 |
|
|
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Keywords: LiteracyArticles Abstracted from The Right to Literacy by Andrea Lunsford, Helene Moglen, and James Slevin: Theodore R. Sizer. "Public Literacy: Puzzlements of a High School Watcher." 9-12. David Bartholomae. "Producing Adult Readers: 1930-1950." 13-27. Andrea R. Fishman. "Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish." John S. Lofty. "Time to Write: Resistance to Literacy in a Maine Fishing Community." 39- Keith D. Miller and Elizabeth A Vander Lei. "Collaboration, Collaborative Communities, and Black Folk Culture." 50- Anthony Petrosky. "Rural Poverty and Literacy in the Mississippi Delta: Dilemmas, Paradoxes, and Conundrums." 61- C.H. Knoblauch. "Literacy and the Politics of Education." 74- James Thomas Zebroski. "The English Department and Social Class: Resisting Writing." 81- Thomas Holt. "'Knowledge is Power': The Black Struggle for Literacy." 91- acqueline Jones Royster. "Perspectives on the Intellectual Tradition of Black Women Writers." 103- James Moffett. "Censorship and Spiritual Education." 113- Donald Rothman. "Caliban in the Composition Classroom." 120- Harriet Malinowitz. "The Rhetoric of Empowerment in Writing Programs." 152- David Bleich. "Literacy and Citizenship: Resisting Social Issues." 163- Keith Walters. "Language, Logic, and Literacy." 173-188 Deborah Brandt. "Literacy and Knowledge." 189-196 Beth Daniell. "The Situation of Literacy and Cognition: What we can Learn from the Uzbek Experiment." Kathryn Thomas Flannery. "In Praise of the Local and Transitory." 208-214.
xiii) "To be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world." The preface describes the educational theory of Rousseau and pits it against that of Plato. Rousseau believed that basic skills could be taught to children and that these skills were universal to all cultures--a content-neutral education. For Plato, his philosopher-king would choose the entire curriculum, a curriculum designed to control everything students learn, imposing set values on each student. Hirsch finds strengths in both theories but says history also shows their weaknesses. He proposes this book as a compromise between two divergent theories of education. The educational philosophy of John Dewey is taken largely from Rousseau. The content-neutral curriculum assumes that children will learn to generalize. Hirsch argues that specific information is a necessary part of learning "language arts skills" (111). One example Hirsch uses is a passage describing Grant and Lee. Junior College students had difficulty in comprehending the passage, not because the vocabulary was beyond them--they understood the meanings of all the words--but they did not know the context of the passage. They did not know enough about the Civil War to understand what was being said. Hirsch also notes that the reading skills of advantaged and disadvantaged six-year olds is very nearly equal. The two groups diverge only when "critical knowledge" are needed to understand and interpret what is being read (111). Hirsch's philosophy is simple: It is not possible to use language skills most effectively, nor to think critically, if one does not have a storehouse of facts with which to work that skill. His attempt to define literacy by using a list is the source of most of the criticism directed towards him. And with a list that takes up 64 of 215 pages of text in his book, there are going to be a large number of items on that list which even the most literate persons will not know. Still, if the weakness in this book is the obvious point that any single item on that list could be left out and few would notice, it is the weakness of any list or compilation. If the problem with the book is that a list becomes a tyrant, that does not weaken Hirch's strong argument that specific knowledge is needed to give context and meaning to what one reads. And Hirsch is correct when he states that depriving students of the knowledge with which they can understand the context of what they read locks them into their disadvantaged social class. Depriving students of "traditional" knowledge such as that of the Civil War, also means that these students will be locked out of a large amount of writings. Oblique references to the Civil War will have no meaning. Does the need for knowledge come before the ability to think critically, to use "language arts skills?" Lunsford, Andrea A., Helene Moglen, and James Slevin. The Right to Literacy. New York: MLA, 1991. Introduction: The council on the right to literacy's 4 goals: (1) improving communication between members who teach writing and literature; (2) developing programs, publications, and projects that would improve the teaching and study of both fields and our understanding of the realtion between them; (3) encouraging departments to develop policies adequate to the range of programs within a department; and (4) Identifying ways in which the MLA and the Association of Departments of English can support the teaching of writing and literature in the secondary schools. 2 goals of the Conference on Literacy are to question assumptions about literacy, and to challenge the tendency to fragmentize literacy. Theodore R. Sizer. "Public Literacy: Puzzlements of a High School Watcher." 9-12. Sizer puzzles over the similarities of high schools across the nation, something that should not happen when education is under local control. His buzzword is "public literacy," which refers to the knowledge shared by most Americans and is largely spread through television. He also claims the homogenous education is partially the fault of national standardized tests and a monopolized textbook industry. David Bartholomae. "Producing Adult Readers: 1930-1950." 13-27. "Adult Reader" refers to those adults, usually workers, who read only what and when they wish. Andrea R. Fishman. "Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish." Fishman examines the Amish for their literacy habits. Children learn to read, but less for pleasure and more for functional reasons." The books the children read are carefully selected for content, and the books selected are used because they reinforce their chosen lifestyle. Critical reading is not taught. There is no conflict between what is taught at home and what is taught at school. John S. Lofty. "Time to Write: Resistance to Literacy in a Maine Fishing Community." 