At the beginning of the unit I created a graphic organizer about adolescent literacy.

In my

organizer I defined 21st century literacy as amplification, problem-solving, encouragement,

variation, cross-cultural, collaboration, global, creation, critical, equitable, curation, thoughtful,

rights, responsibility, accessible, intentional, consumption, promotion, multilingual,

ethical-implications, learning, unlearning, and relearning. 21st century literacy is all of these

things and more. Adolescent literacy prepares students to communicate intelligently and

effectively as adult workers and citizens in our global society.

Disciplinary literacy consists of five primary principles: “1. Knowledge and thinking

must go hand in hand;” “2. Learning is apprenticeship;” “3. Teachers as mentors of apprentices;”

“4. Classroom culture socializes intelligence;” “5. Instruction and assessment drive each other”

(McConachie and Petrosky, 2010, 197-199). Historical literacy is so important because it equips

adolescents to think critically, support arguments with evidence, exercise empathy, and interpret

multiple perspectives and beliefs surrounding a particular topic or event. These are all valuable

skills that functioning adults should have in order to contribute meaningfully to our democracy.

Technology in schools has the potential to both bridge gaps in equity and to amplify

them, depending on how we use it. To ensure equitable opportunities, we need to consider

several things as educators. Firstly, do all of our students have the same access to the

technologies we want to implement? Secondly, do all of our students have support from parents

at home with the technologies we are using? Some things we can do to provide more equitable

educational opportunities include reframing adult thinking, connecting to students’ outside

interests, engaging families, requiring opportunities for all, and conducting audits.
 References

McConachie, S. M., & Petrosky, A. R. (2012). Appendix A: Disciplinary Literacy Design

Principles by Core Academic Area. ​Content Matters,​ 197–214.

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118269466.app1

NCTE. (2019, November 7). Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age. ​National Council of

Teachers of English​. ​https://ncte.org/statement/nctes-definition-literacy-digital-age/​.

Reich, J. (2019). Teaching Our Way to Digital Equity. ​Educational Leadership​, ​76​(5), 30–35.