Media Presentation

Word Glossary

Word Glossary

Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds) (2007). A New Literacies Sampler. New York: Peter Lang.

1.        Affinities- a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship, especially a resemblance in structure between animals, plants, or languages. (p.117)

2.        Affective dimensions- The way blogging affects our emotions

3.        Affinity spaces = people interact and relate to each other around a common passion, proclivity, or endeavor. (p. 117)

4.        Anomalous juxtaposition- incongruous couplings of images used as the "hooks" for a meme.

5.        Blogging-  Updating personal opinions or perspectives on a personal webpage on a regular basis

6.   Discourses-socially recognized ways of using language so that we can be identified and recognized as being a member of a socially meaningful group. (p.3) 

7.    Emote-Expression of emotion, action, or gesture (p.127)

8.   Ethos stuff- participation, collaboration, distribution and dispersion of expertise, and relatedness as core features of the ethos dimension of new literacies.

9.   Fan Fiction-  fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc.

10. fecundity – refers to the rate at which an idea or pattern is   copied and spread.  The more quickly a meme spreads the more likely it is to capture attention and be replicated and distributed.  (p.202)

11. Geek Kitsch- The syntactic and semantic hiccups within the English subtitles.

12. Intertextuality- Texts made form other texts (p.153)

13.  Manga Producing- Manga is a Japanese word referring both to     comics and cartooning.  “Manga” as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan.

14.   Meme-an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.  A humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users

15. multi-modality- is the mixture of textual, audio, and visual modes in combination with media and materiality to create meaning.

16.  New Literacy-literacy that includes “technical stuff”.

17.  Podcasting-a digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer.

Monoz, R. (2011, December 1). eBooks for Kids: Hurtful or Helpful for Young Readers?. Education.com. Retrieved June 29, 2014, from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ebooks-for-kids/

18.  Ebooks-an electronic version of a printed book that can be read on a computer or handheld device designed specifically for this purpose.

Bauerlein, M. & Howe, N. (2008). The Millennials: The Dumbest Generation or the Next Great Generation?

19.  New Technical stuff-  the knowledge of the technological resources that afford generating, communicating, and negotiating encoded meanings.

20.  Millennial-  a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000.

The Last Days of School

The end of the school year is such an exciting time for teachers and students.  With all that excitement it is difficult to hold your students attention.  I hope this text set will give you some ideas and will help to get you through that last week of school next year!

  Who doesn't like Dr. Seuss?

This is a great end of the school year tradition!

By:  Louise Boden    Illustrated By:  Adam Gustavson

The last Day of School will resonate with all children who know the excitement, energy, and bittersweet emotions that the final days of a school year bring.

                                                      

      By:  Julie Dannburg

It's the last week of school, and Mrs. Hartwell's class is excited to leave for summer vacation. The only problem is that the kids don't want their teacher to miss them while they're gone. Once again Julie Danneberg and Judy Love bring to life the crazy antics of Mrs. Hartwell and her class and show that teachers and students are more alike than different.

                                                      

  By:  Joseph Slate   Illustrated By:  Ashley Wolff

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten is the perfect way for teachers and students to commemorate their own end-of-the-year festivities.

By:  Natasha Wind  Illustrated By:  Julie Durrell

A little girl and her family are getting ready to go on vacation . . . or at least they are trying to. In the effort to pack everything that will be needed, there's bound to be something overlooked, and what that is provides a funny ending to this meter-perfect "twist" on Clement Moore's classic.

End of Year Activities!

End of Year Turtle Compliments - Have students each tape a "shell" on their back. Then they walk around and write down a compliment to each of their classmates. This is a silent activity because turtles don't talk. Finally, they can take them off and read them.

Countdown to last day of school. Pop one balloon each day. Inside is a special surprise for the day. Ex. No homework, read outside, work with no shoes on, chew gum in the morning, etc."

 Bucket List

Have students create a list of things that they want to do over summer break.   Then create a bucket to attach the list to.

End of the year foldable, completed using figurative language, synonyms and antonyms, with a glyph used for the center of the cover.

Candy Awards
These are such fun awards to give and receive!

Make Homemade Ice Cream with your Class!

IN CAN ICE CREAM DIRECTIONS:

(Ice cream without an ice-cream maker!) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup milk 

• 1 cup whipping cream 

• 1/2 cup sugar 

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (pure vanilla extract works best!) 

Other materials needed: 

• 1 small coffee can 

• Strapping tape (It's the only tape I've found that will hold the lid tightly in place.) 

• 1 large coffee can 

• 1-1/2 cups rock salt 

• Crushed ice (2 bags) 

• Rubber spatula 

• Spoons, cups, and bowls

Mix the ingredients in the small coffee can and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Tape the lid on the can securely with strapping tape. Place the "filled" small coffee can inside the large coffee can. Pack the large can with crushed ice around the smaller can. Pour at least 3/4 cup of rock salt evenly over the ice. Place the lid on the large coffee can and tape securely with strapping tape. Roll the can back and forth for ten minutes. Then open the outer can. Remove the inner can. Remove the lid and stir the mixture with a rubber spatula. Scrape the insides of the can. Do not allow mixture to become liquid. Replace the lid on the small can. Tape securely again. Drain the ice water from the larger can. Insert the small filled can. Pack it with more ice and salt. Roll it back and forth for five more minutes. Enjoy!

