caseyp32-blog-blog

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blogging for school

ive really enjoyed being able to be more creative with my thoughts and feelings about pieces instead of just doing it the boring old fashioned way. i feel if professors gave us more creative ways like this to express our thoughts and feelings our grades would be so much better. something i feel like i could have improved on with my posts were to maybe spend a little more time on them, i rushed some of them so i feel like if i put a lil more time in them they couldve been a lot better. 

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Take A Stand - Anti Bullying Video 

this is the video i will be analyzing, ive had my troubles with being bullied in my life so this is something i feel strongly about 

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Gabro: Writing as Public Power

in this selection civic literacy is defined as the ability to use writing as power in public, political, and community based situations. i really liked this reading, it was not only easy to read but it had a good message to go along with it. something that really stuck with me from the text is the part where it asks the question, “How do you think most people get what they want?” the author stated that violence is an obvious answer to this question, but she also stated that writing can be an equally powerful manner of communicating what you want. i feel like if everyone could learn to use civic literacy apposed to violent protest more positive change would happen in this world. another thing i really liked about the reading is where Gabro states what James Berlin thinks the composition of a class should be. Berlin not only used obvious reasons as to what we should get out of this class like learning what is expected from us in a college level writing course, or getting us prepared for our future careers, but his third reason was “ prepare students to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.” ive never even thought about that in one of my writing classes, it never occurred to me that that the things i do in hear will help express my rights, this is a new thought that im really happy this reading brought my way.      

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Swales The concept of Discourse community

this was quite the challenge to read, i did have to look up many of the words that the author used in the passage just to make sense of it. the bits and pieces i could take away was that swales felt the need to define what a discourse community because he felt other peoples definition wasn't clear enough. he lays out his definition in six characteristics, which i believe it is hard to make sense of something so spread out. within a few of these themes i found the aspect of genre to be occurring within them. he uses this term to state that all discourse communities may use similar genres, but have different conventions for these genres. i believe this is true because going back looking at the different assignment sheets from other UWRT classes it was apparent we use similar genres such as narratives but our classes narratives would be constructed differently from theirs.   

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Writing Across the University

what really stuck with me was the point the author makes in the beginning when he says in high school that our writing is laid out by a set of rules, do it this long, and make sure you do it this way. looking back i find this true, i have also found to be true in some of my courses i have had in college so far as well. in one of my LBST classes first semester whenever we had a writing assignment the format was laid out for us, which was really similar and convenient. i have also found in other classes, such as this class, that we do not have the basic five paragraph essay we have longer more complicated essays and we also take those pieces and portray them in different ways. so that being said David Russell's quote used at the end of the page, “within academia, the conventions (and beyond them the assumptions and methodologies) of the various disciplines are characterized more by their differences than by their similarities” , fits this very well.  

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radical revision

A portion of my narrative focused on how I developed my literacy of playing football, so I decided to write a short poem of how working hard to improve my literacy took me from being one of the worst players on my team to one of the best. I choose to do a poem because i have had to write a lot of poems in the past so i thought it would be the easiest for me. the biggest difference between trying to express my story through a poem and through the narrative was trying to make the words rhyme and make sense at the same time.  

“32”

It started when I was young, illiterate, and confused

I had no idea what I was doing, I just decided to go out and wing it

Every wrong step I took made me feel worse and left the others amused

But their teases and laughs did nothing but give me grit,

My first year I did nothing, no more than just sit on the bench

It hurt, I wanted nothing more than to go out and play the game I treasure

I took this pain and turned it into a hunger that only one thing can quench

I wanted to be the best, silencing my critics would bring me the highest pleasure,

So I worked harder than any of them, trying my best to leave them in the dust

I did everything the coaches said to try and impress them

Eventually it worked I got better every day this is something you can trust

The coaches saw it , I was no longer someone they could condemn,

In year two the work finally started to pay off

You can imagine my surprise when coach told me I was going to start

I wasn’t the only one surprised this decision made all of my doubters scoff

But when I went out and played my best it left a bad taste in their mouth, something tart,

From game to game and year to year I did nothing but improve

I could finally talk trash and knock heads with the best

With win after win senior year my teammates and I finally hit our groove

That year, that team was definitely one of the best,

Now in college I reflect back to all the time I spent on that game

It is hard to believe in four short years how much I grew

I went from a bench warmer to announcers shouting out my name

I owe all of my success to my haters, without them I would’ve never been thirty-two 

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Learning to read

This piece by Malcolm X, is him telling his story of how he came from near the bottom of the barrel in terms of literacy, to a book worm who turned into one of the premier faces of the civil rights movement. Malcolm stated he does not think anyone has ever got as much out of prison as he did and i believe this is a true statement, i do not know of any other stories of where someone who could barely read and write to turn into someone who spends around fifteen hours a day reading. Yes that transition is a great accomplishment for anyone to achieve, but like i previously stated about him becoming a premier face in the civil rights movement is even more miraculous. Malcolm describes to us the multitude of different subjects in which his reading introduces him to, but he shares with us the deep connection he had to African American history. This deep a rigorous study of the history lead him to the realization that not only has the white man had such a negative impact on the history of blacks, but every other non-white race on the planet. i feel this "homemade education" he received is a very inspiring story for everyone of all races and creeds, everyone goes through struggles and hardships and for those who get hit harder than others i believe this story can give them hope that anyone can turn into the men and women they look up to in their everyday lives.        

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Sponsors of Literacy

In Brandt's "sponsors of literacy" she expresses her ideas of how the factors you are born into such as race, socioeconomic status and what not affect your literacy. I do find the points she lays out in this piece quite interesting, the examples she laid out about Dora and Raymond do in fact back up her hypothesis. I also got something something very meaningful out of these stories, they showed no matter your situation you are not doomed from the beginning. Raymond was born into a privileged family and for the most part had everything handed to him, with some work he graduated from his university and obtained a high level of literacy. Dora on the other hand grew up poor and had to work hard for everything she had, in the end she worked hard and obtained the skill of being bilingual which helped with her cleaning job and her jobs down the line. though in the end she did not obtain as high of a level  of literacy as Raymond, Dora was able to make something out of herself with hard work. Brandt did prove her point that  people born in higher classes tend to achieve higher literacy, but the stories she shared also proved that it does not mean you are going to be unsuccessful.

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Scribner's literacy in three metaphors

As stated in the text it is apparent to me that there is no true definition of literacy, this is due to the fact that this word can have different standards in the eyes of different people or different societies. This goes along with Scribner's metaphor of "literacy as adaptation," I agree that someones literacy should be defined by the setting they live in and if they are able to function within said setting. If someone is able to meet the literary means of every day life in their daily routine they should be viewed as a literate person within that society. using these ideas we need to take the the definition we found in class of "being able to read and write" and throw it out, with the discussed ideas of adaptation I feel a more appropriate definition would be: "being able to meet and maintain the literacy standards of everyday life."