The most interesting thing about each of these films that struck me was that the negative and positive side to both of these films in concerns with literacy and its effect on children, is that it can be boiled down to the exact same phrase. That while both films were displaying teachers and parents encouraging their children to broaden their literacy skills and the kids reciprocating that excitement, there was an overall tension that these practices are pushing kids to know things that may not have be necessarily  useful to them. The only major difference was what we saw was that in Hobart Shakespeare’s class, everyone looked pretty into, but I guarantee there probably have been kids in the past, or in the future that do not have an interest in doing this. However, parents potentially could make them because of the popularity and that many people believe that knowing Shakespeare is the height of sophistication in American society. I of course would love to have seen this class gone to it and participated, but that is because I have loved theatre my whole life and love Shakespeare. I have friends who hated it, but their parents probably would have made them do that anyway. On the flip side, Spellbound, was much more of a negative view overall at kids that study and work really hard to spell words right, an almost meaningless task now with everything being spelled out on a computer for us. What we saw were the kids working their asses off to go to that spelling bee and fail because they could not spell one word right, which is devastating. I think that pushing kids to pursue large goals like learning Shakespeare and spelling has benefits because it teaches hard work and persistence, however it can be just as damaging as rewarding.

We had a great discussion for our book Reading in a Participatory Culture: Remixing Moby-Dick in the English Classroom. I was assigned the last two chapters of the book and, needless to say, the discussion on Tuesday was incredibly helpful understanding what was going on in my section. Our discussion concentrated on the first half of the book and focused around many case studies. What I sort of concluded from listening and discussing all of the different case studies was that not having resources and technology is literally the LAMEST excuse for not getting kids excited about a book, engaged in a conversation, or just get them to understand what is going on the book, article, poem, whatever it be. A major problem that I had not even considered before was not only the generational gap of the book but the culture is dramatically different from those in books like Moby Dick. Getting students to taste, feel, see, experience the shipping yards is nothing but extremely helpful, because that is what the story is based upon.

It was also somewhat cool to think back to my high school and it rather dawned on me why my favorite teacher was my Junior and Senior year English teacher. Every year when we were reading the Great Gatsby, he got his students together and organized a huge party to mimic the one in the book (minus the loads of alcohol). We rented out this beautiful building and spent the day decorating it, then partied and danced to our schools jazz band in costumes and ate food and had a great time.  In fact, people got more into this party than prom or senior ball! We did this while reading the book so we had just finished a major party scene that school day before. This personally experience, as well as the case studies, proves to me that participation and engagement of the senses works really well on getting people intrigued and allowing a further understanding of whatever they are doing in class.

I am starting to reconsider teaching because of this class and book! What can I say, I like doing things. :)

 

From what I gathered from the conversation on Tuesday, this whole sweep of digital literacy, is first and foremost not going anywhere, and secondly, it is something that everyone is getting used to still, so it makes people uncomfortable and nervous about the future. Rightfully so, it is scary for anyone to make a big step, and the whole world making on together? That is scary but completely awesome at the same time. Sure, I have my preference for hard copy books, but I bought my book for the class on my iPad on the kindle app to try it out, because trying something new is important for everyone. The whole concept of sponsorship, involved with this big step (as Keri Franklin did when tweeting for the first time) is an incredibly broad concept to grasp hold of, especially in a transitioning age, as we all seem to think we are a part of. Still, because digital literacy and print-based literacy are a different medium, there are different standards. Formatting standards are different; changing the way people read it and interprets it. Visual representation is just as important at what the word order is. Nevertheless, I think that just because formatting and content may vary in size and structure, Franklin brought up the excellent four points that everyone should consider (or do subconsciously already) for regardless how/what you are writing: support for writers, reading widely, audience, and learning the language of the new programs .

My whole family has always supported my own literacy, though they never pushed me in any particular direction. I have always been very independent from my peers, but my older brother definitely got me reading Harry Potter and I would always look at lists of classical books and read those when I was little. Writing was something that no one in my family or me can take credit for doing; I just love writing a lot, always have, and always will.

 

For the Literacy assignment, I got a hold of my Grandma Mary Anne, who not is a huge inspiration to me and was the one who encouraged me more than anyone to go to college, but also happens to have the memory of an elephant and was born in 1929, putting her far beyond most people I know in age. In the interview, though very short, I learned not only a lot about her but some things came to light about my own experience growing up and being around her. This is something I definitely will do again.

 This is the last question I asked, I thought it was really interesting.

In the next ten years, what will reading and writing become? What skills and understandings about online literacy will people need to have? Why? A. Probably will be done electronically, I don’t think people will hold books anymore. The reason I say that is because a lot of my friends already have a kindle reading. It would be sad to me to not hold a book or read it. It’s the only disappointed thing really, it’s hard to go back to it.