By Mirah Dow
Guests who come to visit often say that they are surprised how many chalkboards we have in our house. (They expect to see more computers than chalkboards.) From most any location, it is easy to look around and count four or five antique chalkboards of various sizes and shapes. There are small chalkboards hanging on the wall or sitting on easels for writing: menus in French, Italian, Spanish and English; lists of items to pick up or tasks to complete; schedules; timely quotations; and individualized welcome signs.
One chalkboard in the centre hallway is an 80 pound slate from an old school building. The beautiful, new frame holding the slate was designed and constructed by my husband (who attended a one-room school 1-8th grade and later earned degrees in public administration, political science, and law). Here seasonal landscapes with loads of color and stylized details (even a few musical bars with notes and words from a song) communicate change and anticipation of upcoming events and activities. There are many contributors to the text and imagery on our chalkboards. We all compete for attention. Our guests’ reactions to our chalkboards leads me to reexamine why it is that I love chalkboards so much, and what, if anything, chalkboards have do with rethinking literacy. I think the scenario that follows will help to sort out these two important issues.
A few days ago, a second grader came by to visit. The hall chalkboard was blank. She picked up the chalk and began to communicate. She drew a picture she titled “Happy Birthday, Patrick”. The picture is a boy and cultural artifacts one might expect to see at a mid-western USA birthday celebration. There were packages of various shapes and sizes with a variety of ribbons; decorated birthday cakes; a table with dishes and serving pieces; various foods and decorations; and four different, identifiably accurate game boards. The boy comes to life with eleven different facial features and colorful clothing. At the bottom of the drawing, she wrote, “Illustrated by Jayte Johnson”.
I think this child captured the essences of why I like chalkboards so much. Her work helps me to rethink what is meant by “literacy”. There were chalkboards on the front and back walls of all my elementary classrooms. I never got enough of chalkboards. Unfortunately for me, we could only write when the teacher said to do so. Sometimes we had free time on the chalkboard if it was raining during recess. What was created then was quickly erased when the bell rang for classes to resume. Usually while class was in session, only the teacher wrote on the chalkboard except when students were asked to complete a math problem or spell a word. Teachers at that time (and maybe still do) highly valued workbooks as the ultimate learning tool for students to write on.
I think most typically developing kids are somewhat like me when it comes to using chalkboards and sharing information. We want and need a public means to visually express the learning that is inside our head. Likewise, we learn from others’ displays of visual information. Interestingly enough, the genius expressed by this second grader on my chalkboard has not for the most part grown out of information and technology instruction. She does not have access to the Internet except during very limited opportunities during the school day or year. She has not grown up with other children or adults who have and use computers and the Internet. I know that many children who are educated today are in this same situation. They use available tools and adapt and invent suitable criteria for their own situations.
With access to up-to-date software and the Internet, computers make it possible for today’s children and youth to have unlimited access to public, visual expressions of academic learning and brilliance. Computers made it possible to have and use many forms of media. It is up to teachers to facilitate a safe and productive digital learning process. How will we do it? Many teacher-librarians and classroom teachers in Kansas and beyond ARE doing it.
Elf-Daniel Ehlers writes a European blog called “Quality in E-Learning”. She attended the EDEN Conference in Naples last week where she presented an organizational management model for achieving “quality literacy”. Ehler’s model has four elements/competencies:
quality knowledge (which tools, instruments, strategies are available) ;
quality experiences (how to use available tools, instruments, strategies);
quality innovative ability (how to adapt existing strategies to my needs or how to invent suitable criteria for my situation); and
quality analysis (to be able to develop my own quality objectives and goals).
I know about Ehler’s model because I use the Internet to access information. I can write in more than one language, compose text in various formats including varied points of view, imagine text and images in more than one format, and utilize various media because I search and read the work of many people that is available on the Internet. I use mathematic equations and scientific details each day in my home (and on my chalkboards) and in my school work because I can find useful formulas and details on the Internet. I am aware of various cultural commitments, attitudes, dispositions and values. For example, I know about Ehler’s blog because I have trained (using RSS feed) Internet-based information to come to me when there is a new post using key words “rethinking” and “literacy”.
Even when I am enjoying chalkboards, I think of information as magnetic and without containers (such as chalkboards). But no matter how hard I try, what I write on the chalkboard is still flat and only available to those who physically pass by. To be successful in today’s information world, I need more than that. Why? Because as I write this blog article, I am thinking of myself as a participator in an information society. I must to survive and thieve in today’s global society.
Ehler’s elements of “quality literacy” could be very helpful as a concept to reflect on what, if anything, is missing in the instruction we provide to students in today’s schools. Are we making information move beyond the chalkboards and workbooks of our schools? How are we helping each student to experience quality in e-learning? Think about your expertise in all four quality literacy areas when it comes to teaching. Can you adapt this organizational model for education (with focus on students and schools)? What should we work on so to enable each student to become a participator in a worldwide information society?
