Bargains and Deals!

During this economic downturn, many people need to find ways to trim their expenses and budget their money more effectively. However, we increasingly live in a consumer culture where ads proclaiming the next big deal are at every turn. It is extremely important that we, as consumers, learn how to choose the best deal for a product when every store is claiming to have the best price for that item. Math is essential in this process and will only help consumers get the biggest bang for their buck. Furthermore, although the government is imposing stricter regulations on credit card companies, I continue to see numerous enticing ads that seem to offer incredible deals on credit cards that contain an awful lot of small print. As this current financial crisis has shown us, credit card companies exist to make money not necessarily help the consumer. It is important to read the fine print and compare offers (or cut expenses and budget more effectively in order to save money!) so that consumers do not find themselves in continuous financial predicaments. As time goes on, we live in an increasingly financially complex world so math and problem-solving skills can only become more essential to being a savvy consumer.

Liteacy photo 2

For me this photo shows aspects of literacy specifically in visual art. There is a lot that went into making these boots, sewing, color combination, planning, technique, and a functional aspect. There is also a lot that could be talked about when viewing these boots. Students need background knowledge and practice in order to create art, and they need vocabulary and information in order to know how to analyze art when they are viewing it, instead of just saying I like it because it is cool. Some visual art aspects that could discussed include cool verses warm colors, materials, ideas, craftsmanship, technique, style, planning, function and much more. Sometimes we know that we like something like a painting, but are unsure of how to describe it or explain what it is about that painting we like and why we like it. Literacy in visual art is like literc in ery subject becase it allow students communicate verbaly and in witing as to why they think and/or feel a certain way. Literacy allows students to learn at a higher level of undersanding.

Literacy In a World Without History

Can you imagine a world with no history? Is it even possible?

I took this photo in Philadelphia a few years ago, but I thought it was appropriate to revisit it for this last post. When I first saw the sign I thought it was a joke, but then quickly realized it was in fact an actual city sign. Philadelphia is a city rich in history and I suppose city officials didn't want tourists thinking any history was on this street.

What strikes me about this sign is the irony. We know by now that literacy is all around us, but what if we couldn't process it? What if we didn't even have the freedom to use the literacy skills we had inherently developed? No history? I don't even know what that would be like? I don't even want to know really.

The famous quote that says history is bound to repeat itself may apply to life, but does it apply to literacy? What I mean by this is we all build off of what we learn at a young age. That's our history. Sure, family or country history is interesting and integral, but what intrigues me is personal histories and how that applies to personal literacy. As an art education major my own personal literacy involves a lot of visual elements. I can't imagine a world without literacy in it.

La religion catolica

I was watching Univision last night, and within 30 minutes there were three references to God and miracles.

First, I tuned in late to La Rosa de Guadalupe, a television drama created for teens that always has a moral at the end. During the show, the protagonists reveal their problem and then at some point, visit a picture of the Virgen de Guadalupe to ask for guidance or help.

The background on the Virgen de Guadalupe is that a young Mexican boy named Juan Diego was walking through the Mexican countryside when the Virgen Mary appeared to him and told him to tell the local priest to build a chapel in that spot. He ran to the church to tell the bishop, who asked for proof. Juan Diego went back and the Virgen de Guadalupe gave him a bunch of roses, not native to the region, to carry in his cloak and take back to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened his cloak to show the roses to the bishop, the roses were gone and an image of the Virgen was imprinted on his cloak. Today, millions of people visit the shrine of Guadalupe and ask for her help.

After La Rosa de Guadalupe, the Spanish-language version of Entertainment Tonight, Primer Impacto, came on. They interviewed a woman in Honduras who has a son playing soccer in the World Cup. Several times during the interview, both she and her son mentioned that they honor or thank God first, and then hope that his team wins and that he does well.

About 10 minutes later, Primer Impacto did a segment on capturing the energy of Jesus Christ, interviewing a man who says he feels real energy and well-being when he sits in front of his picture of Jesus Christ. They interviewed a few people who have worked with this man, and they, too, could feel a physical holy presence emanating from the picture.

