Sunday, November 21, 2010
Ideas for final paper- Lucia Torres
Final Paper
Functional Literacy and Its Discontents: How Limiting Literacy Disturbs Democracy
Writings from the class that I would consider in order to Freire would be Gee, Gere, and perhaps a little something from Bartholomae. Other texts I have been reading or plan to read in the next week that I might bring into my writing-thinking process for this would be We Make the Road By Walking: A Conversation (between Myles Horton and Paulo Freire) of Education and Social Change, some of James A. Berlin's thoughts on rhetoric, writing, and culture (especially as it relates to literature and composition studies) and as many of bell hooks' books on Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community, and Teaching Critical Thinking as I can get through in the next week or so that school is slowed down to celebrate genocide. I hope this paper is required to be substantially longer than the others because I perceive my brain exploding with ideas.
Final Paper hmmm
Final Paper
final paper ideas
What's next?
Last Paper
After all of the articles we have read and discussed in this class, I think most of our opinions about literacy and its applications have changed. We have learned how literacy is like an ‘identity kit’ made of discourses, which are different for everyone. Now, I think the topic of discussion is how we should apply what we learned this semester in the future. For many people in the class, this is probably going to be through teaching. A helpful article about the teacher-student relationship is the one we read for Thursday by Freire. However, a more complicated topic could be how the knowledge of literacy can affect those of us who are not teaching majors, or English majors. I am going for biochemistry, so how can I apply this material into my future?
Paper Ideas
Monday, November 15, 2010
Theory of Evolution
I have grown a little in my ideas of what it means to educate too and this class has played some part in that. As I stated above, as an educator my goal is for my students to do everything they are capable of to the best of their abilities. Successful education is not passive, it is involved, and it must look beyond the day the student leaves my classroom. I want to prepare my students for life as it is in this world so that they may prosper to the extent to which they are capable.
I'm not really sure if my writing has changed this semester. Prior to this semester I had not been in school for 17 years, so writing has really been limited. One thing I can be certain of is that in my formal writing I have been careful to include as much bullshit as possible, and in my less formal writing to try to maintain my sense of humor while I discuss the matters at hand with my classmates. I am a firm believer that the sheer act of doing something over and over will improve your abilities, so I must have improved at least a little this semester. I know I have. I am finding it easier to come up with things to say as the semester goes on. Writing exercises that creativity muscle in the brain which only gets stronger the more it works out.
My Evolving Thought on Literacy, Education and Writing: Extensions of Prior Knowledge
Additionally, I feel the dialogue with other classmates has helped me learn more about group discussion and peer assessment in collaboration with my advanced writing workshop—figuring out how to give feedback that helps without hurting feelings, figuring out how to get the kind of feedback you want and/or need to proceed with your writing process. I thought the peer assessments in here might be easier since it is online and that people might feel more comfortable giving criticism with the buffer shield of the internet, but it seems to have unraveled the same way they tend to in any classroom community: the first time around everyone is wary and does not want to offend, the second time around people have voiced a desire for more pressing feedback...as the class becomes more of a community, students feel more comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Obviously, some people will always have difficulty taking criticism, and some will always struggle to be honest without being hurtful, but in our own ways I think our dialogue has evolved naturally, I can't say the peer assessment process in this class has gone much differently than in my other workshop class despite my other class being f2f.
I am not sure what I want to write my final paper on yet, however. I suppose Freire might give me some ideas...Freire always gives me ideas...something about education as a liberatory project, I am sure that will be the main idea of my paper as some variation of that is always the main idea of my papers. :)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Another long one! READER BEWARE
As I may have mentioned previously, I was a music major for a Really Long Time. I was about three classes away from completing my degree (well, kind of) after switching voice professors, transferring from University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, and switching (at long last) from voice performance to musical theatre to music education to a plain ol' BA in voice... when I realized it wasn't what I was meant to do.
