Blog Retrospective

Blogging for me hasn't been an entirely new experience. I currently have a personal blog, although it has been quite a while since I have made a post. I enjoy the process of writing my thoughts for an audience, even if it may be for just a few people.

As far as blogging for this class, I think the thing that benefited me the most was that it made me have to write regularly. Even though I am an English major, this last semester has not involved very much writing other than the blogs and assignments for this class, so having to blog kept me a bit more in "writing mode" than I would otherwise have been. I think the process of writing is always a bit daunting at first, but blogging made me have to continually push through my initial resistance, and often, once I began to write, ideas would begin to flow. William Stafford says that "a writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them." How true that is! I think that is the beauty of blogging, or any form of writing--it enables one to discover and digest ideas even while trying to articulate what to say in the first place. I definitely enjoyed writing about some of the articles more than others, but even with the more difficult ones I was forced to have to at least find the main ideas and expound upon what I did understand. This also forced a closer reading and enabled me to grasp through a second reading ideas that at first seemed confusing. That's not to say that I don't think some of the authors used an unnecessary amount of academic-ese, but I suppose that comes with the territory of higher education. I also think it would have been interesting to discuss in class what we had written in our blogs. Overall, blogging helped me practice my writing skills and produce ideas that I would not have thought of had I not set out to express them. I am not sure whether I will continue to blog or not, but I know that I will (hopefully for the rest of my life) continue to write. Blogging has reminded me of the value of having a regular "appointment" with my keyboard or journal because unless it is a discipline, the urgent (and even petty) things of life will crowd out the important habit of writing. And this discipline is not just a tool for personal enrichment, but when used well, has the power to effect great change for good in the world.

Literacy and Freedom

In his article "The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom" Paulo Freire explains the importance of teaching literacy to adults in ways that combine words with actions, or that demonstrate the significance of word sin real-life situations. He says that teaching individuals to merely memorize words and sounds is a way of treating them as objects rather than intelligent contributors to their own process of learning. This makes sense to me because teaching adults to read and write is different from teaching children to read in write in that adults have vast arrays of knowledge and experience--of "thought language"--which they bring with them into their literacy learning. It makes more sense to teach children to read in a more memorization-oriented way (although they would probably benefit from similar methods to what Freire describes) because they do not have the same knowledge and experiences with language that adults already possess. Allowing adults to learn in ways that show them the immediate relevance of language to their lives has the potential for being extremely empowering.

Ideas for Sale

As we discussed in class, advertisement can have a huge impact upon literacy. For example, if young girls buy the message of advertisers that outward beauty is of paramount importance, they will most likely invest their energies into improving their physical appearance rather than to developing their minds, or trying to get good grades. Or they may be smart, but feel pressure from society or their peers to play down their intellect while playing up their looks in order to find acceptance. And while advertising can affect many people without them even realizing how they are being impacted, those who have not had the chance to develop critical thinking skills are possibly the most vulnerable to unconsciously absorbing the messages of advertisers. With masterful subtlety, advertisers can influence not only what people buy, but how they think about some of the most important issues in life.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of advertising is how much of it objectifies women and uses sex to sell everything from deodorant, to breath mints, to beer. These advertisements subtlety (and sometimes blatantly) send the message that a woman's value is in being sexy and appealing to a man. Women and young girls are not the only victims of this message, however; young boys are continually bombarded with these advertisements and the images that they see impact how they see the opposite sex. Our society is saturated with sexual images and then we wonder why teen pregnancies are so high, why there is an epidemic of date rape, or why sexual harassment at school and the workplace is a problem. I am not saying that advertisement is the only thing to blame for all of this, but how can young people continually absorb messages that glorify sex and objectify women without those messages impacting how they see the world and how they act?The first step to changing one's actions is to change one's belief system. That's how powerfully what we think affects what we do. If young people are not taught to think critically about what they are seeing in commercials and ads (or to develop different literacies), they will be puppets in the hands of companies who sell not just products, but ideas.

