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The culture in literacy is very different than it was years ago.  There is a huge emphasis on the net and computer based learning, but writing and reading (an actual book) are both slowly moving to the weigh side.  Many kids, K-12 and even into college, do not know how to write a check or address an envelope.  Learning how to write in cursive is slowly being removed from many school course curriculums.  I think its very sad.  What happens if the computer world were to comecrashing down?  It's a very scary thought.  Computers are machines; we are not.  When do we draw the line?  Computers are great, but that is not all there is to learning.

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Technology has allowed us to expose students to ways of being literate in a differently than we would do without the technology we have today. For example, we can display information over a PowerPoint in an organized, variety-filled manner that we would not otherwise be able to display as easily. We can add pictures, text, symbols, videos, etc. A blind spot can be loosing appreciation for the educational technology we have, for example, a teacher that lectures or reads directly from a PowerPoint for 40+ minutes straight, rather than using it as a guide or supplement to the lesson.

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Technology is so prominent in schools today. My younger brother is a freshman in high school this year. He went to freshman orientation to pick up his books...instead of coming home with a stack of books, he came home with an i-pad informing me that none of his books, homework or handouts would be paper anymore. Essentially everything school related would be completed on his i-pad.

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Technology is changing rapidly in which students have to adapt to these technological advances.

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We are always trying to come up with something new and creative that we pass over the simple and easy solutions.

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Molly
The cultural shift in the amount of testing compared to technology is overwhelmingly becoming more connected

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The culture of schools seem to be focused on standardized testing. Although this is important, it is not an accurate representation of a students learning ability.

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Because technology is becoming a big deal in our culture, students should be more educated in how things work such as building comput

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The culture of literacy in regard to technology in the classroom is the idea that the teacher knows best. While many teachers try to incorporate new technologies in the classroom, we should be listening to our students ideas. They are the ones that have to interact with it. If they believe that a certain technology would benefit their learning, we should listen to that.

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In the art classroom, the focus is on elements and principles rather than what is happening now in the contemporary art world. The art room fails to present art as a real and valid career path.

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Standardized testing I believe has been a blind spot in education. Testing on how well students can do based on multiple choice right or wrong answers in a set time period. The culture of education has been based on information from reading and writing and little on time to think about the why's of certain questions to grow as an active member in society. There is only a right or wrong answer.

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The culture of literacy in education is very heavily reading based. We have to read textbooks, handouts, powerpoints, etc. Recently there has been a shift that I have noticed to include writing, but there still hasn't been a shift to include learning listening skills in many schools.

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I think that the culture of education is centered around the teacher giving tests and I think that can be hindering in many ways. It does not allow for as much learning and creativity in the classroom which I think hinders students.

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A goal of teachers is to make their students literate in their subject matter. A blind spot is that students lack of interest in a certain subject matter can make them unmotivated to become literate. They would rather just complete the class and never see the material again.

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Standardized testing in my personal opinion is a blindspot in teaching. Not everyone is a good test taker but most administrations still base many of their decisions off of what the test scores say.

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I feel that part of the culture of education is very focused on standardized testing, and testing in general. We are very focused on measuring how much they learned, and that is our way of measuring. I believe that there are more effective ways to measure how much our students have learned without tests. In this sense, we are also focused on grades. An "A" means you learned the best while a "C" means you were just average and did not learn a lot. Is this really true?

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Desks in rows, teacher at front, listen, write, leave.

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I feel as if culture of education is focused on more standardized tests and making the school look good. It is less about the student and what they should be learning to better themselves. And more about the student learning material to better the school and receive funding.

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Teacher lectures in front, students take notes on lesson.

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The culture of education in regards to literacy has become very public with all of our tools of literacy, internet mainly.  A potential blind spot is the amount of information and choosing which might be beneficial.

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I think the culture of education today is heavily focused on networking and continuity of practice. As teachers, we are always looking to our peers to learn new and different ways to effectively teach our students. We cling to practices that are successful and well received by the students, and those practices today can come from literally anywhere in the world of education.  We are not limited by our classroom, school, or district; today thousands upon thousands are connected and communicate actively.

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Teaching in a classroom could be a blindspot. As a History Ed. major, Field Experiences could be a crucial learning opportunity. This method, however, is limited to certain locations and local weather.