A few days ago I met with the English department chair to work on declaring a new major. He legitimately thought I was crazy for wanting to switch, but believed that I'd thought about it long and hard enough to be completely sure it was a change I needed to make. The truth is, what really drove me to receive three F's last fall semester was a long-standing culmination of teachers not really "getting it" - "it" being literacy. It wasn't necessarily on my behalf; I was competent enough (and rather more than competent) to get by in classes with little to no extra encouragement. Teachers were then able to focus their energies (if they so desired) on the development of other students who may have struggled more than I.
As a result, I never learned how to be a good student. Because I was constantly able to cruise along on the surface, turning out what was my minimum amount of effort, and still be recognized as the "top of the class", I became arrogant in my own abilities. This started primarily in elementary school, when i recognized that I was naturally doing well what all the other students struggled to do. I struggled a few times in middle school, but the teachers of those classes recognized my strengths, and allowed me to make up for a semester's worth of slacking off by completing one big assignment. I came out with A's, and nobody ever knew the difference (could I tell you anything at all about The Crucible, or A Tale of Two Cities, or The Color Purple, or any of those other literary works we read? Nope. Didn't really read 'em). Still, I received praise on everything I did, even those things that I turned out at the last second, without doing any work at all.
In college, coming into music studies, I had even more of an advantage. I didn't really take any Gen. Ed. classes, and tended to immediately drop those I did sign up for in favor of some applied music class. My advantage? I played piano proficiently (nobody else knew how) and I had perfect pitch (nobody else did). As a result, I was able to entirely skip some courses that all the other freshmen were required to take; I was singled out as a favorite early on in all of my vocal ensembles, and every professor was begging to hand me scholarships. Keep in mind that this is UWGB, which has no arts school and little music program to speak of. There were some reasonably talented people around, but most had to spend hours practicing to get there, whereas I was able to walk into my voice lessons every week and sightread a piece on the spot.
What I denied at the time, and what I realize now, is that in music, and in academics, I never really learned anything. Saving all my stuff for the last minute enabled me to get a good grade, and give a good impression, but I never retained any of the stuff I spewed out in either medium. I put out some great performances, and wrote some great papers, and scored really high on some Calculus tests, but I couldn't get into the finer points of any of those items with you now. The only things I ever really retained were the things taught me by people I respected, and people who respected me. Those people were few and far between.
ANYWAY, (can you tell Sarah influenced me here??!!) coming into this semester, I had a bright new outlook. I pretty much took a semester off, and centered myself again. I got out of music (music education can be so toxic) and got away from all the extra distractions inherent to that field - ego playing a LARGE role here - and figured out what it was I would actually like to study. Music is my favorite pastime, and I had a good four years learning its finer points (though I don't remember them now), but I realized that I cannot take music seriously as a form of study. It's unfortunate because it was the one thing I was truly passionate about for a great number of years. However, music and academics truly do not mix, and it took almost a full education for me to realize that.
Realizing that I would like to study English (my second favorite subject in school, but more challenging than music which was just fun) opened a lot of doors for me this semester. I was able to consider myself as a writer and as an academic again, not just as a moderately talented person with little chance of succeeding in a career. This class in particular has really helped me focus my notions of academic learning. Although I wouldn't necessarily like to pursue a field of study that this class presents, it's helped me so far to broaden my perception of how I approach my studies here.
I've correctly identified myself as a bullshitter - as Dr. O. pointed out to me, I use much clearer syntax in my writing on the blog and in posts than I do in my essays - and I am taking steps to figure out when this is occurring, so i can find more of a personal identity (both in my writing and in my life). I've also started to expand my perception of other students in my classes. When I see someone not exactly pulling their weight, I won't automatically assume that s/he is a slacker or is less intelligent or what not. That person just might not yet be fully literate in the discourse being used, or has special circumstances, and needs to be approached in a different way.
