Analysis Of Elizabeth Daley's 'Expanding The Concept Of Literacy'

A high school education sets the pace for the rest of an individual's life, whether or not they attend college, receive the perfect job, or are able to function in the fast pace of society. The material taught in high school nowadays is not preparing students for life, or college, but rather feeding and exhausting their minds with tedious information they will forget in a matter of weeks. These “scholars” who are supposed to be the next generation of geniuses are not being taught the knowledge needed to be as successful as possible in our always developing and unforgiving world. In Kim Brooks essay, “Death to High School English” she explains her thoughts and personal experiences with college students who were improperly taught the fundamentals

In Deborah Brandt’s essay “Sponsors of Literacy,” Brandt describes the process of how people become literate, the effect of their experiences, and influential people on their learning. The term that Brandt uses frequently to describe those who have a profound influence on a child’s learning is “literacy sponsor.” She defines literacy sponsors as, “Agents, local or distant, concrete, or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way,” (Wardle 46). Essentially, Brandt is saying that every literate person has had the support of a person or idea that inspires their desire to read and write. The concept of sponsorship can be applied to fields outside of reading and writing too. There are sponsors of science, sponsors of art, and sponsors of medicine. Similarly, these sponsor help students learn to understand the principles of their individual fields. This paper focuses on the sponsorship of first-year and second-year University of Minnesota Medical School students from the Nu Sigma Nu fraternity. Data was collected through interviews with four students from this fraternity. The guiding question for this research paper was, “Can Brandt’s definition of literacy sponsor be applied to other fields of learning, such as the medical field.” If it is found that the definition for sponsorship can be applied to the medical field, then sponsorship can be applied to other

In every school across America, effective practices of reading instruction are being discussed. Calkins (2012) suggests that over 85% of students being tested on grade level literacy standards are non-proficient. Research suggests that students, who are unable to read proficiently by third grade, are not predicted to ever learn to read or have successful lives when they reach adulthood (Martinez, 2008). For these reasons, it is important that districts implement literacy models and instructional reforms that have been well researched and shown to be successful. The instructional reform method of Balanced Literacy is being used throughout the country to meet the challenging standards of the Common Core. Teachers will need

In this day and age, television is seen as the most useful technology in the world where we get enough information, entertainment and knowledge. People believe that it is more preferable to have a television rather than to watch a live play in the theatre due to the freedom of relaxation and high level of participation. In this essay, Marshall McLuhan’s technology is the extension of human senses along with Walter Benjamin’s reproduction of art would be analyzed. The main of this essay is to analyze two theoretical concepts and compare them to one another in relation to television and also how these two theoretical concepts would approach television as a technology.

The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” has been regarded by many as one of the most influential slave narratives in American history. This colorful autobiography has and will forever situate Douglass at the forefront of the American abolitionist movement. Many scholars involved in the study of African American history, including James Matlack, a writer for the Atlanta Review of Race and Culture assert that the effectiveness of Douglass’s narrative rests upon his superior technique in sharing his experience and elating them to the general American population (Matlack 15). In this short narrative Douglass wonderfully exploits several themes that soon

After reading the article “Literacy Debate: Online, R U really reading?” by Motoko Rich, I believe that the internet is very beneficial in many ways but I also believe reading books is important at certain times. As being a teenager the internet has become a far better source when it comes to research. The internet is very quick on answers unlike books where you have to flip through pages for an answer to a simple question. Now why would someone choose to do more when they can do less with a simple click of a button? The internet is very useful; without the internet we wouldn’t have been able to have the opportunity to have this discussion here. On the contrary, the internet might be much faster with information but it is not always reliable.

