Wow, I can’t believe this is the final blog post! This is the first class I have taken that involved posting stuff outside of BlackBoard Learn, and I must say that it was a lot more fun and interesting than I expected. Upon reading the prompt for this blog post, all I could think was “oh my goodness, what have I learned?” It’s one thing to learn, but a completely different thing to write about what you learned from class and how it applies to the real world. Well, here goes nothing…

Before taking this class I had never even thought about what literacy meant to me. Now I believe literacy is the ability to look at something (whether it be a symbol or picture of some sort) and interpret it. For example, reading this blog post is a form of literacy. You are taking symbols (aka letters) and interpreting them into words. However, literacy could also be demonstrated in looking at a picture (symbol), such as a road sign, and interpreting its meaning. These ideas towards literacy were mentioned in Hamilton’s “Expanding the New Literacy Studies” article. She mentions several different types of literacies that were discovered and investigated by herself and team. These included: Interactions between People and Written Texts, Literacy on the Body, and Reproductions of Documents. These discovered literacies stretched way beyond the typical “words on a paper” form of literacy. For example, literacy on the body can include tattoos. We may not think of a tattoo as a form of literacy, but upon further investigation, one may realize that some tattoos include writing or perhaps the image included in the tattoo carries connotative meanings. In either case, literacy reaches well beyond reading a book or writing an essay.

Another aspect of literacy we learned and focused on in class is how literacy changes throughout the generations. An example of this would be something as seemingly simple as handwriting. However, if you compare this generation’s handwriting with that of our grandparents you can see a remarkable difference. Another example of how literacy as changed is the style of our writing. I guess this would be considered to be diction in a sense. If one reads Old English, such as Beowulf, then read William Shakespeare they would notice a major difference in word choice and the style of writing. The subject of literacy with age is discussed in the article “Accumulating Literacy” by Deborah Brandt. Brandt makes several strong arguments about literacy, which include: the purpose of literacy changes over time, literacy continues to evolve, but the old ones are never lost, and there is a surplus of literacy in this generation, not a lack of it. Firstly, literacy and its purpose has changed over time. Literacy has evolved from a skill that only aristocrats mastered into an everyday skill needed to live life. Not to mention literacy has evolved from written symbols into printed ones and now digital ones. However, old literacies are never forgotten and are often adapted and reinvented by a new generation. For example, print is not as popular a form of literacy as it used to be, but our generation continues to embrace it by creating newspapers and magazines of their own, which also involves the use of digital literacies. Finally, Brandt points out that we do not have a problem of a lack of literacy, but rather a surplus of it. We have books, magazines, newspapers, online articles, texts, social media posts. Our generation does not suffer from a lack of literacy. We are booming with it!

This brings me to the next tidbit that we learned about in class, which is digital literacies. Digital literacies, from what I can understand, are all the literacies we use that come from digital technologies. This may include online books, text messages, blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, and many other forms. Some people believe digital literacy is not a form of literacy at all, but it is merely dumbing down our generation. However, I would have to disagree. Perhaps spending all your time online shopping isn’t a productive use of digital technology, but using digital technologies to our advantage can lead to a leap in literacy. For example, my cousin’s boyfriend isn’t labelled the brightest at school, but he will randomly use words often found on the SAT that neither my cousin nor I understand. It turns out that he visits on online dictionary website everyday to see “the word of the day”. Therefore he acquires a new vocabulary word daily, thus helping prove his literacy so to speak. If people were to open their minds to what literacy is, they would understand the benefits of digital literacies.

As I mentioned earlier, literacy is much more than words on a piece of paper. We learned this in class by working with our article groups. The entire class had the choice to join one of six article groups and create a hands on activity to share with the class within several weeks time. At first I was hesitant and frustrated at the thought of having to create an activity rather than a lecture. However, after diving into the articles, I began to understand the benefits of hands on literacy as well as how simple creating an activity can be. That being said, I was astonished by the variety of ideas that the groups came up with for their activities. All were fun and unique! It really inspired me to want to be more creative as a future teacher and take a more hands on approach, rather than lecturing.

