Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis

As I reflect over the past eight weeks, I realize that I have learned a great deal about the 21^st Century Fluency Skills, and the tools that are needed to be successful. As stated by Jukes and Macdonald, “The problem is that the world is not the stable, static place it once was. The world has changed and continues to change.” With this in mind, teachers must familiarize themselves with the list of 21^st Century Fluency Skills if they are to prepare their students for what awaits them after school in life and the workplace.

The most striking revelation I’ve had during this course is that we are focusing on the 21st Century Fluency Skills in my district, even though this isn’t what we call them. I was quite overwhelmed when I read through the huge list of literacy skills, which included the Professional Skills and Teacher Skills. Many of these skills are things we do with our students on a daily basis, such as the ability to read fiction and non-fiction for meaning, and the ability to apply Bloom’s hierarchy of skills. On the other hand, there are skills that we are not teaching our students, such as having the ability to look critically at the content of various media formats and be able to determine how that medium is used to communicate with the users and shape their thinking.

Having the knowledge of the 21^st Century Fluency Skills will help me to prepare my students to be successful in the future. I can use this list to ensure my students are getting the skills they need to be successful in life and in the workplace. The resource “Reading the Web Strategies for Internet Inquiry” taught me a great deal about the QUEST model of internet inquiry. This book also has many great resources that can be used with students in the classroom, such as Handout E-7 Middle School Website Evaluation and Handout S-9 Synthesis Map.

One goal I would like to pursue is to identify the 21^st Century Fluency Skills that we do not work on in my district and incorporate them into my curriculum. Being a technology magnet school where every student has their own laptop, I would like to focus on the Information Skills, Technical Skills, and Media Skills. For example, one of the media skills is the ability to identify the most appropriate media format to use to complete a media product. Although students use a wide variety of tools and software, we usually tell them which program or tools we want them to use to complete an assignment. I will begin to give students choices when they use technology. When an assignment is introduced, students will be given several options of different media they can use to complete the project. Having the freedom to choose will hopefully give students confidence when working with new media, which is another of the 21^st Century Fluency Skills.