Popular Text And Literacy Pedagogy In The Classroom

Classrooms are different today from those of previous generations, they have become communities of learners where students assume more responsibility for learning. As opposed to a place where the teacher is in charge the modern class room there is often a hum of students, talking about books they are reading and working together in small groups using digital as well as print text. The students are more culturally and linguistically diverse, many have English as a second language (ESL). This Critical- reflective essay will explore using the four resource model developed by Luke and Freebody, focusing on; how young children learn to read, the four roles within the resources model are Code breaker, text user, text participant and text analyst. This essay will also articulate the understanding of the three phases of reading and writing development. Phase one, experimental reading and writing. Phase two, early reading and writing and phase three, transitional reading and writing. This understanding will then be applied to an early years setting including and application of strategies for cultural differences.

A multicultural classroom needs to provide a safe and accepting environment for successful learning, prevents prejudices and discriminations from the class, and have a strong cultural consciousness. (E.K. Garcia, 2016) To accomplish this, teachers should be integrating a diverse list of reading materials, introduce

The conversation and debates on cultural literacy should continue in every place in America since it helps us to understand and be tolerant of other cultures around us (Gay 2010). When we are familiar with all or some of the things that define America as a culture,

Culturally Responsive Teaching is an emerging field that focuses on student cultural backgrounds and experiences in the development of pedagogy. According to Kea (2013) cultural difference is the single largest difference in U.S. schools and also the most neglected. The goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn in school, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics (Banks 2005). Ladson-Billings (1994) suggest that the historic failings of educators in educating non-white students is that educators attempt to insert culture into education rather than insert education into the culture. In other words, educators are not providing an equal multi-culturally relevant education by bringing tokens of culture such as food, national flags, or maps from around the world into the classroom alone. Although these actions promote a sense of multiculturalism, an education that is relative to a diversity of cultures is not necessarily being provided. Culturally Responsive Teaching attempts to bring the various experiences of the student’s cultural home life into the classroom. Schmidt (2005) identifies seven characteristics that must be incorporated into curriculum in order to provide culturally responsive instruction. These characteristics are high expectations,

To assist students to “read with purpose and anticipation,” Vacca et al. (2014, p. 173) suggests, in their book Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, that teachers need to “create an instructional context” that activates their students’ “prior knowledge” and helps them to become interested in a lesson. Throughout chapter six, “Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest,” Vacca et al. (2014, pp. 172-173) explain instructional strategies that can lead students to “read with purpose and anticipation.” This chapter presents the reader with a plethora of instructional strategies and means for applying them, along with example for real educators. As I journeyed through this chapter, I discovered many instructional strategies,

In the Preface to Cultural Literacy Hirsch discusses the decline of cultural literacy in the American classroom, often using the 17 year old demographic to prove his point. Using the evidence from a variety of sources, notably the SAT’s, Hirsch shows the decline in our nation’s ability to digest, comprehend reading, and the lack of familiarity with things such as basic civic knowledge of America. The main point of the essay is that cultural literacy is required for effective communication. Hirsch believes that communication is essential for success and with increased cultural literacy is how citizens can achieve it. This is what he wants the readers to think about.

Literacy, literacies and multiliteracies bears various meanings to different people. Some believe that literacy is developed by cultures, while others believe that literacy and cultures developed an individual. There are single and multiple definitions of literacy, literacies and multi-literacies. Based on research, literacy is very important and continues to be developed through our rapidly changing world. Throughout this essay, we will focus on views of literacy, literacies, and multiliteracies and how their different meanings affect our approach to teaching literacy.

Another perspective cited in the literature with increasing frequency suggests that literacy is more than the acquisition of reading and writing skills; it is also a social practice or social currency, and, as such, a key to social mobility (Gee 1991). Learning the hidden rules and cultural codes of the dominant culture, according to this perspective, facilitates upward mobility. To be successful in accessing educational and employment opportunities, members of minority groups must become bicultural, i.e., they must be able to function both in the culture of their identity group and in the dominant culture.

