Texting Improving Literacy? | The Principal of Change - 2 views
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Texting and it’s impact on reading and writing “It turns out that the best texters, are the best spellers.” “The more you text, the better your literacy scores.” “The earlier you get your mobile phone, the better your literacy scores.” “What is texting? Texting is writing and reading.” “The more practice you get in writing and reading, the better writer and reader you will be.”
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One of the additional things he discussed in this talk was that we often say, “These kids do not read,” but he quickly dismisses this as a fallacy. In fact, Crystal goes further to say that kids that text read more than what we did as children because they have more access to writing. Simply put, they do not read and write the same things that we did. Looking at my own situation, I have actually read more “books” in the last little while than I ever have, as I carry around a huge book collection all the time on my iPhone and/or iPad. The ease of access makes it a lot easier for me to read whether it is blogs, books, or yes, text messages and tweets.
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Admittedly I have been frustrated by conversations with many regarding the idea that texting is eroding our literacy skills. I have always been a firm believer that the more we can have our students read and write, no matter how that happens, their skills will improve, as long as we are willing to guide them. Now, having an expert confirm these thoughts is more than exciting. I am hoping you will share the video below with others to start some conversation on not only how we can use this medium in our schools, but how we can connect the use of technology into our more traditional forms of literacy. They definitely can serve one another.