Learning Processes

I found the "literacy event analysis" critique interesting. As I stated in class, my analysis would have been different had I had Jonathon’s paper during the interview. When I read his paper I immediately remembered our class discussion about students being able to relate text to text, text to personal experience, and text to world. Jonathon’s paper accomplished all three of these critical thinking skills. He cited two books about how African American men were forced to join the armed forces or go to jail. He related how his grandfather was forced to join the army, and that Mohammad Ali, the boxer, had to pay money to the government to stay out of the service, while “white” boxers did not. He also stated that today young people have to register for selective service or face a huge fine and possible jail time. He tied all of this information to a song of a singer he likes, who addresses these issues. The content of the paper was rich with ideas and connections, and it will be interesting to see how he develops as a writer.

I learned a lot by my observation experience and by listening to other students’ experiences. What came to mind throughout this observation, discussions in this class, and discussions in other classes, is that as teachers we do not discuss the term literacy. We should explain to students that as they learn they are developing various skills in various literacies. Jonathon, my interviewee, demonstrated critical literacy, rhetorical literacy, digital literacy, and workplace literacy. Geoff Bull and Michele Anstey state in their book Teaching and Learning Multiliteracies: Changing Times, Changing Literacies that engaging students in conversation about their everyday literacies has become a vital component of teaching, because “A multiliterate person must be aware of his or her social and literate practices, or literacy identity, in order to be strategic and flexible in a changing world” (24).