This all reminded me about how important the God, the Virgen Mary, and the Catholic Church are in the everyday lives of the majority of Spanish-speaking people, especially in Latin America. There are diverse opinions, of course, but overall, the Catholic Church plays a much bigger role in day-to-day life there than it does here in non-Latino U.S. Society. Being culturally literate in Spanish means being aware of this difference.

I was reminded of a time last year when I picked up my Colombian friend and her two children to go to the swimming pool. As I began driving, she suddenly did an intense prayer to God and made the sign of the cross. I still don't know if that is something she always does, or if she feared for her life with me behind the wheel.

Literacy is everywhere

We read everything every minute of everyday. Even in our sleep our brains cannot help but predict what will happen next and struggle with confusing situation. We are always reading, analyze and placing thing n a context to make sense of them.

As an artist I find myself alway noticing different aspects of life that perhaps other don't think about. For instants this public performance outside of "Rock the Garden". The obvious relation is these people are all dressed as Andy Warhol outside of the Walker which displays many pieces of his work. But are they making a statement or simply being clever about getting exposure in this busy place by being dressed like Andy Warhol as a group in many different position for photo opts. Is it a peaceful protest to the fact that the Walker is closed this day to accommodate all the concert goers? Does the fence play a huge part in their performance because it keeps their views at a distance? Is there signifigances in the number eight, is that how many works of art by Andy Warhol the Walker owns? Is it planned when they change positions? Is there a certain time frame they are working with? The questions that my mind automatically starts asking as it visually reads this live performance are crazy. It also beings a conversation with the people at the concert and crowds gather to document this unusual situation.

Read the World

Every single person in the entire world is a member of a community, whether that community is small or big. In addition, every single person in the entire world is a citizen of the world, a continent, a country, and then a province or state, and city or town. How does every single person in the world know how to be members of communities or just a citizen in general? Growing up, children are taught societal values that most often reflect what could be the “instructions” on how to behave as a member of a community or as a citizen. Citizenship is taught all over the world in every nation, but although the actual definition of citizenship (Active citizenship is the philosophy that citizens should work towards the betterment of their community through economic participation, public, volunteer work, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens, as well as the political participation in the life of the community, the right to vote, and the right to receive certain protection from the community, as well as obligations) stays generally true for most places you go, the individual meanings of each of these stand for may vary drastically from one country to the next, and sometimes even from one town to the next. For example almost all countries I have ever heard of, besides extreme poverty stricken communities, all require some sort of “economic participation” as stated in the definition above, however “economic participation” definitely does NOT have the same meaning or expectation everywhere you go. In order for every single person to fulfill this responsibility, they must be able to recognize and read their world in order to become “literate” members of their particular community or citizens of their state/ nation.
The photo is of a flyer that was dropped off to my front door by Mr. Bob Bushman who is running for Sherburne County Sheriff. Now, I have lived in Sherburne County almost all of my life, I have other family and many friends that live in Sherburne County. I know the area, the type of people, the quality and type of schools; therefore I am able to read Mr. Bushman’s flyer bulleting his experience, education, and civic involvement to formulate an opinion of his candidacy because I am literate of the expectations of my particular community.

est-ce que vous êtes révolutionnaire?

I took this photo yesterday in the Lund's parking lot:

It caught my eye for two reasons.  First off, everything French grabs me- whether it's writing or speech (two French ladies came into the movie theater the other day, speaking French. I almost had a heart attack I got so excited).  Second, after I stopped and read it I thought: "whoa."  I mean, it's sort of deep, isn't it?

est-ce que vous êtes révolutionnaire?
are you revolutionary?
or
are you a revolutionary?

This made me think of literacy instantly, so I whipped out my phone and snapped a picture.  There are so many different ways to read into it.  You can look at the writing, or as a photograph (as it's now become).
Written on the back of a Ford pickup truck with a topper, with a Led Zeppelin sticker and a South Dakota license plate as the only other defining clues.  What kind of revolution is the driver fighting for?  Is he recruiting?  Did he write the phrase on the back of his own truck, or did someone else do it?  Is just the truck from South Dakota, or is the driver?  Are they just visiting?  Do they call Minneapolis or even Minnesota home now?

