In the Hamilton article, I found the last three paragraphs on page 26 and 28 interesting. She defines the categories, which her research images can be grouped into. The groups include: interactions between people and texts, literacy in the environment, writing on the body, and reproductions of documents. I was a bit lost when I began searching for an image to study on my own. I chose an image of a woman reading to kids. Lots of interesting interactions are taking place in this image. It looks like they took this picture in the middle of reading a story and each little girl has chosen her own book. The oldest girl has writing on her shirt also. It seems more rare for young children to wear clothing with text on it, most likely because they can’t interact with it themselves. The picture I chose can be studied similarly to the way Hamilton defines notions like setting, participants, and practices. This image of children reading with an adult is a common practice. These girls interact with different books and are being entertained. The image seems like a traditional form of people interacting with text. One part of this picture that interests me is the book choices from each child. The open book clearly is illustration heavy, while the older child chooses a wordier book, Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The little girl dressed in all pink chooses a pink book. For her it seems natural to participate with a book that clearly reflects her identity. Hamilton’s process of analyzing images and deciding certain things about literacy practices are more easily understood through pages 26 and 28.

My name is Bridget Grant, I’m a 3rd year student here at Chico State. I’m studying English, to become a teacher. I take Spanish classes because I want to learn Spanish, and if I end up having enough units for a minor I would be stoked! I love to travel and be outdoors. My image is of my adorable puppy sleeping on my feet while I write this.  I love where I go to school, more and more each semester I am here. I love reading and writing and I can tell this class is going to begin to shape my teaching philosophies and my understanding of the way students learn.

Literacy is a very curious concept to me. Szwed’s writing regarding communal and individual literacy suggests the idea that the two are interconnected. I believe in the concept that literacy is complex, ever-changing, and growing. As a prospective teacher I am starting to understand the importance of having diverse mediums, modern technology and relevant lessons to present to my students.

Having a narrow definition of literacy, which I experienced during early years of elementary school, can limit creativity. Szwed mentions code-switching and dialects in his writing. These two aspects of literacy are fascinating to me. Szwed uses Black dialects as an example of a different type of literacy in writing that should be valued instead of criticized because its unconventional and different. For example, since I’m from the Bay I hella relate to this and I’m juiced to think of literacy among different demographics. Another interesting concept he mentions is code-switching. Code-switching is something I would love to study and learn more about. As a second language learner I find it impressive that people are able to blend a sentence of two different languages together to fit grammatically and make sense to an audience.

Another thing I’m looking forward to exploring is the idea of decontextualized literacy that is taught in schools. I would love to be a teacher that one day, my students feel like they learned something useful in my class! Also when I think of technology, I’m immediately able to think of the broad concept of literacy in a more simplified way. Understanding how to text on a cellphone and to decipher abbreviations comes so naturally to most of us, however to my Grandma Betty, the iPhone is impossible! My whole family applauded when she figured out how to use Facetime after about 3 years of owning this same phone. However, my three baby cousins could send me a call, text, email, challenge me to Fun Run and take a silly video within a minute! Hopefully by the end of this semester I will be able to understand how that happens more clearly.