So I was watching my newest not-so-guilty pleasure The Carrie Diaries last night and got so excited (not going to lie) when Carrie mentioned she was taking a computer literacy course. The scene is pretty relevant to some of the themes we’ve been discussing in class.

This show is set in the 80’s and Carrie is lying about her age so she can intern at a law firm and a magazine company. The guy she helps is complaining about how computers are just a fad that will eventually die out.

You may have to sit through some ads but it starts at 1:55

http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/the-carrie-diaries/hush-hush/?play=b8c55fab-4fed-4a97-ab5b-48c833e0f8eb

Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High written by Margaret J. Finders follows the 7th and 8th grade years of two different groups of adolescent girls, the “Social Queens” and the “Tough Cookies.” The “Social Queens” were known as the popular girls, they were from somewhat affluent families, read ‘zines,’ participated in many school activities with the support of their parents, and were well known throughout the school. The “Tough Cookies,” or “Trailer Park Kids,” emphasized the importance of good grades and family over being social in an educational setting, read novels instead of magazines, and came from poorer families. I related to the stories of these girls on many different levels, their stories reminded me of that awkward stage we all have gone through in middle school. Finders works her way into the girls’ lives and gains their trust, and in return we get an awesome look at all the literacies that these girls use during their time in Junior High, from writing in each others’ yearbooks to passing notes between classes.

I found all the different forms of literacies in this novel so interesting. During Junior High or even before taking this class, I never would have thought writing three page long notes to my best friend during class would be considered a literate practice. One particular incident that stood out to me in the book was the time at the end of the year where the students are signing each others’ yearbooks.  For the Social Queens, this was an exciting time of the year. The Tough Cookies, however, didn’t even purchase yearbooks, nevertheless worry about spending class time writing in someone’s yearbook. One of the many aspects of the practices of literacy in the yearbooks is the way in which certain students set the standard for what and how one was supposed to write in another’s yearbook.

Students with the greatest status were freed from judgement, and their written comments become models for others to copy. As I watched, one student carefully moved her finger across the page, working cautiously to transfer a phrase exactly from one yearbook to another. Because a particular phase was perceived as carrying more current in this arena, this teen appropriated the words of another student as her own in order for her own voice to contain that power. Students shared texts and at times took another person’s message for their own, copying the same phrase from one person’s yearbook to the next (44).

I remember this feeling when writing in another person’s yearbook. I never wanted to say something that seemed like I cared too much, but also didn’t want to come off as rude. So I would read other peoples’ entries into others’ yearbooks and try to emulate the same tone as everyone else. It’s so interesting how in Junior High the goal seems to be to blend in instead of standing out.

From Street’s article “What’s New in New Literacies” I found the idea of “literacy events” interesting to consider when evaluating pedagogy practices, I considered the rise of social media and the way that the internet connects the world as a sort of literacy event today. Street quotes Shirley Brice Heath stating that a “literacy event” is “an occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of the participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (78). After some research on the internet about the invention of the printing press, I figured that this was an integral literacy event in the way that it allowed the spreading of information to the public, making information more accessible to different walks of life. The rise and spread of social media, including blogging websites, Twitter, and Facebook allows people to get their ideas of there. This has immensely changed our lives and the way we connect with people. Social media is definitely a literacy event and can be used in the classroom by allowing organized collaborations with students, through websites like Google Docs and Blogster. I would definitely consider social media as a “literacy event,” as discussed in the Street article because it has changed the ways in which the world has the ability to communicate with one another as well.

After watching Wesch’s video (twice, I might add) I felt infinitely confused, wondering about all the potential possibilities that technology, or the internet specifically, can, has, and will affect us. To focus my thinking, I started hypothesizing about all the ways technological affects literacies and how this will affect my future as a a teacher. How will I master keeping my students focused and interested through utilizing all these new literacies?

The Wesch video showed the different media on the internet that ventures further than just text. We can incorporate images and videos as well as prose to express ourselves. In today’s modern classrooms, I think utilizing all these new wonderful ways of expression will positively benefit our students because it allows creativity, incorporates new and exciting media, and gives students exposure to up and coming technology which will continue to be useful throughout their lives, including their careers. Classroom environments will be able to utilize this technology to allow more collaboration between the students. However, the economy continues to be an issue because not all school districts can afford to keep up with the ever changing technology. So the more affluent schools, most likely private schools with students from wealthy backgrounds, will be able to engage with these kinds of literacy practices.