The reason I gave two different translations is because in French, you do not put an article in front of a profession.  So you don't say "I am a lawyer," you say "I lawyer" basically.  That is one of the specific reasons that this French phrases begs more questions than answers for me.  In French we have mostly all the same aspects in literacy as in English, with the added bonus of crazy grammar to make things more confusing (not necessarily in a bad way).

I guess I have just learned that literacy can be interpreted in different ways.  The word literacy can mean many different things and be applied to almost anything.  And in this same way the message written on the truck can be interpreted in many different ways.  It could mean anything.

Missing: Chuck Norris

I don't know when the first person posted the first "missing" flyer. People lose myriad objects/people/animals. If "Literacy can be thought of as a particular set of social practices that a particular set of people value" (Harste 2003), then one of these social practices is the posting of a flyer for something that has vanished, the whereabouts of which are unknown. We have all stopped to read one of these flyers, either out of curiosity or perhaps with the idea that we may help in some way. From jewelry to cats to people to rabbits, somehow we understand in this country that it's perfectly acceptable to compose some text, include a photograph, and hope that a complete stranger may be able to produce the missing object. We know the "code" for the missing poster, we understand how it works because of the schema we have created around having lost something ourselves, or knowing others who have lost something dear to them. I found this flyer in a coffee shop in Taylors Falls and I photographed it because I liked the hand-drawn picture of a rabbit. I thought it would be good material for a short story, and that a good creative writing exercise in my future classroom could revolve around a missing poster.

As part of literacy, I think there is significance in both the text and the event. This format requires text to list the details of what has disappeared, a visual representation of the object, and the inferred meaning of the event. The person is, we presume, emotionally affected by the object's disappearance, and we can all relate to this on some level. This is how the world comes to have meaning for us, in part through our connections to and relationships with others. The missing poster is one way we translate the world around us. While I could not help Treana find Chuck Norris, I like to imagine that another stranger, perhaps right behind me in line for a cappucino, had seen him and called Treana. It can be a crazy world for a rabbit on his own.

Literacy in Protest

Last weekend I was grateful and fortunate enough to participate in the First Annual Twin Cities Brides March Against Domestic Violence. Women and men were asked to wear either wedding gowns or all white and tuxedos or all black in order to symbolize domestic violence. The inspiration for this attire was inspired by the brutal murder of a woman who was killed by an abusive ex boyfriend, on the day of her wedding. She was wearing her beautiful white wedding gown at the time of her murder. The march also became a symbol for other women who had lost their lives to domestic violence, who were never given the opportunity to wear their own wedding gown or enjoy their own wedding day. Mother's, father's, siblings, children and friends came to honor the lives of loved ones slain as a result of domestic violence. Victims and former victims also came to rejoice in the fact that they could still live, learn and find resources for help. This protest became a symbol of literacy to me and others because through uniting with one common goal (to raise awareness about and combat domestic violence) people learned that domestic violence affects all walks of life. No one is exempt, and that there are many many resources available for help. The bystanders watching brides and grooms protest against domestic violence also learned that the issue affects many people and that it can't be ignored. After all, how can you ignore 150 plus brides walking down the streets of down town St. Paul on a rainy afternoon?

I've always regarded music as something that is always surrounding us. On this windy day the trees were alive with music and therefore alive with literacy. In the musical world this is a controversial subject and many composers have put out a tape recorder to record people talking, the wind blowing, the ac unit running and looped it in specific ways to make a form that they call a piece of music. For me, this is not music, but if it is for somebody else, more power to them. I will teach the subject of 'chance music' and the way that technology made its way into the musical realm through Reich's, 'Its Gonna Rain,' but I will let my students decide on whether or not they want to deem the topic as music. Music is a subject that has thousands of rules to follow. If a student is 'illiterate' on a rule they risk the possibility of not being able to learn thereafter the rest of the rules. The truly frustrating part about music however is that with all these rules... YOU CAN BREAK THEM AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!!! It's frustrating for a student to learn all the rules and to then have to just forget about them and realize that the past years of learning and studying music theory really can just be boiled down to a few simple concepts and the rest they can do however they want. To me literacy in music can also be at the composer's discretion. They get to choose how they write and what they write, if they want to follow the rules or not. On the windy day I took this picture I thought of Reich and how he decided to go against all the rules and created a whole new area of literacy in music.
To listen to "It's Gonna Rain" visit the link below and go to the time 2:39 It will give a lot more background on what I'm talking about plus get to listen to the piece of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0DQRfm0uL8

