Dierde Glenn Paul

I agree with Paul that rap can and should be used to bridge the cultural gap in classrooms. However, I think it should be noted what we are expecting teachers to do here. Nowadays teachers have to be attuned culturally to students who vary in socioeconomic status, race, gender, and most importantly age. Paul does not put the proper emphasis on the age factor. I am a 26 year old white middle class male aspiring to be a teacher and I bump Lil Wayne in my car. The problem is that 30 years from now Lil Wayne might be considered "tired" and maybe even rap in general may lose its cultural appeal to the youth of the future. My stereo will still probably be living in the age I grew up in. What will I do then to identify with this new crop of youth and whatever kind of music they listen to? Maybe I don't have to enjoy it, but I would respect it and seek to understand it. I enjoyed youth culture in school and I feel that I have a unique stance on issues like using rap in the classroom since I am still fairly young. My ability to understand youth culture is not because I listen to the same type of music, or went to the same places, or enjoyed the same things, but also due to the fact that I understand youth culture is generalized and misunderstood by older generations. Does this mean I have to keep my ear to the ground about what kids enjoy? In short, Paul would say yes and I would agree. As teachers we are responsible for keeping up with an ever-changing and diverse youth culture. Whether it is rap or heavy metal or whatever it is kids nowadays are interested in teachers need to know this stuff and be able to connect it to the classroom. I feel Paul's exercises she gave to teachers were fascinating. They engaged teachers in dialogue about an aspect of youth culture they may or may not be familiar with. In this case it is of course rap, but I feel Paul's exercises could apply to much more. Teachers need exercises like this to help them understand youth culture.

Project Blog

My project seeks to identify the authorities on the literacy of golf and then analyze how and in what ways these authorities influence this particular literacy. After collecting data on what constitutes an authority on the literacy of golf, it will also compare and contrast these authorities to other authorities of academic and other literacies.
Research gathered from my initial interviews shows that the qualifications for being considered an authority on a given literacy vary from person to person. Essentially, authorities can be defined as a person or group that is recognized as such in some way by their respective literary communities. The people I interviewed have indicated that an expert on the literacy of golf is someone who, in some way, no matter how big or small, is seen by the golfing community as an authority. They also admit that the greater the acknowledgement is within the community that that this particular person or group is indeed an authority, then the greater the power they carry. Acceptance and acknowledgement are two key factors in that not only identify authorities, but also determines an authorities degree of influence. The compiled list of authorities on golf, according to the people interviewed are as follows: former and current pro and amateur golfers, club pros and teachers of golf, groundskeepers, caddies, anyone passionate about the sport, anyone that plays golf on a regular basis or played golf  for a long period of time regularly, people who play in tournaments frequently, sellers/manufactureres of golf equipment, people who exhibit skill in golf, people who simply enjoy playing golf, family, and friends. My research then turns to how and in what ways these authorites have influenced my interviewee directly. Almost all of the people I interviewed have immulated or still immulate a pro golfer in some way. Some have bought golf equipment because it was endorsed by particular golf pro, or at the recommendation of someone they percieved as an authority on golf.         

7A Reading Don't Fix No Chevys

The “Meet the Crew” interchapter sections in Reading Don’t Fix no Chevys where authors Smith and Wilhelm capture the voices of the kind of young men teachers can, will, and should expect see in classrooms all across America. Each of these young men’s stories was reminiscent of someone I knew from my experience as a student in school. I knew guys like Aaron who were smart and applied to great colleges like MIT, but rejected school type reading. Brandon could have easily been any one of my fellow male English classmates who “buys into the nature of school” yet asks why when his English teacher assigns him books like Shakespeare. I imagine every school has a young man just like Joe who refuses to participate in discussion and hates reading yet excels in math. Some of my male classmates had expertise in areas that I felt should have, but did not translate into academic success in English. Young men like Barnabas who show aptitude for computers and video games or Rev who displays a passion for archaeology, history, and philosophy. Bambino is another example of a young man that could have been one of my buddies in school and who falls under this category. He writes an encyclopedia of wrestling moves in his notebook, but when it came to classroom reading and writing he did the bare minimum. I knew a Bam as well. That is I knew a young man like him, who claimed to write frequently just not at school and felt more comfortably expressing himself through a computer. Male adolescent literacy experts, Smith and Wilhelm deserve the attention of all educators and I think we have a lot to learn from them.  