Lastly, I would like to mention some of the hands on literacies I witnessed at Write On this year. I visited several tables and talked to students about their projects, why they chose them, and general questions about the subject itself. The first table I visited was a girl with a Prezi about Glam Rock. Firstly, I would like to point out that she chose to use a digital technology (Prezi) to present her project. Secondly, as I questioned her about why she chose Glam Rock as her subject, she explained to me that she had no idea what it was until this year. I couldn’t believe that she had no idea who David Bowie, Twisted Sister, or Motley Crue was, but it turns out she ended up appreciating Glam Rock after doing the free choice project. I found it interesting how a random project led to a new appreciation. Another few tables I visited were hands on activities. One was an identity poster where the visitors wrote down what they believed identity was and stuck it on a black outline of a person. A different table had all the Divergent characters and their attributes listed on a poster and the visitors would write what they believe would make a good job for them on a piece of corresponding colored paper and stuck it in a jar. I greatly enjoyed getting to be part of their project and it gave me a true sense of what Write On was about.

After this semester, I have learned many new techniques and ideas to bring into the classroom as a future teacher. One idea is to have students decide the topic of their project for themselves. By allowing a child the freedom to chose the topic, they will hopefully be more passionate about the project and I will get to see the amazing results. I also believe involving digital literacies/technologies in the classroom will be important when I go into teaching. This generation is strong with digital technologies, so why try to dampen that when they can embrace it? I will do my best to include material that is relevant to them. For example, if I know of a song or funny meme that pertains to the subject, I can include it into the lesson, or even have the kids create their own. That brings me to my next idea, which is more hands on literacies. I will be required to teach kids specific writing forms such as MLA, but why not include some fun, wacky, creative projects along with the “boring” essays. I know I am blurting out random ideas and it is all very unorganized, but one day I will turn them into real lesson plans. My goal is to build a classroom where learning and creativity go hand in hand.

Well, thanks for reading through this mess of a blog. I apologize for the randomness of it all, but I had a lot to say about literacy and couldn’t quite piece it together concisely. This has been a super awesome class and I have enjoyed learning about this crazy thing called literacy. I am looking forward to applying what I have learned in this class to my future.

P.S. The thumb nail picture is the Divergent project I mentioned at the Write On event

After two weeks of presentations from different literacy groups, this is what I have learned…

Let’s begin with the Fairy Tale group. I found it humorous how they read “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs”. I remember having the librarian read this book to us when I was in elementary school (I believe it was around first grade), so rehearing the story brought back childhood memories. As a child, I found the book disturbing and it only made me despise the wolf even more. I couldn’t help but sympathise the poor little pigs who were gobbled up by the wolf, As pathetic and strange as it sounds, I still hate the book. It doesn’t matter how you word the story because the wolf will always be the bad guy in my eyes. The activity of writing our own fairy tales was pretty funny and amusing as well. I was surprised by the variety of stories the groups came up with. My first instinct was to turn it into a dirty fairy tale, like the first Cinderella group did, however, we veered away from the idea because we believed fairy tales were solemnly for children. That being said, the thong Cinderella group reminded me of a video I watched called Tinderella, which plays on the story of Cinderella and the use of Tinder. It is slightly inappropriate (just a warning!)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLoRPielarA

Next was the Hip-Hop in Literacy group. I enjoyed how they presented rap as a poetic form, rather than a derogatory type of music. Writing rap and presenting it takes a tremendous amount of literacy skills and confidence. That being said, I apologize for not having a rap to present to the class. We started to write a joke rap, but then realized it wasn’t appropriate for class and didn’t pertain to what we were discussing/learning, so I chickened out in saying it aloud. Overall, the group truly proved that literacy comes in multiple forms and we, as future educators, should be open to these forms.

The first Adolescents and Literacy group did a great job in summing up several of the articles we read. I am also relieved/impressed that both groups came up with different activities for the class. They decided to have us build a Pinterest board, while we chose to make an online quiz. The Pinterest board was a neat way to see how people decided to represent themselves to others. Based on this activity alone, it is clear that we care about our social media accounts and how others perceive us based on them.

