The Nineteenth- Century Origins of Our Times by Harvey J. Graff

In this critical essay Graff gives a historical context on how literacy and the formal teachings of literacy came about in the 19th century. Graff depicted literacy as having non liberating influences. Those few who were literate in early America in the 19th century were limited in their use literacy and the majority of the country was illiterate. He states that “Literacy was used for order, cultural, hegemony, work preparation, assimilation and adaptation, and instillation of a pan-Protestant morality; in addition it contributed to work and wealth.” Early on education was used for moral and religious development and the most important thing taught in school were moral and civic duty. Mass education was seen as salvation to maintain social stability and progress. There were two schools of thoughts when it came to providing education for the poor. There were the “Optimists” who believed in educating the poor so that they can have a chance to rise up from their situation and enhance their opportunities to participate politically in society. Then we have the “Pessimists” who also wanted to educate the poor, but not in the way the “optimist” would. They wanted to keep the poor in their present status and educate them in accepting their inferiority. In the mid 19th century literacy was viewed as a skill it “was and advantage but not a requirement for life and for learning the ways of society.
Education as a whole was seen as a way to teach mortality. Moral bases of literacy were a way for young people to assimilate “to the hegemony of the dominant culture.” The ideology of public education was driven toward order, discipline, rationality, and specialization. Although people were becoming literate reading was not done often and what little that people did read was not “approved” literature mainly consisting of fiction, cheap books, and street literature. Graff touches base on how reading was a social exercise, even when people did solitary reading they were expected to share what they read. There were some problems in the acquisition of literacy in the school institution for children. These included “problems of physical conditions, attendance, teacher ability, and instructional method often militated against effective early learning and the development of proficiency in literacy. The problem in teaching was that in basic reading some teachers were all for teaching the alphabet first and some were for teaching words first. This in turn confused the students they were reading but not understanding what it was that they were reading so reading comprehension was thrown out the window.
Graff points out that there was a mass amount of illiteracy in African Americans in the 19th century. This is a result of slavery, oppression and discrimination. It was illegal to teach African American slaves how to read and write. A handful out of the plantation will know some form of reading or writing and these were usually the slaves that worked in the house and were close to their owners. These literate slaves were highly regarded in their community and were sought after to teach what little they knew to others secretly. To African Americans literacy was a form of freedom and freed slaves sought to gain education. Blacks struggled the most in their quest to acquire literacy; whites opposed them getting an education. There were many impediments that included white resistance, shortage of teachers, of funds and facilities and some could not afford the loss of a child’s labor. Many African Americans continued to fight on and “continue to maintain their faith in education… [and] their commitment to the ideology of improvement and advancement in American society.” The “new immigration” of the late 19th and early 20th century brought about a whole new wave of European immigrants to the United States. Europe had gone through education reform and the majority of immigrants that immigrated to the Stated were literate. Literacy was viewed instrumentally as a way of economic gain. Education for immigrants was targeted so that the newcomers would be part of the melting pot. Some resisted and educated themselves in their own ways and traditions. “In their educational strategies, immigrant groups responded differently, and in the process they shaped their own accommodations to the dominant culture.

Out with the Old in with the New

Sponsors of Literacy: Claudia

How is literacy successful on its own? Can we separate evaluate literacy as an individual rather than seeing it as an economical development? How does literacy differ from individual to individual? Does socio economic standing affect the way we attain literacy? There are many factors as to how we individually develop literacy. Due to, the variety of our backgrounds no one person learns literacy in the same way. We all acquire it differently and when we all come together into society, we are in different levels and have different attributes to offer.

In order, to individualize literacy we need to explore what factors play a fact into it. One is the influence of sponsors. Sponsors “are a tangible reminder that literacy learning throughout history has always required permission, sanction, assistance, and coercion, at minimum, contact with existing trade routes. Sponsors are delivery systems for the economies of literacy, the means, by which these forces present themselves to and though individual learners” (556). Hence, through sponsorship we can witness how the equilibrium of literacy is unbalanced.

Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions by Shirley Brice Heath

As people turn to literacy, oral tradition habits are lost. Oral tradition is said to tell meaning without starting it. On the other end of the spectrum language in the literate tradition tells the meaning explicitly. The expository essay is a great example of the literate tradition. Formal education, scholarship, is what has driven us in the countinuous direction of oral tradition to literate tradition. To examine where a particular community lies in the oral or literate traditions one must look at the literacy event. “A literacy event is any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes ”. Heath observes how literacy events are very different in context, from filling job applications to handing out handouts as a girl scouts do. She goes on to say that “There are more literacy events which call for appropriate knowledge of forms and uses of speech events than there are actual occasions for extended reading or writing.”
The community of Trackton was observed in their language use. In this community all adults can read and write and hold respectability for literacy. Literacy events in the written language uses were observed here. The adults did not explicitly read to the children but answered questions that the children asked about messages in writing. The children told stories modeled on the oral tradition of the adults. Storytelling is an integral part of the children’s lives and are triggered by the stimuli in their environment. Heath gives the example of a two year old boy who tells about a day at church. He was inspired to tell his story by a distant bell sound. The sound of the bell works as the stimulus to his spontaneous storytelling.
Adults in this community read and write socially. These literary events took place in many purposes; they were instrumental, interactional, news-related, confirmation based, for provision of permanent records, memory supportive and as substitutes for oral messages. Literacy events were also observed in church at the community and showed how messages are said differently orally and written out. A prayer delivered by a school teacher was observed, the written out one was very simple in writing and formal. The oral delivered speech was very informal and more elaborate. Heath notes the differences in both events in their use of formulaic vocatives, in the expression of Personal Involvement. She notes the difference in the expression of sentence structuring and the informality of the oral delivery. Heath points out that the “… meaning of words people carry with them depends on the integration of those words into personal experience.” At the workplace adults in the community are not required to practice their literary skills as well as in formal institutions such as a bank. In the end Trackton community members show their understanding of written materials through oral means. They do not solely fall within the literate or oral traditions, but in both.
Posted by Isabel

From Outside In

What constitutes “correct” language from “improper” language?

As we have learned through personal experience or through classroom exposure written and oral language differs in a multitude of contexts. According to Barbara Mellix, “a complicated relationship between language and power may require a new awareness of what is proper in each community”. Hence, the type of social surrounding us at any specific moment constitutes and shapes the language for that specific time. For instance, if I am at school I will use adequate language however, when I am in my comfort zone with my peers, I can relax and use a less scholarly type of language. Many people face this specific type of predicament. The difference in proper and improper language makes it hard for many to communicate thus, creating a gap between communitites. It almost seems that ebonics and such types of communication is dominating up to the point of Mellix, "teachers teaching standard English but used black English to do it." It seems almost amazing what teachers have to do to teach proper English, but this is the only way to get the students to understand what the teacher is trying to explain.

Richard Rodriguez Reading

The reading is an excerpt from Richard Rodriguez book and he starts talking about his education. When people would ask him how he was able to get so far in life, Richard would say it was because of the school he went to and the support he had at his house. But at home Richard would have trouble getting help from his parents because of the language barrier. When he would just focus on reading everyone would make jokes about how he doesn’t play outside. Richard says that the reason he was so successful in school was because he couldn’t forget how school was separating him from the life he use to love. Leaving the life that he enjoyed for a successful education was “the loss” for Richard.

Richard goes on to reference Hoggart’s writing and how similar it was to his own life. In Hoggart’s writing there’s an explanation to how the school and home life are culturally opposites. For the child to understand the school culture they have to be more alone and let go of some of the family’s ethos, and the students who do this are called “scholarship boys.” It would be easier for a child doing this at a young age but when the child is a “working class child” it would be difficult because the classroom would make the child discourage their parents. To the working-class children everything their parents do will be perceived differently than how the scholarship boys see their parents. Scholarship children will feel embarrassed about their parents and try to make a teacher a father figure.

In the reading, Richard Rodriguez understands that he’s a scholarship boy and talks about how he didn’t like how his relationship with his family was disappearing because of his education. He started to get embarrassed by the lack of education that his parents had and never noticed their “enormous native intelligence.” He felt that everything he was reading was only for the ability to say that he’s read that book. Rodriguez says that the scholarship boy only looks at life as “unromantic and plain” and all his ideas are “clearly borrowed.” He says that the scholarship student is a bad student, a mimic, and that they only reach nostalgia at the end of their schooling.

