Class September 8

We spent to the first class getting to know each other, getting an idea about the content of the course, and using methods for "active learning" => where you use analysis of your past experiences as a way to connect to the new terminology and concepts we will cover in the course.

Early literacy experiences.  We started out with talk about your early memories about literacy learning.  We generated a list on the board (I'm sure you've got lots of this in your notes) and then made some observations about how the different activities  provided different kinds of experiences and information with respect to literacies.  For example, tracing letters to learn to write, doing "phonics," doing flash cards and spelling words, even learning grammar rules were about "decoding" = mastering the (imagined) one to one correspondence between literal (lettered) signs and meanings. We also noted that more social activities - like playing school, being read to,and imitating siblings "taught" more interactive, culture-specific features of literacy that were neither explicit (directly stated) nor transparent (clearly 'there' in the same way for all observers).  These two different parts of what literacies are and how they work account for differences between older "autonomous" theories about literacies - and the new literacy theories.

Focus for the course. This talk both served to introduce the focus of the course = exploring what literacies are and how they work - and to spend some time talking through the jargon you will find in the readings.  A second part of what we will be doing in this class is teaching you how to understand academic discourse = the way university researchers use language to represent and explain "the way things are."   As you noticed when we read the opening section to the Heath essay - the "big words" and make it very hard to follow the ideas - and when the ideas are new, it can be almost impossible to "join the conversation."

Analysis of a literacy event.  We talked through the syllabus - both for the sake of going through expectations for this class - and as a way to think about how the syllabus and "going through the syllabus" function as a literacy event.  A literacy event - as set up in Heath's essay is concerned not only with the text itself (so that reading is not only about decoding - and being literate is not only about knowing how the letters make words, and how the words make sentences) - it is also about knowing how you are supposed to think and behave in response to the "use" of a text.  In our discussion we noticed that I talked, and students listened; and that in many ways - the syllabus presentation is about teachers confirming (getting students to - silently- by into) their authority in the classroom.  We used an analysis of the context for the event - "where, when, how, for whom and with what results" we written communication operated within the exchange as a way to understand the different literacies (moves to interpret/make meanings associated with texts) we used in our discussion.

Setting up for a less teacher-centered class.  So - I got a chance to learn some of your names and to talk about literacy research, and you got an introduction to what classes for this course will be like.  Today was sort of lecture-y; in the future you will be doing moe of the talking.  For the next couple weeks I will model how to develop and use the study guides - and then, in groups, you will take turns leading the class. As far as possible, you will get to choose the essays you want to be discussion leaders for - and I will help you with your presentation as much, or as little, as you choose.

Chandler assumptions about literacy.  Because there are many theories about what counts as literacy - and how literacies work - there will be lots of room for discussion.  To be up front about my assumptions - in general, I believe that literacies are social, dynamic, experience-based and largely unconscious; that our literate identities take on age-related patterns as we move through the life course; and that  power - and resistance -  grow out of dominant (enforced) patterns for writing/talk (like academic writing) = and I am not sure where teachers fit in with respect to making language "fair", and what they should be doing to make education more human.

So that's the summary - hopefully the rest is in your notes.

For next class:
Read:   Heath, 443; Ong, 19.
Come to class ready to continue the definition of literacies, and the usefulness of studying "literacy events" and to explore the idea of writing as a technology that restructures thought.

Thanks for the good class today - see you next week.  If you have questions - send me an email at the address listed on the syllabus.