Blog #9: My Final Project.

WooHoo we have come to the end of the semester!!

The proposal for my project will be Stuttering.  The research I will do is what is stuttering? How people live with the stuttering disorder. How do they live their lives and how does it affect everyone in society. I will do research on associations, brochures, videos, conferences, interviews and the different levels or forms of stuttering.

Mgoodwin



Blog #8: Does Technology Change Literacy?



When I first began this course, I did not know that I would see or view language and literacy in different ways. We see language and literacy as reading and writing but it is much more than that. Technology has come a very long way in that we now cater to many individuals to assist them to speak daily, in many different ways.
For example, if you pull up to a ATM machine and it has Brail to cater to people who might be blind. Or if you are hearing imparied, there are TDD or TTY machines that can help you talk on the phone or on the computer. We no longer need to pick up a phone, everyone is text messaging and talking in chatrooms. The world of text messaging even has its own language with OMG, TTYL, ?ru, and the famous MIR whic means mom in room for all of you who have teenagers. Technology has come a very long way in how people communicate on a daily basis. No more going next door and knocking to ask your neighbor if she has 2 eggs you can borrow till friday. No more writing "I will not cheat on my test" 100 times for the teacher in pencil when you can copy and paste it on the computer. No more Kodak Instamatic cameras where you take the photo and then wait for it to develop. Do you know anyone who does not have a cell phone with a built in camera and video recorder? Either we have all gotten smarter and communicate better, or we just got lazier with the new technology and now we just sit behind the desk and text, type, or skype.

Even books are on audio. Technology has changed literacy in that we have more access. But I dont know
if it is for the good, or the bad - just yet.

Mgoodwin

Blog 7 - Basis for Second Paper

Th-th-th-that's all folks!"

When I was younger I use to watch Looney Tunes cartoons every morning, and I loved saturday mornings bcause they would play non-stop for a good 3 or 4 hours. We didnt have television like we did today, I would have to get up and chang the channel or adjust the antenna. But that did not matter. Me and my sisters would turn the TV on and sit there for hours laughing. My favorite was Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig. I laughed at how he talked all the time. It was funny to me.

That was until my cousin Rosa was born. And she was a stutterer. We never understood why she talked that way. We just knew that she did. And all the kids would tease her, and she would start to cry. Then me and all my cousins would come running and beat the kids up for teasing her (I know that was not nice, but we did). As I got older, I was introduced to more and more people who talked this way. People in my neighborhood, the man who ran the corner candy store, and even one of my school teachers.

When I grew older and decided I wanted to go to college for Social Work, I once again was introduced to Stuttering but now it was because I attended a seminar that was talking about what stuttering is, how many people are affected by it, and as a society how it is dealt with and looked upon. When I came to find out what stuttering truly is, it changed my life and perception on what stuttering truly is.

The issue became important to me because through a few of my clients who dealt with stuttering, I was able to identify just what they were dealing with and how as a professional, I could assist them with what they needed. It was an eye opening experience for me and now I study it more, attend more seminars, make contacts with people who deal with the disorder. To me it has become a language.

Research that I have found so far is the National Stuttering Association http://www.nsastutter.org/ and I have made friends. I also do more reading on the subject. And in the future I am looking to join a support group so that I may better understand how people cope with stuttering and educate myself more.

Now Porky Pig is not only my favorite, he has become my Hero.

Stuttering, A life Altering Condition.

Mgoodwin

Week 5: What is Language?

I would like to research and present the English Only Movement and how it relates to Literacy and "Discourse" from a social status perspective (socialization in the community and at home) when literacy (linguistics) is taught at home and enforced in society, at work, and at school. I will present how it has changed the way people view literacy in the views of Gee, Brandt, and Delpit using agents, discourse, Discourse and Bartholomae's use of the University.

The passage I feel that is most important to me would be “Poor people and those from low-caste racial groups have less consistent, less politically secured access to literacy sponsors – especially to the ones that can grease their way to academic and economic success. Differences in their performances are often attributed to family background (namely education and income of parents) or to particular norms and values operating within different ethnic groups and social classes. (Brandt, p.559)

This passage helps me to identify how the different classes and cultures in today’s society are structured around language and its interpretation through what is viewed as “one size fits all” and not necessarily that which is diverse and acceptable to all.

Language and its interpretation can be forced and not accepted.