This recipe makes about 3 cups of ice cream. Teachers/caregivers might adapt the recipe, depending on the size of the group or whether they want small groups of students to make their own batches.

________________

Ch. 9 Online Memes, Affinities, and Cultural Production

Prior to reading this chapter, I had no idea what memes were.  I learned that memes are contagious patterns of "cultural information" that gets passed from mind to mind and directly generate and shape mindsets and significant forms of behavior and actions of a social group.  Memes include such things as tunes, catch phrases, clothing fashion, architectural styles, ways of doing things, icons, jingles and etc.  Memes are recognizable, bounded phenomena that have material effects in the world and that can be scrutinized.

As I was reading I kept asking myself, what does this have to do with "new" literacy.  The study that was presented found that if educators study online memes that aim at promoting social critique.  These new literacies can help educators to equip students with important strategies for identifying the memes that infect their minds, and for evaluating the effects these memes have on their (ethical) decision-making, social actions and their relations with others.

As I reflect back on this chapter, I find these things to be true.  The things and people that we surround ourselves with define us.  Whether it be what we watch, what we read, or who we spend time with. These things and people get in to our minds and before we know it we look and act alike.  They influence our decisions without us even realizing that they have control over us.

eBooks

eBooks for Kids: Hurtful or Helpful for Young Readers?http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ebooks-for-kids/

This article is a very family friendly article that aims to educate parents who live in this digital world today.  For parents of very young children, the "total experience" of reading includes lap-time, closeness and parental involvement. Some people are afraid that this experience will be lost with eBooks. The other big fear is that their child won't learn to read properly if exposed to eBooks.

The article includes some tips for parents when choosing ebooks for their children such as:

• Educate Yourself: Know the difference between an eBook and an app. 
• Reading Reinforcement: Choose reading apps wisely. 
• Keep it in the Family: : Keep reading activities family-centered. Don't sacrifice "lap time" 

 The article emphasizes to choose what ebooks and apps are best for your child.  No one knows your child better than you.   The article ends with this advice and I love it:  "The single biggest factor in raising a successful reader is to lead by example, so soak in as much of the written word as you can each day. Not only may you discover new page-turning material, you'll be showing your kids that reading, either on a screen or on a page, can be as enjoyable as it is educational."

Make time to sit down and read together! This is possibly the most important advice that we can give to parents of young children.  

Blogging

I chose this image, because it is a very familiar image around my house!  My seven year old daughter has been introduced to blogging from this Disney show Dog With A Blog.  She doesn't know the ins and outs of blogging, but from this show and iCarly she gets the gist of blogging.

In the chapter blogs are defined as "essentially online journals which are regularly updated, often with fairly brief postings.  Blogs are created for a purpose whether it be professional, educational, or for a hobby.  Bloggers present their blogs in hopes that it will be accepted by their blogging community.  Many bloggers feel more at ease blogging.  Guy and Mortensen say that blogging is appealing because they can write ‘outside of the boundaries’ and not worry about all the editorial changes, spelling, and grammar.

I have never been one to keep a journal or really share my thoughts outside of my inner circle, but now that I have been required to create a blog and do some blogging I can see how it is beneficial in the education world.  I have learned a lot from my classmates.  They have said a lot of things that had not crossed my mind until reading their blogs.  I feel that blogging would be beneficial to students in middle school and up.  I could see blogging being a great avenue for literature teachers to take while teaching novels.  Not only would they be learning from each other, but they would enjoy the social networking aspect of it as well.  I could have defiantly benefited from it in my high school days while reading Hamlet and Shakespeare!

Text Set #3

Grammar

Books:

I like to introduce new topics with picture books.  I think picture books help introduce intimidating objectives in non-threatening ways.  The following are some grammar books that I think children would enjoy.

The Following are some book written by Ruth Heller that would be great introductory books:

Nouns

Adjectives

Verbs

Prepositions

Interjections and Conjunctions

Websites:

The Grammar Gorillas needs help identifying parts of speech.
http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/


This website has game links for everything that you could possibly teach in grammar.  This would be a great website to use in the computer lab for extra practice and review!  Definitely worth checking out!
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html

This website has grammar games that are categorized by grade level.
http://www.funenglishgames.com/grammargames.html

Teacher Resources:

Pintrest is the place to go for all you anchor chart idea needs.

www.pintrest.com

Help kids really learn the parts of speech with more than 25 irresistible, hands-on manipulatives, such as Noun Detective Wheel, Amazing Adjectives Pull-Through, and Verb Vacation Flip-Up! Kids simply turn, pull, or lift the flaps to read and learn about nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, action and linking verbs, and more. Each easy-to-make manipulative features lively illustrations and focuses on one part of speech. Includes extension activities.