My mind has been expanded regarding the idea of literacy.  Before this semester began I had a definition of literacy that I would say is a very common.  At this moment however, my definition has changed drastically.  Before, I would have said that literacy is easy to define, but now after taking this class I cannot say the same.  I would now define literacy as the ability to communicate, understand, and interact via language, technology, and more.

One interesting thing about literacy that will remain with me is who gets defines it.  At the very highest level the government tells us.  It sets the standards which schools follow of what is consider literate and illiterate levels of reading and writing.  During this semester we have heard many examples about the flaws of this system.  In one of the books I read for this class (Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out) I came across a story about an American boy who scored poorly is his exams when it came to reading and writing.  Some people would say this boy is uneducated and will not be successful when he grows up and starts his career.  If you too have this opinion then you are very wrong.  This boy possessed a very entrepreneurial spirit and he also had impressive computer literacy skills.  This computer literacy provided him an avenue to become successful in his life.  In the same high school where he scored poorly in reading and writing levels, he began fixing computers for the faculty and staff.  One story which shows this boy has ‘brains’ was when his school was replacing their old computers with new ones; this boy asked if he could take the old ones home.  Once he had them at his house he began upgrading some of the hardware and software.  He then sold the computers on eBay for a profit.  What this example shows us is that the system that is set which defines literacy is not something set-in-stone, and is not absolute.  This is something that I did not know before taking this course.  Another thing that I learned was the influence people around us have on our literacy.

Sponsors are people or things in life that have an influence on what we read and write.  It is a term that I never used before when discussing or contemplating literacy.  Sponsors are different to each individual, but as a whole they usually include: parents, teachers, siblings, extended family, friends, and media, etc.  Sponsors play a big role when it comes to literacy because they dictate what we both like and dislike about reading and writing.  Some of the examples we discussed in class included bad memories of teachers people have had, and how they influenced heavily what some people decided they disliked about reading.  My sponsors have been both good and bad.

Growing up I enjoyed when my mom would read to us before bed.  It was a rare occurrence though and my sister and I always wanted more of it.  Once I started school, reading was not a habit I developed.  It was never fun for me and I couldn’t connect to the material on a personal level.  It was simply monotonous work.  It remained that way throughout middle school and high school, but once I began college things changed.

My professors in college have been great sponsors of my literacy.  I was now presented with material that I related to and reading became extremely interesting.  It has continued up to today and as I get closer to finishing my college career, I leave with new and different attitudes toward literacy.  One thing that will always remain is the complexity of literacy.  It will no longer be something that I’d say is easy to pin down.  I’ve learned that it encompasses many different topics and subjects, and we should take the official definition with a grain of salt.  Also I will forever remain mindful of the influence sponsors of literacy have on the youth.  I look forward to the time when I have my own children so I can view how they interact with the different literacies in the world.  I feel that it’s important to allow kids to develop their literacy, because it is theirs, not mine or their professors.  This class has been a very good one; it has taught me a lot, and it also did something that I always hope a class does.  It expanded my view on literacy and if a class can expand something in my mind, it is then is a great class.

The presentations we have seen in class have been some of the most entertaining presentations I have seen to date.  The interaction that has been present in almost every presentation has enhanced the experience, and I feel makes them more memorable and therefore may be a better way to help students learn.

On many levels I feel, these presentations are better than the ones we are accustomed to seeing.  For one the audience has been far more engaged with the presentations we’ve conducted in class.  We interact with the subject being taught; instead of only having it explained to us.  This is a way of learning I would like to have seen more of in my adolescent education.  I also would say that it would benefit us in our current education.

If I were to someday teach a class that allowed for this type of style, then I would definitely encourage my students to create presentations like these.  The interaction is something I would try to foster the most.

-Jovan Tica

What I’ve learned from the readings are the ways teachers are connecting with their students via Hip Hop. One example I particularly liked was when a teacher had her students search for literacy concepts first in a song, and then in a poem. I believe this was a good method because it first got them interested in the assignment and then it helped them to identify the concepts in the poems. As one of the articles stated Hip Hop can be used as a bridge linking the streets to academics (Morrell).

