February 8th HW

Malcolm X Summary- In Learning to Read, Malcolm X shares with us how even though he dropped out of school in the eighth grade, he was still able to read and write. He wrote every word in the dictionary down and read every single day when he had time.

Malcolm X Reflection- I thought that this was one of my favorite articles we have read. I enjoyed reading his story and I think that what he was able to do after being in jail was remarkable.

1) His audience is people struggling with reading and writing because he words his story in a way that makes it seem as if he is trying to say that if he did it, so can you.

2) He defines literacy as being able to understand a conversation and school based literacy is being able to read and write.

3) Bimbi, the government, his prison, Mr Muhammad, and many other authors were his literacy sponsors. The most important was the prison system because it allowed him to read of all the books he did and turned him into an excellent reader and writer.

4) I don't think that this was ever the case with Malcolm X.

6) I can see how he says this. In college a lot of people just go through the motions to get their diplomas. He had nothing else to do except for reading and writing and he developed a passion to do so. When I would get in trouble and lose my phone and tv, I would read more too.

AEI- I think it adds a lot more literacies to the world. Now we have to be worried about learning Facebook literacies, text messaging literacies and many others.  To be considered literate today, I think you need to be literate in all of those fields.

Alexie Summary-  In The Joy of Reading and Writing, Sherman Alexie explains how he broke the mold from a typical Indian kid and ended up being a phenomenal reader and writer. He started reading at age three and just grew from there.

Alexie Reflection- I think that this article makes it clear that anyone can become a strong reader and writer regardless of if you were "expected to be stupid" or not. It was an interesting article and I liked reading it.

QD 1) I think that these expectations can affect a child's literacy because if someone feels like they are destined to fail, than that will always be weighing in the back of their minds. On the other hand if someone knows that they are destined to succeed then that in turn will make them more confident and give them the confidence to be a good writer. My parent's always expected me to be able to read and write so it kind of felt like the natural thing to do.

AEI 1) I don't know that this is always the case but I do feel as if there a very good chance for everyone to be successful. For the most part anyone can get into a library or get ahold of a magazine to read. Some people can't get ahold of the resources and this is where I think Brandt's research comes into play. If they can't get ahold of any one of those things then I think they won't be able to be as successful.

Baron Summary- In From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies, Dennis Baron talks about how technology is changing the way we write. We use to use a pen and paper, now we aren't comfortable using anything besides an Apple computer. The introduction of new technologies changes the way we go about communicating with others.

Baron Reflection- I think a lot of what he said in this article is very true.  When a new piece of technology is introduced, and old one must be replaced. This changes the way people communicate. It was a pretty easy article to read and it was pretty interesting.

2) I do agree that this seems to be one of his messages. I however disagree and I believe that this is changing the way people write today. Just look at texting for example, if we didn't have phones then we wouldn't have the problem of people shortening words to be quicker.

4) Other examples of early technologies are the typewriter and  the telegraph. They were all very popular when  they came out, but they now are a thing of the past. New technologies leave them in the dust.

6) They contribute to the article because they show how technology has changed. I do not understand them as writing. I do think considering them as writing would require that we add them to the list of technologies commonly associated with writing and literacy.