The literacy of sharing a world

NICSUN already gave us "Literacy in Politics." That put a new twist to a thought I've had for some time: that many people from majority or socially/politically/economically dominant groups have never learned to look at things from any other point of view, and have been educated to regard their own dominance as the right and natural order of the world. Any tipping of the balance, any leveling of the field that reduces the automatic supremacy of the dominant group is unfair, artificial, and part of an evil conspiracy.

Recently, I see this most glaringly from defenders of the Arizona immigration law, and the Tea Partiers. In the first case, many white "Conservative" Americans simply cannot believe there's an objection. "It's only against illegals!", they assure me, and can't imagine why anyone would think this law might impact legal immigrants, or even American citizens, who speak the same language or have the same skin color as those "illegals." I think we can say, with confidence, that Arizona would never have passed a law requiring white people to carry around documentation (documentation most Americans don't even possess) to produce any time a police officer demanded proof of citizenship. First of all, the majority of Arizona's voters would never subject themselves to harassment and humiliation like that. Second, well everyone just knows that white people are citizens, right?; it's non-whites who have to be individually scanned for alien status. Supporters, willfully or otherwise, blind themselves to the racial dynamic and the past and present reality of law enforcement's interaction with minority communities and claim that latinos who are here legally have nothing to fear from the law.

My second example, the one tied to the image above (or any of thousands of egregious signs that proliferate at Tea Party rallies), is the astonishing conviction held by some members of traditionally privileged groups in this country that they are getting a bad deal, that they are victims, that minorities are getting special advantages and taking over the country. This is an old, old refrain in America, dating back at least to the Civil War and white fears of "Negro Rule," as if weakening the institution of slavery or any advances toward basic citizenship and equality for African Americans meant that they'd grind whites in the dust. You see this today, with white conservatives (and, in 2008, Gloria Steinem!) denouncing Affirmative Action and the election of Barack Obama as proof that black Americans have things too easy and white people just can't catch a break anymore. Realistically, whatever disadvantages whites might suffer from Affirmative Action don't begin to override the benefits whites have received (for most of us unwillingly, unwittingly, without intent or understanding of the structural forces pushing us towards the top and others down) from our nation's racial caste system. Certainly, the election of the first non-white president can hardly spell the end of white success in America, especially when Congress, the media, the electorate, the business community, and the president's staff (from Joe Biden on down) are overwhelmingly white. Similarly, every year like clockwork Fox News warns us about a War On Christmas because some retailers have seen fit to ask their employees (who are not all Christian) to wish their customers (who are not all Christian) Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. To those who are accustomed to ignoring the existence of other religions it seems like a huge affront to be asked to share the holiday shopping season in this tiny way. As my final example, the "Defense of Marriage" campaign, which peaked in 2004 with a series of amendments to state constitutions and an attempt to amend the United States Constitution to "defend marriage" from gay participation. How utterly baffling that so many Americans have taken "heterosexual" as a political and cultural identity, and think that marriage would be devalued and destroyed if a small excluded section of the population were allowed to join in. What on earth gays marrying is supposed to do to marriage as it exists between straight couples remains vague, but the very fact that same sex marriages were performed would utterly devalue the concept. It seems very clear to me that the point in retaining exclusive ownership of marriage is to have someone to look down at; whatever else is going wrong in my life, at least I'm better than them. In a world where diversity is increasing in all fields and classes, this isn't a viable attitude in the long term. We have to learn to share both economic resources and social capital.

