The quest to find the best digital literacy resources and
strategies that will help ELL become 21st century learners continues. I am adding onto my search from last week with more government publications and academic literature research with data collection this week. The
hope is to find online research and ideas on how to effectively meet the social, digital, 21st century, critical, and
academic literacy needs of ELL who live in a multiliteracies world. These new developments in technology and multimodal literacies can further deepen understanding and be a motivational factor for learning.
One of the main research starting points for my
inquiry about my interest in supporting ELL with Digital Literacy in 21st Century
learning was to look at documents from the British Columbia Government
website on Education and Training as well as BC’s New Curriculum.
To start with, the BC Government's English Language Learning (ELL) Teaching Resources can be found here:
The BC Government has a framework on digital literacy that can be found here:
According to "BC's Digital LiteracyFramework", digital literacy encompasses:
"1. Research and Information Literacy
2. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and
Decision Making
3. Creativity and Innovation
4. Digital Citizenship
5. Communication and Collaboration
6. Technology Operations and Concepts"
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) "definition of 21st century literacies can be found here:
It is also important to explore 21st century learning with ELL, as BC's New Curriculum mentions that:
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| Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum-updates |
The new BC curriculum model shown below also allows the ELLs to learn multidisciplinary content by using technology that can integrate the big ides from the many subject areas and learning standards.
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| Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum-info |
I also did a literature search with UBC's on-line library and found some interesting articles and books on ELL, digital literacy, and 21st century learning. It still seems to be an area of research that still needs more publications. There were a few dissertations from ProQuest that came up in my search so there should definitely be more publications and research in this area for the future. Below is a screenshot of my key words:
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| Retrieved from http://search.library.ubc.ca |
Here are some of the research articles and book that I found with my UBC library collections search:
Black, Rebecca W.
(2009). English –Language
Learners, Fan Communities, and 21st-Century Skills. Journal of Adolescent and Adult
Literacy. Vol. 52, No. 8.
This article discussed the importance of using technology that
the students were familiar with to build both print and information literacy as
well as multiliteracy. It didn’t
provide any on-line or digital resources that might be benefical for ELL.
Another resource that came up as relevant to my UBC search was Lee Gunderson's book:
Another resource that came up as relevant to my UBC search was Lee Gunderson's book:
Gunderson, Lee et al.
(2013). ESL (ELL) Literacy
Instruction: A Guidebook to Theory and
Practice. Routledge.
Dr. Lee Gunderson is a professor at UBC. Here is the link to his
information:
I actually have the 1st edition of his book,
which is quite comprehensive for teachers of ELL. Upon reading his latest 3rd edition book, there was a new Chapter 8 titled, “Technology, ESL, and Literacy Instruction.” It provided different online resources
that might be beneficial for ELL and literacy in that chapter. One of the sites that was recommended was the visual dictionary at https://infovisual.info/en. Gunderson also mentioned that
there was a companion website to the book of online resources as technology and
digital tools. The site was offered because technology is constantly changing, evolving, or being developed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to access
the website on my computer or telephone even after several attempts.
A third article that I read was:
Delacruz, Stacey et An, Sohyun. (2014). Lights, Camera, iPads, Action! How a Fourth Grade Class Learned 21st Century Literacies Through Various Art Projects. New Waves - Educational Research and Development
This article discussed using an interdisciplinary approach to teaching ELL that focused on the importance of art and combining it with academic subjects and 21st century literacies. The main focus of the article was the importance of integrating art and using the iPad to record their songs and plays.
I added the word technology and ESL to my UBC library search and read the following article:
Gustad, Alexandra Ritt. (2014). The impact of technology tools on literacy motivation on
elementary school English language learners: podcasting in a 4th grade EAL class. International
Schools Journal.
Gustad discussed using podcasting in our growing technological world to engage the students in literacy learning. The sample of students was very small but even though a couple of them found it difficult to listen to their voices, they still thought that it was a worthwhile educational tool.
A third article that I read was:
Delacruz, Stacey et An, Sohyun. (2014). Lights, Camera, iPads, Action! How a Fourth Grade Class Learned 21st Century Literacies Through Various Art Projects. New Waves - Educational Research and Development
This article discussed using an interdisciplinary approach to teaching ELL that focused on the importance of art and combining it with academic subjects and 21st century literacies. The main focus of the article was the importance of integrating art and using the iPad to record their songs and plays.
I added the word technology and ESL to my UBC library search and read the following article:
Gustad, Alexandra Ritt. (2014). The impact of technology tools on literacy motivation on
elementary school English language learners: podcasting in a 4th grade EAL class. International
Schools Journal.
Gustad discussed using podcasting in our growing technological world to engage the students in literacy learning. The sample of students was very small but even though a couple of them found it difficult to listen to their voices, they still thought that it was a worthwhile educational tool.
I also looked for video clips on-line as I am a visual and auditory learner. There weren't too many sites on Youtube, but the site below I thought was quite helpful as it provide strategies to empower ELL's voice but using digital storytelling. Digital story telling can be used for them to tell a story about themselves, their family, and their country of origin. It can integrate all subject areas to build content and any inquiry need. It can be used individually and collaboratively. It can be shared, heard and seen repeatedly.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-T-iA_6Nk4
The youtube site above recommended Common Sense Education site that can be found here:
The Common Sense Education had links to other articles and blogs that were quite helpful. Here is a partial screenshot of some of their recommendation of "Top Tools for Dynamic Digital Storytelling":
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| Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/top-tools-for-dynamic-digital-storytelling |
References:
BC's Digital Literacy Framework. BC Government. Retrieved September 23, 2017 from
BC's New Curriculum. BC Government. Retrieved September 23, 2017 from
Black, Rebecca W. (2009). English –Language Learners, Fan Communities, and 21st-Century Skills.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Vol. 52, No. 8. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/pdf/27654331.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aac1ef188c208f96bc7902086e033733f
Delacruz, Stacey et An, Sohyun. (2014). Lights, Camera, iPads, Action! How a Fourth Grade Class
Learned 21st Century Literacies Through Various Art Projects. New Waves - Educational Research
and Development. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5aee4ebb-7528-4eba-8dc7-9458c81b209b%40sessionmgr120
English Language Learning (ELL) Teaching Resources. BC Government. Retrieved September 23,
2017 from http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/english-language-learning
Delacruz, Stacey et An, Sohyun. (2014). Lights, Camera, iPads, Action! How a Fourth Grade Class
Learned 21st Century Literacies Through Various Art Projects. New Waves - Educational Research
and Development. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5aee4ebb-7528-4eba-8dc7-9458c81b209b%40sessionmgr120
2017 from http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/english-language-learning
Gunderson, Lee et al. (2013). ESL (ELL) Literacy Instruction: A Guidebook to Theory and
Practice. Routledge. Retrieved from
Elementary School English Language Learners: Podcasting in a 4th grade EAL class. International
Schools Journal. Retrieved from
NCTE Position Statement. (2013). The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition
Supporting English Language Learners with Digital Storytelling. (2016). Common Sense Education.
[YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-T-iA_6Nk4
The Visual Dictionary. Retrieved September 23rd, 2017 from https://infovisual.info/en
Top Tools for Dynamic Digital Storytelling. Common Sense Education. Retrieved September 23,
2017 from https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/top-tools-for-dynamic-digital-storytelling
