Few Recent Pages I Have Been Building #clmooc #teachtheweb #literacies
As part of a graduate class we have been discussing what it means to learn to read and write. We have discussed the correlations between core skills such as phonemic aawareness and phonics while reading Heath, Au, and Gee.
Much of the discussion has revolved around the boundaries of explicit instruction, the role of poverty, and if reading is taught as a cultural practice or a cognitive process.
I wanted to highlight some recent writing and learning I have been doing to add to the complexity.
This summer I took on a project to earn some extra scratch, re-doing the department website. I am not a web designer. I am not a programmer. Instead I am self taught who learns to build stuff by copying others.
HTML/CSS code is alot like phonics for reading and text structure for writing. It is a repeated pattern and I would bet also learned in a very similar and predictable pattern.
Your links are much like your CVC words and your headings a thesis. You then may expand and start looking at strange vowel combinations or hover effects. Your creativity when working with pixels just like paper is boundless.
These are four pages I am currently working on. They are in draft form and will probably change:
Direct Instruction
In each case direct instruction was central. Yet unlike the classroom it is usally distributed and on-demand. If I combed through my web history you could see every objective and outcome.
When I got desperate I would ask colleagues at work or ping #teachtheweb on Twitter and Discourse.
Mentor Texts
In each case a mentor text was always involved. For example the design ideas and some of the CSS for the scholarship page was modified from here and the other half from here. The programs page came from here.
The department directory well that one I am proud of. Most of that I wrote myself but I checked my learning against the previous sources and some old Thimble makes I had. I even checked out Doug's old About Me page.
Interest
Beyond the Benjamins I am working to better myself. Motivation and interest are essential to learning to read and write. I think the focus on standards outcome could have just as much to do with the decline in pleasure reading with the publication of "Nation at Risk" in 1984 as it does with the birth of Nintendo and a truly stellar year in movies.
Impedagogy http://t.co/s008iEXIa3 pic.twitter.com/XneIlPHkSK
— TellioConnect (@tellioconnect) August 5, 2015
You need motivation and interest to push past the frustration; to get the rush of solving some problem or to conquer some text. Trust me I looked like a Pavlovian dog when I hit publish to see if the code I wrote actually worked. Ring the bell for bits.
