syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 9.23.07

 



Why Do We Teach Literacy?

Purpose
In the language arts class, students usually learn about literacy and literature; in today's class we will focus on the former. It is a commonplace that individuals need to be literate to function, let alone be successful, in America. Thus one of the major tenets of the language arts class is to develop students' literacy skills. Rather than basing our pedagogy upon a popular movement, it is to our advantage to establish what it really means to be literate and examine how individuals on the "margins of literacy" actually function.

Before Class

  • Read Dornan et al, "Psycholinguistics and Social Foundation" (11-30) [BB]
  • Read Weinstein-Shr, "From Mountain-Tops to City Streets" (49-83) [BB]
  • Submit Teaching Philosophy to the instructor as a hard copy at the beginning of class.

Discussion–Dornan et al.

  • What questions do you have about the Dornan et al. chapter?
  • What are the different types of literacy that Dornan et al. define? According to these authors, what does it mean to be " illiterate"?
  • Which literacies do you think are the most important for an individual living in America to have? why?
  • How do these discussions of literacy "talk to" Bartholomae's and Elbow's respective discussions on academic discourse?

Discussion–Weinstein-Shr

  • What questions do you have about the Weinstein-Shr article?
  • What is Weinstein-Shr's argument?
  • How did Weinstein-Shr conduct her research? What questions or concerns do you have about this process?
  • Were the participants in Weinstein-Shr's study literate or illiterate? explain. Which one(s) did you find successful? why?
  • Which literacies (based upon the ones listed in Dornan et al.) are the most important to teach in the language arts classroom? why? appropriate to teach? why?
  • How would you incorporate these literacies into the language arts class (Feel free to draw upon Dornan et al's pedagogical suggestions or to develop your own)?

Activity–From Theory to Practice

You will all be divided into groups of four and assigned one of these theorists–Flower & Hayes, Bartholomae, and Elbow. In these groups...

  • choose an activity, an assignment, or a unit and the pedagogical goals for it (i.e., what will your students learn about writing by doing this?)
  • outline the practices the students are to do to achieve this goal
  • explain how this outline is supported by the theorist(s) that you have been assigned; reference passages and page numbers. You can draw upon other theorists as well
  • describe the process your group developed for moving from theory to process. Another way to think about this task is to imagine that you have been asked to develop guidelines for this process. What would these guidelines entail?

At the end of class, you will share your work and submit it for a process grade.