What is literacy?

When asked the first day of class, "What is literacy?" I immediately thought someone who can read and write.

Throughout the course of the class, I've learned that literacy is much more.

Literacy to me now, is knowing much about a certain subject, or being able to understand a subject.

One could be technologically literate, athletically literate, and so on.

I feel like your everyday person would only picture literacy as a learned person- someone who could read and write. But there is so much more to literacy.

Is there text in class? in school? in life?

Yes!
Text is everywhere. From the first day of class syllabus to the final exam, we are receiving text. I read about 50 pages a night for my classes, and I know i'm not the only one. We are constantly asked to read something, analyze something, interpret something from text. They are called textbooks for a reason; they are filled with text. Sometimes tiny, frustrating text. Not only do we absorb text in the classroom and at school, it is known that we are hit with thousands of advertisements everyday. A billboard, a brochure, a commercial, it's all text. I have still not even mentioned the obvious text we recieve in everyday life. Reading the news, whether in hand or online, we are still receiving text. Checking our Facebooks, Twitter, and emails, it's all text.

We are surrounded by text. It's everywhere we look, whether we actively notice it or not.

Multi-Modal Reflection

After watching multimodal essays in class on Thursday, I can see there is no "right" way to go about the project. I can appreciate an assignment with loose guidelines that allows the students ot be creative. It was fun brainstorming ideas with my group to try and come up with something that will be both interesting and fun.

We decided we wanted to have people in our project instead of just words, so we're doing a series of interviews with different generations of Lubbockites, asking "What is the one material thing you cannot live without?"

We hope to find some correlations between the item they choose and their generation, or at least see some similarities and differences and what people truly think they need.

Should be fun!

Are we tools or tool users?

I have thought long and hard about this, and still find it hard to come up with a deifnite answer. One the one hand, everyone wants to think and believe that they, themselves are a "tool". That without our special selves, the job, the bigger picture wouldn't be complete. That as a "tool" we are the thing that will get the job done. And while I think it is nice to think of ourselves as "tools", I've started to think that we are tool users.

Being a tool user makes us no less of an individual, or any less important, but I think it is more logical. We are the vessel to so speak, and we have absorbed all of the "tools" around us. Everything we experience or encounter plays into the bigger picture. We use everything from vocabulary to basic equations and manners, that we have learned throughout our lives and we use them as "tools" in our everyday lives.

What we learn and absorb are the tools we use to function!

Visual Literacy

I actually took a film class in the English department last semester, in which my instructor asked us to "read the films." We would watch a variety of films, and analyze them scene by scene. We would look at every angle, every expression, every movement, and through that come up with the meaning of the "text" which was the movie.

I never had thought of myself as "reading" while watching movies, or anything, but through that class I discovered that looking at something analytically and and deciphering the meaning makes one literate. My teacher was extremely literate in film, I however just broke the surface; but I can say that I now watch movies with a bit more critical eye.

I think it can be said that there is such a thing as visual literacy. It can be complex, to piece together sound and images, and put together all elements that make a movie, and "read" them for what they are meant to be.

Very Short Stories

Snow day, cable's out. Now what?

Washed it, dried it, shrunk it.

Bills are late, no shower today!

Politics Shmolitics

When I turned 18 I felt like such a grown up. I could buy lottery tickets, tobacco, and pornography, and I could vote. I did two out of the four, and voting was one of them. I voted in the 2008 Presidential election; though at the time I didn't really know anything about why I was voting.

I know that I am blessed to live in a country where we have the opportunity to vote for our leaders, but I think the reason someone votes and how they vote should be left up to them.

I don't really care for politics now, and I certainly didn't when I was 19. I voted for who my entire family was voting for. I'm not proud that I was uninformed, and that I cast a vote based on generations and generations of the same beliefs. But, I guess our values have to come from somewhere, right?

I cringe whenever I hear political debates, and being the "gray" person I am, like to remain neutral. As I've gotten older, i've realized the importance of listening to both sides of an issue, and deciding from that how to make your own ideas up about something.

Now I don't think there is anything wrong with staying true to your families' political beliefs when choosing a news source, or voting, but there must be something deeper that drives your political motivation.

For me, I hope i'm never a right-wing or left-wing nut job, but I do hope that in the next election I will be an informed citizen that casts a vote based on my values and beliefs, and the candidate I think will best run our country.

