Language, Literacy, and Living: The Women's Recollections

As I read these vignettes about various women and how their lives effected their literacy, their are three major points that I have taken from the life stories of these women:
1) Literacy development has A LOT to do with the home life that one is a part of.
and
2) It is possible that non-literate individuals can be part of a very literate environment.
and
3)Many times, individuals shy away from literacy practices and sharing the products in ffear of being wrong.

1) Developing literacy is one of the most important stages in one's life. If you are not able to read, life will prove to be quite difficult. It is important for parents to be able to spend quality time, validating their children's literacy practices. Whether those practices are reading aloud a book (child to parent of vica versa), simple discussion, providing a print-rich environment, modeling the enjoyment in reading, etc, children need to see that literacy is important within all daily activities and have these activities validated. In many of the stories highlighted in this chapter, parents were either too busy or not educated enough to show an interest in what literacy activities their children were participating in; I find this a bit disturbing.

2) In some of the stories highlighted within this chapter, it can be seen that even though students were living within a print-rich environment, they were still struggling with their literacy development; most of this had to do with the lack of involvement between the parents and children. It is really important that even though students have access to text and literacy-rich materials, they need to the help to get introduced and help sing these materials. This can be done with real-alouds, simple discussion and many other ways. Another way that can be helpful (which was the case with me) was helping your children or students to get engaged in a topic that has meaning to them. It is all well and good that individuals are reading, but if they are not engaged in what they are reading then, they are not learning something, they are just reading the words. Being engaged in what is being read can help to create to avenues of questioning and inquiry along with enjoyment.

3)With many of the first couple of stories, the women explained that the reason they didn't like to share or even engage in literacy activities such as reading and writing in fear of being wrong in front of the "expert" teacher. Many times, even today, teachers concentrate too much on the technical details and not the over-all picture. Being too concerned with these small aspects of reading and writing can discourage many students from even engaging in reading or writing. I think that a great way to help with this is to show students that you, as a teacher, are not an expert but still and learner. A great way to show this, is to model your instruction through scaffolding a strategy for your students. This way, students will see the aspects of reading or writing that they may be struggling with when they try the strategy out for the first time; being much less apprehensive.

"Reading, Writing, and the Wrath of My Father"

"The most common pleasure is experienced when the reader encounters that which is comfortable, recognizable, and affirming in the text. The less frequent, more intense sort of pleasure is experienced when the reader meets that which prompts discomfort, a loss of self, or jouissance (bliss)(Silin, p. 264)."..."schools need to make a later place for pleasure, for reading and writing texts that speak to and from the body about things that really matter to teachers and students (Silin, p. 267)."

In the beginning of this article, the author reminisces of times during his teaching and when he was a student where reading has been and has become a totally scripted and methodical thing where students are asked to analyze, reflect, predict, etc. in order to comprehend what is being read aloud or independently. Silin states that this causes a hindrance to students because they are losing what is being read. Not only this, but students are forced to be subjected to characters and plots that are not interesting to them. Like the author states, popular fantasy figures and Disney cartoons was not what he was into. In fact, this is what turned him off to reading for a very long time.
Being turned off to reading proved to be another hindrance in his education. I can connect to this experience because this is somewhat what happened to me during my education. I never had the opportunity to read or listen to the books that interested me and "caused [me] pleasure." If I wasn't being taught to read through strategies instruction, the books that I had to choose from were those that contained plots of fantasy and make-believe. I wanted to learn about the world around me.

As Silin writes in his article, it is important that teachers give students the opportunity to take pleasure in their reading; ""[the] more intense pleasure is experienced when the reader meets that which prompts discomfort, a loss of self, or jouissance (bliss)." I feel that students in today's classroom never really get this opportunity and this is a real shame, because a lot of the dialog between teachers and administrators is about "creating a nation of readers." In order to do this, it is important to get students interested in reading, this can happen by allowing students to have these pleasurable reading experiences.
Allowing these experiences to occur can become a catalyst for further interest and inquiry about a given topic or other related topics. This will lead students to other pieces of literature and possibly even help to develop their literacy skills.