The world can now contribute to new literacies through the internet. If properly taken advantage of in a school setting, students can have access to more information and allow time in the classroom to take on collaborative projects with other students where they can enhance reading and writing through working on blogs, like how this classroom is run. This is a very optimistic view for what technology can do for us, since technology has proved to be such a distraction from schooling pursuits.

In Brandt’s writings, I have found the idea of sponsorship something I had never really delved into and thought about when it comes to studying and thinking about literacy. In class, I found the discussion of all the students’ different “sponsors” so fascinating, whether the sponsor helped or harmed their literacy practices, or did both.

“..sponsors nevertheless enter a reciprocal relationship with those they underwrite. They lend their resources or credibility to the sponsored but also stand to gain benefits from their success, whether by direct repayment or, indirectly, by credit of association” (167). Brandt describing the relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored being “reciprocal” is very interesting to me. Specifically, I wonder about the reciprocal relationship between a parent, or grandparent, buying their children books or reading to their children and wonder how that may benefit the sponsor in the long run.

Obviously parents want their children to be intelligent, but for what reasons? So they can make money in the long run from a professional career, engage in conversations at the dinner table, maybe parents even want their children to be intelligent so they can brag to their friends about the novels their child is reading and the grades they’re earning. Parents read to their children and buy them books so they can expand their literacy, and in return parents receive the notion that this will benefit their child and themselves in the long run.

My parents and grandparents have played a large part in my literacy skills and my overall love of reading. Luckily I had as much access and the freedom to read anything I wanted to as I was growing up and even today. My brother, who also has had the same resources as I did growing up, doesn’t share the same love of reading as I do, which is also something interesting to think about. Why do I make reading literature such a large part of my life and he doesn’t? In the end I think it really does just depend on the person and their interests.

My family and I mostly engage in reading practices instead of writing practices. We read news articles online, blog posts, and sometimes share books. We often discuss articles we’ve read together. My dad and I both read The Hunger Games series a couple years ago and engaged in a lot of conversation about the books. My mom enjoys blogging, so she engages in writing here and there. When I started taking literature courses in college, I found that I was engaging in a lot of conversation with my grandparents about novels we’d read because I was starting to read things that they enjoyed and had been reading for many, many years.

In terms of sponsors and sponsorship, I definitely have my parents and grandparents to thank for my love and appreciation of reading. As for the reciprocal relationships I brought up earlier, I am not quite sure what this has done to benefit them in the long run, besides my pursuing a degree in English  Education so that I can eventually become an English teacher.

 

I think that the “social view of literacy” we have been discussing these last couple weeks refers to the various ways in which literacy is defined according to a persons culture, priorities, and access to information. Individuals may find themselves literate in many different pursuits. For example, in Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy,” she discusses two women’s successes and literacies in clerical work. At the time, women weren’t given opportunities to excel in different careers and forms of education. These women took on a career that was more socially acceptable for women to have, and became very successful in that particular profession. Economics inspires people to become more literate in specific genres. Most people’s goals in receiving an education is the desire to enter a profession. Literacies in things like writing for law firms, programming computers, or performing open heart surgery are things that are all incredibly important for specific professions. Literacies vary according to what a person’s profession calls for and this does not mean that being literate in one thing instead of another makes one illiterate.

When I first heard the idea of “literacy as social,” the most basic form of literacy came to mind. The idea of just knowing words, as well as the ability to form sentences to communicate with others. This reminded me of a discussion I had had in my American Literature class. We were discussing The Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass, and I remember my professor reiterating the idea that when Frederick Douglass, a slave, tricked the white children into teaching him how to read and write he was better able to articulate his situation and this eventually led. Learning to read and write was a defining moment for a slave. The white slaveowners prevented their slaves from learning to read and write, to keep them vulnerable. Learning the word “slavery” became a defining moment for Frederick Douglas because he became fully conscious of the horrible conditions of being a slave.

Ever since I was very young I have done a lot of reading outside of school. I can definitely attribute this to the sponsors of literacy I have had in my life. Most importantly I have always had access to books, my parents supported my reading by purchasing books for me to read. They never really censored my reading and let me read whatever I wanted. My house was always quiet enough for me to read and I had the time to do so. My grandparents are huge literature buffs, and as I got older they inspired me to read classics and dabble outside of the young adult genre (which I still read a lot of novels from.)