Activity 1: This week’s topic is: literacy issues in the US. What are they? Can you list 5 or more without looking them up? Next, google this topic and see what comes up. Is your list similar to what you found online?
It’s difficult to pinpoint all the literacy challenges that we face in this country (hence the title of this week’s unit). Before we dig into literacy practices in different cultures and communities, let’s survey some of the problems out there. Here are 6 issues that I found. If you would like to add another one, with a source that explains it, please let me know. Here, out of the 6 soures, read/ watch 5 (or 6 if you’d like).
Activity 2: Read “This Type of Illiteracy Could Hurt You.” This is a piece from the New York Times. If you haven’t claimed your free account yet, you can do so here.
Activity 3: Watch “The Illiteracy-To-Prison Pipeline,” a TEDx Talk by Brandon Griggs.
Activity 4: Read “The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy.”
Activity 5: Watch “How America’s public schools keep kids in poverty” by Kandice Sumner.
Activity 6: Watch “Tackling American’s Illiteracy Problem.”
Activity 7: Watch Face the Issues with LVR on Childhood Literacy.”
Activity 8: This could be a group project/ presentation: describe (and further research) one of the problems and find possible solutions.