39- This is an ethnography of students in a small community. The students resist writing, especially revision which is seen as a waste of time. Because they help at home, homework is resisted also. Students began to take school more seriously when an economic recession made the future in fishing less secure and college a more real possibility. Pedagogical concerns of Lofty include the need to let students manage their own time and work at their own pace (47). This article explores the history of collaborative writing in folk culture as seen in the speeches of Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson. Implications for teaching composition (57) are to: 1) create parallels between group and communal collaboration; 2) broaden the idea of collaboration; 3) use collaboration more frequently; and 4) place collaboration within a historical context. Petrosky discusses the traditional question/answer teaching technique used in rural Mississippi. Questions only ask for facts, not ideas; and the pedagogy is used by long tradition. Teachers who attempt to use different pedagogies find themselves pressured to teach towards the ACT and SAT. C.H. Knoblauch. "Literacy and the Politics of Education." 74- Knoblauch iscusses several definitions of literacy: 1)Functional, where literacy is equated with economic advantage; 2)Cultural, an affirmation of supposedly timeless values and heritage; 3)Liberal Argument, where an attempt is made to speak on behalf of the disadvantaged without attempting to change institutions; and 4)Critical Literacy, the pedagogy of Freire, where literacy is power. Knoblauch uses these definitions of literacy because they represent four popular arguments. More definitions could be provided, but these four demonstrate that no definition of literacy is adequate. Each definition is more a testament to political commitments. James Thomas Zebroski. "The English Department and Social Class: Resisting Writing." 81- Zebroski speculates on why his father, a factory worker, never mentioned his early life or his knowledge of several foreign languages. He speculates that his failure to mention his own blue-collar background to his professional peers constitutes a concession to the status quo. He offers 6 ways to resist that: 1) Prize doubt, making the conflict the source of writing; 2) Nurture skepticism towards advances in the technology of literacy by asking, "who benefits from this?"; 3) Study up on literacy, by looking at the elite class through blue-collar eyes; 4) Make literacy and power a subject of discussion in the classroom; 5) Use texts that challenge notions of good writing; and 6) Use democratic narratives, who controls the myths and stories? Thomas Holt. "'Knowledge is Power': The Black Struggle for Literacy." 91- This is an historical viewpoint on Black literacy from the Civil War. It emphasizes the importance of self-help, which was necessary since Blacks were unlikely to get aid from anyone else. The education system devised by conservative whites gave Blacks only enough knowledge to keep them growing cotton. Holt gives an uplifting story of the sacrifices Black communities made to keep their schools going. Jacqueline Jones Royster. "Perspectives on the Intellectual Tradition of Black Women Writers." 103- The author offers a broad notion of literacy. She quotes Sojourner Truth, "I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations." Literacy and knowledge come through all senses, not just the intellect. James Moffett. "Censorship and Spiritual Education." 113- This is Moffett's story of 1974 Kanawha County, West Virginia when public protests over the new textbooks led to riots. He gives a deferential portrait of the "creek preachers" leading the protests, noting that they were attempting to protect their heritage from an Eastern liberal education. What culture do we want to transmit to children? Moffett notes, "Let's not castigate those bigots over there if we're doing our own version of the same thing" (i.e. censorship). A keyterm is Agnosis, the refusal to learn beyond preconceptions. Donald Rothman. "Caliban in the Composition Classroom." 120- This emphasizes teaching students enough language to allow them to do more than curse, but to engage in dialogue, to use what they know. "The Rhetoric of Empowerment in Writing Programs." 152- Malinowitz attacks the idea that cognitive or process theory methods of teaching writing are not apolitical as Berlin has called them, noting that most process theorists are white and middle-aged. She gives an example from her own school, noting that the white faculty only taught texts that were "teacherproof." That is, teachers used texts which enforced the teachers' values, and eliminated texts which made them uncomfortable or used nonstandard dialects they preferred students not know. She cites Ira Shor on creating a classroom in which authority in the classroom is decentralized. The teacher must give up power, and doing so means that the teacher has "delimited one's worldview." There are several examples of programs using this approach. Each example is unique, implying that the best literacy programs are useful and apply to unique situations. This is another way of saying that is that the dominant style of communication is taught in the context of the community. David Bleich. "Literacy and Citizenship: Resisting Social Issues." 163- Bleich discusses how to deal with social issues (gender, class, race) in the classroom. I don't like Bleich. He uses two case studies to show how student's ideology causes them to resist addressing issues of gender, race, and class. Reading Bleich closely, though, shows that he is guilty of trying to impose his worldview on the students, essentially saying, "They are wrong." Given this approach, the students have no reason to be open to Bleich's ideas. David Bleich. "Language, Logic, and Literacy." 