"Reading Don't Fix No Chevys"

I enjoyed reading "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys" by Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Because the authors have had teaching experience, they have first-hand knowledge about the challenges of teaching and the issues that arise with teaching boys specifically. Their research is very hands-on and I appreciate the high value they place upon having a personal knowledge of students and validating their experiences and the unique perspective that they can offer.

I think one of the most helpful parts of the book (especially for those who plan to teach) was chapter two, which discussed that boys need "a sense of control and competence, an appropriate challenge, clear goals and feedback, and a focus on the immediate" in order to learn effectively (53). The authors didn't just pick these conditions for effective learning at random, however; they compiled them after researching the ways boys learn and engage in non-academic activities. By finding out what drives boys in their activities outside of the classroom, what contributes to them sticking with certain activities while they may give others up, the authors gained valuable insight (along with some outside research from psychologists) into ways to help boys have a more positive experience in school. Of course, the authors are not saying that if boys like playing video games at home, they should be able to play "educational" video games in school. Mimicking student's extracurricular activities in the classroom is not the point. Rather, the authors realize that boys are driven in other activities outside of school for the reasons mentioned above ( a sense of control and competence, an appropriate challenge, clear goals and feedback, and a focus on the immediate) and those things can and should be reproduced in the classroom. I agree with the authors completely. Learning needs to be about what is best for the student, not about teachers or schools pushing an agenda simply because it's what has always been done. If there is an epidemic of boys not reading or being interested in school, obviously something is not working.

I loved the example about how Wilhelm taught Thee Death of A Salesman to his eleventh grade American Literature class. After protesting about having to teach the book because he thought his students would not be able to relate to it, his department chair insisted that he still must teach it. Rather than treating the book as an "artifact," Wilhelm found creative ways to make the book more relevant to his students. He formed the curriculum around the question, "What are the costs and benefits of of the American emphasis upon sports" (85) and incorporated other texts (including Sports Illustrated and sports related articles) and projects. All the students found this approach to be relevant to their lives in some way, and the class became a rewarding learning experience for everyone involved. This is a wonderful example of how when teachers think outside of the box in an effort to relate to their class, students will often rise to the challenge and have a much more effective learning experience. This example relates to both boys and girls, but the call for teachers to revise their teaching style for the sake of boys is still very important. Boys are the ones who are most vulnerable at this point in history to falling through the cracks when it comes to literacy. Teachers would do well to learn from "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys" to understand what motivates boys and how they can make their classrooms, and reading in general, positive experiences that will foster lifelong learning.

Literacy Overload?

In her article "Accumulating Literacy: Writing and Learning to Write in the Twentieth Century" Deborah Brandt discusses how literacy learners today are faced with the challenge of absorbing new forms of literacy in addition to those passed on from past generations. Essentially, she believes that we have a "surplus" of literacy and that the main challenge surrounding the issue of literacy is not for more people to be able to learn the basics of reading and writing, but for individuals to be able to acquire, manage, and apply the vast array of literacy forms already available to them. I thought it was interesting how she pointed out that "the mass of American workers has had to shift from growing food to manufacturing goods, to principally, managing information" (652). Because of this shift in how American (and global) society functions, the demand of literacy goes far beyond the basics of reading and writing. As important as these basic skills are, they are increasingly becoming minimal forms of literacy in our information and technology rich age. This can pose a problem both for older generations who did not grow up with the same skill sets that younger generations are automatically expected to acquire, and it can also pose a problem for those who may not have access to the tools (computers, internet, cell phones, etc.) that would enable them to "keep up" with the ever-changing forms of literacy surrounding them. At the same time, the advantage of living in an information-rich age is that information is much more widely available than it has been in the past. Many people still do not have computers in their homes, but public libraries offer both the "old" forms of literacy (books) as well as free (although not as readily available were they in the home) access to newer forms of literacy through computer and internet access. Overall, I think Brandt's article points to how complicated it is to grow up and acquire literacy in the Twentieth (now Twenty-first) century. We have come a long way from the days of the one-room school house, but our advances also mean that literacy is less simple to acquire and maintain in a constantly changing world.

