Literacy Changes Our World Summary

Summary of chapters: Tompkins, E Gail. (2014). Literacy for the 21st Century A Balanced Approach

In Sponsors of Literacy, Brandt argues that individual and group literacy stem directly from sponsors in the form of role models, educators, media, and many more sources of language and communication acquisition. Brandt claims that sponsors, through intentional or unintentional actions, influence an individual’s ideologies and relationship with literacy. Through the interviews which Brandt conducted in the 1990s with people of varying literary and sponsorship experiences, Brandt discovered that an individual’s access to literacy opportunities: libraries, computers, or traditional education, had a monumental impact on their career, ability weather political or economic upheavals, and capacity to function profitably in society. Sponsors distribute

Reading and writing have been in our lives and around our lives ever since the beginning of time. It is something we are naturally born into. Almost every human being has performed some type of reading or writing, whether they live in the big city, or whether they live in the woods. They have all performed some form of reading or writing in their life. It is human nature. We are born into it. I have many memories of reading and writing, though I may not be very fond of it when it concerns schoolwork, it is something I have naturally adjusted to and it somehow has made me, and probably everyone else around me as well, who we are today.

I know families and the communities are our support system and always there for us. Being a future teacher I have to support the families and communities and letting them be engage. I can do a Literacy Night with the school. This will involve the families and communities. The literacy Night will be a multicultural event. All the books will be different types of multicultural books from the list. The families and communities can come out to learn more about each cultural. I will get some parents involve by helping me set up or they can talk about their own culture.

Professor Deborah Brandt’s research article “Sponsors of Literacy” is about the importance of the sponsors. According to her, sponsors are the ones that provide the sponsored the access to literacy. Brandt interviews about 100 people and through those interviews, Brandt makes three main points regarding sponsors. The first one is about how different kinds of sponsors can produce different kinds of performances. The example that Brandt shows to the readers is the difference in the background of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez. Branch is able to be exposed to the more powerful sponsors, while Lopez cannot. The second main point in this article is that economic and political can cause a rise in literacy

How has literacy impacted my life? From learning to read sight words and write sentences to progressing all the way to thick chapter books and lengthy essays, literacy has been a long and incredibly significant journey in my life. Literacy has been a fantastic and influential adventure because of exciting personal experiences that first took root at age two, the inspiration of an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Peake, and memorable events including the Accelerated Reader program and discovering my favorite childhood book series.

In recent weeks all of us have been introduced to the essay “What is Literacy” written by Linguist James Paul Gee in 1987. Within this document we learn Gee is going to employ his learned skills to provide a ‘useful’ definition for the word literacy. Prior to providing us this insight, however, Gee must educate the reader on various definitions, idea and numerous theories in an effort to provide support for his conclusions and ultimately woo the reader into believing the postulations he makes. It is my belief that while Gee is eventually able to turn the reader to his way of thinking, he is not able to as eloquently as he would like. In fact, upon closer examination, I

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

Throughout my first year as a middle school Language Arts teacher, I have developed a theoretical understanding of what I believe are the necessary components to providing a meaningful and generative environment in which students develop and expand literacy skills. The teaching of literacy needs to include a balance of reading, writing, speaking and listening activities, and needs to be a social endeavor that provides a variety of instructional strategies to meet the needs of all diverse learners. My teaching strategies, beliefs and personality that I bring to my classroom can be characterized as a blend of two types of philosophical theories: social constructivism and relational teaching and

Teacher-directed is a 40 to 45 minute block of time where the teacher uses 15 to 20 minutes for explicit, whole group instruction. This is the time for the teacher to model and think aloud with students.  For the remaining, time the teacher is the

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.

Literacy Throughout the Ages The literacy I have today is from the members of my family who have been influencing me since before childhood, the education that was provided to me, experiences I have been through, and where I have been brought up. Aside from my personal life, I have been impacted by media,and books. Social expectations and what is shown as regular influence many people, including myself to have good literacy. Growing up, the people who I was surrounded by most were often reading newspapers, magazines, or other forms of writing.

Literacy pedagogies have a developing and complex history in education, intertwined with social and cultural change and evolution. Each change has paved a new path for more significant approaches and strategies, which cater to diverse learners allowing them to create meaning and communicate more effectively. These literacy pedagogies brought out by the changes in education have both strengths and weaknesses. As such, educators need to explore and understand the four knowledge processes portrayed by Kalantzis, Cope, Chan and Dalley-Trim; didactic, authentic, functional, and critical literacy approach (2016), to be able to consider how they can influence teaching and learning so they are able to make informed decisions with regards to their students’ literacy learning. Teaching is becoming increasingly complex; this is particularly evident in the area of literacy. This paper will explore the four literacy pedagogies, their limitations and their strengths, and how they have impacted literacy learning within the Australian educational context.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Mahatma Gandhi). Learning is essential to grow as an individual and expand your knowledge. Literacy is key for broadening our mentality and a person will only benefit from it. For me, especially, literacy has been essential for my growth and the challenges I have taken on. Everything in my life has depended on my knowledge and skills that I have acquired, and I am continuously developing new techniques.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations-something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” - Katherine Patterson. Literacy is a right. It is implicit in the right to education. It is recognized as a right, explicitly for both children and adults, in certain international conventions. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and also refers to having enough reading and writing ability to function in society. People who cannot read and write are called illiterate. People are called functionally illiterate if they cannot read or write well enough to do activities that are common in social settings they encounter. Such activities may include employment, schoolwork, voting, or worship. The power of literacy is something that can change the world. How far has literacy come since the beginning and what is its history; what are the causes of a lower literacy rate; what effects can lower literacy rates have; what about higher rates; what are some ways to improve the literacy rates and; what are some of the benefits to a higher literacy rate?