I loved that the Gaming in Literacy group gave the class multiple games to choose from because not everyone likes a particular game. The game I chose was Would You Rather (my first was Apples to Apples, but the table for that was filled, so I figured why not try out a new game). I thought it was going to be a simple, silly game, like the one we played in Junior High and High School. However, I was very wrong. The game required a lot of critical thinking and knowing how people would react/what they would choose. Not only that, but some of the challenges forced people to go out of their comfort zone. Overall, the game was pretty entertaining and we learned how games require the use of critical thinking, social, and a multitude of other skills useful for teaching literacy in a classroom.

I give the Make, Hack, Play group props. There is no way I could have pulled it off. The ideas were creative and the effort was tremendous. Bringing hands on activities like that into classrooms is a great idea, however, I do believe there should be an alternative option for students who might prefer other activities such as free reading or writing. Personally, I was never the kid who enjoyed building anything and I’m still not. Hell, I had someone else’s parent build my mousetrap car for me for a pre-physics class. That being said, I failed miserably in assembling the origami motor bug and was pretty frustrated. However, hand on activities are a great way to get students to become creative and think for themselves.

After participating in all the groups activities I was thoroughly impressed. Everyone came up with completely different ideas, all of which were amazing. If we can come up with all these ideas within a few weeks of class, imagine what we could do with a whole semester.

 

Hey everyone!

So I decided to join the Adolescent Identity and Literacy article group. I chose this group because I was in the Just Girls book club, which is the same subject, but on a narrower scale. As a group, we have decided to read the same article and watch the TED Talk as a group and divide the remainder of the articles and authors.

The article I volunteered to read was “What South Park Charater Are You” by Williams. Honestly, I was under the impression that this article would actually be about the show South Park, which I greatly enjoy. However, it dealt with convergence culture and how popular culture plays a role in our literacies (especially digital literacies). The article has a lot to say, but I won’t take up a whole page describing every detail. The overall message is since popular culture plays such a huge role in our convergence culture, we should incorporate it into the classroom in order to shape reading and writing practices. Many of the aspects talked about in the article, such as judging others based on their social media pages and the issues of juxtaposition, were very relatable to my digital literacy experiences. That being said, the examples in the article were out of date, so I made up examples of my own. For example, the article mentions how university students judged one another based on their MySpace profile song. No one uses MySpace now of days. Personally, I judge others based on their profile pictures and personal posts/tweets.

The TED Talk we watched as a group was by Ali Carr-Chellman and its subject was boys and our schooling system. She explained that boys have become out of sync with school for these three reasons:

1. zero tolerance (boys can’t write about violence/video games and are being told what to write, boys are continually suspended/expelled for petty violence/”weapons”)
2. fewer male teachers (there are no male role models that say it’s okay to be smart)
3. kindergarten is the new second grade (we expect too much out of kids, we expect them to read/write perfectly at a young age and if they don’t then they are labelled as underdeveloped)

Chellman’s solutions to these problems include looking at teacher’s attitudes towards “boy culture” and encouraging them to accept this culture (this would mean being more accepting to video games and sports), design better educational games (need depth/rich narrative games like that of video games, not flashcard games), encourage more male teachers to join the workforce, decompress curriculum (not cramming reading/writing expectations into short periods of time), and rewrite zero tolerance policies.

In regards to the Williams’ article, I believe any YouTube subscriber with a larger number of followers is a great example  of how new technologies have changed the relationship of audience members between one another and popular culture producers. At the end of many of these videos, the creator will encourage viewers/subscribers to post comments and suggest ideas for future videos. Two great example are Jenna Marbles and Epic Rap Battles of History. Both YouTube sensations encourage their viewers to help create future content. In return, it strengthens the relationship between the creators and the viewers as well as the relationship between fellow viewers. The videos may seem goofy, but I find them enjoyable and they are a terrific example of how new technologies have encouraged our convergence culture.

