Literacy. A word that didn’t really have any meaning to me at the beginning of the semester, but now I have spent 3 months reading, discussing, and writing about this word. So, now I write this final blog post and I ask myself, “What have I learned?”

I think that what I have learned the most about literacy is that it is ALWAYS changing, and that it isn’t the same for everyone. The way that literacy actually piles up is really interesting and would be awesome to discover all of the ways this happens with my generation. I feel like we are a transition between what used to be, and what needs to be. Also, in the Hamilton article, there is a passage that talks about the many different “artefacts” that are involved with literacy. One of these mentioned is a computer, which she describes as a writing tool. Hamilton also states, “We began by thinking in terms of activities as simply reading and writing, but a very large number of newspaper images involve people displaying, holding, inspecting, possessing or giving, discussing and disputing written texts of various sorts.” Thinking about a computer as an artefact, I now realize that photos aren’t necessary to document people sharing written texts because we now have the internet. Computers allow us to share information instantly, research something immediately, and read/write whenever we get the chance. I recall the story that you shared with us about the elementary students who were using google docs to read each other’s stories, and to share a joint document between all of them. How amazing is that! What teacher would want to limit the ideas and the possibilities that computers and technology can bring to education? I have one professor this semester who completely despises the use of any electronics in her classroom. When I read the syllabus at the beginning of the semester I was completely put off with the idea. I had to buy a course pack of short stories that I could have easily found online. I think that as a future teacher there needs to be a way to implement technology into every classroom because it is a literacy that is evolving and becoming prominent everywhere.

My book club text “Just Girls” made me continuously question how different the study would have turned out if it was done today. The use of computers and social media drastically effects adolescents today and changes the way they view literacy. How much does the need to get Instagram likes and twitter retweets change the way they read and write? Do they text each other in class instead of write notes? Are they checking Instagram for the latest fashion and gossip instead of reading magazines? There are so many ways that the book is “outdated”, but at the same time I was able to relate to everything, which brings me back to the idea of my generation being an awkward transition. We are so open to these new technologies and ways of literacy, but we also can remember when we used to pass notes and check books out from the library.

This class has been so much fun, and I can easily say that it was my favorite this semester! I really enjoy your teaching Kim, and all of the group work that we did. I can’t wait to be in another class of yours next semester!

 

Everyone did such a fantastic job with their article groups! It was so fun being a part of all of the presentations. After reading “Just Girls”, I thought it would be fun to swap over to Hip-Hop and literacy which was awesome! I was so surprised at the raps that everyone came up with, and after reading everyone’s blog posts it seems like the class enjoyed our presentation as much as I liked giving it.

The adolescent group did a really good job of involving the whole class by having us take a quiz. I thought it was really relevant to include social media into the presentation because it is seriously affected the way kids are growing up. We are the last generation to not be fully exposed to social media at such a young age.

The gaming group was really fun! I have never played Surgeon Simulator before, which was a lot harder than it looked like. I have grown up playing and being surrounded by video games, so I think that it is awesome how literacy can be connected to gaming!

Unfortunately, I missed the last group to present because I was not feeling well :(

Overall, this article group project was a lot of fun and I learned new things about literacy from all the groups!

http://msmith193.wix.com/hiphopliteracy

 

“I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, and you don’t stop
the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat”

Enough of that. So…how does hip-hop relate to literacy?

After reading multiple articles, I now know how to answer that question! Many of the articles were able to link listening to hip-hop and memorizing lyrics, to learning equations and concepts in the classroom. Multiple teachers were able to incorporate lessons that revolved around music to teach their students. Patrick was even able to show our group a really interesting video about Kendrick Lamar visiting a classroom. The teacher wrote an entire English lesson plan around Kendrick’s music that the students really loved. It was really neat to see how involved and excited the students became. I think that this next generation of students are adapting the way they learn, and so teachers need to change the way they teach.

I am very excited to show the class what we have learned!

 

So by now I am sure that after 8 blog posts about the book Just Girls, everyone knows that it is about two groups of girls, during the best years of your life…MIDDLE SCHOOL! Basically, there are the “Social Queens” and the “Tough Cookies” and the whole reason for the book is to study their literacy practices. Unfortunately, the entire time I was reading the book I was forced to recollect all of the embarrassing moments in my own life. I also was pondering over the idea of the study being redone today. Middle schoolers today have so much more “literacy” at their fingertips. Almost all of them now have cell phones, Facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram, and whatever else you can think of. This opens doors to cyber bullying and also to showing young girls what gets the most “likes”. Instead of note passing they just text each other, and instead of looking at magazines they check out instagram. How drastic would the differences be if this book was rewritten? I think we should find out.