Deborah Brandt Articles

"Accumulating Literacy" and "Sponsers of Literacy" by Deborah Brandt are based on hundreds of interviews in which people all over the United States discuss their memories of learning to read and write. These articles are interesting because they give us a glimpse into the lives of real people from all walks of life. We meet people like the "May Family" and "Charles Randolph" (1948) who show us how literacies accumulate through the generations. "Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez (1969) show us the role sponsers of literacy play in the lives of two people from diverse backgrounds. Brandt talks about how literacices 'pile up' and 'spread out'. Literacies pile up because old ones linger while new forms appear and they coexist in the present. What Brandt talks about how literacies have 'spread out', I belive she is refering about the evolution of America's economy over the past century. Americans has moved from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation to the service and iformation age. Many of the interview reflect we are now living in the Age of Information where literacy is vital in getting a job. The "May Family" prove many of Brandt's ideals to be true. "Genna May", and her recollections show a form of literacy characteristic of her time period. "Genna" was the daughter of immigrants, she lived on a farm, and spoke no English. She talks about boarding in order to receive her education. Learning to write marked the end of her education and she talks about having little reason to write. Her grandson "Sam May" (1925) was raised in a literacy of 'gentility and upward mobility'. He mentions the social stigma that existed between correctness of speech and 'good breeding'. "Sam" reminisces about the occasional Sunday dinner with the pastor where he was expected to speak properly. "Sam's" account lends truth to the claim that an illiterate person was anti social or immoral. Literacy had begun as an 'avenue to morality' early in history. Now people equate literacy to morality itself. Another interesting part of "Sam's" interview is when he talks about how raido and television influenced writing and male literacy learning during WWII. The "Charles Randolph" interview says alot about biblic and civic forms of literacy."Charles" is a southerner, son of a preecher, and an African American. He remembers adopting his fathers methods in reading, writing, and thinking.

Gender, Advertising, and Magazines 6

Adding to Ong's idea that writing divides, Damon-Moore and Kaestle pose that gender has influenced magazines and advertising since their inception. The article contains a history of a magazine that exemplifies how women were the largest target audience in the magazine market, The Ladies Home Journal. The Journal was highly successful for a century because their marketing strategy. Not only was the Journal for women, but also directed its advertising toward women. Damon-Moore and Kaestle state that this is because women were seen and thought of as the major consumers of goods at the time. The article continues with a history of The Saturday Morning Post, a magazine which started out to reach the significantly smaller male magazine market and became a family magazine. Then, the discussion shifts to men's magazines. Although the top grossing magazines tend to be geared towards women, special interest magazines have come to attract male readers. Playboy is mentioned and the article reveals that Hugh Hefner's careful selection of what advertisers he would allow in his magazine accounted for his success. The article briefly discusses the impact television had on major magazines. Advertising on televison became the fad and magazines lost much of their luster for advertisers. Ms exemplifies the modern woman's magazine and also the contradictions that come with it. Ms is a  magazine that was at the mercy of advertisers who they had attacked in the past for stereotyping men and women. In order to remain viable, Ms had to compromise their feminist principles. Ms highlights the fact that the relationship between advertising and magazines is powerful and seemingly infinte. In concluding their article, Damon-Moore and Kaestle talk about how the history of popular reading material reflects a society divided by gender. Magazines tell us what we are and what we should be. They reinforce sterotypes about men and women and impose mainstream gender roles on the masses.

How We Learn 5a Charney-Flower

Charney's article is directed at psychologists, educators, scholars, "designers of hypertext", and "those who learn to read". I feel The Effect of Hypertext on Processes of Reading and Writing  contains a fascinating compilation of research that explores how the modern tool of hypertext can be designed to improve the way we learn through reading. After reading this article I found myself thinking about the sci-fi movie, The Matrix. In the film, human beings are able to learn through a machine in mere seconds. I think Chaney's article, not to the same extreme, evokes ideas about maximizing learning potential. What if we could tap this potential, turn novice into expert and student into scholar with the push of button? The appeal to modern ways of learning such as hypertext is not only effectiveness or that that they cater to the learner, but also the speed and ease with which they teach. As an aspiring teacher I am somewhat frightened by Charney's article because it makes me ask myself will there be a time in which teaching will be a dead occupation. While I don't see a computerized monopoly on learning in  my lifetime, it seems foolish to think that such a thing is not plausible. It is unnerving to see how the roles of teachers are shrinking as we as a society become more dependent on technology, like hypertext, that is designed around improving the ways we learn. I began to understand why some of my past teachers were so insistent when they pronounced to the class that they were not babysitters. The aim to put a computer in every classroom in America highlights how hypertext and similar technologies are rapidly becoming an integral part of learning process.

Writing as a Technology- Weekly Writing 4b Baron

Baron takes Ong's idea that writing is a technology and elaborates. Baron gives a history of the technological innovations that have had a significant impact literacy. He begins by defending technology, the computer in particular, against anti-technological groups. Baron's use of the Lead Pencil Club as an example of how new technologies are often met with fear, skepticism, or outright rejection is especially appropriate given the articles focus on writing technology. It is difficult for some to imagine, but at one time, the pencil was a cutting edge innovation.  Baron shows the sytematic rejection of literacy technologies and writing itself by society.  Baron argues that in the early stages of writing history, writing was percieved as untrustworthy. Writing earned a reputation as dirty trick to steal land. In a world where very few people were literate, it is easy to see how writing could be utilized for sinister purposes . Baron tells us that the acceptance of these new technologies is a key component in determining how they effects us. When we examine the histories of technoligical innovations such as the pencil, telephone, and computer, then we can accuratly determine their impact. A history on the tools writers use such as Baron gives us in this article is fascinating to me.