Best Practices for Teaching New Literacies

After all of this information on New Literacies and new literacies, you may be asking yourself, “...But how! How am I supposed to teach something else!” Well, times are changing. As educators, it is our job to keep up with that, and prepare our students for the world ahead of them. Here are some strategies that may make things a bit easier and help you when teaching new literacies:

1. Look at everything with a Lens to the Future. When we are looking at education and resources with a “lens to the future” we are thinking about what is ahead for our students. When we went to school, things were much different. We were preparing ourselves for jobs that did not necessarily require technology. Now, our students are entering a world filled with technology. It is our job to prepare them for what is ahead- which is looking with a “lens to the future”. The world is changing quicker than you can say ‘new literacies’ and it is essential to be giving students opportunities that they will need down the road. If we keep students from new literacies, we will graduate them without essential skills.
   

   

2. Teach new literacies to your struggling readers first. When you have students who are behind in reading, it’s important to give them something that is empowering. If you teach them something new first, they will then become the expert and be able to teach their peers something. Usually, for struggling readers they are behind- and most of the time they know it. Look for every opportunity to give these students a push ahead, and let them teach the class about something. This is a strategy that will not only give you the opportunity to have students teaching students, but these struggling readers who normally feel like the last, will suddenly be the first.

3. Teach new literacies instruction as early as possible. This is meant in multiple ways. First, if you think it’s too early in the year to start discussing this with your students- it’s probably too late! This is something that must begin on day one. Also, kids are never too young. Students in Kindergarten should be exposed to these new literacies in a way that is meaningful for them. This can be adapted in many ways to get students thinking and prepared at early ages. Below is an example of an anchor chart that was created when teaching 3rd graders some internet searching strategies.
   

   

There are many best practices for teaching new literacies, but these three are some of the most important. If you are going to do only a few, do these. Although, looking at all the best practices for teaching new literacies is something that can only provide benefit. I would highly recommend reading Best Practices in Teaching the New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension outlining all the best practices for teaching new literacies.

I leave you with a final thought- it is so important to prepare our students for the world they will be entering, not the world they are in now.

Until next time,

Alexandra

References

Leu, D.J., Zawilinski, L., Forzani, E., & Timbrell, N. (2014). Best practices in new literacies and the new
literacies of online research and comprehension.  In Morrow, L.M. & Gambrell, L. B. (Eds.)
Best practices in literacy instruction.  5th Edition. New York: Guilford Press.