Reading together

Perusall logoWe’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together.

Instructions for joining on the Assignments page.

 

Calendar

 

Time photoOur course invites you to work with data collection and analysis, readings, and discussion around the field of literacy studies

reading is pulling teeth.

reading is pulling teeth.

My name is Mike Mulholland and I have a reading problem. When i was in the first grade the student assistant teacher had us in small groups and asked me to read out loud. I was doing great navagating my way through the sounds of words coming out of my mouth and into my ears and my eyes moving along the lines of letters; until i came to the word canoe. I said out loud “ka know.” I kept on going til i heard the teacher say stop. What was that word again. I struggled, sounding it out and said again. “ka know.” All eyes were on me, especially the eyes of my other. The conscious self peeping from outside me. I was frightened, embarrassed and in trouble. The teacher told me never to keep reading if you don’t know how to pronounce the word. Well, being a Pisces, the youngest child and aware of myself as object to myself, i never forgot that day and thus realized from a very young age that i must have a reading problem.

There were other troubles in my youth when it came to reading and won’t share the family issue but it is sad i felt this way. Ever since then i didn’t think i was a good reader and still today i have problems with reading and retention. Especially when people like Swede use unnecessary vocabulary to get their point across;  …everyone agrees to be a necessity of modernity. Beyond this uncomfortable sentence i can still find worth to the topic. Even though i had to read it three times I find the topic of literacy important.  When swede states that we don’t fully know what literacy is…i stopped and sounded out the proclamation. I even went to my dictionary to see if it was “stunning” that we don’t know what literacy is. I was stunned to find that swede is wrong. I think we all know what it is. It is one’s ability to read and write. In  the next sentence swede does state a fundamental problem; what is reading and writing for? What is literacy and it’s place in today’s society? How do the effects of literacy or illiteracy effect how people move in and out of society? a purality of literacies.

I find reading swede’s essay to be like pulling teeth. Manufacturing an argument about literacy stating that even non-educated people speak of what is literacy? They must be a fun group to hang out with. Even so i metaphorically hit the button for happy gas and trudge forward. Swede speaks of the five elements of literacy; text, context, function, participants and motivation. I will write of the one that speaks to me and this would be motivation. I can’t do anything in life unless i am motivated to do it. Getting out of bed requires a tremendous amount of motivation. Without there being an end goal i would never get out of bed. If it weren’t for the idea of coffee i would still be there.  So when it comes to reading if there is nothing to be gained for my brain then it is hard to retain what the topic and purpose is. Perhaps there should be six elements and the last being purpose. The reading I have to do for my History of the English Language is pulling teeth. There are dates and linguist names i can’t remember or ever retain and i have to re-read the sentence because my mind wonders off to la la land. I get to the end of the page and wonder what the hell did i just read. The motivation is there, there is a purpose but the context is lost because the text is dry bread with no butter.

2 Replies to “reading is pulling teeth.”

  1. God. There are better ways to help someone. If you’re an English Ed major, you’d make a great teacher just knowing that, knowing how kids can struggle, being able to relate with them.

    Anyway, your story reminded me of a day in kindergarten I had. My teacher asked the other kids how many sides the square had, the triangle, the rectangle. Then it was my turn: “How many sides does this circle have?” It didn’t look like it had any sides, but she asked so I figured maybe it did. I made a guess. It was horribly embarrassing. It’s been 25 years and I still remember that day vividly. Related to literacy, I was reading her and totally messed up.

    So yeah. Purpose is important, making it interesting is important. I think what Szwed was also saying about literacy is that schools/people don’t consider what kids want and like and treat them like–gasp–people. That helps a ton.

  2. Love the narrative in this post Mike. And you tell a common tale of woe, as Lisa highlights in her response. The day when someone says “you’re not doing it right” is the day many of us stopped doing that thing.

    I’m struck by this point in your post: “I think we all know what it [literacy] is. It is one’s ability to read and write.” I guess I would ask: read and write what? when? For what purpose? Not sure I can say that I know how to read and write. period. depends…

Comments are closed.