Sponsors of Literacy

The fact that literacy equals power and opportunity can be seen once again in Deborah Brandt's article Sponsors of Literacy. She demonstrates how the demand for different types of literacy changes over time, leaving behind those who have not acquired the skills and specialties that new technologies require. She also shows, as in the example Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez, how people who are born at the same time and even grow up in the same area can have very different opportunities available to them. Due to his financial and educational background, Raymond had much greater exposure to learning tools and opportunities which enabled him to become a successful software writer. Dora's experiences were much more limited than Raymond's, causing her to have less opportunity for economic and educational advancement. I think this is an important issue to keep in mind when it comes to how society views success. Typically, those with higher paying and more influential jobs are held in high esteem. Americans value hard work and respect those who seem to have worked their way to the top. What is often overlooked is the fact that it may have been much easier for certain successful individuals to arrive where they are, while others who work just as hard but had less opportunities are unable to achieve the same kind of success. I know that educational institutions cannot be changed over night, but reading stores like Dora and Raymond's reminds me of the need to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots, which of course, is one reason for the discipline of Community Literacy and Service Learning. Sponsors have the opportunity to use their influence for good, but communities cannot wait for the ones with the most power and influence to make a positive change. I think that parents, teachers, employers, grandparents--really any literate person--can take part in encouraging literacy in others.

Oprah and Literacy

I enjoyed reading The Oprahfication of Literacy: Reading Oprah's Book Club by R. Mark Hall. In this article Hall discusses the the phenomena of Oprah as a literacy sponsor and the advantages of her influence, ways that her book club complicates theories of literacy, and the fact that teachers ought to pay attention to ways to connect with students based upon what they are seeing in the media.

Although Hall raises some possible objections to Oprah's Book Club, overall, I think it has had a positive impact upon American society. While it may be unfortunate that some viewers would not have the motivation to choose a book for themselves, the fact that Oprah inspires them to read is a good thing. Some Young Adult Literature may not be what many would consider "high" literature, but I think the fact that it fosters reading in many young people who would otherwise not be reading is a very good thing. These "gateway" books have the potential to hook young adults into a lifetime practice of reading. In the same way, Oprah's Book Club invites her viewers to enter the world of books, perhaps fostering an interest in reading that will go beyond the limits of her Book Club recommendations. I thought it was interesting that Hall points out that in "proclaiming the redemptive power of serious fiction, Winfrey reinforces traditional female identities associated with religious faith and education" (661). I probably would not have made this connection on my own, but I could definitely see it once he pointed it out. In Oprah's Book Club, reading is seen as a path to self-discovery and self-improvement, and not as much a tool for developing critical thinking skills or other more "academic" activities. While some may see Oprah's emphasis upon using reading as a means to revive the spirit as negative (because it seems to perpetuate societal gender codes for reading), I would disagree for a few reasons. First of all, it seems that if women who did not read before become readers, then they are more empowered than they previously were. And, if reading for transformation is seen as a predominately female way to read, perhaps the invitation needs to be extended for men to read in this way as well. It works both ways. Secondly, I think there are many different kinds of reading that we can engage in. Sometimes, we should look at a text and analyze it critically. Other times, we should be allowed to cry over it, laugh over it, and allow it to speak to us on deeply personal levels. If reading--if art--can be used to heal the human spirit, then it should be free to do that. I also agree with Hall that teachers should use things like Oprah's Book Club or other popular culture material as a way to engage students in what they may already know or be hearing about in their daily lives. A teacher who meets his or her students where they are will most likely be able to inspire them to explore new literary terrain.

The Necessity of Inquiry

In her chapter "Intercultural Inquiry and the Transformation of Service" Linda Flower discusses how volunteers often approach service opportunities with attitudes and expectations that may add to the problems of situations they are addressing rather than providing long-term help. She says that such "guerrilla service" only "reinforces the distance between the giver and receiver, especially if the contact is superficial and the junket uncomplicated by reflection"(153). She says that the key to successful service is engaging in intercultural inquiry. Eager to help, sometimes volunteers can be overzealous in the wrong ways and end up doing more harm than good. Rather than approaching service opportunities with the mentality that we (the academics/volunteers) are the experts, we need to posture ourselves as learners. The point of this is not to deceive the communities we serve into thinking that we don't have all the answers; it is a reality that we have just as much to learn from them as they do from us.

