Minecraft and Elementary Literacy Learning

2022 ◽  
pp. 320-343
Author(s):  
Sam von Gillern ◽  
Carolyn Stufft ◽  
Rick Marlatt ◽  
Larysa Nadolny
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Video Game ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Teacher Preparation Program ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Language Arts Instruction ◽  
Instruction And Learning

This research examines the perceptions and instructional ideas of preservice teachers as relates to using Minecraft, a popular video game, to facilitate game-based learning opportunities in their future elementary classrooms. The participants were 21 preservice teachers who played Minecraft as part of a teacher preparation program course and then completed essays on their experiences with the game and its potential to support student learning in the elementary English language arts classroom. These essays were coded and analyzed for themes. Three primary results were found in data analysis. First, three groups emerged from the data with each group indicating either no interest, some interest, or high interest in using Minecraft in their future teaching. Second, the preservice teachers illustrated various potential instructional strategies for integrating the game into the classroom, and third, participants identified a variety of ways that Minecraft integration can support English language arts instruction and learning.

“I Want Them to Feel the Fear…”

Gamification ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 2196-2211
Author(s):  
Clifford H. Lee ◽  
Antero D. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
New Media ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Video Game ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Video Game Design

By utilizing digital tools that are nearly ubiquitous in the lives of youth, writing teachers can leverage these practices for developing traditional English language arts instruction and skills proposed by state and federal standards. In this chapter, the authors propose how the development of computational literacies through multimodal writing and video game design can help guide critical and academic development in an inner-city Los Angeles public school. In a research project where high school youth designed and created (programmed) a video game about an issue significant in their lives, students demonstrated their critical computational literacies, a concept that blends the critical consciousness of critical literacy and the skills and concepts behind computational thinking. Critical computational literacy offers the ability to integrate two seemingly divergent fields. By using these new media tools, students developed a more expansive and sophisticated way to communicate their ideas. This has significant possibilities for the English Language Arts, where most K-12 state standards still relegate students' literacies to over-indulgence of traditional means of reading and writing of text. In an ever-evolving culture that increasingly places more significance on visual, auditory, and textual stimuli through multimodal media on computers and mobile devices (Hull & Nelson, 2005; Jenkins, 2006; Kress, 2010), schools must educate students to critically “read” messages in the media, and in turn become effective producers of these tools of communication (Alvermann, et al., 1999; Margolis, 2008; Morrell, 2008). This research shows students engaged in deep, reflective processes in the production of their multimodal texts.

The Power of Digital Literacy to Transform and Shape Teacher Identities

2017 ◽  
pp. 1152-1166
Author(s):  
Janette Hughes ◽  
Lorayne Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
School Students ◽  
Critical Media

In this chapter, the authors focus their attention on the case studies of three beginning teachers and their use of digital storytelling in their preservice education English Language Arts classes. They undertook this research to determine if preservice teachers who are exposed to new literacies and a multiliteracies pedagogy will use them in transformative ways. The authors examine their subsequent and transformed use of digital media with their own students in the classroom setting. One uses a digital story to reflect on past injustices. Another finds new spaces for expression in digital literacy. A third uses the affordances of digital media to raise critical awareness of a present global injustice with secondary school students. The authors explore their shifting perceptions of multiple literacies and critical media literacy and how these shifts in thinking help shape or transform their ideas about teaching and learning in English Language Arts.

Increasing LGBTQ+ Competencies in Preservice Teacher Training Programs

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Kevin B. Balius ◽  
Susan Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Preservice Teacher ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Preservice Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teacher Training ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
National Conversation ◽  
Teacher Training Programs

As the national conversation forces LGBTQ+ rhetoric into the mainstream, some feel that the landscape is safe for those desiring to be open about their identity as well as for conversations and topics involving LGBTQ+ issues. Those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who are familiar with or close to them might suggest a differing perspective—one that points to a deficit of safe spaces for discussing and being open about LGBTQ+ issues. While at times controversial, the English language arts classroom has been a forum for addressing issues that are difficult to discuss in other contexts, whether with literature as a backdrop for conversations or by utilizing written expression to work through concerns and questions. Since many educators seem unaware of the need for LGBTQ+ awareness, preservice teacher education is a place to begin. This chapter illustrates the need for equipping preservice teachers with the tools for introducing and discussing LGBTQ+ issues and topics through the context of the English language arts classroom.

Preparing Pre-Service Secondary English Language Arts Teachers to Support Literacy Learning with Interactive Online Technologies

2013 ◽  
pp. 318-334
Author(s):  
Luke Rodesiler ◽  
Barbara G. Pace
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Literacy Events ◽  
Online Technologies ◽  
Secondary English Language Arts ◽  
Arts Teachers

In this chapter, the authors present the framework and methods they employ to integrate online learning opportunities into an English teacher education program at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. The authors focus on their efforts to extend pre-service secondary English language arts teachers’ understandings of what constitutes literacy and what counts as text in the secondary English language arts classroom in a blended technology- and media literacy-focused methods course, a required component of a three-semester English Education Master’s degree program. Specifically, the authors document the ways they nudge pre-service teachers to consider the kinds of literacy events they might design and the types of literacy practices they might promote to support literacy learning with interactive online technologies and popular media in English language arts classrooms.

scholarly journals Telling Our Story: Using Digital Scrapbooks to Celebrate Cultural Capital

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarice M. Moran
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Technology Integration ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
English Language ◽  
Classroom Community ◽  
Online Tools

This design was intended to act as a template for technology integration for preservice teachers in an English language arts class. However, the unintended result was a celebration of cultural heritage and increased classroom community. Through the project, 23 preservice teachers used online tools to design digital scrapbook pages that reflected family ancestry and life histories. Participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds celebrated their unique names and cultural capital.

Preparing Pre-Service Secondary English Language Arts Teachers to Support Literacy Learning With Interactive Online Technologies

2017 ◽  
pp. 456-473
Author(s):  
Luke Rodesiler ◽  
Barbara G. Pace
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Literacy Events ◽  
Online Technologies ◽  
Secondary English Language Arts ◽  
Arts Teachers

In this chapter, the authors present the framework and methods they employ to integrate online learning opportunities into an English teacher education program at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. The authors focus on their efforts to extend pre-service secondary English language arts teachers' understandings of what constitutes literacy and what counts as text in the secondary English language arts classroom in a blended technology- and media literacy-focused methods course, a required component of a three-semester English Education Master's degree program. Specifically, the authors document the ways they nudge pre-service teachers to consider the kinds of literacy events they might design and the types of literacy practices they might promote to support literacy learning with interactive online technologies and popular media in English language arts classrooms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document