Update: As if to prove my point the Tea Party's flagship candidate, GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, puts the "government mandate" to share space in this country with non-whites in terms of the death of freedom.

Literacy in Medicine

Literacy, both in the traditional sense of being able to read and our expanded sense encompassing virtually all technical skills and knowledge, plays a vital role in receiving medical care. At the most basic level, knowing about anatomy and basic health maintenance is crucial. For most of us, getting our teeth cleaned periodically and making at least a gesture towards exercise and eating healthy are ingrained, but they are learned behaviors. Once one enters the clutches of the medical system, both literal and expanded literacy are essential because of the reams of highly technical, both medically and legally, paperwork one must handle to receive, authorize, understand and pay for care. If one lacks the medical literacy to understand one's body and conditions, the literal literacy to understand the forms and paperwork, and the computer and research literacy to investigate, one is at the mercy of what information one overworked doctor can convey in brief, expensive face-to-face meetings.

Although I wasn't thinking in terms of Literacy per se, I witnessed the importance of medical and standard literacy last year when I was teaching in Namibia. Namibia is a new and impoverished country, having only won independence from Apartheid South Africa 20 years ago. It is also ground zero, along with neighboring Botswana, of the AIDS Crisis. AIDS medications are finally becoming available in the developing world, but taking AIDS "cocktails" properly and effectively is a very complicated and time-sensitive business, with a myriad of pills required at very specific times of day. How does this work in a country virtually without clocks, where time is vague to the point of near meaninglessness, and where people aren't accustomed to working with precision measuring and details? Where most people can't read in any language, much less the English formal instructions are almost always printed in? In rural Namibia (everywhere but the capital Windhoek), pill dosage instructions aren't given by the numerical clock (take two pills at 6am, and another two at 6pm) but with pictures: Take two pills when the sun is low in the sky! For some medication this may work, but for complicated and highly precise regimens it poses a huge obstacle.

Knitting and Mathematics

Every knitting pattern gives a gauge, or number of stitches and rows per inch, appropriate for the type of yarn and needle size used in the original pattern. The gauge is extremely important for a pattern because it tells you how many stitches to cast on and how many rows to knit for your desired garment size. I rarely use the yarn that is listed in the pattern nor do I even use a yarn similar in size to the given yarn. Because of this tendency, I am required to change the pattern in order to ensure that I am making the correct size for the garment. Therefore, I need to read and write the words, letters, and symbols of the pattern, as well as write and interpret mathematics in figuring out how many stitches to cast on, how many rows to knit, how much yarn to use, etc.

Determining gauge is also essential when making up your own patterns. Writing your own pattern again requires the reading, writing, and interpreting of mathematics as well as writing skills to write out the final pattern. I am making a blanket for my dad with a pattern that I wrote myself. He is a big fan of the University of Miami Hurricanes so I took a photo of one of their logos and ran it through a pattern generator. While this program breaks down the picture into number of stitches, I still need to figure out how big the blanket will be based on the yarn I want to use as well as the suggested needle size for that yarn. This particular pattern taken as it was generated would have made a tiny lap blanket so I needed to add in rows and stitches to widen and lengthen it as well as to make a nice border so that it was a more appropriate size. You can see all of my notes with equations and written instructions for the pattern along the margins of the picture of the logo.

While a knitter obviously needs to know physically how to knit, it is also important for a knitter to be literate in the language of the craft in order to pick apart a pattern. And it is mighty helpful to understand ratios!

Literacy in Music

This is my little sister CJ playing piano. She is 9 years old. Literacy in this photo is evident in the fact that she is indeed reading music while playing. However, literacy is also evident in the fact that she is listening to herself. She told me she can remember that she forgot to put the pedal on in the last two measures and she is able to point out her hardest measure and tell me how she is going to practice it. Music, to me, is the ultimate multi-tasking activity. They need to read the conductor (if there is one), read music (in the staff and the details that are around the staff, for instance, CJ forgot to read below the staff that the pedal should be put on in the last two measures) and it also includes listening to what you have played or evening listening to something that is in your head before you play so that when you do play it it is exactly how you imagined it. Music requires students to be literate in a completely different language, and practicing, just like CJ, makes a more literate person.