Autobiography #6

Daily routines and circumstances guide me in certain situations. As I go through my daily rituals my language changes automatically. There are many cultures, which I am involved with that effect, my communications skills. Cultures like texting, emails, school, work, friends, all require different verbal and written skills. As I tested my self through the week, I realized that when I encountered a different setting my language changed intuitively and at other times automatically. For instance, when I am at home I have to be respectful towards my parents and set a good example for my younger sibling, hence I am careful as to what words to use. However, other times when I’m having lunch with my friends right before class or work my language use is “non-proper” and when I arrive at school or work my language changes intuitively. The same process occurs over written communication. The time where I find it most difficult is when I’m texting a friend and then I try to type and email or essay. Why? Well because most of my communications is done over text messages that when I try to transcend into professional mode it’s hard at times. I usually have to go back and check my work due to me using “u” (texting lingo) instead of “you” (proper English). Despite the daily rituals in which I am involved in I always successfully manage to switch from one mode to the next whether it be automatically or intuitively.

Autobiiography #3

Autobiography by Claudia Villalobos

Literacy has a riveting way of affecting its audience. Music, poetry, and novels influence many people. The one specific book, which influenced me, is Raisin in the Sun. This book in particular, focuses on the diversity among the Americans regarding racial and ethnic backgrounds. Despite, the novel focusing on racial issues, the book also hints at being able to fit into the American society. This book is crucial for adolescent classes to read because it helps students relate to certain themes in the book, like trying to fit in with their peers at school. As a high school student, many try to figure their identity in order to fit “in” with the crowd. I can remember many students trying to be someone else in order to have others approve of them as individuals, however, the book emphasizes on standing up for what you believe is right for you and your individuality. What will help you grow within your self? And ones you have figured out your voice it will be hard to break you down. Through this book, I realized that everyone counts as an individual and individuality is important despite what anyone says. When you stand firmly by what you believe not only do you become stronger, but are also less afraid of expressing your point of view.

Books did not really fit in my childhood until I was about in fourth grade. When I was in fourth grade, I started requesting more books to read. My favorite part of the week at school was when the scholastic order forms came in. I seriously wanted to get all the books, and progressively I began to build my own little library of books in my room. From then on, my parents realized that reading was vital to my education and they soon began an SSR time within the household. I was fortunate enough to have my parents push me as a child and we kept the tradition of SSR for my younger sibling. Aside from reading books, my dad used to read the newspaper to us in Spanish and English. Not only did we read the newspaper for the literature part of it, but it also helped us keep up to date with daily events.

The last book I read with real enjoyment was the Black Dahlia. I enjoy reading books that involve me resolving a mystery. I love mystery and murder books. I’m completely normal I promise, I’m just simply drawn to books that have to do with people blowing each other up. I’m more inclined to those books because they hold truth in them, however, in romantic books like Jayne Ere (even though I love the novel), the scenarios are ridiculous. Perhaps because all of the scenes within the novel seem to be overly dramatic.

Autobiographical Blog #5

The first time that my language skills made me feel important was during my fifth grade year at Woodworth Elementary. I had to deliver a speech during the promotional ceremony because my teacher had made me valedictorian of the class. The theme of the promotional ceremony was “Wonderful World,” so I tried to center my speech around that theme. I don’t quite remember what I wrote but I remember that the year was 1999 and the new millennium was approaching. I based my speech in how we should build a wonderful world into the new millennium or something around those lines. My fifth grade teacher helped me with editing but mostly the speech was of my own making. Not only did I write the speech in English, but I also translated it into Spanish and that made me feel powerful. At that moment I was glad that I was well educated in both languages. The circumstances in which I was picked to give the speech also made me feel good. I was an English learner through most of my elementary years. Graduating at the top of my class and delivering a speech that I had written in two languages was a gratifying experience. The day that I gave the speech and was applauded by my parents, classmates, and teachers was one of the best days of my life and I felt elated. I no longer felt disabled as I had through most of my elementary years because of my lack of language skills. My hard work had paid off and I felt like I belonged.
Posted by Isabel.