173-188 He essentially says that what is logical is relative to the culture. What is literate depends on the culture. Hyperliteracy--those of us in academics who spend more time reading, writing, and thinking about literacy. Deborah Brandt. "Literacy and Knowledge." 189-196 Brandt discusses the need to separate literacy from texts, because knowledge is not limited to texts. Alexander Luria's Uzbek Experiment examined the changes in literacy and cognition of peasants as they were collectivized in Stalinist Russia. Walter Ong accepts Luria's conclusion that literacy is a cognitive activity. Daniell rejects that position and attempts to contextualize the study by noting the conditions of the time and the gaps in just how the locals were taught to be literate. She concludes that thought and literacy are situational. Kathryn Thomas Flannery. "In Praise of the Local and Transitory." 208-214. Flannery begins with the realization that increased literacy does not necessarily lead to increases in socio-economic status or even more civilized behavior. (sounds like the law of unintended consequences) Flannery calls the belief that increased literacy is automatically good the liberatory model of education. Her alternative is to note that no ethnography is complete, nor completely accurate because communities change. The knowledge we give those communities is given with the cooperation of the community and we cannot control, nor even completely understand, how and why they use that knowledge. This is a humble view of the role of the teacher, as opposed to the more dramatic Friereian liberation pedagogy. Odell notes that a number of theorists have suggested it is time to rethink the basic writing course. What Odell suggests is that we need to rethink the view of literacy on which such courses are based. Academic literacy is examined, as is the literacy of the world and the workplace. The assumptions we hold toward the capabilities of basic writing students, as well as the literacy needs of our students as citizens of the twenty-first-century "information society," must be examined in order to better serve our students in the basic writing classroom. Rethinking literacy is the key to rethinking the basic writing course. While most people equate literacy with the ability to encode and decode, Odell points out that such a view is unreasonable in light of recent theory and research in technical communication. This work points to the communicative power of the text in conjunction with visual elements of the composition--graphs, charts, pictures, and the arrangement of text on the page. The complexity of the composition creates a more engaging literacy practice, one that allows the writer to imagine a real audience composed of real people seeking real information. Such a writing situation is similar to the types of writing done outside of the academy, where people rarely read academic essays, but do read proposals, instructions, brochures, forms, etc. Rethinking our teaching of basic writing courses begins with understanding the range of nonacademic literacy practices people engage in for their personal needs, for their jobs, or for community organizations. Engaging students in writing assignments that take them out of the academic setting and into community based writing is one way of developing literacy practices that will transfer from the academic setting to the larger community. Odell offers several examples of the types of writing assignments students could be offered, as well as a bibliography directing the reader to other sources dealing with community based writing. Winterowd, W. Ross. The Culture and Politics of Literacy. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Introduction: Defines literacy: "Literacy is a relative term. Its meaning depends on individual needs and values and the norms and expectations of the social group of which the individual is a part." Winterowd follows this with a number of examples of literate and illiterate behavior. Ch. 1: The Consequences of Literacy argues that any definition of literacy is a political act because that definition directs the adoption of educational material and the curriculum. This is followed up by a brief history of the development of writing. Ch. 2: How language Works: Some Basic Concepts Ch. 3: Learning: First Language, Second Language Ch. 4: To Read These chapters portray, from a linguistic perspective, the development and workings of language and language skills. Ch. 5: To Learn to Read He discusses problems in learning to read - deafness, dyslexia. He ends with a comparison of E.D. Hirsch's concept of literacy as a body of shared knowledge with Paulo Freire's concept of problem-posing education. Hirsch has strong arguments against the "content-neutral" curriculum of Rousseau and Dewey, but his concept of literacy, embodied as it is in a long list of things literate people know, does not adequately explain the changing nature of what knowledge is necessary for literacy. Against Hirsch, Winterowd gives Friere's problem-posing education as a means of attaining cultural literacy. Friere notes that "culture has no hard and fast parameters, but is continually created by individuals who reinterpret what is and was and who contribute their own works . . ." (99). Literacy, in this way, becomes a continuing dialogue through which culture is made. Ch. 6: To Write Writing is described as a way of thinking, not a physical activity. Writing is a complex process (He takes us through it in detail) which includes the cooperative idea that the writer conveys a semantic intent to the reader. He also brings up Richard Lanham's proposal that there should always be a "play factor" in writing. Ch. 7: To Learn to Write Winterowd gives his description of how the teaching of writing should fit into the K-12 curriculum. Writing instruction should always begin with the purpose for writing, though grammar instruction should be provided before the ninth grade. Ch. 8: The Student and the School Winterowd delineates his pedagogy for literacy, making extensive use of Friere's "Critical Consciousness" and the need for dialogue mentioned above. In the end, Winterowd gives Hirsch credit only for pointing to the need for literacy (all literacy is cultural).
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
