Mike+B.+For+Sept.+11

=Okay, I'll start the ball rolling with this Wiki jazz! !=

So on Thursday we talked about the purpose of education. This made me think of a YouTube video which is a personal favorite of mine. Please enjoy these words of wisdom from the late George Carlin, about the purpose of education and the literacy being used as the new weapon in the war for our minds. Note this video includes offensive language, but he makes a great point. We're all adults here. media type="youtube" key="oI5EY5kqiBU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425"

Stayed tuned for my critical commentary!

“The central significance traditionalists place on phonemic awareness training is misplaced, though it is typical of traditionalists that they place great emphasis on skills outside the uses to which they are put.” (Gee, p. 14) “Individuals and groups construct worldviews (everyday realities) in interaction with society. These constructed worldviews are mediated by language and culture in an ongoing process of identity construction.” (Larson, Marsh, p. 10) “Consequently, teachers retained the notion that the purpose of learning to read was to bring ideological unity among a disparate group in order that individuals would fit productively into the status quo of their communities.” (Shannon, p. 11) The first quote from Gee is one of many that stuck out to me. There was a lot of interesting things that were discussed in the first three chapters about language and literacy. I chose to focus on this one because I thought it was particular interesting about how children learn to read. I feel like the traditionalist phonemic awareness is given a bad rap in this text and in some of the brief discussion we had in class. While I do agree that this approach will probably not convey the reading comprehension skills needed to be truly literate, I do think that it provides a vital first step to reading. Like the Pokemon example Gee provides, learning the combinations of letters and vowel sounds seems like a practical way to begin decoding written language. I often use the skills I learned in primary school even today. I am not a very good speller and when I am trying to spell a word I often sound it out and spell it phonetically. Sometimes in the readings I am assigned I run across words I do not know and so I sound it out and learn to say the new word. I think the phonetic approach to teaching reading skills is an important beginning to learning to read. The recognition approach, though I have no experience with it, seems like it would be very time consuming, trying to get young students to recognize the hundreds of words necessary to acquire even basic literary skills. I picked this quote from Larson and Marsh because I think it neatly sums up literacy as a social practice. I believe that literacy, in all it forms, is not just a part of living in society but it is of society. Meaning that literacy is a living, breathing, growing, and changing aspect of a society that is integrated in the identity of its members. I think when we talk about literacy and what it is to be literate we can not separate it from our own socialization. Thus I think what the authors are saying is that literacy in not only formed from societies but it is a tool of socialization. Members of a society become socialized through their adoption and internal integration of literary practices. The quote from Shannon I picked because I felt that it fit in well with the last quote. The notion that literacy can bring ideological unity is similar to saying that literacy is a tool of socialization. This can be seen throughout the historical references that Shannon brings to light. In the early colonial socialization and ideological unity was seen as universal knowledge of scripture and that a community would receive spiritual salvation from its members embracing these ideals. After the Revolution the Founding Fathers strongly believed that literacy was the key for the safeguarding of freedom. This ideal is still held high in contemporary American society as well. Thus trying to separate literacy from social practice would be futile. What major advantages does a recognition approach have in teaching reading comprehension skills? If worldviews of individuals are created through interactions in society and participation in literacy practices, what is the dominate means of socialization in the modern world? What are some ideals that we promote across literacies in modern society?
 * Michael Barbero  EDU 498  **
 * Critical Commentary 1 09/11/08   **
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 * Discussion: **
 * Questions: **