Reading together

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

It has no end

It has no end

Almost everyone in class knows my claim of the first thing I learn but I feel it will be a story I tell when asked about this class, so let’s start this blog off with that C- story once again. The first day in class we were told to do was to write down what we considered literacy and I jotted down a wide, what I thought at the time, inclusive work that included: books, blogs, poems, online readings, magazines, and I believe comics. A wide, vague, body to work, but then it was brought to my attention about lyrics for songs and instantly my mind blew, nuclear. Music lyrics are such an important part of my daily life, oftentimes I sing to calm myself from a bad day, repeating my favorite lyrics whilst in a good mood, or curing disturbing silence with my awful voice. How could I forget such an important part of my life, an important literacy that I use everyday.

Looking through my blogs, I feel, is a good indicator of what I valued throughout the readings, such is the example of my second blog: Hamilton’s theory of Literacy, “Visible literacy events are just the tip of the iceberg: literacy practice can only be inferred from observing evidence because they include invisible resources.” Through every work of literacy we find we, as future teachers, scholars, and thinkers, must understand that there is the product, the purpose, and work behind it. We know the product, we can find the purpose, but the work behind it we may never know, an unknowable element in every piece of work. From works crafted by masters like Hamlet, to simple labors of love like fan fiction, the author behind it had hours, of thinking behind every line, attempting to craft the picture in their head on written word. Txt’s themselves, the rising language of us modern youths, has been considered a literal language with rules of its own, thus an underlining of deeper thoughts.

Keri Franklin’s piece, #PleaseHelp: Learning to write (again) on Twitter, Sponsor idea really spoke to me. I think out of all the ideas in all the works we read this one will stick with me the longest. Sponsors are all around us and in several forms, from actual people to ideas and concepts in other works. We can’t escape them and we shouldn’t try, instead we should embrace them. Learning from others, their ideas, breakthroughs, and failures, is how humanity managed to establish themselves as the apex predator. It had little to do with our physical feats, even our communal element isn’t uniquely ours. Through adapting and building off our society will improve, just as our literacy will improve.

Our group projects taught me that group work doesn’t have to be awful, it can even be fun. First off, picking a category is probably the best way of selecting groups, you already know you at least have one thing in common. The problem with picking your own teams is that it creates tension among friends, not everyone is comfortable to tell their friends how they truly feel. Not to mention it forms bonds with strangers that can lead to its own friendships. To be honest, if I had my way I would have little-to-no human contact, and that’s no way to live, not us social creatures. Also the project sharing element allowed us to build on every individuals strength, especially for the gaming group were everyone had a specific job, that breaks the project down to its bare essentials. This teaches us how to tackle problems, using others strengths to replace our weaknesses while contributing our own strengths into the fold. Together we made a better project than alone and I think that’s what I usually hate about projects, others hide under the strength of one, giving no input. This doesn’t inherently mean they are lazy or have no ideas, it can mean that each group is dominated by a powerful personality and the more introverted and less confrontational of us simply go with the flow. Don’t get me wrong, at times I’m sure I am the aggressive personality, but this allows more opportunity for others to include their own ideas.

How about the blog? Well I’m doing a blog right now! I feel my best blogs are done with as little amount of guidelines as possible, but others felt the exact opposite and that’s okay… they can be wrong if they want to they can leave their friends behind. I do understand some of it, at times it felt tedious, and I feel those blogs show in my blogging history, but in all it is a wonderful experience and ties to the core concept of our readings. Technology should be included in our education, learning to use digital resources is important and will only increase its importance in the future. Through blogging I felt a side of my writing that combined a side of my personality in it. Is this the best for critical analysis? It isn’t the worst. It’s said that the person who actually understands something is the one who can explain it to others, a simple idea but true. It is more important that you actually apply your knowledge to you than learning it, unused knowledge is stored and eventually forgotten. So to those who find it tedious, perhaps it isn’t the best form of getting their ideas out there but to me it felt like a golden opportunity to expand my creative voice, a step into new progress.

The major thing I learned in this class is the very thing I learned on day one, not to say that was the only class that mattered. Literacy is beyond categories, a list, or a definition. Literacy is ever-changing, ever-adapting, and ever-present in our lives and to understand it isn’t a simple list but an endless pursuit. Be forewarned, this is an endless rabbit hole you tread but in the end, isn’t that the best thing to hear, literacy has no end. The pursuit is ongoing and forever important. Yes, it is an endless rabbit hole you tread but better to stride endlessly than wait aimlessly.

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