Functioning in an oral based community

I began reading "Protean Shapes in literacy events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions and was drawn to the story about the girl scout. I have myself answered the door to a girl scout and breifly held the order sheet in my hand looking down as if to read her sheet. I also didnt read the folder but listened to the girl scout explain her name, what she was selling, and who it would benefit, even though it was in my hand in print. It is true that many literacy events can be used as speech events. The town Trackton was very interesting to me. In this town, speech is focused on more than writing and reading. Because of this, adults and children are good story tellers. Although, they have no sence of struture because of the lack of familiairity with writing structure. Instead of reading on their own, everyone read together, and discussed orally their problems. Even though it would have taken much less time to breifly read something, they were more comfortable talking it over for an hour or more time. Literacy in Tracton is only justa s a resource. I found Trackton very interesting and it broaden my views on speech literacy.

Writing-technology forgotten

"The fact that we do not commonly feel the influence of writing on our thoughts show that we have interiorized the technology of writing so deeply that without tremendous effort we cannot seperate it from ourselves or even recgnize its presence and influence." Not until after reading Ong's essay "Writng is a technology that restructures thought" did I really considering writing a technology. Plato was oppressive towards writing and believed it would hurt us as individuals in the long run. Plato's Socrates warned people that writing is unresponsive. You can not defend your writing after someone reads it. It is left out in the open. In a way I agree with Plato that while talking you are able to defend and explain what you are saying. But I also love to write because it's a way to get my thoughts out. A lot of things I write in my journal for soccer or just on my own, I would never say to a person through my words.

Plato also discourages writing because he felt that it would decrease your memory. Although this may be true, some of my favorite belongings are letters that are WRITTEN. I have many letters from my mom that are handwritten that I cherish very much. I use these letters as a comfort whenever I feel sad. Letters from my grandma who has passed are filled with memories that I will never get back. So maybe Plato is right, that by writing we loose some of our memory, but I am thankful for the letters I have of my grandma and also of mom that remind me of memories and their love.

Sponsers of Literacy

After reading "Sponsers of Literacy" by Deborah Brandt she really presented ideas I had never considered. Brandt describes "Sponsers" as any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, recruit, regulate, or withold literacy-AND gain advantage by it in some way. The idea of sponsers teaching their literacy to others to benefit themselves was really interesting to me. The example Brandt uses in the book I can relate to. For me, I have been playing soccer since the age of 5 and we have always been given jeresys at the start of each year. Every year the jersey had a logo or "Sponser" on the back, written in large print. This is a great example of acquiring literacy under the banner and benefit of other's cause.

Looking at sponsers closely gives possible answers to the development of individuals ability to read and write.

Discourse Expalined in " Literacy, Discourse, and Lingustics

According to Gee author of "Literacy, Discourse, and Lingustics", Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identiites as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes." I loved the examples Gee gave about being able to use the right language and the right time for your "Discourses" to make sense. Discourse are the combo of using the right language and right gestures in a certain setting where thats what is acceptable and usual. We have different discourses all throughout our day. I have a different discourse at home watching tv with my roommates than I do when I am watching a movie in class. Discourse are learned over time, by individuals that have the specific discourse mastered.

Living Illiterate

After reading the article "The Human Cost of an Illiterate Socitey" by Jonathan Kozol I was reminded of a certain time watching the superbowl. Being a soccer player, I've never really paid attention to the SuperBowl unless the good ole' packers are playing in the bowl. So after watching the SuperBowl a couple years ago, I was drifting off (a common thing during football games) and thought to myself, "Do more people watch the superbowl than vote?" The answer is yes. After researching a little, in 2004 an estimated 144.4 million people watched the 2004 Super Bowl in the United States, while only 122,293,332 people showed up to the polls for the Presidential election ten months later. So it is apparent that voting turnout is a problem in the United States. Another problem is the amount of illerate individuals that don't vote, or are forced to vote based of word of mouth. They are unable to have proper information in written form. The article predicts that if 1/3 of the amount of illiterates were able to read and do math well enough, many elections would have flipped winners.

"Illiterates live, in more than literal ways, an uninsured existence." I was saddened remembering that being illiterate inables you to read instructions on a bottle of prescription medicine, or warnings on different dangerous products. The example at the beginning of the article about draino, shows how dangerous and fatal that product could be to someone unable to read the label before using it.

Reading Literature

"what a school may define as reading may not take account of what students read in various contets other than the classroom." For example, when I was younger I could read novel after novel about my favorite soccer players, and not caring a "darn" about what we were reading in class. If my grades suffered in my school reading classes, teachers would rightfully assume that I couldn't read well. The question of what exactly is a literature or a book is brought up in Swed's article. Handbills, signs, graffiti, sheet music, junk mail, and even sheet music are left out of the category of literature.

Banking concept of Education

In Paolo Friere's "Banking Concept of Education", he says that education is suffering from "narration sickness". Friere lists the the number one result of narration sickness is the memorization of things vesus fully absorbing them into your knowledge. I found this part very interesting because in my currins class we are learning how to avoid teaching this way. In order to have your students fully learn and understand something you have to engage them by relating the lesson to them. This goes againsit the list of how a teacher and student should interact on page 75 of "The Banking Concept of Education." The list includes; "the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing." This is a terrible concept and wont let the student learn a thing. Students feel comfortable learning when they know the teacher is learning as well.