Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood

This is easily the first essay I feel that I have learned valuable information and have been completely interested the whole time. I feel this is largely because in a week I begin my tutoring of illiterate adults. I have to say I am very scared, but after reading this essay I feel that I have a new wave of ideas on how to approach this upcoming tutoring.

The first thing I enjoyed about this essay was that it covered the stereotypes that go along with illiterate adults. "Fingeret concluded that "illiterate" adults do not necessarily fit the stereotypes of dependency, weakness, and failure affixed to them by mainstream culture" (Lytle 379). I think by her then going on to prove then that they can have positive qualities such as intelligence, it starts to open people's minds to move towards accepting illiterates as "normal."

I, then, agreed with her approach on how illiterate adults should be looked at and taught. The normal way available today in literacy centers includes limited, cognitive ways which leads to illiterates not being taught to their full potential. The author brings up the idea of participatory approach. "Participatory approaches not only involve learners in negotiation the curriculum, but also in program management and governance, thereby providing opportunities for developing literacy within the program as an organizational, not just an instructional setting" (Lytle 385) She discusses how people group all illiterate adults into on category but should be looked at as different because they each come from different backgrounds, have different ways of learning, and have different goals they want to achieve.

I also agreed with the idea that in order to become motivated enough to learn, the learner must have some control over what they are going to learn and the way they do it. It is important because they feel more personally connected and more a part of the process in their learning.

I thought this was a very informative and important approach to improve literacy development in adults and after reading this I feel even more motivated to make a difference and be an active member in stopping adult illiteracy.

Writing is a Technology

One general theme I got from this essay is that writing and technology are bad. I think this especially because Ong refers to writing as a technology and throughout the essay offered only negatives to writing. The part the stuck out to me the most was subsection 4 when he referred to words as dead. Ong does offer the fact that the readers then give the words life. "Yet there is a paradox in the fact that deadness of the written or printed text, its removal from the living human lifeworld, its rigid visual fixity, assures its endurance and its potential for being resurrected into limitless living contexts by a limitless number of living readers" (22). I liked this part because it was one of the few positive sentences and was something i completely agreed with. The words are there for us to interperate them in any way we want.

I overall didn't like that the majority of the essay discusses negative effects of writing, like memory loss and separation. That this technology is hurting more than helping. I love writing and the way words are such a large part of my life. I think they are definately worth the memory loss.

Sponsors of Literacy

When I read the title of the piece titled "Sponsors of Literacy" I thought of AA sponsors. I don't know why, but that was the only kind of sponsor I could think of at that time. After reading the piece, I started to see that although my first connection was quite different than literacy, I saw one common similarity. I saw that both kinds of sponsors motivate.

I now see what kind of literacy sponsors I have in my life, people who have influenced and motivated my processes of literacy. The ones that I think of most, however, are my elementary school teachers. I think it takes a really passionate person to get a child to look at boring letters grouped together to make words and become motivated enough to learn about them. As a future teacher, my goal is to be the best literacy sponsor I can be, just like the elementary school teachers I once had.

The concept I found most interesting about this piece is the fact that the author says the sponsors only teach what they want the learner to know and usually benefit from it. I thought about this in relation to teachers and I started to think about the 4th grade tests. The teachers were all talking to us about our class having the top scores of the area and how important that was to uphold. For a month before the test, that was all my teacher focused on. We went through at least 10 practice tests to get us ready. I think about how we were only taught stuff for that test and the teacher was benefiting from it by getting high test scores. I now see more than ever how teachers fit the definition perfectly of literacy sponsors, the motivate and help us learn to read and write but also only teach us certain things and benefit from it at the same time.

Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics

I can't think of much to comment on this writing becasue I feel that is was like reading a chapter out of a textbook. In my opinion this was an example of the boring form of Academic Discourse. James Gee was very one minded, saying that his way seemed to be the only way for the research of Discourses. I thought that he was writing to an audience that very much appreciates the idea of breaking down Discourses into even more complex ideas. I just must not be one of those people. It was a personal struggle to finish this piece of writing but I did form a few opinoins about the concepts written.

