Reflection…

https://docs.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/document/d/1O9HHlBurfRcqU5bUjKsEzleScfWD7_fIGYgSR5K7LDM/edit

This one should work. I hope so anyways.

http://youtu.be/r5f57JiGCWE

Even though we have spent an entire semester talking about it I still have no idea what literacy actually is. When I walked into the class I thought what everyone thinks: literacy means knowing how to read or not. I never imagined that literacy could hold so many different meanings and possibilities. I now find myself correcting other people when they use the term “illiterate” too often. Just last week a coworker of mine started rattling off statistics about illiteracy in America and I had to stop myself from lecturing them about multi-literacies and functional literacy. I did, however, inform them that most of those statistics are measuring the wrong thing and then asked her what she thought literacy actually was and her answer was the same that mine used to be. Now I feel like I have a more open mind and so many more ways of dealing with literacy and how other people learn.

I also learned so many things about education and how to apply what I learned about literacy to my future students. The idea of sponsorship has really struck a chord with me and I am now trying to find new ways to be a sponsor to my siblings and to the people around me. Now that I have a better understanding of how complex literacy is I have more ways of dealing with and catering to the literacies of the people around me. When a friend of mine attacks another friend over grammar mistakes I’m able to talk about how the internet has given us different venues in which we have to perform differently. I’ve learned to see the difference between a grammar mistake that is still able to communicate a thought as compared to one that makes the content unintelligible. This coming from someone who used to be an avid grammar Nazi is a huge step for me.

All in all, I know that I did learn a lot this semester, but what I did learn has only made me ask more questions. But I can honestly say I am excited to see where those questions lead me and how to answer them in new ways for my future career as an educator and sponsor of literacy.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3txydp/