Snow Day State of the Union

I chose to read a State of the Union address given by Ronal Reagan. I was taken back by how humble, hopeful, sincere and determined he was to make America a better place. His speech truly moved me, based on the content and his ability to make the speech not about him, but about our nation.

Though the speech was given near the end of President Reagan's second term, but he did not ask for any sort of congratulations, and does not plan on going through all of his accomplishment. He says, "Put on your work shoes; we're still on the job." I appreciate how humble he is, and to me it says so much to not look for congratulations for what his administration has done, but to look forward and realize there is more to be done.

I noticed he is very forward thinking, but holds true to the foundation of our nation. He says something to the effect that our nation will never be perfect, but he has hopes for the future generations not only of America but of the World. I think his goals for the future seem so heartfelt. His speech conveys his passion and love for America, as well as high hopes for the future.

"Just as those who created this Republic pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, so, too, America’s leaders today must pledge to each other that we will keep foremost in our hearts and minds not what is best for ourselves or for our party but what is best for America."

State of the Union Address

I thought overall President Obama's State of the Union address was a very good speech. I found it very interesting that before the speech every anchor, journalist, commentator or what have you, made it very clear that democrats and republicans were seated next to one another.

Could it be?! Two people with different belief systems can actually sit directly next to one another?!

I digress....

I thought his choice of words were very powerful. He said,"Innovation doesn't just change lives, it's how we make our living," and "This is our nation's Sputnik moment." Words and phrases like that can stir any American.

I appreciated that the president sprinkled in humor throughout the address, which somewhat counterbalanced some of the more serious notes of the speech. I am all for jokes, and I think he used them appropriately here.

His speech was also very future-focused, which is nice to hear. Although the current state of our nation may seem a little unstable, at least forward-looking projections make the future seem hopeful.

Literacy Autobiography

When asked to write about my first memory as a literate being, Shel Silverstein comes to mind. My parents read me "The Giving Tree" probably 100 times, at least. Once I had memorized that bright green book cover to cover, we moved on to his collection of poetry.

My second memory comes from my kooky kindergarten teacher, who would make us jump rope every day. She claimed if you could jump rope, you could read...? Anyhow she would read to us out of these books and then we would jump rope, everyday.

I loved learning how to read, and I was a phenomenal speller. In first grade, I would ace my spelling tests we had every week, and just to make sure I got the grade I deserved, I would add little comments to my teacher at the bottom of the page; "I love your blouse today," or "You look so pretty!" What a brown nose, right?

In second grade, my teacher proposed a contest to us. Whoever wrote the best persuasive essay about their favorite restaurant and why, got to go to dinner with her and the two runners-up. I won the contest, and we went to Chili's, and I remember thinking I was the coolest kid that ever walked the halls of Water's Elementary.

Shel Silverstein comes back in to play in third grade, when a friend and I recited the poem "I Cannot go to School Today" at the talent show, and suddenly I wasn't so cool any more.

Accelerated Reader really made me hate reading. Before those dreadful tests, I had loved to read; now I was forced to read every Nancy Drew book ever written to reach a certain amount of AR points. The joy of reading was lost on me. That, accompanied with lazy teachers throughout junior high and high school who would allow us us watch the movies instead of read the books. At the time of course, I thought it was great that I didn't have to spend time reading, but now I feel like it was a travesty to miss out on great books such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Great Gatsby" because I had lazy teachers. That, and passing the TAKS test became more important that learning anything of true value.

Now that I am in college, I spend my time reading text books and haven't had much time for joy reading, though I do have an extensive list of books I hope to acquire and read. I'm hoping I will find that love again for reading; without reading tests and lazy high school teachers dictating my consumption of literature, I'm thinking my literate future looks optimistic.

...........................

I think that suffices as a shitty first draft!?

Short Stories

A Tell Tale Heart is a short story that has a distinct style of writing. Throughout the story, Poe repeats many words to emphasize the emotions conveyed, which ultimately creates a very intense piece.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html

I also think it is very powerful when a story can arise emotions in yourself. I read this story when I was younger, and read it again just now and still feel extremely creeped out. I think when a story can make you feel scared or nervous or sad or excited, then the piece has done it's job!

1.13.11

I am currently a senior Public Relations major at Texas Tech, from Lubbock, Texas...yes I haven't gone far, yet! I was lucky enough to spend the summer in Florence, Italy where I dabbled in oil painting, pizza and gelato. I love to travel and be outdoors, and I hope to continue dabbling in as much as possible.