Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Week 9 Reading Response

For me, reading Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brandt after Skloot's Immortal Life was like watching a freshman communications student give a speech immediately after a motivational speaker. Brandt's book had some interesting material, but the density of the text and the narrow focus of the subject matter was hard to get through after reading Skloot's fast-paced narrative. I felt as though it would have been at least somewhat helpful if I had had any sort of background in literacy studies before approaching this book, because I have no intellectual context in which to place it. Is her perspective of literacy as a resource novel, or standard for the field? Is her use of individual case studies instead of large, anonymous surveys considered less accurate, or innovative? Are her conclusions valid according to others who study literacy? I just think some more general background information in literacy studies would have been helpful for me in contextualizing this book.

One basic premise of Brandt's book that I found noteworthy was her idea of sponsors of literacy. It is easy to think of literacy as an all or nothing thing, a skill taught to you by your grade school teachers that remains the same thereafter. But as Brandt describes, literacy exists on a continuum, and it people's literacy levels are affected by institutions and people they interact with throughout their whole life. Considering literacy in this way, looking at what elements in people's lives that effect and promote their literacy, is essential for the goal of improving people's literacy. No matter how good a child's grade school education is, they will not gain a high level of literacy if the basic places in their life they gain and practice such skills, like in church, are ignored.


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