"The whole movement of life is learning" (Krishnamurti). "To be an act of knowing, then, the adult literacy process must engage the learners in the constant problematizing of their existential situations" (Freire). "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free" (Douglass). "I can learn anything I have the desire to learn" (White, S.G.).

Monday, February 3, 2014

"Literacy Event" in our class

Probably to our professor's distress, my first literacy event for this semester is going to be a description of how I had a brief moment of confusion while reading his syllabus this semester.  In the weekly course schedule, there are two columns:  Class Discussion, and Assignments.  In the Assignments Column, he typically writes the name of the author to read for that week, for example, “Jurmo, Belfiore Intro.”   But in other weeks, he wrote simply, “B1 (and skim B2)” or “B3 B6.”  

In reading the table as one single document, I can easily deduce that in the first week, we'll read the Jurmo article and the Introduction to the Belfiore text.  The following week, we will read Belfiore Chapter 1, and skim Belfiore Chapter 2, and the week after that, we’ll be reading Belfiore chapters 3 & 6. But if I’m using the table as a calendar, outside of the previous weeks’ context, reading straight across for this week's assignment: B3 B6.   I had a brief moment where I had no idea what that meant.

Now, I have the benefit of having been in Dr. Muth’s classes before, and I have seen this type of course schedule weekly calendar before, so I was able to put it in context and understand the assignment for this week.  But I did take a minute and scratch my head and think, “Wait, what does B3 mean?”



"We are all on a learning curve." (Belfiore et al, 2004, p.225)

2 comments:

  1. I like the comparison of a "literacy event" to our own reading of a syllabus. Without any context, these syllabi might not make sense to an outsider!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha ha ha Caitlin, very funny. I see what you are doing: using my very words against me! Just for that, your homework for next week will be: hg2, 2.1zw, 3k4.
    (So, you got me! A beautiful, if snarky, example of genre. and how comprehension requires understanding so much more than just decoding and vocabulary skills.)
    :)Bill

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on this post. Diverse opinions are welcomed.