Hannah Ferrara

Unit 6 primarily consisted of using Public Service Announcements (PSA's) among other multimodal assignments within the classroom. Also, the PSA's were used as a pre-writing activity into more formal, argumentative writing pieces. Within Convince Me! Valuing Multimodal Literacies and Composing Public Service Announcements by Richard J. Selfe and Cynthia L. Selfe, the idea of using PSA's as well as other multimodal assignments is brought up. For kids today, technology is apparent in most classrooms as well as outside the classroom, too. Teachers these days are starting to integrate technology within their classrooms and create assignments that involve technology. Selfe mentions that students learn best when they read and compose in different ways. Therefore, by using different platforms such as videos, podcasts and pictures, students can identify new and effective forms of literacy. Although our world has become more technology dependent, it does not mean that we must forget ...

Although unit 5 was our shortest unit to date and it only consisted of two readings, it introduced a lot of activities that could be used within the classroom. Basically the two readings we were assigned focused on activities and lessons that would eventually lead students into creating formal pieces of writing. I found this unit to be valuable because it can be hard sometimes to find ways for students to become good writers. These chapters showed exercises and assignments that break down the writing process and make it easier for students to eventually get the hang of formal writing. Within the first reading, chapter 3 of Create, Compose, Connect! by Jeremy Hyler and Troy Hicks, Hyler gave his students the task of writing narratives and short memoirs as a preface into formal writing. For the narrative activity, he had his students create a list of beliefs that they had. These beliefs consisted of having a cellphone, God and even family. With these beliefs, students would then choose ...

Unit four primarily revolved around incorporating technology within the classroom, specifically with blogs and social media platforms. In order to keep students engaged and ensure their success, these readings showed online tools and social media sites that can be used to peak students interests. Within chapter 7 of Gura's Teaching Literacy Within the Digital Age, the idea of using blogs within the classroom was brought up. This chapter stood out to me because throughout my years of being in school, technology has almost always been used. Specifically, using technology to create blog posts and contribute to online discussions.I have always been a fan of these types of assignments because personally, I have tended to learn more than I would within an in-class discussion. My teachers would usually give us a reading or a question and within our posts, we had to answer them, elaborate and continue the discussion by commenting on our classmates posts. I find so much value in online disc...