Textual Literacy and the Net

Module Three

Textual Literacy

Words mean little by themselves. It is not enough to collect and save them. Students must learn to interpret and think about text so that important ideas come forward. We teach students to think critically, to "read between the lines," and to distinguish between fact and opinion.

The Internet offers millions of pages of text. If our students download files without sorting, sifting, weighing and considering the meaning of the text, if they simply save without reading, it will be an exercise in futility.

Consider how the rich text resources listed below and others like them might be used to develop textual literacy.

Exploration:
1) Go with a partner to Project Bartleby (use link below) and use the search engine (a white box you must scroll to find) to compare how Dickinson and Bacon felt about "book."

Use a semicolon for an "and" search. Use a comma for an "or" search.

a) Try - Dickinson; book
b) Try - Bacon; book

Project Bartleby - Search Instructions

2) Write your findings in your learning log.

3) Save your favorite poem or passage. Go to the passage. Select the text by running the cursor over the text with the mouse button down until it darkens. Go to the EDIT menu and select COPY. Next open a word processor file. Go to the EDIT menu. PASTE this poem into the new document. Next go to your file menu. Choose SAVE AS. Select the H drive and find your name and directory. Make sure you name the file so you can find it again, but do not change the 3 letters after the dot (a file extension which tells the computer what kind of software to use.) Hit o.k.

4) Discuss and write down how search engines may change and improve the act of reading. How might you use this type of searching with students?

5) In your learning log, write your thoughts about the following: How is electronic text different from printed books when it comes time to find meanings? What are its advantages? Its disadvantages?

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Copyright Notice:
Copyright, 1996, Bellingham Public Schools. All rights reserved. These lessons may be copied by non-profit, public learning institutions only for use with their own staff. All other purposes are expressly prohibited without explicit permission. .
Revised 3/3/99