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The Way Literacy Lives:

5 November 2009

in the life of TAMU-Commerces 102 Honors English Students

Sometimes a disconnect exists between theory and application; however, Carters

The Way Literacy Lives is realized in her 102 English students compositions...

The Way Literacy

Tests, Chapter 1:

In this first chapter of

her book, The Way

Literacy Lives:

Rhetoric Dexterity

and Basic Writing

Instruction Carter

argues for the ineffectual and dysfunctional relation-ship between standardized testing and improvement

of student writing. By disqualifying the unique and

diverse cultural literacies that students bring to class-

room, the institution affirms certain voices while

negating the already disadvantaged ones. Therefore,

standardized tests of literacy must be understood as

not only inappropriate but largely unethical in that

they privilege particular contexts, identities, and

knowledge while marginalizing all others (Carter

2). In her classes Carter empowers her studentsvoices by encouraging them to record, observe and

analyze literacy practices in their own communities.

http://411i3.wordpress.com I think the WWII col-

lection would be really fascinating to learn more

about! I have always had an interests in wars and

those involved in them. Their stories fascinate me. To

relate this to Commerce maybe we could look at the

effect that the war had on Commerce and the com-

munity members (if anyone was drafted or anyone

had family involved in the war in any form or fash-

ion). In the earlier maps of our campus there arent

any residence halls from what I can tell, which goes

back to the idea that we were a commuter school.

Also back on the old campus there were a lot less

buildings, from this I infer two different things. Oneis that there were much fewer students so there didnt

need to be as many classrooms, and second is that

our educational fields were not as broad as they are

now.

I argue that fostering in our stu-dents an awareness of the ways inwhich an autonomous model de-constructs itself when applied to

real-life literacy contexts can em-power them to work against thissystem in ways critical theorists ad-vocate (Carter 2).

It is in the research and representation of multiple

literacies that Carters students are beginning to reify

their once constrained and muted voices.

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Punting the problematic representa-tions of literacy (12)http://adavis22.wordpress.com

To this point our project is go-

ing as planned. Samantha and I

have visited our fieldsite sev-

eral times for participant obser-

vation and fieldnotes, and have gathered some great

information. This is a process that we will continue to

engage in until we are able to successfully answer our

research question with the best information possible.

In many of these visits we have been able to note sev-

eral different types of reoccurring themes. The one

theme that we have both noticed over and over again

is the way the players seem to interact together. They

have a certain sense about them, to be able to auto-

matically understand this idea of reading in the game.

It seems to us that no one on the team struggles with

the concept of reading what is going on. I am pointing

this out as a major reoccurring theme because it

seems to be this way every time that we have attended

our fieldsite. Another reoccurring theme that we no-

ticed had to do with Coach Walker. We noted that he

would read his players, and based off his analysis of

them he would make play calls and instructions. This

was a big thing for us to notice early because we have

been so caught up in the idea of players reading each

other that we never thought of coaches reading in the

game also. Both of these themes fit together in the

way of reading the game. No matter what is happen-

ing on the floor, the players are able to read it and

know what to do and now we see that the coach does

the same thing. The idea of coaches and players read-

ing in the game of basketball will give us two views

of this concept. Now that we understand these two

things and see their importance in this study, we will

be able to correctly interview both players and

coaches to fully understand each side of the spectrum.

That is how these themes are going to contribute to

the larger structure of our study. We are now going to

have two different sides to analyze and observe. With

two different views, we can ultimately understand the

reading concept better and present a much more edu-

cated and researched project.

In their words...

http://sunski17.wordpress.com

It is important to be a good lis-

tener to understand a situationfrom anothers perspective and/or

world view. We mustnt form hy-

potheses or hunches about peo-

ple, lest our research becomes

skewed. Our attentions must al-

ways be focused on gathering data

on the people and locations of our

culture of study. Questions should

be asked not only of a persons

background, but also of their

thoughts and reactions to certainevents. We should note the ways in

which they represent themselves,

and the artifacts and adornments

of their surroundings...Also, within

a given culture, there are different

forms of literacy associated with

different domains of life such as

home, school, and workplace.

When placed into their respective

domains, these literacies are much

simpler to analyze. Similarities

and patterns between specific

practices are easier to locate when

they are placed within a structured

domain. It was fascinating to dis-

cover that the acts of reading and

writing are not the only ways in

which texts are assigned meaning,

and that people use literacy to

make changes in their lives. That

causes me to broaden my perspec-tive of literacy, and will hopefully

serve to benefit my studies in the

future.

I am interested in theway literacy educationfunctions...but I under-stand the limits of myown power to effect

change (Carter 5).

As demonstrated in these student

examples, Carter is exacting the

change that she advocates in the

way her students are writing The

Way Literacy Lives.

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