Photovoice 1

I think part of literacy in world language is being aware of the language you're expected to function in.
This means being wary of false cognates, especially in French.
A cognate is a word that is similar to a word in English.  For example, in French "la tradition" is very similar looking and sounding to the word "tradition" in English.  And since it is a cognate, that is what it means.
A false cognate is a word that looks and sounds very similar to a word in English, but it does not share a similar meaning.  For example, "chair" in French is not something to sit on.  It is basically "flesh" in English.
So, it was very important to realize the false cognate "naturaliste" when I visited this small seaside town in the south of France.  This particular town is inhabited by "les naturalistes" during the warmer months (I visited in January).  Naturalist has a different meaning in English, while in French "naturaliste" means nudest.  This bit of new vocabulary was and will be extremely helpful in the future.

Cognates and false cognates are an important part of literacy in teaching and learning world languages.

Literacy in Art

I am working on a lesson where students will design and draw a community eco art-park, then they will create a 3-d version using mixed media. This is my 3-d version. In the process of drawing thier park they create a what will be like a map key. I have been thinking about how this relates to reading a text of an object. Images are a large part our our daily lives, and many times written language is involved in comprehension. It seems extreemly important to be able to read our surroundings in order to survive and thrive. Our students will flurious in any environment if they are able to read the small information and build from there.

"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso, 1937.

Ok, I didn't take this photo, but the piece provides a lot of visual reading material as an artist. Picasso's Guernica depicts the bombing of Guernica, Spain by German and Italian forces on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Hundreds of civilians were killed. When viewing this painting, the horrors of the incidents are immediately apparent. Not only do we see it in the mangled, stricken faces of the subjects, but also in the awkward, strained shapes and spacing, the rigid use of line, the lack of color, and the dark and dismal shade, or value, of the painting.

These elements; line, shape, form, value, color, space, are the language of art. They are what a work of art are made up of, and it is through these elements that an artist can create not only the image that he or she wants to convey, but also the underlying message or the mood of the work.

Literacy in a Changing Society

In class we discussed that ‘literacy’ can be defined as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as well as inquiry, language study, and meaning making, but my understanding of literacy has developed and become more in line with Harste (2003) in which he states “Literacy can be thought of as a particular set of social practices that a particular set of people value” and Friere, that literacy is reading the word, and reading the world. If you look at literacy in these terms, then it is impossible to describe or define literacy without including the notion that is changes, the definition of literacy in terms of our set of social practices would be much different then 30, 50, or 100 years ago. Throughout my lifespan for example, I was not introduced to computer technology until around the middle of elementary school, in which case we used large green screen computers in the lab to play educational games, for math and spelling, it was closer to middle school when we began using computers for word processing assignments and internet research. I was also in my early teens before having a home pc was prevalent in our society, and until my generation began using personal computers for other purposes such as social networking, etc. Thus, learning how to use a computer was something that was not a necessarily a literary requirement when I first began school, but by the end of my high school career it was, I had to spend a great deal of time learning the functions, the processes, such as web browsing, keyboarding etc at a much later age then children in today’s society. My daughter Emelia, is 2 years old. Her generation of children now have entirely different literary expectations, because the use of technology and computers has now become so prominent in everyday life tasks and activities, it is essential for humans to learn and understand, “to be able to read”, computers and the internet, therefore beginning to teach these concepts at a much younger age, then 12 or 13 like I was, is a new social practice that would alter our definition of literacy. This photograph is of my two year old daughter about to skype with her grandmother (at two, she knows how to turn on the computer, use the keypad to move the cursor, click on the Skype shortcut button and she even knows which names her Nana is, she can pick a name, and click ‘video call’).

For me art is about a feeling/emotion that over comes your body. Your own built in approval system. I discover what evokes my emotions by living, reading the world around me and utilize my knowledge to form ideas and opinions that I feel need to be expresses.

These are basic ideas seen everyday in the world we roam. Some people might just miss the expressive art perspective, but still have a reaction or feeling. They are reading the world for themselves.

