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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

Blog 1: Natalie

Blog 1: Natalie

Well like everyone else I am just a CSU Chico student living the dream. My name is Natalie Benthin and I am a Sophomore. I am from a small town called Grass Valley and yes it is fine to assume I’m on the hippy side. I am a server at Red Lobster so come on to see me and our fresh biscuits any time!

Enough with the small talk. I am an English Education major and my ultimate dream is to be a High School English teacher. Reading can be a struggle for me so writing is where my passion lies. I enjoy reading fiction or non-fiction short stories as well as I love to write them. Creative Writing English 220 has been my favorite English class so far here in Chico.

As far as Szwed’s article goes I think we all have a broad idea of what we assume literacy means. If you are able to read and write clearly then we assume a person is literate. Szwed’s example of the street signs is a fine example of this. What I found most interesting about his article is when he says, “one might hypothesize the existence of literacy-cycles” (423). This is something I haven’t put much thought into until now. Literacy is always changing especially with the use of technology. In our groups we discussed how people can change the way they are talking to someone in terms of the person they are presenting themselves to. Examples we discussed were how you would address your professor, your mother, someone during an interview, a first date, your brother, or even Facebook. I am sure everyone can admit to speaking in different terms in front of each of these people. The way we approach them is also expected. People are expected to talk professionally and respectfully to people of authority or of the elderly than you would speak to someone of your age or less professional or personal. As a society we accept this, but going back to Szwed’s term “literacy-cycles”, this could be something that changes.

The day after we read this article I was sitting in another one of my English classes and my professor asked for two volunteers to read a short script from Romeo and Juliet and everyone was hesitant to read aloud because when you think Romeo and Juliet you instinctively think of Shakespeare which can be very challenging to read. Finally two people volunteered to quickly find that he picked a different dialogue that consisted of Romeo asking: Juliet u there….. Juliet: Ya what r u up 2The entire class found this humorous, but the point our professor was trying to make was that English is always changing and these abbreviations may seem silly now, but they may actually become a part of our defined writing which is exactly what Szwed is trying to address.

One Reply to “Blog 1: Natalie”

  1. Natalie, thanks for this thoughtful post. I really liked this: “Literacy is always changing especially with the use of technology.” Great example from your Shakespeare class…

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