Essay on New and Traditional Literacy and Diverse Student Needs

This essay delves into the evolving landscape of literacy, exploring the integration of new and traditional methods to address the diverse needs of students. The introduction highlights the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in classrooms and emphasizes the importance of multimodal resources in designing effective pedagogies. The essay then explores various aspects of designing pedagogies, including discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities, communication strategies, digital literacy, and critical thinking. It examines how teachers can leverage multimodal resources, such as audio, visual, and kinesthetic models, to create engaging and inclusive learning environments. The essay also provides practical examples of how teachers can design specific activities, such as multiple-choice questions, online games, and group discussions, to promote critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and effective communication among students. The essay is relevant to the Australian educational context and addresses the challenges and opportunities of teaching diverse learners.

Running head: NEW AND TRADITIONAL LITERACY
New and Traditional Literacy and Diverse Student Needs
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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NEW AND TRADITIONAL LITERACY
Introduction
The world is turning more diverse both linguistically and culturally with every
passing day. The teachers in the classrooms are facing more challenges with the students
from diverse backgrounds. The multimodal resources are a great method of designing the
pedagogies for the students who come from diverse backgrounds and have difficulties in
learning (Mills 2013). The primary challenge is felicitating the identification of the diverse
resource that can be offered to the students, while at the same time, the access to the specific
content and the official discourses of the curriculum should be enabled. Australia is a country
of several ethnicities and languages, the teachers tend to experience diverse students from all
over the world. The diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages have characterized the
educational contexts of Australia. The educational pedagogy in Australia has been designed
so that it can provide the primary cultural and social education to the young children and the
students in the later ages (Loughran 2013). English is mostly chosen as a common language
for teaching and learning. As globalization has influenced all the possible sectors of life, the
educational sector is no exception to that. The new literacy trends have adopted the
multimodal approach within the classroom because this can be a major source of creativity
and resourcefulness for both the students and teachers (Craft et al. 2014). There are several
audio, visual and kinesthetic models available such as wiki, animated video,
PowerPoint/Prezi, E-book, applications etc that can be utilized for the learning process. This
essay will trigger the different sources of designing pedagogies and develop the teaching
process.
Designing Pedagogies
Designing is the procedure which gives the shape to the purpose and interests for the
maker for the assumed audience by utilizing the accessible semiotic resources. In this

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context, the concept of designing to the educational pedagogy tends to give rise to the
alternate approaches to the primary questions of identifying and accessing. As stated by
Cochrane et al. (2014) the designing is a semiotic work which motivates each of the acts of
meaning by making the points for identifying the principles of learning along with the
materials with which the teaching will be done. In other words, it can be said that the concept
of designing identifies the creation of the resources in large number which makes a
significant meaning. This concept is also about assembling and choosing the resources in
accordance to the individual requirements and the perception about the context. The learners
tend to receive several signs across such semiotic modes which are drawn from several
represented resources as well (Goodyear and Casey 2015). The traditional classrooms have
changed with the course of time and several new technologies are being utilized for designing
the pedagogies for students. The multimodal classrooms are a new way of teaching students
while using different multimedia services. However, it is very much necessary that the
knowledge and the discourse of the particular discipline are accessible.

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Figure: New Literacy and Diverse Student Needs
Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities
The discipline specific knowledge can be described as a particular set of
comprehensions which is not confined in a particular field; rather it is more than the basic
knowledge of the subject. This can also be considered as the knowledge which is specified to
the particular discipline but defined as a specialist in the area. This knowledge is significant
for the students to learn as in their later life, they may require fundamental and particular
knowledge on a subject for pursuing their career (Starkey et al. 2016). This pedagogy can be
designed in different ways. There can also be different learning environments such as lecture
within the classrooms, laboratories or within the learning environments integrated with
practical work. However, the teacher can design this pedagogy by using different multimodal
resources as well. The class environment can also be cloud located if the classroom is an
online one. If the teacher is conducting any tutorials other than the scheduled tutorials, he or
she can conduct the class online as well. For this pedagogy, the students can be given
multiple choice questions where they have to choose only one correct answer among three or
four choices. These kinds of question papers generally consist of a single question followed
by three or four choices of same kind. For the design specific knowledge and capabilities, the
learning environment integrated with work can be the most effective one as it can provide the
students a genuine learning environment which may represent the real work to them (Hughes
and Keith 2015). Other than multiple choice questions, there can be essay or practical
examination for this specific genre. Within the practical environment, the teachers will be
capable of assessing the practical knowledge of the students.

