to find out what popular culture text they are interested in and then design a literacy unit on it!