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A potential blind spot in regards to the use of technology in literacy education would be not having foresight. Innovation always requires thinking ahead and anticipating the potential needs to consumers or students. Sometimes we don't know how convenient a technological tool can be until we obtain that tool.

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Visual literacy skills are still sidelined. Recent UK gov queries about the value of using films and poster making in classrooms attest to this.

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This focus on manufacturing the "ideal American citizens," fails to tailor educational experiences to students' dreams and goals for themselves.

(Effie refuses to conform.....)

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The Hunger Games Cf GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

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Discover & share this The Hunger Games GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

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Helping diverse learnings navigate through technology in ways that play to their strengths.

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Testing can be a blindspot for literacy.

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I feel that teachers are under such strong demands and scrutiny these days that we often forget what teaching is all about: which is engaging students and helping them to enjoy learning. With so many demands, it's hard to let kids explore when we constantly have to think about the next assessment on the calendar.

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Teacher asks a question, students should raise their hand and respond.  No open discussions.

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I feel as if we view public education as a tool of indoctrination and preparation for successful continuity of the American nation and infrastructure.

CCSS makes it clear with its slogan of "Preparing America's students for College and Career," that the purpose of education is to invariably give back to the nation.

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Drill and skill
Too often we expect that students should be constantly practicing the same things over and over and over. If teaching was as simple as set of skills in isolation; it would be a lot simpler.

The picture below does a good  job of looking at the student as a whole person. All of these skills are happening simultaneously. I feel like maybe we could even have arrows going around the student and among the different strategies.

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In the past, the culture of literacy primarily emphasized reading and writing as the key components. It was not until more recently (such as with the Common Core Standards) that speaking and listening have been acknowledged as equally important components to balanced literacy.

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SO MANY TESTS...just a bunch of standardized tests that we're forgetting what it means to be dedicated to helping nurture lifelong readers, writers, thinkers, and learners. Can we please stop it with all of the inauthentic assessments so much of the time? Kids are more than a letter grade, number, test score, or percentage. They are individual human beings. Let's start respecting that!

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There is a culture that literacy is necessary for students in an academic sense as opposed to literacy in the work force. Specifically with post-secondary education, rather than validating literacies that exist outside of school, literacy is viewed as being important if it fits into the academic/school world.

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This is sooo scary. We use technology for communication, but it sloppy, quick communication with little planning or thought process.

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One potential blind spot could be inauthentic writing.

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I often hear people talking about levels, and word identification, and fluency. Comprehension is often discussed as an ability to answer questions about a text. Rarely do I hear us talking about the many different ways that we make sense of text and learn the content of the text.

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Kathleen/ Culture of Literacy Education: 

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Kathleen/ Culture of Literacy Education: 

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Digital literacies is the way of the future. As a teacher I feel a need to have more trainings on technology so I can better prepare my students for the 21st Century Classroom. I would love to learn how to utilize more technology in the classroom.

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Technology is the blindspot. Trying to make sure students are engaged with the latest technology can take opportunities away from critical reading, critical writing, and critical thinking.

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Misunderstandings that students can have in reading each others texts or writing and not having a quick opportunity to correct the misunderstanding

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Developmental stages of each individual child. There is a huge focus on getting students to specific reading levels, writing levels, math levels, etc. we can often forget the appropriate developmental stages for individual learners and what might be appropriate for them at that specific time.

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I, myself, learn better with paper and pencil. I loved notecards. i don't like reading from a computer screen or typing. My SPED students use paper and pencil, IPAD is just for reinforcement time.

Daniela

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I feel that we are in such a culture that we are teaching students to read fast to reach a goal so that they do well on a test. I feel that we focus to much on the speed of the reading rather then teaching students to enjoy reading.

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We're infatuated with technology, but it isn't a silver bullet. We see a lot of people doing the same ol' things, but just with new devices.

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We are teaching students to read to become test takers, which is important, but I think it is also VERY important to teach them to love reading & be life long learners.

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I teach preschool mixed typical developing and sped. The blind spot i run into constantly.... Preschool Is not a part of education... i hate hearing this... I wish that all of education had preschool education... So many students are so very far behind when they hit kindergarten. Preschool makes a huge difference and if we are expecting children to come to school already with basic lieracy skills.... Then preschool should be manditory.