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Figure: Design specific thinking
For this particular pedagogy, the teacher can design a multiple choice question on the
basis of a practical examination that has been held previously. The students have to appear
for an online test for half an hour which will consist of different questions regarding the
practical examination. This can be applicable at any discipline which will help the students to
gain more knowledge about a specific design. The teacher can utilize a jig-saw model
approach for this teaching as well. The entire classroom can be divided into five groups with
different topics given individually. The teacher can ask the students to research on specific
topics on their own; therefore share with the other students with same approach. They can
also come back to their previous group and share their learning and findings. Therefore, the
students can be given multiple choice questions on their subjects that will help the teacher to
review their knowledge.

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Communication
Frey and Palmer (2017) has stated that the changing strategies and roles of utilizing
the computer and information technology within the classroom are supported by the new
trend of learning and teaching at the secondary level. The classroom interactions, selected
activities or the instructional activities within the classroom setting can be very helpful in this
context as well. However, if the students are utilizing the multimodal resources without any
proper instruction or narrative structure, they tend to become unfocused (Dannels et al. 2014).
Therefore the teachers require supervising by imposing an organized structure for making the
classroom activities more productive.
For designing this pedagogy, the teacher must understand that the communication
between teacher and students is a two-way process. The communication should be interactive
and the students should be valued in the communication. After entering the classroom, the
teacher will divide the students in small groups of two to three students. Each of the group
will have to do a double entry journal. After they are done with their journals, they can
collaborate and communicate their ideas with the teacher and the rest of the class. The
students will be given access to the computers and internet if they want to search for any
information. Each of the team will be given a topic, therefore on one side of the journal, the
students have to write the information they get on the topic. On the other side they have to
write whatever they think about the information. This pedagogy can be very effective for
literature learning, where the students will be given a piece of reading and a question and
they have to search for information. After the journal entry is done, the students will
communicate their concepts and information. Here the teacher can put more valuable
information. The most effective part of this pedagogy is that the students can communicate
with each other with their ideas and help each other with information. At the end, the teacher
will also take part in the communication process and help them to learn.

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Figure: Classroom Communication
Digital Literacy
The Australian MCEECDYA report has stated three kinds of digital literacy: creation
and sharing the information, working with the information and using the information and
communication technology in a responsible way (Lankshear and Knobel 2015). Later six
procedures have been included in the digital literacy such as availing, managing and
examining information, creation of new understanding, conversing with others utilizing the
information and communication technology etc. The digital pedagogy involves a drastic
change in the traditional pedagogy with a constructivist approach where the students can
create their own knowledge (Tyner 2014).
For this pedagogy, the teacher will use a teaching approach utilizing the digital story
telling with the help of power point presentation and recorded voice. This electronic story
books can be very much effective in increasing the motivation of the students. The teacher
can use YouTube videos or create a presentation for the students as well. The video should be
of minimum four to five minutes. After the video ends, the teacher will propose few

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questions regarding the topic. The students will participate in the discussion and share their
thoughts and ideas with the class. This will improve their ability of accessing and evaluating
the information along with creating new understanding.
Figure: Digital Literacy
Critical Thinking and problem solving
Critical thinking is an intellectually restricted procedure which helps the individual in
conceptualizing, analyzing and evaluating the information in a more active and skillful way.
In other words, it can also be said that it is a kind of thinking which has the ability of
assessing itself. Critical thinkers tend to raise important issues and questions, tend to
formulate them more clearly (Kong 2015). This thinking procedure is a vital skill, especially
within the workplace. Critical thinking can be utilized for evaluating policies, people and the
other institutions which can solve many social problems. Therefore the teachers should
trigger the critical thinking through the classroom activities. The following pedagogy has
been designed based on the 5 step model for moving the students towards critical thinking.

