As stated in my first post, I am biased to the social action perspective, thus my understanding of literacy centered around individuals being able to fully comprehend the oral and written products of language while being able to succinctly articulate their own response to the world around them, especially in terms of issues of injustice.
As stated by others in my blogging group, last week's TE 401 class personally reinforced that literacy is a multi-faceted term. Thus I would say that my definition of literacy has expanded after our class discussion, as I now see literacy as an integral part of emerging and current domains of knowledge.
In terms of our class readings, I would argue that our current class readings on ELLs and AAVE reinforced the importance of not holding on to traditional forms of literacy-both articles reinforced the vital fact that by using non-traditional approaches to literacy, there is a greater likelihood that students will achieve deeper understandings of literacy. I personally have wondered about the merits and disadvantages of utilizing AAVE in the classroom, thus I found Wheeler &Swords's argument for comparing and contrasting AAVE and SE to be invaluable-it matched perfectly with my ideal of allowing all groups to have a voice in their own learning process. Thus I am determined to add this 'comparison and contrast' lingustical approach to my own pedagogy. On a similar note, I found Lenski's argument for collaborative and non-threatening approaches to ELL teaching to be very compelling, as my most productive tutoring sessions with ELLs have mirrored this argument. Lastly, as a minority student in primarily Caucasian schools, I firmly agree with the necessity of authentic reading material for each child. Thus I would say that both articles reinforced the core themes of my ideal learning environment. Obviously I would love to have the maximum amount of resources in my ideal literacy environment, but often times that is not possible due to the school's respective limitations. As long as I am able to strive towards ideals such as alternative assessments for each child and teaching every child the value of codeswitching, I would be satisfied.
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If non-traditional approaches increase the chance for deeper understanding in literacy, then have you given any thought to what you will use in your own classroom? I agree also with groups having a voice in their own learning, and have seen first hand how having authentic reading material does benifit kids. I remember a classoom that I was in where there were only donated books, so in fourth grade all they had were Dr. Suess and Dick and Jane books. The kids knew that the books were too easy for them, and never read them.
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