First off, I would like to say that out of all my classes this semster, this was easily my favorite. I remember in the beginning of the class I wouldn’t really want to come just because it hadn’t picked up, and I wasn’t really sure what the class was about. But now, I’m so excited to come to class and see everyone because all the people here are genuine good people. I’m really going to cherish my times in Kim Jaxon’s, Eng 332.

Now about the class, I’ve learned so much this year. In the start of the semester, I didn’t come into class really knowing much about what literacy was or how it was applied in the classroom, but now it’s so obvious to me. To me, literacy will be a never-ending changing idea. As technology grows, people grow and our imaginations grow, there will always be room for improvement with literacy. I never would have learned that passing notes, or playing games (Just Girls & group presentations) would be a form of literacy, but it’s nice to see all the different way in which the term can be used. In this class, I think I did well in being a teammate, along with being a leader. I feel this was the first class where I was actually willing to volunteer to do things bigger than just the minimum amount, and I absolutely loved it. To fix in the future; remembering to do my blogs. I feel as though that was such a silly, and dumb thing I did that affected my grade and I have actually made an organzier with a timer that tells me when to do all my assignments, and I think this will keep me on track from now on.

My philosophies with literacy has changed throughout the course in the way that I just didn’t know anything at all, to knowing more than I would have imagined, with a continuous pull to keep learning more. As a future teacher, I can use books, games, activities, and videos to teach my students about literacy at an earlier age in high school. I wish I would have learned what this was sooner, and I’m excited to be sharing this will all of my future students.

The questions I would still have about literacy would be, “Do you think with all the growing technology that children are advancing too quickly? Not just in the classroom, but out of the class as well.” With all of the newer technology I feel like children are becoming exposed to things that aren’t age appropriate, and I’m curious if that’s going to become a problem down the road, or if it’s just going to advance them that much faster, and understand the world sooner.

Anyways thank you, Kim Jaxon, for giving me this opprotunity to grow in my education, and for being one of the best professors that the English Department has to offer. I’ve learned so much this year, and I will credit it all to you.

Happy Holidays!

I’ve been reading the book “Just Girls”, and honestly, I have no idea how I really feel about it.

It starts out with young girls who are in 6th and 7th grade who are in two completely different social groups. One group, the “social queens”, are considered to be popular, group oriented, and are showing that they don’t really have a mind of their own. While on the other side of the spectrum, there are the “tough cookies”, the one’s who are preseved as unpopular, smart, responsible, and have varied opinions about subjects on their own. Regardless of the fact that these two groups are extremely different, they both share one thing in common; they want to be successful in their own means.

With the social queens, they were all centered around all things, well, social. It was constantly talking about who has the best outfit, which teen magazines you read, who you passed notes to in class, and who you liked and didn’t like in school. They also had a seeming lack of care for schooling, in which it was considered “uncool” to actually do your school work and be considered smart.

On the other hand, the tough cookies were all centered around school, reading classic novels, family, and responsibility. They had no real care for what people thought of them, and their interests revolved around their future that they had goals for. They did talk about friends, but it was said that some of them had lost touch with friends because being in different classrooms had seperated them. For this, friends weren’t as big of a priority for these girls.

In this book, I think it made me understand a bit about things that went on in my own life during middle school years, and made me understand why I pull from both the tough cookies and social queens in my own accord. I mean, regardless of what people might say about what they want to be in life, I feel like everyone wants to be liked, and yet, successfull. I believe that is true for many of us, because like the social queens and tough cookies, we too are “just girls.”

I interviewed my uncle so here’s a piece from the interview.

 

1. What stories did your parents tell you about their own efforts to learn to read and write?  What kinds of values did they place on reading and writing?

“They told me a lot of stories about them having to learn to read and write. They were born in the early 1920’s in New Mexico. My grandparents only spoke Spanish so my parents learned that as their first languages. They both said that when they started school, it was difficult on both of them because the curriculum was a lot different back then, and there weren’t specialized teachers at their schools to teach them to learn English. I would say that they placed greater value on reading and writing only because they both had a hard time in school. They made our first language English so that we could excel in school, but our parents still spoke Spanish to us just to make sure we didn’t lose that part of our culture.”

2. When you were growing up, how much school reading and school writing was done with computers?  What     kinds   of things did you do?  What values did your teachers place on computer literacy?

“I never even used a computer in school because this was the late 60’s to 70’s. You really should just write N/A in this whole section because I can’t tell you anything because I didn’t really use a computer until the late 80’s. Well, I can tell you my first encounter of a computer though. It was in middle school, and I remember walking into this room and seeing this massive machine that almost took up an entire room. All I really remember about it was that it had these punch-cards that you would see in old movies when people had to clock into work. It had a bunch of dots on them and I know it was used for some kind of programming, but it was so foreign to me that I can’t even tell you what it did because I didn’t understand it.”

 

Out of everything I read in Hamilton’s ethnography, the one thing that stood out to me the most was probably the most basic principle of all. She says “It is important to stress again, that literacy events are just the tip of the iceberg; literacy practices can only be inferred from observable evidence because they include invisible resources, such as knowledge and feelings; they embody social purposes and values; and they are part of a constantly changing context.” With this being said, I believe this is the most important part because it teaches you that everything you see, touch, hear, and feel means something to different people all over the world. As an example, Christians wear crosses on their bodies in many different ways, but to people who are not Christian, it is just a symbol that doesn’t have any value or meaning to them. It’s just another common sight.

The image of literacy that I chose to use was the wedding ring. I know, when people see a wedding pretty much everyone automatically things of being married because it has the title “wedding” right in the name. But often, that’s not the case at all.

Like I said before, when I see a wedding ring, I instantly assume it’s because he/she is married or about to be. Many times does it happen though that people wear wedding rings for other motives. A person might wear a ring because they just want to go to a bar without having to get hit on by some people, so they use the ring as an excuse to get out of having a conversation they don’t want to have. Or who knows, maybe it’s the opposite and people wear a fake wedding ring to give a false sob story to some person about being widowed to try to have someone feel bad for them and want to hookup with said fake widow. Whatever the reason for people wearing the wedding ring, my point is that even though people can observe your ring and believe that you are a married person, you can never fully be correct because they, among other things, have “invisible resources.”