Autobiography week 4

Memory Lane

By: Claudia Villalobos

Seventh grade in junior high was a difficult transition for me. It became difficult to assimilate into the norms and expectations of a Junior High student. My most difficult class was English; I detested grammar with a passion. Due, to disliking my seventh grade, specifically my English class I had a negative connotation about the upcoming school year. As I entered my eight grade year at Upland Junior High, I was not enamored with English, hence I began class with a bad attitude towards it. I will never forget my first day of class, Ms. Pimentel was my English teacher. She was very encouraging, fun, and positive towards all of us. I felt as though she cared about our learning and she was the type of teacher to stay late in order to help her students progress. She helped me open myself up to literacy throughout the school year. A specific proud moment was during a competition the teacher held. The competition was an essay competition. This was turning point for me in my English career. At the specific moment when trying to compose my essay, I realized the beauty of writing. The many ways I can express my ideas appealed to me. Right then I knew English was for me. I was so excited when I finished my essay I went back to my seventh grade teacher to tell her about it. She was very proud of the hard work I have put into English over the past year. English became a beautiful way of inner expression filling the empty lines of a piece of paper.

Week 5: Look Out For The Hormigas!

The first time that I felt good about my language abilities was when I was transferred to a bilingual class in my first grade. I’ve mentioned before that when I started off first grade I was placed in a class that only used in English so I was struggling. I remember being in that classroom and not having a clue of what was going on or how to do any of the work. I would start to freak out because I would see that everyone in the class was doing the work just fine and I was the only one looking at other people’s paper or asking them questions. Being in that class and believing that I was the only one struggling made me feel like I was stupid. Even when I would hang out with the kids from the class I couldn’t communicate with them clearly. There was a moment when I saw a lot of red ants next to me I said out loud “Look out for the hormigas.” All the kids were looking at me like I was crazy but when I pointed at the ants they all understood me. One day when the class was watching a Pinocchio movie (that wasn’t made by Disney) the teacher took me outside with all of my stuff and walked me to another classroom. I was told that I was being placed in the new class because it would be better for me.

At first I was mad because I wasn’t going to be with my friends anymore and because I wasn’t going to finish watching the weird Pinocchio movie. So in my first day of class I noticed that the teacher was talking in Spanish and English and so were all the other kids. When we would do activities in the classroom I had no problem understanding what we were doing and I was participating a lot. When we would focus on the English aspect of the classroom activities, it felt like everything was going at my pace. I started to become really close to all of the kids in the classroom because we were all in the same situation and had a lot of things in common.

In this class my language abilities were used to their full potential and they were being improved. I was learning more about Spanish and improving my English with a lot of kids that were just like me. That class made me feel important because I had the knowledge of two different languages. It helped me believe that I can put two different things together and that they can coexist.

The New Literacy Studies By Brian Street

Brian Street sheds new light in the way that literacy is studied. Street begins by giving a definition of literacy; as the social practices and conceptions of reading and writing. He explains how one can be biased when we think about literacy because we have different views on literacy that we have derived from our own culture. This assumptions make us impose our own “cultural practice into other people’s literacies”. Street seeks to show how literacy is an ideological term. In doing so he notes two different models in which literacy is viewed. The first is the “Autonomous” Model, which treats literacy as independent of social context. The second model is the “Ideological” Model which recognizes the cultural practices that are associated with reading and writing in different contexts.

The autonomous model of literacy shows that social development and progress in individual cognitive processes are a result of literacy. Meaning that written thought gives literacy its distinctive properties namely that it is used as a neutral tool. Increased autonomy in literacy has led to radical change. Street points out that this model creates a problem because it pins what he calls a “great divide” between modern and traditional societies. This made Street to look for a new model and this is where the “Ideological” Model emerged from. In the Ideological model, the ethnographer has to interpret power, authority, and social differentiation in literacy. Street says that an ethnographic study is biased and it’s better to show what ideologies are hidden behind them. He points out that it ideologies remain hidden behind the observation it will be difficult for that observation to be Scrutinized, challenged and refined. Street offers a definition of ideology as, “ the site of tension between authority and power on one side and resistance and creativity on the other.” This tension is observed in different cultural practices, this includes language and literacy. The ideological model understands literacy as it is practiced within the culture and does not deny technical skill or cognitive aspects of reading or writing. The model enables one to think about the concept of oral and literate practices as a cross-cultural unit rather than comparing literacy and orality in another divide.

