October 25: Selfe & Selfe, and Selfe

We began class by discussing the midterm.  The outcome was a decision to have another midterm - and you could pick your "best" grade to count.  Those of you who are satisfied with the grade for the practice exam, can keep that grade (you don't have to write the second midterm unless you choose to do so).

I will post the question by Friday.  Look it over and come to class with questions.  During the next class, Nov 2, I will review/explain anything you request.  Also - I would like to have some discussion about any study/writing practices you plan to change in light of what you learned from the practice midterm.

The second midterm will be due, before class, as an attachment to an email sent to the course email, on November 9.


Calendar:  As we were planning dates we noticed (and it is so sad that I noticed for the first time) that the dates on the calendar are screwy.  I have revised the calendar and re-posted.  It should make sense now, and I think we still have time for everything.


Final:  Since you are writing a midterm exam to cover readings from the first half of the course, the final exam will only cover readings on digital literacies (from the last part of the course).  In class we will review how you want to re-adjust points. 


Research project: We also talked over the research project.  You will write about some aspect of literacies that interests you - and discuss it in light of the theories we have studied in this course.  You will choose the focus and we will spend some time in class forming strong research questions - and discussing how to connect your topic to literacy theory in a productive ways.  .  The assignment sheet will be posted by next class.

Class list of possible topics: Children’s literature, Learning to read, Autistic learners, e-books = advantage disadvantage, email/chat, age + literacy, social networks, trolling, internet discourses, grading, folklore + literacy, how literacies are taught here at Kean or at some other school you attended, a particular experience you had with literacy that you now see in another light (or can explain in another way).


Selfe & Selfe:  We spent some time on this one.  To make sure you got what you will need for the final - I strongly suggest reviewing the study guide questions + making sure you can "analyze" an interface in terms of the different cultural axes Selfe and Selfe identified: economics; discourse; and rationalism + logocentrism.  Also make sure that you can write into the strategies they identify for "fighting" the ideological  bullying of the interface (look at the headings).   


Selfe:  The importance of paying attention.   
We did not have enough time to spend on this as we could have used.  To make sure you've got the main concepts, I suggest that you review the definitions of the following terms from the essay - and then see if you can use each term in a sentence about PRINT literacies (apply the idea in a new context).  If you can't = raise questions in our next class.

cultural formations

larger cultural narratives of social-progress-through-technology

technological literacy

literacy myth

overdetermined systems

rhetoric associated with national literacy projects

patronizing assumptions about what it means to have difficulties with reading and writing in contemporary society

Also, take a look at the following quotes. Put them into your own words.  Spend some time thinking about what they mean.  Give some particular examples of these ideas in action.  =>For example, what "large-scale literacy projects have you observed (such as getting all Kean freshman to write in academic English and giving them one semester to learn how)?  how did they turn out?

official literacies usually function in a conservative, and reproductive fashion (103)

. . . we have little evidence that any large-scale project focusing on a narrowly defined set of officially sanctioned literacy skills will result in fundamental changes in the ration of people labeled literate or illiterate. (104)

What does Selfe point out as the connection between the educational agenda & the political + economic agenda for promoting computer communication technologies?  (106-7)

For Nov 2.

Look over the question for Mid-term2, come to class prepared to discuss.

Look over the list of ideas for research projects and the assignment sheet - it will be posted by the end of the weekend.   We will spend some time working on creating a research question that will support a strong essay.

Read:  McGee & Ericsson, 308

Final questions in advance, ½ period to write

OVERVIEW OF READINGS SO FAR:
Ong = writing as technology= creates distance

Heath = writing is social – interpreting writing is often in groups – need to think about how writing is used to understand its form

Olson writing is a theoretical model for language
script on the page does NOT provide enough information to create a single, undisputed interpretation

One or many theoretical models for language?

Scribner & Cole  particular features of literacy change particular cognitive abilities= what you practice you get good at

Literacy in and of itself does not change the way we think= but literacies do change particular literate skills

Gee = writing is social practice; learners [can’t] change Discourse late in life; learn new Discourse through apprenticeship;  Discourse is an “identity toolkit”=> involves a lot of unconscious assumptions; there are Dominant and Nondominant discourses

Delpit  learners can learn secondary Discourses & teachers can teach secondary discourses; new Discourses are learned through mentoring, modeling, talk, supportive feedback = apprenticeship

It is important to teach Academic discourse

Bartholomae = students invent the university= create a theoretical model for what Academic discourse expects of them

Pratt = classrooms are contact zones (look at how she defines this term)= arts of the contact zone include= autoethnography, transculturation, parody,. . . .how we make each other aware of our differenct cultural assumptions