Thank you for the amazing set of projects, talks, and reflective papers. In case you missed seeing some of the projects, here they are below. Hope you do yourself a favor, take a break from finals, and watch, listen, or read. Some stunning work here. You. Rule. Olivia’s Defend DACA Now site Richard Mata’s Hip Hop Reflection Sabrina’s Vine Dictionary (hilarious)… Read more →
Here’s our shared Google Doc for criteria Read more →
Hey everyone! Here is a link to a survey to let me know what you’re considering for your final assignment. PLEASE fill this out by Dec 3. Options below: Option 1: Reflective Essay Think of this reflection as a kind of manifesto, answering “this is what I believe about literacy learning and teaching…at this moment.” I invite you to write about your work in the… Read more →
Here is the link to Ruben’s site with excerpts from everyone’s blog post. The site will be useful for our reflection work. Thanks Ruben! Read more →
Howdy everyone, We have a lot going on in this week: Reading and discussing Baron’s “From Pencils to Pixels…” (please post a question/passage before class in your group’s shared Google Doc per usual) Watching and reading some things together in class. Thinking about new literacies Doing some synthesis work with Szwed, Williams, Brandt, Baron…asking: what do you know about literacy studies as of now?… Read more →
In Deborah Brandt’s, “Sponsors of literacy,” she discusses the role that “sponsors” play in an individual’s literacy learning process. This relationship between sponsor and sponsored is explained as someone/something that facilitates an individual’s literacy while gaining something in return. The sponsor sets either the restrictions or liberties for accessing literacy and also provides motivation for consistent obedience from the sponsored.… Read more →
Literacy. Sponsored. This week’s reading, “Sponsors of Literacy” by Deborah Brandt, gives economic value to our literacies. It also presented the idea of literacy sponsors in detail. The piece also presented several examples where literacy improved an individual’s economic value. This piece raised several questions about my past literacy sponsors. Who influenced my literacy the most? Could it have… Read more →
Reading Deborah Brandt’s “Accumulating Literacy…” for class tomorrow (9/19). Pay attention to her definitional work with “piling up” and “spreading out” on page 652. Could be interesting to look at your literacy narratives for traces of literacy past, present, and future. Please remember to talk about a passage, pose a question, etc in your group’s Google Doc before class tomorrow. The link… Read more →
The literacy of our generation is no less productive than that of past generations. Our dependence on written communication may hinder us in face to face interactions, however, I feel like it in a way forces us to be able to constructively display our thoughts, ideas, and emotions in written text in a way that is comprehensive on both sides… Read more →
This week in Literacy! “Why Johnny Can Never, Ever Read: The Perpetual Literacy Crisis and Student Identity” by Bronwyn Williams. This piece really hit home for me on several levels. Williams begins by defining the “literacy crisis” that is present in every generation, though its focus is always a little different. One thing that’s argued to be a problem is… Read more →
“Why Johnny can never, ever read: The perpetual literacy crisis and student identity” This article challenges the idea that a literary crisis is looming over the younger generations. Which is funny considering that each generation does this as they get older, as the author, Bronwyn T. Williams points out. Why do we have this tendency to reminisce about the good ol’… Read more →
A Reflective Analysis of Bronwyn Williams In “Why Johnny Can Never, Ever Read: The Perpetual Literacy Crisis and Student Identity” and “A Puzzle to the Rest of Us: Who is a ‘Reader’ Anyway?” Bronwyn T. Williams synthesizes theories on literacy as identity. Among other things, he hones in on the repercussions of viewing departure from classical literary practices as illiteracy… Read more →
We recently started to study John Szwed’s “Ethnography of literacy” and UNESCO, trying to figure out what literacy actually means. Szwed introduces many challenging questions for us as readers. For example, he asks, what is literacy? How can we measure literacy? How do we define literacy? These are just a few questions that Szwed had for the readers, but his… Read more →
John Szwed’s “Ethnography of Literacy” (1980) poses an interesting take on the idea of literacy, suggesting that it may be a more flexible term than many think at first. He states, “Conventional thinking about reading and writing far too often uses a much-out-dated model of literacy…” (425). He means that we are excluding so many types of literacy by condemning… Read more →
In our literacy studies class, we formed small groups to discuss John Szwed’s “Ethnography of Literacy” and UNESCO, Defining Literacy. While sharing as a class we discussed questions like: 1) What exactly is literacy? 2) How do you define reading and writing in a classroom? 3) What would a school define as successful or helpful reading/writing? 4) How can you… Read more →