I agree with the idea that there are primary and secondary discourses. I also agree that there can be conflict between the two. I, however, feel like theorems are too specific and one minded. For example in the second theorem, Gee says that all Primary Theorems are limited, no matter what. I think that even though that may be true for many, it can still be liberating for some. Even though he defends what he says by saying primary discourses still have tools to be liberating, I feel that he is over generalizing for all.

The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society

There were 3 words that I would say were the underlying feelings of illiterate people that the author, Jonathan Kozol, was trying to portray: Confusion, Fear, and Distrust.

Throughout the story, the author tries to show how illiterate people are left in panic and confusion. They are not able to understand anything from a restaurant menu to medication instructions. I like how he relates how they feel to a dream he has had. "I find that I am in a railroad station of a large department store within a city that is utterly unknown to me and where I cannot understand the printed words." (204) I feel I wouldn't be able to read street signs or names of stores if I were somewhere like China, where they have different symbols. I feel that is the way I could relate to the struggles of an illiterate person. It has to be hard to go through life not being able to be independent, to read and write on my own. Not being able to understand or be independent would leave illiterate people in confusion.

It hit me hard when I got to the part with an interview of an illiterate person describing the fear they must live with everyday. The illiterate person describes the danger of being lost and the possibility of a family member getting hurt. Because they cannot read the street signs, by the time they figure out where they are to tell the 911 dispatcher, the family member could be dead. (204) When I was little, I had that fear when I didn't know my own address and to have that fear your whole life must be so hard.

A lot of the paragraphs dealing with having other people read letters, bills, and statements to them, had a lot of distrust be the illiterate people. They depend on others for these things, but there is no real way to find out if the people helping them aren't scamming them. "...you end up trusting no one and suspecting everyone of possible deceit." I think that kind or paranoia would add to even more stress in an illiterate person's life.

Side note- Over all I thought the information given, gave a true sense of the struggle that illiterate people go through daily. However, I thought it was a very boring read because it was in a list type of format and didn't add a lot of variety to the way the story was written.

The Ethnography of Literacy

This piece opened my eyes to something that I have never really thought of as an issue needing to be developed. I was shocked that I found such interest in the idea that what I might think, and what many might think is the definition of literacy and literature can be completely questioned.
The part that spoke to me the most was about when the author talked about what people are reading. I personally disclike reading... a lot, unless it is a magazine. I read them cover to cover and don't just look at the pictures. I love being able to relate to the stories and since they aren't long the keep my interest. When John Szwed commented that in lots of places that is considered a book, I thought that was crazy. I never thought of that as real reading becasue it isn't the kind of reading we are forced to read in school. It proved to me that I am still reading. Who is allowed to say what i am reading isn't as much of literacy as an encyclapedia?
From that point on in the story, I was realyy ingaged and loved how the author went one to talk about how literacy can be interpreted and the factors that can effect it. I never really thought about the fact that your social status, age, race, and more can effect your level of literacy.

Engaged Pedagogy

The main theme I came up with from the chapter of Bell Hooks' book was the desire for inspiration.

I think that the author is trying to say that in order to reach the point of self-actualization, one needs to feed off of the insiration the recieve from another. In this chapter, the inspiration discussed is a professor or teacher. I can really relate to part where Hooks says "Most of my professors were not the slightest bit interested in enlightenment. More than anything they seemed enthralled by the excersize of power and authority within their mini-kingdom, the classroom" (70). Even in my first semester of college, I had 4 of my 5 professors be completely disconnected with what they were talking about and had more fun pointing out kids that were using their cellphones. It is hard to get inspired about a topic or a certain problem if the one educating you on it doesn't care about it. There was however one professor who really inspired me to reach my full potential. Because he cared about me as a person and what he was trying to teach me, I, to this day, feel so inspired by him and feel am a better student because of him.

Also, Hooks goes onto say that there are a few teachers, however, that do inspire us and those are the ones that help us reach our goal of self- actualization. (70)Because I am going to be a teacher one day, I feel this opened my eyes. After reading this chapter, I now know how much harder I will have to work so that I can be one of the few teachers that in the end, does inspire students. I will never be the teacher just going to teach because it is their job. I am going to teach because I am inspired myself, by a few passionate teachers, to follow in their footsteps as inspirational leaders.