- According to Szwed, the five elements of literacy are text, context, motivation, function, and participants. Motivation, for me, is an element of literacy I find myself struggle with on a day-to-day basis. Szwed states, “One may be moved to read by nostalgia, ambition, boredom, fear etc.” His examples are spot on in the grand scheme of literacy because if one does not have the motivation to become more literate, where do they stand. Nostalgia can lead a person to pick up their favorite piece of children literature from when they were a kid, or maybe a text that they read during an important phase in their life. Ambition can lead a person to pick up a textbook and learn about a specific topic that can greatly influence their career. Boredom can lead a person to go to their local library and pick up a romance novel for instance to enjoy in the comfort of their home. Fear can lead a person to go through hundreds of pages only to find one piece of text that supports their claims in an essay. As you can see, all these examples derive from the motivation of a person so I agree with Szwed that Motivation is one of the key elements when it comes to Literacy.
2. The method of studying literacy that Szwed recommends is ethnography. Ethnography can be loosely defined as the scientific study of different cultures. Why does he recommend this? Well, he explains that it is important to stay close to real cases in the world. Many factors can dictate a person’s individual capacity of literacy like socioeconomic classes, age groups, sex groups, ethnic groups etc. There are many groups of people in this world with different restrictions to literacy, we can’t only narrow it down to the American people. He says to look at reading and writing like having consequences. What Szwed means by this is that some people can just sit down and master literacy, especially at an older age. People have family responsibilities, work, economic trouble, leisure time etc. This is why it is so significant to teach literacy from a very young age, because once you have down the principles (or elements are he refers to them) of literacy, you’re going to have an easier time later in life accustoming to the many changing social norms of literacy.
3. What Szwed means when he writes, “we must come to terms with the lives of people without patronizing them” is that we must understand different people’s restrictions to literacy. Assumptions shouldn’t be made about illiterate people. There is a reason why he recommends ethnography, because there are truly so many factors in different people culture that can shape someone’s life and leave them illiterate in society. We must guide these people and give them the resources they need (such as Szwed) instead of patronizing them or belittling them for something they can’t control.
4. I have personally subbed in a high school in the Bronx before and did notice signs of illteracy. Many students struggled with grammar, punctuation, definitions etc. If I were teaching them the basis of literacy, I would assess their individuals strengths and weaknesses. I would look for telltale signs of each student, like if they have access to books at home, if they have access to a computer, if they can afford a tutor. The Bronx has many different cultures, I’ve seen it first hand, and a lot of students come from homes that struggle to even put food on the table, let alone focus on becoming literate. Once you understand the student’s abilities, you can then use different methods of teaching literacy, like the ideological method we’ll be talking about soon. Maybe provide your own sources for the student, give them pre-owned books or worksheets to work on.
5. According to Perry, the two models of literacy are “autonomous and ideological”. Autonomous falls into the formal form of literacy, which uses neutral skills that can be applied in any format. For example, authors use autonomous forms of literacy to write a book. Students use autonomous forms of literacy to write a thesis paper. Professors commonly use the autonomous form of literacy when writing their own article/paper. This is a set of skills that someone can use in any general situation involving literacy. Ideological literacy, is defined as a set of practices (instead of skills) that comes from specific contexts like culture and power structures in society. This form of literacy can be best understood by those of different cultures. One of the six propositions about the nature of literacy is, “Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are mediated by written texts.” This ties to the Model Perry discusses of ideological literacy. I think both models are important, but the ideological model can influence a larger span of people so I believe that one is better.
6. First, I learned there as an entire book on the term “orality versus literacy.” Secondly, I learned that orality focuses on the uses of vocal expression and ties to those of cultures where literacy is not taught. No exposure to literacy will in turn drive people to express themselves solely using words they grew up hearing. This is interesting to me because it makes me think of South America and how everyone speaks Spanish, yet there are so many different sayings by Latinos that essentially mean the same thing but are said by their culture. Literacy is the opposite of orality, since it is the use of expression by reading or writing. We see that in countries that struggle with economy, orality is most used while countries with more economic growth, literacy is used.
7. Literacy practices are shaped by communities is many different ways. For example, I was raised in a Hispanic household where both my parents did not attend college. My mom only graduated from middle school, and I see her struggle with Literacy all the time. She struggles to read books fully and constantly asks me to help her understand something she got in the mail. The community she was a part of looked down on women getting an education, instead encouraging them to get a husband and start a family as soon as they could. This is why I agree with Perry’s view of idealogic literacy, because it focuses on practices rather than skills. It focuses on a person’s culture and power structures in society rather than the implemented skills we are taught.
8. Well, literacy is a social norm in a way. Standards have been created for decades now, as experts in the field come out with new ways to look at literacy. Annotations are a standard in literacy. So are knowing definitions and synonyms. New words are made, and only those “sophisticated” enough use them because they follow these literacy standards. They serve everyone in the community, but benefit only those who are on top. Szwed talks about the power structures and so does Perry, someone who is in power and practices literacy, is practically spoon fed in society. Someone in poverty who is illiterate will have a much harder way in navigating life.