When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message” back in 1967, we were facing a very different society than we are today. His focus was of course on the mediums of the time: radio, newsprint and television. Mark Federman, a Chief Strategist for the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology asserts in his article, What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? (2004), McLuhan was not speaking directly about the medium itself. His thought process went to a deeper level. Federman “note[s] that it is not the content or use of innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings with it” that is the issue. In a world that we can now access hundreds of thousands of bits of information in milliseconds, we can certainly see a shift in media influence. Today we can actually watch events as they unfold, whether they are events for a greater good or events of horrific acts of terrorism, technology has enabled society to be omnipresent. Melody Thompson (2011) refers to Jaron Lanier in discussing how technology shapes our relationship to itself. She notes that Lanier believes technology imposes on us its own viewpoint and that shapes our decisions. In a world where we live with a 24 hour news cycle and news stations that can skew their reporting to send the message they want their viewers to hear, it is quite prophetic when Lanier states “it

Marshall McLuhan’s phrase is meant to convey the fact that it’s the medium itself that is important, not what the medium may produce. Anyone may have a piece of print in their hands, and it doesn’t matter what they’re actually reading, the fact they have a piece of print is important. The evolution of technology has allowed multiple mediums of communication to br brought into the world. These various mediums of communication; newspapers, phones, radio, televisions, and computers, are so important for the world.

In the article “Multiple Representations of Literacy: The Key to Motivating to Adolescent Readers? “ Barbara Marinak does an interview William Kist. Barbara Marinak speaks with William Kist about his opinion on adolescents reading.

This was my first time taking part in the actual literacy night festivities and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this time around. I can honestly say as a parent of three children, I have never had the time to attend their literacy nights, and I regret that. Participating in the literacy night made me aware of the importance of holding literacy nights such as the one I was apart of. It provides students and parents/family members the opportunity to spend quality time together while practicing academic skills/concepts in a authentic and engaging way. The center that my group created was called Recycled Music and it allowed students to create a musical instrument by reusing recyclable materials. We put a lot of thought into

Throughout my time writing at the City College of New York, I experienced a slow and dramatic transition to my first semester of this college course. During that time, I've learned from several feedback and lessons from certain peers and my professor. Because of the strict comments written in my drafts by my professor, a few helpful suggestions to include in my writing, and a few miserably failures, I was able to see how my writing and habits have changed during the duration of this course. Back in high school, I was always comfortable writing only five paragraph essays (Introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion), but I've never expected to write something more complex. Here, I was encouraged to include as much detail as I can instead of writing something vague

I wouldn’t say that I am a good writer, and I really don’t like to read books either. Through my years in school I became literate in these two categories. I was and still am not interested in writing, or reading books in my spare time. The only writing I have ever done is for school. Writing just does not interest me, and the only reading I do out of class is reading about sports in magazines, or reading the news, or looking at web pages. I have only read a couple of books on my own, 95% of all the books I have read have been for school. The reason for not writing out of class is probably attributed to the fact that I am a very impatient person, and I have a short attention span. I have no interest in writing and reading so when

Because media is such a regular and consistent part of my life, its impacts did not immediately stand out to me. Media’s influence on important moments of my life was substantial though, a key example being how I met my current best friends. It is first useful to note that being exposed to fictional novels when I was younger, such as Harry Potter and Magic Tree House, led to my love for reading and consequently my joining of the

The book begins with Neil Postman describing how the way we communicate, whether it is orally or through written material, has an effect on how we interpret our world. He then goes more specifically into how television has changed our culture. Postman’s intention for writing this book is to “show that a great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense”(16). There is no problem with television being used as a form of entertainment, but when entertainment takes over serious issues, it may become dangerous. I agree with this to some extent; I think that there are current events that need to be taken seriously, but some audiences may need that comic

The most ambitious promise of the new narrative medium is its potential for telling stories about whole systems. The format that most fully exploits the properties of digital environments is not the hypertext or the fighting game but the stimulation: the virtual world full of interrelated entities, a world we can enter, manipulate, and observe in process. But it [the computer] is first and foremost a representational medium, a means for modeling the world that adds its own potent properties to the traditional media it has assimilated so quickly. (280 & 284)