Literacy and Curriculum Connections

This semester I am taking two education classes: Literacy and Curriculum. The first substantial assignment for each class was a short presentation using technology. The Literacy project assessed our expanded definition of literacy, how literacy is relevant to our content area, and the implications of our future teaching decisions. I created an Adobe Spark Page video for my "What is Literacy?" assignment presentation. The Curriculum project assessed our educational philosophy, theorists associated with it, those who influenced our views, and how the philosophy will impact our future classroom. The philosophy I chose was Progressivism. I used Slidebean to present my work, but to share the slides, I uploaded screenshots into an Adobe Spark Page video. 

The main ideas of the Literacy project and of the Curriculum project are closely related. The Literacy presentation focused on redefining literacy and what it means in our content area. The Curriculum presentation focused on our educational philosophy and how it will impact our future teaching. I think that integrating literacy into our curriuculum will be crucial for our students' success.  Our educational philosophies will ground us as teachers. Any decisions we make about how to teach in our classroom will be affected by our philosophy. My educational philosophy is Progressivism, which focuses on active experimentation and the students' natural interests. I think that Progressivism will push me to actively experiment with new kinds of media in order to build my students' literacy skill set. 

I think that there is a large overlap between Literacy and Curriculum. To me, Curriculum is primarily about the content we are teaching and how we are going to teach it. Literacy involves using various texts, which can be movies, books, articles, podcasts, images, and more, to effectively communicate with others. We can use literacy skills to present the content in class. For example, in my future math classroom, I could use pictures of the Egyptian pyramids to expand my students' understanding of pyramids, or an art piece to push their thinking about shapes in the real world. The overlap between Literacy and Curriculum is prevalent, and should continue to grow as the semester progresses. 

These assignments aligned with multiple pillars of the mission statement for the Education Department at Saint Michael's College. The first related pillar is, "Our graduates are passionate and curious scholars." Under the pillar's description, the statement says, "[Our graduates] aim to inspire [...] curiosity in their students." Integrating visuals in my future math classroom is one way I will increase my students' curiosity in the subject. Progressivism focuses on the natural interests of the students and active experimentation, both of which inspires curiosity. I think that both of my presentations also showed the passion I have for teaching math in the future. 

Another related pillar is "Our graduates are creative and integrative educators." We had to design creative presentations using various apps and/or websites. For my Curriculum presentation, I talked about having an assignment where my students would explain the math in one of their areas of interest, which I think is creative. For my Literacy presentation, I talked about integrating art, history, and journal writing into my future math classroom. Making connections between math and other content areas is important for showing how relevant math is as well as grabbing students' attention.

The last related pillar is "Our graduates are reflective and contemplative practitioners." The pillar is further explained through the statement, "They thoughtfully implement curriculum and assessments, drawing from a solid theoretical base to guide their instruction and leadership decisions." I think that this pillar highlights the Curriculum presentation well. In it, I explained that Progressivism is my theoretical base. I then talked about the ways that Progressivism will impact my future teaching decisions. In both presentations, I explained thoughtful choices for my future curriculum and assessments. 

I used Slidebean for my Curriculum presentation because I had never used it before and I wanted to increase my technology skills. I think that the presentation was well suited to my task. I was able to clearly outline the points I wanted to talk about in the presentation. I was also able to make a professional-looking slideshow to engage my listeners. I think that next time I would try to use more of the advanced features of Slidebean; however, I would need to pay for an account to do so. I think that this media enabled me to be passionate and curious, creative and integrative, and reflective and contemplative. 

I used an Adobe Spark Page video for my Literacy presentation because I had also never used it before and I wanted to push myself creatively. I think that the video was well suited to my task. I was able to use audio, video, and images to make my point, which I think directly connects to literacy and expanding my technology skill set. Next time I might try to have more words in the video without it being too overwhelming. I think that this media also enabled me to be passionate and curious, creative and integrative, and reflective and contemplative. 

I think that my long-standing perceptions of literacy were challenged in this assignment. Before this semester started, I thought that literacy was just reading and writing traditional texts. However, now I know that literacy is much more. My long-standing perceptions of curriculum were also challenged. I didn't know what curriculum meant before this semester, and this assignment pushed me to think about my future curriculum from the viewpoint of Progressivism. Going forward, I hope to remain open about widening my ideas of literacy and curriculum. 

My plan for ongoing learning in this area is to use new technologies to build my literacy skill set and remain focused on becoming a passionate and curious, creative and integrative, and reflective and contemplative educator.