This week, we learned about discourses.

A discourse is a way of being that puts you in a

group that uses a common language, way of thinking, and/or behaving. For example, a

discourse that pertains to us, is we are all teachers. As teachers, we and others that are a part

of our discourse will likely know teacher acronyms like CCSS, RTI and SEL. Everyone has

multiple discourses that influence not only the way the dress or interact with people, but

academic preferences as well. A persons discourses influence the genres they prefer to read

and the ways in which theyre most comfortable demonstrating their proficiency in school. A

persons primary discourse is acquired in their home and immediate community, and a persons

background knowledge depends largely on his or her primary discourse. A persons secondary

discourse is what they learn at school through reading, and writing. This is usually the culturally

dominant discourse. Rather than aim to assimilate everyone to the dominant discourse, new

literacies aim to be the bridge between the primary and secondary discourses.

Education has the potential to become a means for social justice. Literacy needs to

expand as our culture and technology evolve. If schools are to prepare our youth for the types

of jobs that will be available for them when they graduate, well need to train them to be

flexible, critical thinkers, who can collaborate and problem solve. If were to grow in this way,

we must expand the variety of texts we utilize to convey meaning. Some examples of new

literacies we can experiment incorporating with are: videos, symbols, images, combinations of

pictures and words like diagrams, charts, tables, music, dance, ASL, maps, and recipes. The

point is not to replace print-based texts in school, but to expand on it.

Students will be diverse, and that should be celebrated! In order to set everyone up for

success in the classroom, we can manipulate our curriculum and instruction in one or more
(multimodal) of the following literacy modes: audio, visual, spatial, gestural, and linguistic

design.

Teachers must be flexible and creative if theyre to engage and motivate their students.

They must also be aware of students background knowledge. Teachers must strengthen their

situated practice by knowing their students strengths, weaknesses, and interests. To increase

interest, teachers can incorporate these different kinds of texts that capitalize on students

interests and build upon the types of literacies theyre familiar with. For example, Professor

Buelow says she uses Pokemon cards in her lessons. Organizing Pokemon cards requires the

prerequisite skill of ordering numbers, as well as alphabetizing. Another way to increase

engagement is to incorporate technology. For example, Caroline uses interactive notebooks in

her math class, and incorporates Hawaiian culture into her lessons.

Im very intrigued by this notion of multiliteracies, and am challenging myself to

broaden the definition of what I see as effective ways to communicate as a teacher and a

student in school.