To make a (long, long) story short, my perception of literacy and education has changed drastically over the course of this semester, and in my final paper I hope to explore this with more coherency and other things to back it up. I always used to think of my case as exceptional, and I think this class has brought about a sense of humility that's taught me that my case is completely typical. Which, for me, is a good thing.
Change of Literacy
Like others in the class, I associated literacy with the ability to read and write. I thought I was more literate than most, because I am always reading and writing. However, after reading the articles for this class, a lot of these beliefs have changed. Eubanks & Schaeffer and Bartholomae were the first authors to really change my mind on what literacy really was. I didn’t know that it could be the way you act or how you fit into a social group. But now, I can see how literacy works. It is about becoming one with a group or thought process. An example I see in my life is my spanish speaking skills. As far as language and grammar goes, I am nearly fluent in spanish. My father’s parents are Mexican immigrants, so my father and his family have a mexican background. When I am around them, I do not feel literate in spanish. I may be able to speak the language correctly, but I do not know the slang or actions of the spanish culture. I never really knew why I didn’t quite fit in, but now I know it is because I do not have all the same values and beliefs to be literate in spanish. I think this also relates to Gee’s discussion of primary vs secondary Discourses.
Also, my academic work has noticed a difference in literacy due to the idea of bullshit. I see a lot of bullshit in my work that I wish wasn’t there. When I feel myself trying to sound more intelligent in an academic subject than I really know I worry I am bullshitting my work. It has made me take a lot more time to research the subject material, because I know it won’t benefit me to get by in school, only to go out in the world and have no idea what I am talking about.
Overall, I feel that Gee has influenced my idea of literacy the most, with his discussion of discourses. The other articles have taught me how literacy affects most aspects in my life. I believe literacy is more than just a definition of knowing how to read and write, but more of an “identity kit” (borrowing words from Gee).
HOW you feel your ideas about literacy, education, and the *writing itself- Lucia Torres
ABRIDGED version = LAST 3 PARAGRAPHS. (Everything else just provides context; may be unnecessary ;-) )
Several years ago, I “dropped out” of school. Feeling uneasy about my decision, I wrote a journal entry around that time detailing the “intangible strengths” (as I had called it then) I possessed and had gained through my partial undergraduate education. While lamenting the idea that I would fend through my future without even a 4-year degree, I counted my qualities that I felt would ensure that I would not be without “opportunities.” The qualities I numbered off where my own amateur renderings of many of the forms of “reading capital” defined within the Compton-Lilly reading.
It wasn’t without guilt that I acknowledged that—although I was embarking on a struggle (trying to “make it” without completing my degree)—I was privileged. I was privileged in the way that I was relatively rich in “capital”—particularly, to use Compton-Lilly’s terms, in ‘embodied reading capital’ and ‘economic reading capital’ (I owned and had read a lot of the “right” books, and also had a laptop/internet access, which I could use to help replace the ‘social reading capital’ I was depriving myself of by dropping out of school). I felt that my ‘objectified reading capital’ was above average for non-academic settings; I acknowledged that I would still stand out as a more attractive “choice” to many employers when compared against other applicants who may have only a high school education—or less—or who may possess stigmatized qualities of marginalized communities. Though I didn’t believe I would be completing my education at the time, I knew that I “seemed” educated, and that it would be a vital advantage to me without a college degree. I had titled this journal entry “Survivor’s Guilt.”
This “survivor’s guilt” has long existed in me, though in less conscious ways. When I was an elementary student at MPS, I was often favored by my teachers, and I was a special favorite of the principal of the school (he pulled me out of my fifth-grade class one day to commend my writing abilities and to encourage me to develop them). At the time, as a child, I had an awareness that I had advantages that many of my classmates didn’t (being from a white family that raised me under a lot of middle-class influences). Even in my own family, as the oldest child, my dad told me that he and my mom read to me continuously for the first few years of my life. They tried to do the same with my brother, but, since he was the second child, they didn’t have as much time to read to him as they had to me. My sister, as the third child, had even less reading time with my parents. My dad commented to me that he noticed a trend, and worried that it was because of the different amounts of reading attention each of us had received: I was the best and most enthusiastic reader, while my brother had a lukewarm interest in reading, and my sister wasn’t very interested at all. As a child, I felt simultaneously lucky and concerned for my siblings.
