I like how this essay begins with an intro about Michael May and how he was introduced to literacy at just the age of two. He took advantage of his resources such as the holiday cards, the magnetic chart, the typewriter, the computer and his parents and grandparents that could help teach him. Brandt even says that they weren’t a very privileged family. They didn’t have access to an advanced education, they had access to a twelve week program considered to be school. Even with these disadvantages Michael May became very successful in academics and this was simply because he used every resource.

Last semester I took English 278 based on writers from early American Literature. People like Christopher Columbus, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Edgar Allen Poe. These are all writers from centuries ago and they are all considered to be brilliant scholars. We talked a lot about how they scavenged to become this way and it was mainly because they taught themselves. We’ve been talking about in class how public versus private schools create an advantage or disadvantage, which to an extent can be true, but in reality anyone is capable of learning if they dedicate their time to it.

Brandt also discusses how literacy is developing in two directions, vertically and horizontally. Meaning that in formal schooling the levels of literacy are becoming more difficult and also that from our past, their literacy practice and materials are being introduced to our modern day literacy. Horizontally, literacy is expanding in several different elements such as reorganizing an array of economic, legal, political and domestic activities (5). This goes back to our idea of public versus private literacy. One of Brandt’s lines that really stood out to be is when she says, “Transformation models reveal how older and newer incarnations of literacy may be operating simultaneously at any historical moment, usually-but not always- in a complementary relationship” (7). I perceived this line as meaning that literacy is always transforming. We have been discussing how literacy is so hard to define that we have almost agreed that it cannot be defined, but after reading this argue I think that literacy’s best description and/or definition is that it is transforming. There is no way of knowing or teaching a specific way of how to be “literate” for it is always changing, but if a two-year-old can become a genius, so can anyone!

 

We have all been trying to define what literacy is and I think the only way that is possible is to look it as “literacy as social”. Svwed, Scribner, Williams, and Franklin have all proved that literacy is known to be different in every social manner. Svwed gives the example of reading street signs as a surviving part of literacy. Scribner tries to divide literacy into three different genres and Williams describes the anxiety that comes along with the understanding of being literate. I enjoyed reading Keri Franklin’s article most. I think it addresses a bigger issue. She describes how she feels nervous of practicing the writing techniques of Twitter and that is absurd to me because personally that isn’t something I would be nervous about, but it is the same situation as being nervous for a job interview. This is what all these authors are trying to address is that literacy has a variety of positions. Franklin says herself that when she would write on Twitter her main goal was to appeal to her audience and get them to tweet back. I know that even myself, whether I am on Facebook or Instagram, whatever I am posting I hope my audience will find it appealing to them and that I hope to get so many “likes” or “comments” on it. This is just the same as writing a professional resume. People hope their reviewer will be impressed by it. When a person is in a job interview they respond in a polite, professional way as opposed to how they talk to their friend. Literacy is social because it is established as a way of appealing to what is being presented to. In our community this is how we advance our literacy. Whereas in the case study of the Vai, those people keep a private diary/journal and they write letters frequently. This is for their personal benefit and their personal advancement in literacy. Someone might argue that Facebook is our modern day diary alike to the Vai’s, but on Facebook we don’t practice our grammar. Our posts are not judged on that and they are accepted if they are grammatically incorrect.
Most of all literacy is social because it is always changing, always advancing or being abbreviated, or exploring new ways social interaction. Literacy is social and I think that is its best definition.

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.