The Way Literacy Lives- Chapter 4

This is a chapter I wish I would have read LONG ago! It really made clear to me why we are doing what we are doing in our first-year-comp program. I never had a good grasp of it, but now I think I understand it a little better.

We all have access to different literacies. Sometimes we are limited by our language, sometimes our culture, sometimes by our financial status, and still other times by our interests and the sponsors available to us, but the bottom line is most of us are highly literate in something. For example, most of us would consider ourselves highly literate in reading and writing, at least compared to the general population. Eric, Dr. Carter's brother, is highly literate in gaming and computer literacies. My uncle is a highly literate electrician. But it seems in our educational system, schools typically focus on what students can't do instead of what they can. This was the case of Eric in the first grade when his teacher told him he couldn't write name, but in fact, he could. So often students are told they aren't literate when, in fact, they are. I believe that students aren't failing standardized tests; standardized tests are failing students. These tests are responsible for labeling students literate and illiterate and determining whether or not a student needs remedial English. What good are we doing slapping a label on these kids? We're stifling their growth and killing their confidence. We tell them they can't, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it did in Eric's case. Students internalize this "I can't" mentality, and it cripples their growth. So what can we do?

Dr. Carter argues that we can figure out what sorts of thing our students are literate in. That way we are focusing on what they can do, and not what we can't. By doing so, students develop a deeper understanding of their own literacies, and then they can use that as a bridge to understanding new literacies, such as those involved with the academy. Dr. Carter calls them "Points of contact." There is a great example from Selfe and Hawsiher in Dr. Carter's book on pages 90-91:


"Playing games has taught me about writing because a lot of games are like problem solving... when you are making a computer game, you have to think about everything and what can go wrong, what you are forgetting. And this helped me in writing because it's the same thing when I am composing a paper for a teacher."'

Because a student deeply explored a literacy outside of school, he was able to find points of contact that helped him develop his literacy inside of school. By doing this, the teacher focuses on what the student can do, and not what he can't do. Our program also helps the student see how what he can do is useful in helping him learn what he can't (presently) do.

Dr. Carter also makes the point that literacy is context dependent and is constantly changing. Today, "non-traditional" literacies are in many ways just as important as traditional literacies. Where would be without our electricians, our computer programmers, our engineers? When schools focus only on traditional literacy, they ignore other valuable literacies that are necessary today's society and society's future.

This chapter really summarizes why we do what we do at TAMU-C, and I am glad that I read it. The purpose is much more clear to me now.