I could relate to this chapter because I mentored young women at a Residential Treatment Center for two years. These girls were at this facility because of alcohol, drug, or behavioral problems (or a combination of the three). I remember times of hoping that if I could just say the right thing, maybe I could help them not go back to their addictions. I had to learn that I could not change or “fix” anyone and that I needed to listen to their stories and ask the right kinds of questions. Although it wasn't directly related to literacy, I had to engage in a form of intercultural inquiry, which was especially challenging given the fact that my background is very different from most of the girls I interacted with.

I didn't follow “The Effect of Hypertext on Processes of Reading and Writing” by Davida Charney quite as I did well as Flower's chapter. However, the connection I saw between them was the point that learning what is best for others requires inquiry (and often research and experimentation). Designers of hypertext systems must not assume that readers want or will benefit from hypertext. Everyone has different preferences and abilities and so it is important to to keep this in mind when designing literacy tools as well as in teaching a classroom full of students. Inquiry is essential for serving others well, and for transforming our own understanding as learners.

Changing With the Times: Literacy and Technology

In From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies Dennis Baron discusses how communication technologies have changed and impacted communities throughout history. This article reminded me a lot of Ong's Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought in that both articles note that writing is a technology and has not always had the place in communication that it has today. Similarly, the pencil, something that is taken for granted as a commonplace device, required painstaking experimentation and expense to perfect, and also caused controversy much like the computer and other technologies continue to arouse. Baron says that it is too early to tell what long-term effects the computer will have upon society, but that it is unmistakable that it has changed society in significant ways.

I think that with every technology there is the possibility for gains and losses, for benefits and harms. It is wonderful that computers and the internet have made it possible for information to be instantly available at the stroke of a key. This opens up huge possibilities for learning and has made research much more convenient for many people. On the flip side, I think of a research paper I wrote about for my Critical Approaches to Literature and Culture class about the impact of social media upon society. One of the sources I used was a book called Brain Rules by John Medina. Medina points out that contrary to what some may think, the brain is actually incapable of multitasking. This doesn't mean that people are incapable of doing things like playing the piano and singing at the same time, but that "we are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously" (85). What does this mean? Think about the modern-day high school (and even college) student. Many students regularly engage in what appears to be multiple activities at once: working on homework while simultaneously searching youtube videos, texting friends, listening to music, and checking facebook. Since the brain cannot process all these things at once, it has to switch back and forth, causing it to work much less efficiently. Many of us are so used to doing this that it may seem to work just fine, but consider the effect that habits like this may be having upon a student's quality of work or their retention of material. Or consider the reality that we may be so used to giving multiple things only partial attention that we may be training ourselves to give nothing our full attention. This could have a huge impact upon literacy, not just in the academic setting, but in all of life. Of course, like Baron points out, we cannot yet know the long-term impact of computer technology upon society as a whole. Perhaps, we will all learn to adapt in new ways, discovering cognitive capabilities that are now unknown. At this point, however, it seems that our media-addicted culture is certainly not teaching students to process information to their fullest capacity.

Situated Knowledge

In her chapter "The Search for Situated Knowledge" Linda Flower points out that, in seeking to engage in dialogue and deal with issues within communities, differences in viewpoints will inevitably arise. Rather than being a roadblock, however, she says that these differences should actually be sought out in order to arrive at greater understanding. Since individuals come from various backgrounds, they will attach varying meanings and interpretations to words and scenarios based upon their own experiences. These "unarticulated, experientially based interpretive resources" make up what Flower refers to as "situated knowledge" (173) Listening alone does not always enable us to know what someone else's situated knowledge is because this knowledge is intertwined with who we are--it is how we view the world based upon multiple layers of experiences (including family life/upbringing and geographic location), that can contribute to prejudices or blind spots we may not even know that we have.