Popular culture exists at home but not so much at school classrooms. Few of them incorporate these popular cultural resources into the curriculum and they are underrepresented compared with the school literacy (Marsh, 2013; Rets, 2016). Many teachers view the skills and knowledge gained from home, including popular culture, as “having little value in the classroom context” (Shegar & Weninger, 2010, p.432). Reading and writing then becomes the dominated discourse in the classrooms, which is mainly focused on books and print texts (Marsh, 2013; Shegar& Weninger, 2010). These skills are used to as the only way to assess children’s literacy skills, such as standardized testing, which set limits to literacy learning and practices. Literacy learning is mostly skill-driven, and teacher centered. Thus, a gap exists between home literacy and school literacy (Rets, 2016; Shegar & Weninger, 2010). In addition, teachers also lack knowledge and awareness of children’s popular culture, so they avoid incorporating it into the classroom (Shegar & Weninger, 2010).

"Cultural differences in discourse and its impact on the literacy achievement of African American students." Black History Bulletin 75.1 (2012): 14+. General Reference Center. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. Jones talks about how African American students are trying to get an education everyone deserves. Jones states that “Understanding the oral literacy tradition in African American communities and understanding how texts can be used to enhance language practices may be necessary for educators who want to shatter these roadblocks”. So it really builds on how African Americans are still sticking to their ways of culture. Jones also states that “In many African American communities, instilling cultural values, instructing the young, entertaining family members, and passing down "lessons learned" have been part of an oral literacy tradition. The role of literacy in the African American community has "cultural and community-specific meanings”. So as African Americans are still using their culture and their way of language it sets the tone that even if they are a long way from home and there cultural ways, they can still adjust their culture here in America. So Jones declares that “African American children's previous experiences with language and discourse can be used to promote reading achievement. Honoring cultural differences in discourse can be particularly helpful to support the literacy development of African American students who initially have difficulty learning to read and do not see their culture reflected in texts”. So as Jones explains this quote African American students are adjusting to the ways of learning by our

Recently in English 11 the class read three texts. The three texts were “Take the Tortillas” by Rudolfo Anaya, “The Latin Deli” by Judith Cofer, and “The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Kingston. By reading these excerpts it showed how culture helped Americans redefined themselves in the Modern era.

The "Cultural Literacy” is an argument essay written by E.D.Hirsch. Hirsch proclaims that to be literate,individuals need to understand cultural literacy by sharing sufficient knowledge of information about society. Hirsch tries to confirm his claim by supporting his points of view with different types of evidence. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Hirsch’s essay by identifying the main points and the types of evidence that he use to support his claim and and whether his argument persuasive or not.

Education is held to the highest regard no matter what location one lives in. Without any form of education or knowledge on what shapes the world, the deeper connection between events and the human mind would lay untouched. In order for an individual to understand his/her country, it is imperative that they study cultural literature. It allows for an individual to gain stability in their own country as well as becoming open-minded about their surroundings and other cultures.

Mass media consumption is rarely in a social vacuum. Television and movies are often watched with family and friends, books are passed along and discussed between friends, and newer media naturally implement mediated conversations with people from across the world. Communication scholars have known for a long time that the consumption of media is rarely an isolated experience, and is instead typically social in nature (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955) However, while many of the foundational research in the field explored how media effects are intertwined with interpersonal influences (e.g., two-step flow; Katz, 1957), few current media effect researchers incorporate the social aspects of media consumption into their studies. This is unfortunate as the social factors such as co-viewing can play a great role in attitude formation and emotional effects (Nathanson, 2001, Tal-Or, 2016).

When we understand the importance of popular education we are able to realize that this form of education helps to raise critical consciousness and freedom by co-learning in order to achieve social transformation. Taking a class on popular education has allowed for me to recognize that there are different ways and practices in which we can learn that move away from the dominant educational system to better reflect our social identities. After developing the knowledge and skills on what popular education is and how we do popular education, my classmates and myself were able to put these skills into practice and collaborate on a workshop. Once we decided on an issue that we wanted to focus our workshop on such as food literacy, we worked together to design and facilitate this workshop for the class in order to gain an opportunity on the processes of popular education by also experiencing the challenges as well. For the purpose of this paper, I will be reflecting on putting popular education into practice by using my workshop as a framework to understand both the learning processes as well as the challenges that I faced. In addition, I will also reflect on the changes I would make moving forward in order to continue to develop my popular education skills in the future. Throughout this reflection I will focus on aspects such as the banking model, equity, participation, story telling, community and so forth. The course readings will also be applied In order to further explore