What I believe about literacy learning and teaching…at this moment? This question is interesting because before this moment or this class I only thought that literacy was about the ability to read and write. But I guess most people would think like that if they haven’t taken this class. So what do I now as of today believe literacy to be? I think that literacy is anything that can be learn and taught. So this notion would apply to anything basically because everything can be learn or taught. Also that everything has its own literacy that is why everything can be learn or taught even if it doesn’t have anything to do with reading or writing. For example poetry has its own literacy even though it is associated with reading and writing. Let break down one of my own poems and see what literacies there are to a poem.

The Ways Time Sways

Time is softness of your mother’s breast,
The succulent nectar of life.

Time knows how to lie, she’ll tell you
There is nothing to worry about.

Time, she is your first lover
Hard to forget & full of regret.

Time is the wind, always blowing;
You can feel it, but you can’t see it.

Time like a thief, steals & seals
Away your precious memories.

Time is untamable, like caged beast;
He’ll bit you, when you’re not looking.

Time like the stars seem infinite,
But even they too will burn out.

Time like god knows too much
& does too little.

Time is the back hand of your father, unforgiving.
He lets you know your place in life.

For starters why are there line breaks? The line breaks of each line are called a stanza and a stanza is a grouping of lines that are set off by a space and they work kind of like a paragraph in some sense. But they could be used to draw attention certain words or phrases. So why are the lines in this poem in pairs or twos? When a poem has lines that are in pairs they are called couplets. A couplet is two consecutive lines that usually rhyme and have the same meter and usually relate to one another. But if that is the case why don’t these line have the same meter or rhyme. That is because the poem is written in what is called free verse or open form. This form doesn’t follow rules like sonnet that has to fourteen lines and have an octave and sestet with a volta. It is a form where you can do anything you want and have line flying off the page or single words in one line. What more is to say about this poem? It uses metaphors and simile. Metaphors are comparisons of one thing to another without the use of like or as and similes are comparisons that uses like or as. Poetry has many, many literacies and even its own literacy of how to read a poem. Poetry has its own literacy even if it is within the literacy of reading and writing. Poetry like everything else has its own literacy like gaming, hip pop, and etc…
If I become a future teacher, what can I use in my future classroom that literacy has taught me? Well I think I’ll become a teacher one day because I am not sure what I am going to do with a degree in language art and hopefully a MFA in creative writing or poetry. I think it is all about the medium. What medium works for your students do they learn better from games, videos, or they hands on. I think it is important, the most important thing in teaching because it you are unable to break through to your students then how can they learn what you are trying to teach them. Also like many of Kim’s philosophies on teaching and work I think we shouldn’t discourage the students when they want to do something different like read a different book or write on different topic because that is their medium, their interest and that is how you can teach them through their interest. Also that we shouldn’t penalize and punish the students for not doing well on their work. This is just discouragement putting them down and people like anything will break and can handle only so much. Also forgot tests I personally hate them with a passion and I can stand them. Here is a link to a funny, but true fact on tests by John Oliver. If I had a choice as a teacher to not give tests I would. I think that tests are for the most part a waste of time. Almost all the tests I take, I usually cram everything in the night before or hours before and forget right after the test. I think if you can make the subject interesting and overcome whatever wall stands in front of you like the medium then the students will learn and take away from your class something that they will always remember and can use at any moment they choose to.
What kinds of questions do I still have about literacy? I don’t really have any questions about literacy. I think my definition of literacy really works for me. But I am always open to expand my understanding on any subject.

I think that the presentations more than anything just reinforce the notion that everything is and has it’s own form of literacy.  Also that anything like gaming or hip pop can be applied or used as a medium to convey information, knowledge, or anything that the student or person may not able to understand without that medium.  I think that is mostly what I took away from the presentations.

One video that I watch a while back and didn’t think much of it until we got into my book club of gaming as a literacy  was a video about how “WOW” or World of Warcraft can save the economy.  This video explains how WOW has been used by JP Morgan Chase and The Economist to demonstrate economic principals.  In a nutshell the video is about how WOW can someday be used as a model or a solution to save and create a new finical system that works better.

 

One thing that anyone would get out of reading “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” is that games like everything else is its own literacy and that games do give us experiences that can be applied to the real world.  One example of this that gaming builds social connections and practices.  The books states that even thought most games will never meet each other out of a game, they still build social connections and practices that can applied to real life situations.  On the other hand once the notion that games are there own literacy really sinks in then it begs the question what is literacy?  If gaming is and has its own literacy that would mean everything else has it own literacy.  It is an eye opening if you are able to accept that literacy is no longer what you once thought it to be.  Literacy is organic in the sense that it is always growing, changing, and evolving.  Gaming is its own literacy and this book help you answer the question everyone must have heard that games are a waste of time and do nothing for you.  On the contrary games have many real world application they build social skills, open new doors, teach  pattern recognition, and so much more.  Anyone that plays any kind of game should read this book and not learn, but realize that your time has not been wasted.

Before this class I always thought that literacy was simply the ability to read and write, but now I’ve come to understand that literacy is not merely the ability to read and write.  From my understanding of literacy, literacy is anything that can be learned and taught.  For example we learn how to read and write, but with just those two tools can we compose a poem, short story, or novel.  It maybe possible, but realistically we have to learn how to use diction, metaphors, imagery,  tone, form, temperament, and etc.  Even within creative writing there are different literacies for each genre like prose, poetry, short stories, novels, and etc.  Furthermore within those genre there are subcategories that would require a different set of literacy.  For example in poetry there are epics, odes, haiku, free verse, and etc.  They all have there own set of literacies that must be learned in order to write one of these poems.  Literacy can be anything like gaming or driving because somewhere alone the lines we pick it up most likely from a family member or friend.  They either taught us or influence us in a way that made us need to or want to learn how to play games, drive and so on.  Literacy is simply anything we can learn or teach.