In order to learn about situated knowledge, we engage in "intercultural inquiry," which Flower defines as "a deliberate meaning-making activity in which difference is not read as a problem, but sought out as a resource for constructing more grounded and actionable understandings" (173). In order for this to happen, individuals need to be able to communicate the "stories-behind-the-story" that influence both how they interpret situations and also offer insight into others' interpretations of reality. Allowing individuals the opportunity to share their thoughts in their own vernaculars and genres is an important way to allow differences to be expressed in a way that gives greater understanding to the parties involved. This "hybrid discourse" offers insight into "consequences that lie outside one's own cultural experience" (184).

As I read this chapter, the word that kept coming to mind was empathy. In interacting with individuals from different backgrounds from our own, it is important to seek to understand who they are and the motivations behind their behavior. So often the obstacles that we face in communication with others comes from a lack of empathy. Problem-solving within communities certainly does not stop with empathy, but I think that it needs to begin with empathy. As our understanding of others' expands, our own views are challenged and we are better equipped to work together in forming solutions to problems.

From Novel to Novelty...Something New to Think About

Last semester I read at least a total of twelve novels for my English classes, so I became quite comfortable with responding to fiction in various required essays. I must confess, I haven't read from a text book (or more technical-type articles) in a while, so it is challenging to think of how to respond to this week's readings, but I will attempt to make sense of them! =) I got a bit bogged down in the What's in a List? article, but I did find it fascinating to consider how ancient peoples seemed to use lists in many of the same ways we do today. It may be a stretch, but it makes me think of a class I took last semester on Passing literature, which involved looking at different novels involving African American characters in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who "passed" for white in order to have access to the same privileges as those in white society. In many of the texts there seems to be a need within the characters (and in society around them) to be classified as "white" or "black." Characters who grew up thinking they were white (because their skin was white and their parents had passed for white) and find out they are black almost always begin trying to classify themselves and/or their parents in a new light. The communities in which these characters live have no place for racially mixed individuals (perhaps like Goody's example of dew needing to be classified as either of the earth or of the sky?) , constantly classifying and discriminating them based upon a black/white binary. In thinking of the practice of list making in ancient cultures, it seems that the tendency to classify objects (and people) in our world is innate within human beings. I can see how it is a good and necessary practice for things like scientific advancement, but I can also see how the tendency to classify can be corrupted and used to divide communities along racial or economic lines.

It is also interesting that Goody's article was aimed at pointing out how list making would have contributed to the more general cognitive development of list-making peoples, while the Unpacking Literacy article seemed to be attempting to prove the opposite in the case of reading and writing skills. This article challenged my thinking because I have been influenced by the idea that reading and writing necessarily improve the mental faculties in a general sense. The study that Scribner and Cole performed seemed to demonstrate that the skills of reading and writing in the contexts that they are used within the Vai people contributed to the development of specific skills, but not necessarily to the all-around improvement of the intellect. Even after the evidence from the studies, however, I am still wrestling with this one. I tend to think that the practice of reading and writing does not just make better readers and writers, but better thinkers. That's not to say that people who can't read and write don't think as well as those who do, but I believe that reading (and especially writing) help people to process their thoughts and even to learn more about who they are and what they believe through learning about the world through reading and expressing their thoughts through writing.

So, my questions are:

Do reading and writing improve the mind in ways that go beyond the academic setting?

Do you (the class) think it is important for schools to continue requiring/teaching a a traditional approach to writing (the essay, for example), or do you think changing modes of communication make this kind of writing unnecessary?

Welcome to my blog!

I am an English major and this is my last semester as an undergrad (what a great feeling!). Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect from a course in Community Literacy and Service Learning, but my curiosity was sparked on the first day of class when Dr. Hara said that there are many ways to define literacy. I would like to learn about the different ways that literacy is defined and gaged and about what contributes to a lack of literacy within certain communities or people groups. I am looking forward to the Service Learning Project that I'll be able to do in this class. Being an English major, the past few years of my life have been filled with reading and writing, which I have loved, but I think it will also be fun to go out and get some "real world" experience related to what I have been studying.