I forgot to mention there is explicit language in the videos! I apologize in advance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLU2tEz7KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GllzcaPXTeA

 

Close your eyes…Now try to imagine your years in Junior High. Were you the person with an overwhelming amount of friends? Or perhaps you were the kid who tried to avoid being noticed by hiding behind an oversized book. Whatever the case may be, junior high was a challenging time for all of us in some way. Some face the challenge of trying to make friends or fit in socially, while others struggled with their school work. All of these stereotypes and issues that occurred in junior high are addressed in the book Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High by Margaret Finders.

My group decided to divide the book up by chapters and discuss what we read in class the following day. Through this, we discovered how our lives in junior high both varied and were similar to the girls in this book. There are two main groups portrayed in the book: the Social Queens and the Tough Cookies. The social queens cared more about their social lives and the majority of their reading materials consisted of yearbooks, magazines, and note passing. The Tough Cookies on the other hand chose school over social life.

The chapter I read was about the Social Queens and their literacy practices. The three Social Queens mentioned in the book were Angie, Tiffany, and Lauren. They tended to use literacy in a variety of nontraditional ways. One way literacy was used in their day to day lives was as a social event. An example of this is demonstrated when the girls share/copy off one another’s homework. Not only were they getting their work done, but they this gave them the chance to spend time with peers. Another way they used literacy was to mark a special status (low grades were considered “cool” amongst the Social Queens, yet they had to be careful not to fail because this meant restriction from social events). Overall, the Social Queens valued group identity over individual identity, and viewed literacy as a means of maintaining their social status.

I believe this book helps demonstrate the many forms and purposes literacy takes, especially during the Junior High age. In Junior High we are taught the many more rules to writing, such as MLA format, and we also begin to learn how to unpack text and create passage analyses. For most of us, this isn’t fun, but it is necessary in order to pass and go on to high school. As a junior high student I never considered yearbooks or passing notes to be a form of literacy. Teachers always told us that type of stuff was distracting and often made us put it away during class time. Just Girls shines a light on how literacy is more than reading Edgar Allan Poe. The book also shows how social groups can impact your literacy. If you hang out with the kids who think almost flunking is “cool” then you’re more likely to not engage in the class readings. By uncovering and discussing these literacy discoveries, Finders helped readers better understand literacy and its social impact in Junior Highs.

 

P.S. The picture is of me and my best friend in 8th grade. Don’t judge!

Society tends to create a narrow view and over generalize many aspects of life. For example, the definition of beauty is narrowly defined, presented to the public as a whole, then people strive and struggle to obtain this view. Literacy also falls under society’s scrutiny. This societal judgement was discussed in the “Why Johnny Can Never Read” article. Each new generation is believed to be becoming more and more illiterate, however, I think that is untrue. New generations are not illiterate, but rather they are creating new forms of literacy that are unheard of to older generations. New forms of literacy should not be mistaken for illiteracy. Another aspect we must remember in determining literacy is an individual’s background. In Brandt’s article “Accumulating Literacy” we are shown how our background effects our literacy. We may speak differently or write in a distinct matter differently than others based on where/who we grew up with. This also plays a significant role in digital literacies. For example, I grew up in a small town and the most exposure we received to computers was a required computer skills class in middle school and high school, and on-off throughout elementary school. Overall, by the time I graduated high school, I knew the very basics of computers (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the Internet). However, other people grow up in more populated areas, like cities in Silicon Valley for example. This environment enables kids to get a hold of technology and learn much more than others might. I understand that literacy takes on many forms and continually changes throughout time, but there is one question I would like to ask. Do you think digital literacies have added to our identity or, perhaps, have they done the opposite? Digital literacy has created new outlets for expression, such as Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube. On the other hand, we have become so adjusted to communicating with others over a screen (texting, IM, blogs). Is it possible that these newest technologies in literature are desensitizing us? I am not attacking either stance, for I can see both the pros and cons. I was just curious what everyone else thinks.