On my mind...

Digital and media literacy is on my mind this summer...below is an excerpt from an Op-Ed piece I'm working on.

“If we judged students’ ability to interpret and gather information solely based on print media, like books, we’d be doing ourselves—and society—a huge disservice. Oh wait, we already do just that. No Child Left Behind and standardized state curriculums, coupled with frequent assessments, are stuck on a notion of literacy that does not reflect the reality of our time. Schools are accountable to report how well students read, but we’re testing students on print media only. It’s time the accountability movement demands that schools teach and foster responsible student use of new literacy forms.

Redefining literacy standards does not mean throwing away measures to assess whether or not a student comprehends the main idea of a fiction passage or the purpose of a how-to feature article Redefining literacy standards includes an acknowledgment that our students are reading, interpreting, and creating new forms or media that require as much attention as books.”