During these past few weeks of class we have read, discussed, and questioned what the word “literacy” means. There are so many different ways to describe what literacy means to us, and it all depends on the person. Literacy will vary by each individual, based on experiences and relationships. Different authors have provided clear understanding of what they have researched and give examples of the many forms of literacy.

Szwed introduced me to the idea that reading and writing is the most basic literacy we have. However, what it is that we are writing and reading is what actually matters. There are a multitude of different literacy practices that we encounter in any given day. Szwed argues that there, “is not a single level of literacy, on a single continuum from reader to non-reader, but a variety of configurations of literacy, a plurality of literacies”. This can range from reading baseball cards to The New York Times, or from having the ability to spell or create a fictional novel. Every single person has varying degrees of their own personal literacy.

Deborah Brandt introduced us to the idea of sponsors. In her words, “Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy-and gain advantage by it in some way”. This led us to reevaluate who had impact on our own practices, and what kinds of sponsors were in our lives. My group and I realized the large impact that employment had on the two women, Carol and Sarah, from the article. These women were using the literacy practices learned in their work environment to enhance and improve their personal lives. Sponsors are a key component to defining literacy.

Some of today’s everyday literacies revolve around social media and/or texting. As I am beginning my book club text, which studied middle school girls in 1992-1993, I can’t help to question the drastic differences in literacy of middle school girls today. What if the study was redone to incorporate the technological impact on girls’ literacy practices in middle school today?

Patience is one of the most important traits to possess, especially when both your grandmas purchase iPhones. In this case I was not personally learning a new literacy, but I was helping my grandmothers dive into the world of technology. Much like Keri Franklin, they were scared, frustrated, but also excited to begin this new journey. However, they needed someone to answer ALL of their questions, sometimes the same question multiple times. It was difficult to remain patient at times especially with questions like: “What are emoji’s?” “How do I use the internet?” “How do I take a picture?” “Why didn’t I get a text?” “What is a selfie?” etc.

One grandmother had never even owned a computer before, or used the internet. As you can imagine, I was constantly bombarded with questions. I love them both dearly, so I didn’t mind. Thinking back on my own first encounter with an iPhone, I can’t recall whether I had many similar questions. I am proud to say that both grandmas are doing quite well with their iPhones. I believe they are completely iPhone literate, except for the occasional question. I can imagine the apprehension they had of getting a “smartphone”, and having so much information at their fingertips. I wonder what new literacy I will be a part of next…

When you were growing up, how much school reading and school writing was done with computers?  What kinds of things did you do?  What values did your teachers place on computer literacy?

“I am 33, and I graduated in 2000.  When I was in school, very little technology was used.  Some classrooms had computers, but they were very large.  I don’t recall the teachers placing a strong emphasis on us using the computers at school nor at home.  In fact, most families did not even have computers at that time.  If we used a computer, we used floppy disks not flash drives or external hard drives.  I can remember having a typing class in middle school.  The computers were large, and all we practiced was improving our words per minute. In high school I can remember getting my first flip phone.  It didn’t take pictures, access the internet, nor did it have texting capabilities. “

I think it is really interesting to examine the differences in my education concerning technology compared to my step mother’s. Especially because she is only 13 years older than I am, and I feel like in those years technology substantially  changed.

In the Hamilton article, there is a passage that talks about the many different “artefacts” that are involved with literacy. One of these mentioned is a computer, which she describes as a writing tool. My image shows a group of people using computers, in what I assume to be a classroom. Looking at the photo, one does not know exactly what they are doing on the computer. However, I think it is safe to say that it involves literacy in one way or the other. Either the people are taking notes, writing a paper, creating a blog post, checking twitter, and maybe they even have a split screen where they are completing more than one of these tasks at a time. Hamilton also states, “We began by thinking in terms of activities as simply reading and writing, but a very large number of newspaper images involve people displaying, holding, inspecting, possessing or giving, discussing and disputing written texts of various sorts.” I think this is very true especially with the use of technology, where information can be shared with anyone, anywhere so rapidly. As a member of this class, we are all taking part in sharing blogs, and reading articles through this lovely website. Digital literacy is something that is becoming apparent in most classrooms, and is starting at a much younger grade in school.

Hello peers & professor,

My name is Melissa Smith, and this is my first year at Chico State! I’m a transfer student from So-Cal, and am more than excited to be up here. My current plan is to major in English Education, and hopefully teach high school in the future.

Showing up to the first week of classes had me feeling like the meme attached to this blog. I presume that by the end of the semester I’ll know SOMETHING about literacy. Being at a university will definitely have its differences from a community college. This semester I have all English classes for the first time (yay me).

Literacy meant nothing to me 6 days ago, and now I can say that I’m enrolled in a class all about it! I am interested to see how much my definition of literacy grows throughout the semester, and what new ideas will come about between all of my classmates. I look forward to group work with all of you, and am especially excited about our book club.

See you all in class tomorrow!

-Melissa