Enviornmental Literacy

Reading over the blog again i can see how my knowledge about environmental literacy has evolved. Coming into this assignment i thought environmental literacy was just about reading books about the environment, but from reading over my post i think it is clear that it is not! Environmental literacy has so many components to it and options for teachers to explore when using it in their literacy curriculum. You can use the environment to help develop students reflection skills and writing skills. After a field trip or hands on environmental lesson students can write about them, showing students that writing can serve many features in school and outside of it. Environmental literature is a great way to get students who struggle with reading and like nature excited about reading and the environment that they live in. Before this project i did not know how much information there was about environmental literacy and how many organizations there are for teachers in helping them receive environmental grants and spread the awareness of the importance of environmental education in today's schools. As teachers we need to be aware of these resources available to us so we can begin to think about how we want to use the environment in the classroom and why it is important to the future of our students and our planet!

I hope this blog acts as a good resource for teachers about what environmental literacy is and how to use it effectively in the classroom. I encourage everyone to use the links on the left side of the page as resources and to comment and reflect about my writings on environmental literacy. I hope to continue to add to my blog and explore other literacy that will help me to develop into an effective teacher. So come back soon!! :)

While exploring this technology and the process of learning a new literacy i have concluded many things. One of them being that students may feel more eager to write and read about a certain topic or issue if it was in the form of a blog. I think this because from blogging the past month now i have realized that it is not as formal as regular writing you see in many classrooms. This informal style of writing may help students, even those in younger grades who have access to a computer and who are not confident in their ability to write to write freely and without worrying about spelling, capitalizations, or punctuation. Blogging makes writing fun! I have also noticed that it is fun reading other people's blog and your own blog for that matter! Because the writing is so informal and people are talking from their heart rather their brain it is much more entertaining to read people's writing this way! I have not come across many challenges when using this technology...lets hope i did not jinx myself by saying that, but as i stated before i have back up my work because i know using a new technology sometimes can be tricky and unexpected things can happen! Hope you are enjoying my blog so far because i know i am!! 

When choosing this type of literacy to examine i was not afraid i would not find anything on the subject. But as i have been looking around the internet i found many sites and organizations supporting environmental literacy but i did not find many sites that list possible activities to do with elementary aged students until...NOW!

This website, http://www.sierraclub.org/education/websites.asp provide different literature and hands on activities to do with students. Some of these activites include:

•  Nature journal: There are templates available on the site above. As a teacher you want to make sure you make it small enough so your students can carry it around with them outside. The purpose of the journal is to have students write down their thoughts, observation and talk about their relationship they have with nature. This is a great way to incorporate meaningful, engaging writing into a literacy curriculum.
  
• Create a handout to send home to each student in the school: The class as a whole creates a handout of information they want the students in the school and their parents to know about the environmental topic they are learning about. For example, students learning about recycling and its importance can develop a handout about how to recycle and why each family should do so.
  
• Storybook Gardens: Choose a  picture book with plants, flowers, or herbs read the story and then decide as a class what types of fauna mentioned in the book you would like to plant in your storybook garden. Then as a class plant them into barrels that can be moved easily. Once the planter is planted with items in the story bring the planter into the classroom; read the story again and then discuss about the items in the planter and the story.
  

When exploring this literacy online i did not find many universal cons to environmental literacy. But i did find a few that could be isolated to some environmental literacy programs...

•  There may be not enough time in the literacy program to specifically focus on environmental literacy.

• Equipment and materials may be to expensive for the school system or teacher to purchase within their given budget.

•  Activities that require trips outside of the classroom may be dangerous to students and require permission from a parent or guardian.

•  In order to develop an environmental literacy program there are positions that need to be establish and filled and finding people to participate in these positions may be hard within some schools.

This best way to overcome these challenges is to recognize them, and try to ask for help in solving them. It could also help to inform co-workers and parents the importance and environmental literacy. By doing this they may be more inclined to help get environmental literacy practices into the classroom.

http://www.ableschool.org/programs/streem.html

When exploring the topic of environmental literacy i was surprised to see that incorporating environmental education into the classroom through literacy has many benefits both for student's literacy development and over all achievement in school.

Benefits of environmental education through literacy:

• Environmental literacy has been proven to boost standardized test scores
• It is also to be know to level the learning field across socio- economic backgrounds, which is especially important when teaching in schools in areas like Lansing and Detroit.
  
• Environmental literacy has also been known to spark a high level interest in science.
• The enthusiasm students develop about the environment through literacy makes a very remarkable tool for increasing student's reading proficiency and other learning skills.
• Environmental education programs involving literacy has revealed that it positively impacts students character education and responsible behavior. 
• Finally, environmental education provides schools the opportunity to the enhance the diversity of education and society. 

Surfing the web i found there are many web sites campaigning for environmental literacy...but at the same time there are people how believe that schools need to focus on the three "R's" before educators focus to much attention introducing environmental literacy into their curriculum. Whatever the case is it is important to understand the components of environmental literacy in order to understand what it is and how to use it affectively in the classroom.

The Main Components of Environmental Literacy:

Awareness- is holding a general assumption or consciousness about something. Environmental awareness can arise from many activities education just being one of them.

Knowledge- This requires an orderly comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of the environmental issues and concepts. This is component is taught going beyond the text it requires teachers to connect the text to the students everyday lives making the information more meaningful.

Attitudes- This is the process of developing attitudes of appreciation and concern for the environment. Many educators believe that attitudes change primarily from a variety of life experiences which can take place outside and inside of the classroom.

Skills- Many educators consider this to be a practical exercises, which get students ready to use these skills towards a future career. Many people argue that developing skills in environmental literacy is an essential part to formal and informal education.

Action-  This is probably the most difficult component  of environmental literacy because it acquires students to develop a course of action and participation when it comes to the environment. This component is very complex because this "action" usually acquires the student to have a life changing experience when it comes to the environment and this usually occurs outside a formal classroom setting. This is also when students develop the understanding of how people and societies relate to one another and the natural system.

**It is important to note that literacy alone does not determine that the students will exhibit all these components when it comes to understanding the environment it just guarantees that the learner has the capacity to comprehend all these components of environmental literacy.

http://www.fundee.org/facts/envlit/components.htm

I hope this gives you a better understanding of environmental literacy and what it expected in a well rounded environmental literacy program. It may seem a little overwhelming and confusing how to incorporate these components into your environmental literacy instruction....but don't worry ways to do this and suggestions are to come! 

Wow...i think i am obsessed with blogging! As i was on my page today i noticed a link on the left side of my page that said "my groups". In clicking on it i found a world filled with blogs about just about anything. When i typed in "environment" looking for groups pertaining to the topic of environmental literacy i was amazed how many hits i got. After looking through a few of them i ended up joining groups talking about global warming and other environmental problems. I also joined a group developed by an environmental studies graduate that is interesting and a group that provides ways to live a more eco-friendly life! Feel free to explore these groups they are very interesting and mind provoking! They could easily be used as a tool for teachers when gathering information about new environmental studies completed and new and innovated ways to protect the earth.  That is all from me for now! Have a great spring break! :)

Looking through the first three entries i feel i now have a clear understanding what environmental literacy is and its importance in a k-8 curriculum. I am also impressed how quickly i am picking up this blogging!! I am going to start to explore more features shortly and start to get into the meat of environmental literacy and how to use it affectively in the classroom! Well, that is all for now!!