I’m not sure what I thought this class was going to be about when I signed up last fall, but I definitely didn’t think it would involve re-enacting my middle school years and building tiny robots.

My perceptions of literacy have been entirely altered, although I’m really not sure what I thought literacy was to begin with. I guess I thought it was just being able to read and write.

Now my mind has been broadened and I understand literacy so much better. I feel literacy literate, or at least on my way there.

Literacy seems to somehow encompass anything anyone knows how to do… It has become sort of overwhelming, but I think I’m getting somewhere now.

Looking back on the year I can almost see my understanding changing. The part that really got me and has stuck with me is the reading we did about literacy sponsors. I have a great interest in diversity and equality, but somehow this was not something I had truly thought about. Its easy to see that different groups may have less reading or writing skills due to circumstances, but after thinking about all of the things that are “literacy” that aren’t just picking up a book, its obvious that it is so much more. Everyone is constantly being molded and influenced by their surroundings, families, school, media, and anything they come in contact with or even what they DON’T have contact with! I really enjoyed thinking about the different literacies one might have and how their sponsors affect them.

Of course I also enjoyed reliving my own sponsors from middle school while reading Just Girls. I was absolutely influenced by the books that I chose to read. I was friends with one of the more popular girls simply because we shared an unhealthy love for the Twilight series. I had intense flashbacks to the stress of yearbook signing. I was inspired to talk to my sister who is just finishing the 8^th grade and in the same way that I was influenced by the books I read, she is influenced by her friends who apparently think “reading is for nerds”. (So I guess she’ll just keep reading my books in her room and not at school).

In the end, I think the part of this class that has broadened my view of literacy the most is working in the make hack play group. How we ended up teaching people how to make robot fingers for an English project and for any sort of grade is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Maker culture is definitely the most interesting concept I encountered. I love the idea of teaching by making, and learning by doing. However ridiculous we looked with straws on our hands, I have to think that I am now more literate in… something. Yeah there’s definitely something there…

First off, being able to find a project we wanted to tackle, and trying to build it ourselves was challenging enough. Then, to teach those things to others with hands on activities was a whole other experience. I have never had more fun or felt more accomplished in the library than when Anna and I successfully made our Gami-bots, (and did it without scissors).

Here at the end of the semester I feel that I have learned so much, yet have so much more to learn as well. I definitely have a more exciting and colorful view of literacy than when I stepped into class in January.

This book reminded us all just how wonderful Junior High really was… not.

(Not jokes were in back then, right?)

Just Girls brought us back to our totally embarrassing years of middle school. This book was actually so relatable that it was nearly impossible for our group to stay on topic. The note passing, the yearbooks and the signing that ensues, the particular groups of girls, lunch hour… All of us had some, seemingly major, ties to all of these staple middle school moments.

In this book, by Margaret J. Finders, she brings us back by following two opposite groups of middle school girls. She is able to give meaning to all of the weird things we did and said before we had even thought about literacy.

When I was in middle school I was not thinking about how the books I read in and out of school were contributing to my own literacy. When I passed notes and signed everyone’s yearbook upside down I wasn’t thinking about what that said about me or my group of friends. Its just what we did. But looking back now, it is so obvious. The way girls choose what to read/ not to read, who they pass notes to, who they let sign their yearbooks- it is all a part of a literacy. The messed up totally crazy literacy of middle school girls.

 

I think that reading this book has given me the firmest grasp on what literacy sponsors are. And how something could be a negative sponsor as well. When a middle schooler is unable to afford afterschool activities that get them pictures in a yearbook, or to afford a yearbook itself, it certainly sets them apart.

To be entirely honest, I hadn’t done much thinking about literacy before the beginning of this class. If someone had asked me what literacy was I probably would have thought simply someone’s ability to read.

I did grow up in a house where reading was emphasized. I was the little girl carrying around a favorite book instead of dolls. My mom is a book lover and I fulfilled her dreams of passing on her favorite books to her daughters (my sisters are a whole ‘nother story). I read so much that I had read all of the books my 4^th grade teacher had in our class SSR library so I was allowed to bring my own. I have been very privileged in my literacy sponsors for reading.

That’s what I thought literacy was. Literacy was taking the Lexile quiz in middle school and having the only book within my range being “War and Peace” and a strange calculus textbook.

NOW I think I have a much better grasp on what literacy is… but also so much to learn because each day an old idea is torn down and something else built on top. Most importantly, I think, is that I’m aware of my own literacies and that not everyone had the same sponsors as I have had.

That’s the most interesting thing I’ve learned from this class so far: the idea of literacy sponsors. I have had extensive diversity training in my time here at Chico State, and I’ve been taught to think as inclusively as possible, but I had never thought of literacy as much more than either being able to read, or not.

I hadn’t thought about the impact others would have had on someone’s reading habits. Now, reading Just Girls, I am indeed reliving my middle school years, and noticing that there were so many different sponsors and influences on what/if someone read.

I thought I knew what literacy was, now I’m unsure of what literacy isn’t… but I feel great about that!

What I’m saying is, I now know I have a lot to learn, but I am excited for everything I thought I knew to be wrong. 

I found Franklin’s post to be extremely relatable. I know I’m part of the generation that is supposed to know how to use every single technology about 5 seconds after it’s released, but I am yet to have figured out how to use or navigate twitter.

I made my twitter around 2007, when it was still relatively new. I only made it because my more tech savvy friend had heard about it and wanted a friend to have it too. The few hours after creating it, my friend and I “tweeted” back and forth to each other, using it as if it were an instant messenger. We were each others only followers and I didn’t log back on for over a year.

Now, I have tried to use twitter at least once a year and each time I fail. I’ll post something along the lines of “here I go again”, follow a couple of friends I’ve made in that year and then immediately get bored.
What I found relatable about Franklin’s post was the fear of those 140 characters. I find myself not posting because I honestly don’t understand how it works. I still don’t know the difference between re-tweeting and using an @ in the text… I am afraid to post because I have no idea where to start.

With this in mind, I think that sponsorship in digital literacies is just as important as the sponsors I had when learning to read and write. I got help and guidance from parents and teachers and friends while learning to write. The only way I got over my fear of writing was by having someone who supported me, and would read my work and help me to be better. Franklin had someone helping them with twitter literacy- someone she could go to when the # got too confusing, and to read her posts and give constructive criticism. I want a twitter literacy sponsor!