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The teacher will give an online game to the students. The entire lesson will be based
on the Quandary game where the players need to make tough decisions which may not have
any clear wrong or right answers; however each of the answer has its own consequences.
Therefore this game will require several concepts and skills that can be achieved by the
critical thinking. Here the teacher will tell the students about the game and ask what they
think just by hearing the name. Then the teacher will play the introductory video of the game
so that the students are introduced with the primary objective of the game and the teacher will
clear the meaning about the name of the game. The teacher will make groups of students
consisting of three or four students and start playing the game. The students will be allowed
for 15 minutes to play each of the episodes. If any group of students finishes the game within
the time, they can replay the episode and see how things would turn out if they make any
other choice. After this playing time, the teacher will bring all the students back to the class
and ask questions regarding the game. Some sample questions would be like “Why do you
choose the solution?” “What is the basic difference between an opinion, a fact and the
solution?” “What are the possible dilemmas while playing the game?” “How did you
overcome it?” And so on. They can also be asked to write down the key concepts about the
game. The teacher can assess the learning of the students by reflecting on their writing about
the key concepts. This activity will make the students think more profoundly regarding the
concepts used in the game and it will also improve their problem solving skills. Later, when
the students will be done with minimum of three episodes of the game, the teacher can
discuss the game on the whiteboard through a introductory session. Each of the step of the
game can be facilitated through discussion.

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Figure: Critical Thinking and problem solving
Self-management
Most of the times, the teachers tend to experience that the students are having trouble
with finishing their homework as they are not dedicating much time in studies. It is possible
that they are wasting a long time in playing or surfing the social media sites or watching
television. The self management pedagogies will help the students to understand the
importance of the realistic schedule (Ladson-Billings 2014). Therefore it will also make them
utilize their time so that they can make time for their studies even after playing. The teacher
will provide them computers where they will use the excel sheet. Through this activity, the
students will also learn the usage of excel along with making their daily schedule. The
teacher will divide the entire classroom in groups of maximum of three or four students. Each
of the team will use one computer. The teacher will give them the first ten minutes to identify
what are the important works they have in one week. As this is a group work, one student can
use the computer and the others can direct him or her exactly what has to be written. After
making the list, the teacher should help the students to categorize the activities. They can
divide the activities in different categories such as static time frame and the flexible time
frame. They can also differentiate between the most important works and the ones which
cannot be rescheduled. After this stage, the teacher can do the entire work on the blackboard

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for showing the difference between the activities and how the students should distinguish
their work timings. Later the teacher can also ask questions such as ‘How important is this
task?’ ‘Do you think you can finish this task within this time?’ etc. In making this schedule
the teacher should leave sufficient time for the personal work as well. This will help the
students to learn self management through the lesson.
Figure: Self management
Conclusion
Designing the pedagogies for students can be very tricky sometimes, as this requires a
sharp creative thinking. While enacting the narrative pedagogy, it accompanies the existing
traditional educational approaches along with the new and innovative thinking approaches. In
such pedagogies the new potential for teaching tends to emerge along with previous ones. In
such pedagogies, the students are mostly inadvertently led to the belief that they are in a

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system which can offer them a safe practice. The creative thinking helps the students to think
in a more empathetic way than before. The fundamental assumptions of the pedagogies
provide a sense that the required information in the system are transparent and clear as they
tend to experience both the theory and practical practices at the same time. The practical
things are not merely the practice of the traditional knowledge; rather the practices help the
students to realize that they can think on their own and their thoughts are always welcome.
This pedagogies influence the students to develop their thought process as well. This essay
has defined several learning methods and how the students can reflect their personal thinking
within the classroom environment which will help them in their later working life.