Humanism and Literacy Together in the Classroom

For my Curriculum in a Middle/High School class we were asked to create an Explain Everything presentation which discussed our curriculum orientation, the theorists behind our orientation, who influenced us most and why, and what impact it would have on our future construction of curriculum and assessment. Similarly, for my Literacy in a Middle/High class we were asked to create a Spark which demonstrated our understandings of literacy, what it’s about, and how it’s ever-changing, while reflecting on the role that different types of literacy will play in our specific content areas’ instructions.

Here are the links to both of these projects:
1. Explain Everything
http://expl.ai/MJYVVME
2. Spark Page
https://spark.adobe.com/page/RMqVDAKgJTQVq/

As a Humanist, I was able to make one major connection between what I had discussed in the two projects. In specific, I was able to connect the humanistic idea that the focus should be on each student’s potential for growth, as we as educators push them to be their best, to the idea that I want to create a classroom which promotes literacy across all content areas to better the students’ lives both inside and outside of the classroom. Being a humanistic educator, it is going to be my goal to create a caring and encouraging environment that can naturally help in aiding my students learning processes. One way in which I hope to do this, is by not only making sure my students are literate in Mathematics, but pushing them to be their best in all aspects. In other words I want to help promote their literacy not only across all content areas, but also in their everyday lives and in the world in general.

 

How do these presentations connect to the Saint Michael’s College Education Department’s mission statement pillar? Well that’s quite easy to say. The very first tag in the mission statement reads,  

Our graduates are passionate and curious scholars.

They skillfully use their research and analytical skills to investigate educational issues and identify the most promising developmentally based practices to support student learning. They aim to inspire similar levels of engagement, critical thinking, and curiosity in their students.

Today’s world is ever changing with new technologies, forms of speaking, etc. Because of this, many argue that in order to be literate in today’s society, people now need to be literate in a multitude of ways and across a variety of different platforms whether that be across different subject areas, analyzing graphs to find meaning, viewing pictures or videos, reading peoples facial expressions and body language, or knowing what different street signs mean. Due to the fact that this all seems to be changing, growing, and expanding so much, some would say our younger generations are starting to fall behind. As future educators, it is going to be our job to teach our students to be globally literate. In other words, teach them to be literate in all aspects of what the word means in today’s world. We want to encourage and inspire our students to be aware of all that is going on around them so that they can reach their greatest potential and be the successful people they aim to be.