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last.updated 5.28.08

 

Literacy Education

Purpose

Just as there many theories about what literacy is, there are, understandably many theories as of how to teach literacy. Of course, literacy education is context dependent. Today we will examine the teaching of reading and writing in different contexts and discuss their applicability to the teaching we will do/ will be doing in English Studies.

Discussion I - Bartholomae, Adams, Haas, and Parks et al.

The readings for this week address issues of literacy education for students who do not come from socially dominant US populations. We will discuss the following:

  • What questions do you have about these articles?
  • What are their respective arguments?
  • What did you find most interesting about these readings?
  • In what ways is Bartholomae's argument relevant to the grades 6-12 contexts? How might an understanding of his argument influence government policies, such as NCLB and SOLs?
  • Going back to our list of English Studies' literacies, how would you help students to invent English Studies? How is this different than inventing the university?
  • Taking the principles of phonetics and Whole Language, how do we see the trajectory of these principles playing out in English Studies?
  • Haas' participant Eliza mostly came to an understanding of science's rhetorics on her own. Is this a process instructors should facilitate? If so, how might we do this in English Studies?
  • How might we use activity theory to understand literacy development in English Studies, especially upper division courses in the emphases?

Activity I: Getting Started

For thirty minutes start outlining or drafting your Pedagogy Project and Rationale. Think about the practices you will include in the educational situation and how this fits in the conversation about English Studies and literacy theory. Also use this opportunity to develop questions you need to answer to move forward. Be prepared to report what you have developed and the questions you want to address.