As I got older, though, I began to take these advantages in my early life for granted, and for awhile believed that I had a special inherent “skill” or “gift” for reading and writing. My pride flared in sixth grade, when my mom reported that my Language Arts teacher had praised my reading comprehension at parent-teacher conferences, and had noted that I was the only student in the class to make frequent use of the classroom library. In high school, I was able to ‘effortlessly’ get high grades on many of my papers and reports, thanks to my ability to produce papers high in ‘objectified reading capital.’ I finished high school, and began college, cultivating an ‘elitist’ attitude about reading. I felt a sense of superiority for “naturally gravitating” to more complex texts with high social status—texts that many of my peers had no interest in, and didn’t seek out themselves. I felt a sense of superiority for finding meaning and enjoyment in assigned texts that my peers didn’t seem to have much of an appreciation for (or understanding of). I began to enjoy referencing texts that were unfamiliar to most of my peers—admittedly, I enjoyed the feeling of displaying my exclusive knowledge, and forming cliquish bonds with people who shared it.
Thankfully, UWM promotes more progressive views about education. While I think I am, deep-down, NOT someone who generally desires to dominate over others, I think in my first year of college, I was impressionable enough that I could have been consumed by these immature, elitist attitudes if I had happened to attend to a school that encouraged them. As time went on, I found myself in classes that were impressively pretty even-handed in applying value to the contributions of all class members, despite the relative “reading capital” they may (or may not) have possessed in our classroom. I began to see that my teachers in the English Department weren’t searching for the “right” answer so much as they were trying to teach students to engage with texts, and derive their own meanings from them in their own ways. I saw that independent thinking was valued above “elitist” and “exclusive” attitudes and behaviors.
This class has absolutely fortified, and has definitely expanded, the more temperate regard I have taken towards reading and writing (and therefore “literacy”) in the past several years. I am extremely thankful for that, too, as someone who is pursuing a degree in English Lit. Throughout the course of the semester, I have been confronted with articles that have promoted the idea that reading/writing is more valuable and successful when it is accessible (or made accessible) to a diverse number of people. Academic writing and criticism about canonical literature can easily feed a student’s inclination to try and ‘mimic’ the specialized language, therefore contributing to sustaining it (the specialized language) and enforcing it. Before reading the articles particularly by Bartholomae, Eubanks & Schaeffer, and Gee, I think I would have based my academic “career” more closely off of standards long-sustained by ‘academia,’ without fully realizing the ways that I would be limiting myself, and limiting the potential I have to communicate ideas to others.
To date, the most valuable reading to me personally has been the one by Compton-Lilly. This article has fully addressed the intuitive sense of “privilege” I have acknowledged about my own literary abilities, and I think that reading it has forever put to rest any lingering advantage or favor I may have been prescribing to ‘high’ reading capital in others, and therefore dismissing what I perceive to be ‘lower’ reading capital. It has helped me realize the extent to which society excludes people for many superficial reasons. Compton-Lilly's case study has helped me the most to understand that “literacy” is not static, and should not be something that is gauged and used to define and categorize (and therefore limit) a person; rather, it is something fluid, subjective, and interactive, and my job, as someone who wants to base a profession off of writing and reading, will be to join in enabling others to connect with my writing, as well as other writings I am (or will become) knowledgeable about. I am happy to say that the misguided aspirations of my 18-year-old self (reminiscent of a young Richard Rodriguez!), to ascend to some “higher” level in society, and isolate myself from everything beneath it, are dead. They have been replaced by a more constructive and inclusive way of writing-doing-being-valuing-believing in the world. :-)
(thirtyspokes=Sarah Miller)