Todays' blog post is the next post in a series of posts sharing the TL;DR information available in the Illinois Computer Literacy Knowledge and Skill Development Continuum adopted May 2022. In this series, it is hoped that you will have a better understanding of what technology skills our students are expected to have at different grade levels. Of course, each student is different -- some will acquire these skills sooner than their peers; some will acquire them later. These are meant to be a guide for teachers.
Computer literacy isn't just something that is taught in "computer class" by a "computer teacher." Because the use of computing devices impacts our students at school and at home, for school work, for socializing, and for fun or entertainment, computer literacy is something every educator needs to assist students with. It is my hope that by summarizing these skills for you, it will be easier for you to find ways to help students develop, refine, and retain the computer literacy skills they will need and use for the rest of their lives.
You can find the actual continuum here. What you will see in these posts and the linked spreadsheet are my interpretations and summaries.
One of the things kids enjoy is being able to gussy up their work with text and color. Teaching them how to do this so it's functional and actually enhances their work (as opposed to being a distraction and added just for the sake of decoration and fun) is important, but they also need to learn the skills as well. Being able to to use some basic drawing tools and text tools needs to start in kindergarten, be continued in grade 1, and actually fully developed in grade 2. That sounds scary, doesn't it? It doesn't have to be! Here are some things you can do:- Model it: When you create your own documents or presentations, use text and drawing tools to add color and enhancement. Point it out to the kids, and take a few moments to show them how you did it.
- Point it out in text: This is a great way to teach about text features, and then give the kids the chance to create the same text features in the documents they create (italicize new vocabulary words, bold important subject area terms, use underlining or highlighting for section headings or titles).
- Give them the chance: when kids create their own documents, ask them to use color and text features to enhance their document to make it more useable by the reader. This can be done in a document, slide deck, or spreadsheet, and it can be done individually, collaboratively, in a follow the leader model, or under the guidance of an adult or student assistant.
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