Street derived the Ideological Model from linguistics and anthropology, showing that these two forms of methodologies replace the concept of the “great divide” with discourse analyses. From these emerges new approaches to literacy. These approaches are “literacy events,” “literacy practices,” and “communicative practices.” Literacy events are occasions in which writing is an essential part of the participant’s interactions and interpretive processes. Literacy practices refer to both behavior and concepts related to reading and writing. Communicative Practices are seen in social activities where language or communication is produced. The discourse in anthropology and linguistics then refers to “the complex of conceptions, classifications, and language use that characterize a sub-set of an ideological formation.” In observing discourses it is crucial to show what is correct and what is meaningless. To do this there is a need for a method that can be sensitive language better than ethnography has been. With this Street concludes that when the ethnographic method is intertwined with an emphasis on ideological and power processes it can be successful in being sensitive to social context.

Posted by Isabel

Califronia Standards

In the start of the reading we are giving some background as to why the students have to take standardize testing. It was created from the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act and the tests are suppose to show “the level of competence at each grade level.” These standardize tests are seen as a “framework” that teachers, school administrators, and parents could follow together. Since all of them want to support the student’s progress the standards are a way for all of them to come to a consensus. The framework of the standards also brings the curriculum to students who have special-need, disabilities, English language learners, and students who are at risk at failing.

For the standards to work there needs to be a discipline in four different categories: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. To the standards, language skills are used for the human spirit to be “enriched and preserve the collective memory of a nation.” They don’t believe that language skills are just for learning and career development so it has to come together in the classroom. To broaden the students range in reading, the standards suggest that students should read a wide range of quality texts. Doing this will develop their proficiency and will help with writing. Having reading and writing working together seems to be a central idea of the standards and they see it as being very important. In the reading they state that “in an emergency, reading and writing with speed and accuracy may literally mean the difference between life and death.”

The standards make it clear that reading and writing is their “principal goal” when they say that literature helps students experience history and encounter different cultures. When the students have a good form of literacy, the standards wants the students to be able to express their ideas clearly. This all comes back to the idea that the four main categories “exist in relation to each other.” But to make sure that the students don’t get affected in trying to achieve all the goals of the standards there aren’t any alterations for anyone. They don’t want to “deny these students the opportunity to reach them.” So if a school has a certain number of English language learners then the schools “must seize the chance to align special programs to make everyone work toward the same goal.”

Autobiographical: Week 5

My childhood experience with language was easily defined by my ability and willingness to participate in activities that helped shape my language skills; it has eventually led me to an educational career in English. One of the first real experiences that empowered me and intrinsically catalyzed my creativity was a writing assignment that my fifth grade class participated in which asked of us to create a poem about the worst lunch ever, and our teacher gave us creative freedom over the content that we would be writing about. I remember that it took a little bit to figure out what I wanted to write about until I had the first few lines written down, and then my imagination and my hand took over and finished the rest of my interpretation of the worst lunch ever as a 9 year old kid. The lines felt like they were writing themselves and I was merely writing them down, paying close attention to rhyme scheme and content. The most enjoyable part of the assignment was trying to think of the most putrid and grotesque things that could fit inside a small brown lunch bag. Turning the assignment in later, I remembered I was proud of how well I personally thought that my poem had turned out, and how rewarding it was for me to write a whole poem on my own; it made me feel like a true writer to actually get something published at such a young age. Later in that week, it was announced that the top three poems were to be selected out of our class to be published in a book, and I learned that my poem was one of the pieces selected, that feeling and connection with my language and writing abilities deepened and my confidence built up enough from it that it reflected in the quality of my school work and my willingness to learn throughout my public school experience. I feel that this experience has translated into a sustained connection to writing and stories throughout my childhood, and has benefited me through fostering and celebrating my own imagination, and my ability to connect to it creatively.