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According to one of the principle authors of the Common Core, teachers need to impress upon their students "The world doesn't give a shit what you think or feel." What does this say about a culture of literacy embracing collaboration and risk?

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Unfortunately, the culture of literacy has become completely linked to...

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Common Core Curriculum & Assessments | EngageNY

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In order to assist schools and districts with the implementation of the Common Core, NYSED has provided curricular modules and units in P-12 ELA and math that can be adopted or adapted for local purposes. Full years of curricular materials are currently available on EngageNY, and are available from our Common Core Curriculum page or the Common Core Library.

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I would say that the culture of literacy education today is defined by the general idea of college and career readiness. This is in fact the focus of the most significant literacy standards document published in our generation, the Common Core State Standards. I would argue, though, that the culture of literacy education should center more around the idea of community ready. What does it mean to be literate in your community - not just school, but the community that encompasses school? What literacy skills and competencies do you need to be a full participant in our democratic society? More and more, I believe that the culture of literacy education needs to be tied in part to a culture of participatory politics and digital civics in order to help all youth engage fully.

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We were really concerned with different kinds of literacy re: traditional vs. digital.

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Blind spots ... what is starting point. socio-economic advantages or disadvantages of student population.. English not first language. parents who do not speak/help learners... ability to do homework if not in supported home environment... the special needs population of different types of non traditional learners.. ONE SIZE DOESNOT FIT ALL>

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We need to be careful not to lose student individuality in a one-size-fits all model.

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explicit learning of

grammar, vocabulary, and how to construct essays, such as persuasive is teaching literacy

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Inability to integrate the range of cultures in the classroom?? Cultural divide?

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There is a cultural divide between our students' school lives and their virtual live

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One thing that we feel is lost when we talk about new literacy strategies is the idea that sopmetimes, what had worked in the past is simply scrapped from the classroom and replaced by the latest innovations. I feel that rather than totally abandoning what has worked in the past, it would be really effective to combine effective older strategies with the new innovations that students are responding to today.

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Reading is usually regarded as "high brow" books and articles in the classroom. We

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Phyllis Fein

Blind spots- who is the learner? we are teaching a standard curriculum to a diverse

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Many teachers assume that the teaching of reading skills mostly ends in the middle elementary grades, as students shift focus from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Reading skills are complex and continue to develop through adolescence and beyond, so we should continue to teach them!

http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol7/711-houck.aspx

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The culture of literacy education seems to be characterized by an assignment/correction format, in which students write something and have it corrected by the teacher. In the future, blogs or wikis may provide students with more writing but less correction (not necessarily a bad thing).

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50/50 rule  of reading

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We feel overwhelmed by where the literacy culture is going in terms of online tools. We wonder if and what the value is of old-fashioned techniques like taking notes on notecards.

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Literacy is no longer just books, articles, and poetry. We need to make sure all our students are skilled at "trans-media navigation" (stolen from Prof. Elfrank).

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Whole classes reading one common text has kept our classes teacher-centered.

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Literacy is no longer just reading and writing; but learning how to navigate through this new digital world.

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Technology inside and outside of the classroom are disconnected. The skills we use outside of the classroom are not valued inside the classroom or even seen as literacy skills. "The deal here isn't that I used a technology. It is that I used technology to be smarter in school. There is an important difference." -Sara Kajder (2010)

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Disclaimer: On this page you can find the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards are temporarily located on this page while we work to address technical challenges with CoreStandards.org. Thank you for your patience and we will share an update on CoreStandards.org when we have one.
English Language Arts Standards English Language Arts Standards (ADA Compliant) Mathematics Standards Mathematics Standards (ADA Compliant)

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Disclaimer: On this page you can find the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards are temporarily located on this page while we work to address technical challenges with CoreStandards.org. Thank you for your patience and we will share an update on CoreStandards.org when we have one.

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Literacy is measured by test scoress and Lexile levels. It is also measured by rubrics that assess students' ability to read and write in standard English.

Blind spots on education is not fully embracing technology and not considering all the different types of reading and writing students do outside the classroom.

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Old books, not technological research or plugged in contemporary thinking texts that are rellevant to our student population

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We have lost the ability to creatively express ourselves, our thoughts, and opinions. The focus has been on "what is the literal meaning of this" , which is also important, yet without an analysis ulitmately bland.

