Digital Literacy


Students are developing academically and socially in a digital age. It is important to give students the knowledge and tools they need in order to use technology appropriately in a technology infused society. It is essential that digital citizenship be explicitly and continuously to be able to function appropriately with using technology. In my classroom, I use Common Sense Media and BrainPop curriculums, however, Google has an excellent digital citizenship curriculum as well.

_________________________________________________________________________________


Check out my blog post published by Imagine Easy:

A big portion of my literacy instruction is blogging. Student blogging is an excellent way to build students digital literacy skills. Blogging supports student and teacher learning by facilitating writing, reflection, questioning, collaboration and by providing contexts for engaging in higher-order thinking skills.

- Gives students a voice
- Promotes collaboration
- Supports literacy skills and higher-order thinking
- Creates a culture where digital learning thrives

 Just like any component of literacy, it needs to be introduced, modeled and scaffolded before sending students off into the digital world. In my classroom we first start with paper blogging, then just commenting on my classroom blog, having individual blogs, and finally quad blogging.


1st Grade Examples:

3rd Grade Examples:

5th Grade Examples:


Check out my podcast interview on #houseofedtech as I talk about Blogging with my students!


_________________________________________________________________________________


Check out my blog post published by Imagine Easy:

Quad Blogging was a something we implemented into Middletown. It was lead by Technology Specialist as well as teachers like myself who facilitated relationships between classes throughout the district via blogging. It was a group of 10 teachers spread out over 4 Elementary Schools in the district who participated.

The 10 teachers were divided in to Quad Blogging groups. Each week, one class from each group was the 'Spotlight Blogger' who were responsible for posting that week. Spotlight bloggers posted twice a week. The first post of the week was a topic given by the teacher, and the second was free choice of topic for students. If your class was not the spotlight blogger that week, your students were responsible for posting thoughtful, meaningful comments twice a week following the Spotlight Blogger's posts. The schedule rotated so that all students had the opportunity to both post and comment.

Quad Blogging was an extremely positive experience for my fifth grade students. Not only did they get the chance to have their own digital space to practice their digital literacy skills, but they were able to build peer relationships with other fifth graders outside of our school. This was something that was extremely meaningful to them and gave them a positive motivation to engage in the Quad Blogging experience.



_________________________________________________________________________________



Being digitally literate means to produce information across different mediums. #MinecraftEDU is a medium that is engaging and motivating for students that easily aligns to the Common Core Standards. Students are using this platform to build and create, to showcase their learning and reading comprehension, and to write and illustrate their own stories.