I chose this topic for article group for the same reason that hip-hop is being implemented into the classroom; it’s different and more interesting than your typical studies. Most people enjoy music and the hip-hop genre so why can’t it be used in school to teach literary devices to an audience who might be more inclined to learn the material? Most older generations feel that hip-hop has a bad name and teaches students about violence, swearing, and how to degrade women. This is true for some songs, and actually more true of the ‘rap’ genre which is commonly mixed and intertwined with the hip-hop culture.

Our article group discussed the differences between mainstream rap/hip-hop and ‘underground’ or ‘intellectual’ hip-hop and how different they can be. Most mainstream music does contain all the of the negative stereotypes that rap is associated with which is why 90’s hip-hop and more underground music not produced by major labels are better categories to gain your classroom materials from. Here, rap was more about the lyricism and messages that the artist could convert about his/her experiences with culture and society. There were some really cool ways in which to integrate rap into the classroom that we read about in our articles. Students can compare and contrast certain songs with classical lit poems and find literacy devices which both utilize. I think using hip-hop is a great way to get students more involved in their work, but I also don’t think that we need to limit the examples to specifically hip-hop. All genres of music can be used to teach in the classroom, and we thought that teachers should tell their students to bring in their own lyrics from ant genre to analyze. This gets rid of any stereotyping that people may feel especially in inner city schools, where students may be offended by the assumptions that they all listen to hip-hop music. I think music is general should be applied in the classroom not just hip-hop.

In Words at Work and Play Shirely Brice Heath follows three generations of families, and delves into their literacy practices. This book helps the reader understand literacy practices through its real life examples of the changing scope of literacy in our society. The first chapter opens up describing life before the 1980’s in the rural South and how families taught their children the things they believed to be most important. They would encourage the girls to learn the names of kitchen utensils when they were toddlers in order to ensure their roles in the family. I thought it was interesting that when the community started to grow and subdivisions popped up; the government began to mandate certain education guidelines in schools. The families who had always taught their own children didn’t believe that the school would give them the proper education that they needed in order to work for the family. They would rather homeschool them instead.

The book describes the family’s roles in society and how their literacy propels them or hinders them. Another interesting point we discussed in groups was the fact that the inner city kids only spoke in present tense. During their linguistic research hours with Heath, she asked them what they thought about the fact that they only talked about the immediate future; at first the kids didn’t really understand but then they realized that due to their socioeconomic status they weren’t sure about their future; they were stuck living in the NOW. It is interesting to look at the language we use a precursor to our futures, how we talk and communicate with each other (even though we may not blatantly say it) relays a message of how we see our selves and our lives.

Heath explains through extremely different lenses how we are all connected to literacy and how we all have had sponsors and will continue to gain them in our lives. The book not only went into detail about children learning literacy but adults as well; there is always room to become more literate, you just have to push yourself and be your own sponsor.

Okay this reading was excruciating. Almost everything confused me but I actually somewhat figured out and understood Street’s ideas of literacy events and literacy practices after looking them up on Google. At first we were trying to find out what the difference was between them, and that was super confusing because then I found out they are somewhat inclusive of each other. I stole this from a website: “Literacy events serve as concrete evidence of literacy practices. “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (p. 93). Any activity in which literacy has a role is a literacy event.” So basically a literacy practice would be how we use literacy everyday; reading a traffic sign, writing and email, etc. Then: “Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe literacy practices as “the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy” (p. 8). Literacy practices involve values, attitudes, feelings, and social relationships. They have to do with how people in a particular culture construct literacy, how they talk about literacy and make sense of it.”

They are individual and social practices that create a social literacy sphere. Literacy practices create our values and rules about literacy, which then shape our social attitude of literacy and how we each feel it should be used in society or what our society’s level of literacy should be.  Yeah, it’s still really confusing.

 

This is where I got my info http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/rush/literacyevents.html

“Contemporary literacy learners-across positions of age, gender, race, class, and language heritage- find themselves having to piece together reading and writing experience from more and more spheres, creating new and hybrid forms of literacy where once there might have been fewer and more circumscribed forms.”

It’s interesting to think about literacy building up on itself and creating new forms. In my family I think about building up literacy in the ways that I teach my parents how to use their Iphones and computers. Both my parents who are college graduates obviously are very literate but have a hard time grasping technology literacies. It is the same for my Nana who recently got her first computer. She’s very smart and loves to read, but this different type of literacy is extremely hard for her to learn. Having never used a technology like that, I could understand how difficult it would be. I think it’s different for our generation though; we are able to learn and adapt so easily it’s kind of insane. I feel like I adapt to computer programs and social media sites at least once every semester, and it’s not a problem. I actually just switched over from a PC to a Mac, which is like a whole different language.

As we grow up, we learned older types of literacies and then began to pile newer forms on top of the older ones, so we’re constantly been adapting due the technological advances that have happened in our lifetimes. My relatives learned the older literacies, can’t really grasp the same technological literacies as easily. It’s painful to watch my Mom try to type things on her phone or the computer. Whereas we learned the QWERTY keyboard in computer classes in elementary school, our parents did not. I also think that AIM made my typing skills a lot better than they were—another mode of literacy that my parents did not partake in. Each of these technologies were accessible because my school provided them, but my parents would have to actually sign up for a computer skills class, something they are encouraging my Nana to do right now.

I’m also taking a Shakespeare class this semester, and reading his plays takes me so much longer than it should. It is definitely hard to mix old and new literacies but I think that skill is going to be a big part of future literacy. Being able to adapt quickly as well as blend different types of literacies together will be crucial.

 

 

 

According to Scribner, “literacy is an outcome of cultural transmission”. She states that literacy is acquired through socially organized activities and practices. We learn to read and write through interaction with adults and our peers—or our literacy sponsors. They encourage and motivate us by being role models and supporters. Literacy is maintained through social relationships, but we are also taught literacy by participating in society. When you look at literacy in social terms it takes our nation’s reading and writing skills as a whole and groups people with different backgrounds together. Although this makes it hard to come to a conclusion about what literacy means, I think looking at it socially is the only way we can make any progress.

Learning to read and write on your own is possible, but without the social constructs telling you that you need to be literate you would probably not have a desire to do so. Just as Kim said in class, kids won’t read unless they see their parents reading. We need the example of others to motivate us to learn to read and write. Literacy as an individual, I believe, comes after you learn literacy in society. You have to learn to read and write before you can acquire your own personal literacy: your voice, your favorite genre, your academic tone, your style, and what you choose to do with your literacy. These are all things that you are more likely to cultivate on your own, but the basics we leave up to society to teach.

Since we have become a technologically advanced society there are multitudes of new literacy pathways that have become apparent. As our culture shifts and changes—so does the scope of our literacy. Perhaps it was your Grandma that taught you how to read, but now you’re teaching her how to use a computer and what a hash tag is. The definition of literacy is a social one because it is tied so closely to societal communication and our changing culture.

My literacy has definitely changed and adapted since I first began to read and write, mostly due to computers and cell phones. I remember needing/wanting to know certain HTML codes on Myspace in order to write in bold or italic fonts, or even just how to make a heart emoji. I also remember not knowing the difference between SMS and MMS messaging; I still don’t think I do. Certain authors and characters then personally influenced my literacy; The Catcher and the Rye was the first book that I really loved, and from there I wanted to read more. I developed a professional style of writing as I went through school, and have a different style that I write creatively or on social websites with. Basically my idea of literacy is that it is a social concept, and that only after we learn it through others may be deepen our personal literacy.