Robin,+2,+Heath

__ Robin, 2, Heath __ week 2 wiki Heath, January 24

Is literacy collaborative? Yes and no. Someone writes, someone publishes, someone reads. Some people read alone, others read in groups; some write to individuals and some to the world, some writing is the symbolic language of society, some is communication conveying meaning between expresser and receiver, and some is complex, some rational, and some the raving of a madman – but who’s to say it’s understood as intended? " One person, reading aloud, decodes the written text of the newspaper, brochure, set of instructions, etc. This level of extracting meaning from the text is taken as the basis for the move to the next level, that of relating the text's meaning to the experience of the members of the group. The experience of any one individual has to become common to the group, however, and that is done through the recounting of members' experiences. Such recountings tend to recreate the scenes, to establish the character of the individuals involved, and, to the greatest extent possible, to bring the audience into the experience itself. At the third level, there is an extension beyond the common experience to a reintegration. For example, what do both the text and the common relating of the text's meaning to experience say to the mother trying to decide how best to register her child for a daycare program? Together the group negotiates this third level." (Heath 462) 1) How does this process differ from the typical way we measure literacy in school? Schools typically measure literacy in standardized assessments individually, not collectively or collaboratively. A student reads a preselected passage and responds in writing to a preformed prompt or question. 2) Do each of the participants in this literacy event satisfy your definition of literacy? Yes.Many scenarios fit a definition of literacy, anything involving language media and people. Why? The only scenario that would not satisfy my definition of literacy would be the theoretical poser: if a book lies open in the forest/props up a wobbly table leg - but there is no one to read it – is it a literacy event? No. It is a potential for a literacy event waiting to happen. 3) What makes this passage from Heath difficult to comprehend? The second level, of relating meaning to the experience of the group confuses me – what group? And why reading aloud? In the context of a classroom I can understand reading aloud and connecting meaning to experience. She next seems to be saying experiences need to be shared/expressed in order to have common understanding among participants, but that sounds too simple, she probably means something more complicated that I don’t understand. Her references to “recounting” and bringing the audience into the experience itself suggests immersion into the plot and the characters’ motivations and thoughts – helping students relate to the text as they would react to the experience in their own lives – of course all that inferencing, empathizing, and imagining, is irrelevant to informational text such as the mother researching daycare programs. Together the group negotiates this third level I can only assume means the shared understanding. In a book club, for instance, interpretations will differ among the readers, unless a single understanding is agreed. What kind of literacy qualifies you to read and understand it? I have no idea that I do understand it – it’s all been personal hypothesis based on my own experience which in the end is the only avenue open to me in creating any version – right or wrong.