Week 4: Sponsors in Literacy

My sponsors in my life can vary in only two direct areas of my life. At home, my sponsors would have been my family members. Brandt will state that sponsors, or agents, are people who stand in your life to benefit or gain from some sort of economic advantage through means of support or other mechanisms of opportunity. Brandt will go on to explain the benefits that are gained through learning to read and write through sponsors or agents in our lives.

Learning to read and write can vary depending on the resources that are available to you, or the society in which you live, and the resources that are available to you. Some benefit more than others. I have seen this most in the inner city, for example MPS, as opposed to living in the suburbs.  Not all students are given the same access and materials to successfully learn to read and write. In my own personal life, my family was my sponsors in that they pushed me to succeed and then through that I was able to go to school and get an education. I learned by watching my own family live, struggle, and survive in their own lives and their actions were a form of literacy for me.  These very actions pushed me into college where I would go on to continue my education, and get 2 degrees so far.

The family name that I was given, the name that was printed on my birth certificate and the signature that I learned to sign was my first agent. The second were my instructors in society who taught me the knowledge that I have today.

Mary Goodwin

Literacy: Blah, Blah, Blah! - Week 3

Literacy is the ability to read and write. Or is it the ability to have competence in one area, or two? Could it be taught at home, or in Discourse or a course? And what would we call it? What letters would we use, how would we spell it? Could we then say that my alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz. It’s the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz. You’ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond ‘Z’ and start poking around. (Dr. Seuss) Literacy, Literacy oh how could it be that a single word could have so many meanings, yet we still have to be able to read and write it to comprehend it.

Gee says “It is not what you say, but how you say it.” and your either primary or secondary. Primary or Secondary sounds like he or she is better than me. Discourse and discourse are both a course in literacy, but you won’t be the same person when you speak this language. One you do inside of the house and the other you do outside. And the good news is you now have an identity kit, according to Gee. It comes complete with “the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk” so that others will recognize you. (Shapiro p.537) You mean finally someone will know who I am? How does one acquire such a language or discourse is what we all want to know, it varies according to place and time. And I could linger on and on. But would it answer what I really want to know, and am I privileged enough to know? Literacy is part of a larger political entity according to Gee. (Shapiro, p.546) I have to be born into it, so to say, in order to obtain it. And if not, then I probably will never get in. This builds an argument in my eyes then as now literacy has become a sort of social stratification. And it now therefore is based on my class, race, and gender. Hey wait a cotton pickin' minute! Who said I wanted to be on this course?

Literacy can be a more complicated word than we think. I would much rather prefer that it only mean that I could read and write. However, that would be the easy way out. And I am finding that being taught to comprehend also means that I know not. Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. (Dr. Seuss)

Maria Goodwin

In search of Literacy....Week 2

The definition of "literacy" would so far prove to be one's simple ability to read and write, which in the sense is considered tangible in that it is proven and fact. Through our reading and different definitions we would find that the word is far more than that, and that it is also linquistic in many forms. Competence and the ability to be "literate" outside of a language, which Gee describes as primary and secondary Discourse, is what we are learning about being literate.
Language and linguistics are literacy, but in ways I now know are in the simplest form. When I was a child, I learned to speak from my parents and family members through the various forms of interpretations of what I wanted and needed on a daily basis to survive. For example, I learned to state when I was hungry or when I was tired. If I wanted to play with my dolls, I voiced that to my mother through the spoken language that I was taught. With that being said, it should be stated that literacy is a form of language spoken with the tongue. However, definition would state that it also comes in written form. I am not only able to state that I am hungry but I could write it down on a piece of paper if I chose to do so. I could tell my mother through written notes that I love "peanut butter and Jelly for lunch" everyday. It is simple, or so I thought.
Our recent discussions from the question posed "What is Literacy?" has shown me that literacy is much more than spoken or written. It is what I consider to be an action word, a form of a verb, and a movement that far expands language and penmanship. I would state now that my definition of literacy would be a display of functional skills that reiterate that which is spoken through language by a form of actions. As our readings stated this week, through Discourse in the forms of primary and secondary nature, we live out our lives in the home and in society. Yet we do so in 2 different ways, one in the way we are taught to function at home, and then again as we play out what we learned at home in society. The skills I use at home to be independent in how I get up for school, wash my face, brush my teeth, and get dressed shows I am capable of acting "independently." In society, I can use these same set of skills to go to school, do my schoolwork, go to lunch, play with others, and not have to be taught day after day what to do next. It becomes a repeated process in a sense. I learned that literacy is also shown through the lifestyles that we live, and in things that are shown to us that are repetitive just through living.
I can now define literacy as a state of movement, and not just that of language and a written word.
M.Goodwin