There are many other articles and videos we have discovered. One however, I liked most of all. It is a movie made by Hip Hop MC Ice T, called The Art of Hip Hop. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much is because it gave me a lot of insight into what Hip Hop is, according to its inventers and developers. Because Hip Hop is so young we still have many primary sources which we can get information from, which is a blessing. This movie interviews the greats of Hip Hop like: Run DMC, Chuck D, Grandmaster Casanova Fly, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and more. It is a great way to discover what Hip Hop is, not from random people who aren’t involved in it, but from its creators.

As I grew up I was left to my own devices to choose who would be my sponsors of literacy.  With my parents, reading was never something they forced my siblings and me to do, so the love of reading was left for us to either cultivate on our own or not.  The decisions I made when choosing sponsors were solely made by me and therefore were a depiction of who I was.  This is one thing that I find fascinating with literacy; by examining what someone reads we can understand who they are and what they are all about.  There were a couple of ideas that stuck with me after reading both Brandt’s article on sponsors and the sample post by Mark.

When Brandt discussed sponsors she mentioned how a lot of the literacy that is made available to people is a product of negotiations by big powerful sponsors such as local, state, and federal governments for example (Brandt, 173).  She goes on to compare such negotiations as competitions; where the seizing and relinquishing of control, and what the definition of literacy will be is argued.  Also in these arenas it is decided which materials are to be made available to children to develop their literacies (i.e. in public schools).  The stance I take on this is I find it frightening to think that politicians could treat this as a game.  Large sponsors such as the government can do great harm to our literacy and we know of a good example by what the Nazi’s did through their book burning orders.  Thankfully we live in a country where books of all types remain available to us and so one is not hindered in their pursuit to develop their literacy.  Lastly is very important to remain aware of such negotiations of the powerful sponsors mentioned previously in order to maintain the freedom we are fortunate to have.

Another idea that I wanted to discuss comes from the sample post written by Mark.  In it he describes the idea that literacy is influenced by sponsors by a huge majority.  Specifically he stated that his literacy is 70% from sponsors and 30% from himself.  In such a case it is very important to have positive sponsors in order to develop good literacy skills.  If one was to be influenced by sponsors who were not positive then it is likely they would have poor literacy skills.  I however would not estimate numbers similar to those given by Mark.  External sponsorship in my case would rate much lower when compared to Mark’s.  Throughout my life I have read material which I find interesting and so “Jovan’s” percentage would be much higher compared to “Mark’s.”

So what does this post offer to the conversation on literacy?  It discusses how important sponsors can be in influencing literacy skills for the better or worse.  It talks about how literacy can be something a person develops on his or her own, and makes a point that literacy is a depiction of who you are.  Finally it is just another example of the complexity of literacy, which is something I once thought was simple.

            I believe that a “social view of literacy” is that it strives to teach everyone basic responsibilities which helps them function in a society.  Things like finding a job and being able to understand road signs are among the things society would say make literacy important.  However like many things in life, the definition of literacy is not so simple.  We have learned that a consensus on the definition of literacy is something that has eluded man throughout history.

Literacy is a very difficult idea to define because it always changing; not just from one generation to another but is also different to each one of us.  An example that has been brought up many times in class is that one cannot call one person literate for reading novels and then label another as illiterate for not doing the same.   The one reading novels may look at something like a baseball score sheet and be dumfounded.  Can he now be called illiterate?

There is a big difference when contemplating literacy from afar and viewing it up close.  It is easy to understand it and explain it from society’s perspective.  You can say literacy is important to society because it helps it function smoothly; you don’t want people running around not understanding what signs mean and disobeying laws.  But when you try to describe literacy on an individual level you cannot come to an agreement.

One author Deborah Brandt wrote that because of technology literacy skills have “become vulnerable to unprecedented turbulence, (Brandt).”   We do not know today what other type of literacy will be needed in the future so defining literacy is nearly impossible, and technology just adds to the confusion.

Literacy will always be an important aspect of all societies in the world because it is something you need to get a job and earn a living, but how do we teach it and define it when it is always shifting and changing?  Literacy is social because it touches each and every one of us; from scholars in Oxford University to tribes in Africa literacy exists in different ways everywhere.