Barton and Hamilton

I forgot how dry the Barton and Hamilton piece is.

It did bring up an idea though. I'm going to call it "accidental literacy." I Googled this term and nothing came up, so maybe I'll trademark it. I'm thinking of times when we engage in literary events, like the recipe example form the text, and leave with a new knowledge and a new way of writing. When we read/follow a recipe, without realizing we are learning to write one. The form, usually a list, the abbreviations used, all of those things are specialized knowledge. We conform to a standard form when writing recipes. This isn't a bad thing.

I was thinking about directions. I learned to give and write directions from Mapquest and Google Maps. I need written directions when I go anywhere, and since those were places where I went for directions, I ended up copying their form/style when writing or giving my own.

Now I'm thinking about all the times I don't use directions for things. Is this a refusal to engage in a literacy event? Does reading Ikea directions, with all the smiley-faced figures and pictures, count as a literacy event?

Writing in the 21st Century.

So reading this piece by Kathleen Blake Yancey, Past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, a few things hit home.

Yancey calls on Monaghan and Saul who observe: “society has focused on children as readers because, historically, it has been much more interested in children as receptors than as producers of the written word.” Truth. It seems that we base all knowledge on reading. Reading is a great medium to pass knowledge on, but it isn’t the only way. It seems that all education is based on reading. Even as a grad student, my job was to readreadreadread then respond. My responses were to include points from the reading, basically using what I had read to make a new point. This taught me that my own observation didn’t really matter, because quoting my own experience wasn’t the best rhetorical strategy. The only difference between my observations and those of the people that I was citing was the letters after their names. My little MA didn’t really stand tall next to all the PhDs. (Why is the h always little?)

At one point an old curmudgeonly speaker came for our Ropes course in 2006. He criticized writers that took time off to write, insisting that what we all really needed was time to read. Maybe I’m being unfair, but that’s what I took from the lecture. (If anyone remembers who that guy was and what he really said, post away.)

I think Yancey’s other point that writing is associated with testing is an important one. People rarely think of writing as an activity. There are creative writing enthusiasts and journal keepers, but I feel like I rarely come across them in the classes I teach. Maybe this starts when we’re really young, though. We always talk about reading to kids and reading with them, which is important, but maybe we should encourage them to write. Maybe I’ll have my kids write in journals and do creative writing activities. Apparently I did group poetry with my brother and sister growing up.

Another point. So many people I know—smart people—do crosswords and Sudoku puzzles to stay sharp. What about writing? What about writing 500 words a day? Just like going to the gym, an exercise for the brain—and soul? With the technology we have, it’s so easy. Write people!

So this is my first real post. This is just to let people know that this blog is not me trying to express myself or impress you. It is to explore my personal literacy narrative and share some random thoughts. I will try to add interesting bits to keep things entertaining for my students, but this is mainly a work thing.

Literacy: I have no recollection of learning to read. I'm sure my folks did some stuff at home to get me going, but I seriously don't remember any of it. I got to first grade and it was the first time we were broken up into reading groups. The different books were named after instruments and our groups were named as such. I think I was with the Bells. I remember Becky, Nick, Greg, and Maranda were in the group. I had a major crush on Maranda. She was tall for her age but really pretty. She was also from West Virginia and had an accent different than other girls. On the first day of Bells, Nick was chewing on his pen. From some dark place in his 7-year-old soul he decided to bite down extra hard and ended up with a mouth full and hands covered in navy blue. I have a lot of mouth issues--I can't stand to be around people chewing gum or brushing their teeth, and when people touch the pencil lead to their tongue I throw up a little--so I found this unsettling and tough to look at. Maybe Nick was excited to be in Bells. Maybe he was the first to realize that we were the advanced group. I don't know how I got there. Do they even test kids that age on reading and stuff? Again, I don't remember learning to read, I just remember being good at it.

Reading got tougher over the years, though. I read some of the _Goosebumps_ and some book called _The Phantom_ (I think) that had some ghoulish looking football player on the cover. Remember those book order forms that scholastic used to send home? I wonder if they still do that? Anyone with kids know? Anyway. I used to beg and beg for books and my Mom would always give in, because I was a kid who wanted to read and that was a good thing, right? Right. I'm pro books for kids and reading with them. But there came a point where I didn't finish some of the books. I would read for a few days and them not pick them up for months, or never. When it got bad, I would order books that I've never read. This addiction to books but not reading was the beginning of a downward spiral that I've only recently recovered from. More likely I'm still in denial. More on this buying books I don't read in coming weeks.

So to wrap up this initial post. (Isn't this riveting stuff by the way? Aren't I important enough to listen to? Isn't this a pleasant distraction from your life that you'll continue to find isn't nearly as interesting or well-chronicled so therefore more interesting as mine? I'm seven kinds of awesome, evidenced by the fact that you're still reading. Or you're in my class and you are required to, but this is what happens when you aren't asked to buy expensive books.) I would like to find out how I learned to read. I'm going to ask my folks and brother. I'll let you know what I find out in the next exciting post.

Don't judge Weezer for their work after _Pinkerton_.

And I swore I would never blog.