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A culture that focuses exclusively on independent thought leaves our students vulnerable when faced with the reality of the modern workforce: collaboration is key. Our students do not know how to support each other, work with each other, help each other, learn from each other... unless given specific parameters in which to do so.

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Paul Oh/What counts as literate and what doesn't?

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Paul Oh/What counts as literate and what doesn't?

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For me, a subtext in this question is: What is text? If we view text narrowly - in the ways that text has been traditionally thought of, namely reading written words on paper - then we'll have a similarly narrow view of what counts as literate. If, though, we see text as encompassing a wide range of compositions, than our understanding of what counts as literate will not only broaden but it will also support those who might otherwise be told that they are not sufficiently literate. A great example is this resource from the NWP website, Digital Is, called "Football Plays" by a teacher in Sacramento. Watch the video to the end - I promise, you'll appreciate it.

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I think a major blind spot is valuing skills and processes that get "measured" on standardized tests and how that emphasis leads to narratives of mandates (i.e. 3rd grade reading) that are short-sighted and in many cases, damaging. It seems that literacies of many kinds that don't explicitly lead to "academic" success get marginalized in practice. I also think of blind spots that might be illuminated if we look at literacy practices through a lens of critical literacy. These blind spots lead us back to what counts as literacy and what doesn't.

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Buffy Hamilton/What Counts as Literacies

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Buffy Hamilton/What Counts as Literacies

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I first read Deborah Brandt's Literacy in American Lives in 2005, and her work and concept of "sponsors of literacy" has resonated with me ever since that read. Brandt says: "Literacy learning is conditioned by economic changes and the implications they bring to regions and communities in which students live.  Economic changes devalue once-accepted standards of literacy achievement, but more seriously, destabilize the social and cultural trade routes over which families and communities once learned to preserve and pass on literate know-how.  As new and powerful forms of literacy emerge, they diminish the reach and possibilities of receding ones” (p. 42). She also asserts that "The competition to harness literacy, to manage, measure, teach, and exploit it, intensified throughout the twentieth century.  It is vital to pay attention to this development because it largely sets the terms for individuals’ encounters with literacy.  This competition shapes the incentives and barriers (including uneven distributions of opportunity) that greet literacy learners in any particular time and place” (p. 21) I am very much interested and concerned about the political, cultural, and financial interests/policies/forces that are shaping what literacies count (Brandt would call this the economies of literacies, I think).

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In upper grades, at least, we always enter conversations about literacy by looking at it as a problem to solve. That's a rather negative place to start from, and colors how we then interact with that conversation.

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Most regrettably, by focusing on a narrow set of decoding and vocabulary-depndent comprehension skills, we gatekeep meaningful work from kids who need context and purpose the most to make sense of why they're being asked to read and write by a system that repeatedly tells them a) they can't and b) they can't be trusted to learn on their own. We should be using reading and writing as complements to making, coding, and doing. Instead, we limit opportunities for kids who can't read or write on our timetables. We don't let them pursue personal meaning in learning until we're satisfied they have "mastered" what it is we (but really the state (but really the corporation)) mean by reading and writing.

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Chad Sansing/culture of literacy education

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Chad Sansing/culture of literacy education

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Generally speaking, K12 culture seems mechanistic right now: if we do one of these things (instruction/intervention), then this will happen (satisfactory formal assessment) or we will know someone (a kid or teacher) has done something wrong (infidelity or insufficient effort). In specific learning spaces, I see people who care so much for kids that they spend their time and the kids' time on programs that separate literacy practices from meaningful contexts. However, I also see people crafting cover (inside and outside schools) for kids to do work that matters to them and that becomes a springboard for literacy. There is not enough trust between these groups of educators or between them and kids to find the right balance yet for helping all kids acquire the literacies they need to learn and live as they will.

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1c) What do we value? What do we demean as illiterate?

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1c) What do we value? What do we demean as illiterate?

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1b) What counts as literate and what doesn't?

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1b) What counts as literate and what doesn't?

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1a) How do we talk about literacy in schools?

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1a) How do we talk about literacy in schools?

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1) What would you say is the culture of literacy education?

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1) What would you say is the culture of literacy education?

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2) What potential blind spots does this culture have?

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2) What potential blind spots does this culture have?