Art is taught mostly by doing, but ultimately the finish product is an expression of your ideas and knowledge. Ideas are converted for artists technically through art elements and principles (value, balance, line, color, texture, space, form, etc).

Do you feel anything? Can you relate to this image?

Trees

The Sound of the Trees by Robert Frost

I wonder about the trees.
Why do we wish to bear
Forever the noise of these
More than another noise
So close to our dwelling place?
We suffer them by the day
Till we lose all measure of pace,
And fixity in our joys,
And acquire a listening air.
They are that that talks of going
But never gets away;
And that talks no less for knowing,
As it grows wiser and older,
That now it means to stay.
My feet tug at the floor
And my head sways to my shoulder
Sometimes when I watch trees sway,
From the window or the door.
I shall set forth for somewhere,
I shall make the reckless choice
Some day when they are in voice
And tossing so as to scare
The white clouds over them on.
I shall have less to say,
But I shall be gone.

One of the ways writers read the world is through images. For as long as there have been trees, people have felt a connection to them; Robert Frost is just one of a multitude that has read the world in this way. Robert Probst, in Voices from the Middle (March, 2003), writes: "All these are acts of literacy, all these involve reading; all these involve looking at signs, interpreting codes, seeking to discover significance in an event or text, trying to figure out what the world surrounding us means for us, for our own lives, for our own happiness." I think trees mean something different for everyone; symbolically, the tree is said to denote the life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is therefore likened to a symbol of immortality. Who among us has not read the seasons through the appearance of a tree? Who has not sought shelter, literally and figuratively, under branches, against bark, in moments of tears, laughter, reflection? As a poet, trees figure largely into my poems for a multitude of reasons. I feel connected to trees because they are a part of my world, and are one of my connections to my place here. When I am able to translate this into text, when I can shift from the world of the living object with its canopy of branches, rough bark, and presence into the world of text - written and spoken - I am part of the literacy of the world.

-Tracy Sitterley

Writing the First Draft of History - Literacy in Observing Events

In 2004, I lived, worked and studied in Ecuador with an excellent program called HECUA. It was a very volatile time, though Ecuador like much of Latin America is in a nearly perpetual state of crisis with only brief rests when catastrophe and revolution seem to fade momentarily into the background. Ecuador is a very divided country, with the traditional lighter skinned, Spanish and now often English speaking descendants of the colonial ruling class still holding onto economic and political power, and, despite representing a tiny minority, being hugely overrepresented in culture and media.

In recent decades there has been a revival of indigenous pride and culture, as people and communities and philosophies which have been ground under foot since Columbus and the conquistadores have awoken and demanded autonomy and respect. In Ecuador, this movement is called Pachacuti, the Quechua name of an Inca king. In 2002, the newly mobilized indigenous voters allied with urban leftists and students to elect President Lucio Gutierrez. However, Gutierrez quickly betrayed his supporters and embraced the traditional elites and foreign business interests he had won power by denouncing. He instituted World Bank ordained austerity measures and converted the Ecuadorian currency from the patriotic Sucre to the American dollar. He cracked down, hard, on the student protesters and indigenous marchers who had brought him to office. In the first week of November I witnessed, photographed and was caught up in a war on the capital city of Quito's streets between the Grupo de Operaciones Especiales with their riot gear, guns and armored cars, and students with red banners and rocks and Molotov cocktails. I came home at the end of the 2004; by April 2005 President Gutierrez had been overthrown.

Making sense of this complicated and foreign scenario required many kinds of literacy. Most obviously, my ability to read and understand Spanish (much degraded since then) allowed me to understand the slogans being shouted. I knew that "Lucio sucio" meant "Dirty Lucio" and that "Quito no fue fundada por Espanoles!" is a cry of indigenous pride from the descendants of the people who were there for thousands of years before the new ruling class. Having read Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina by Eduardo Galeano, I was able to understand some of the economic history from the underclass' perspective, and why they hated Gutierrez for bowing to American interests. I was able to speak to the president of the Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios del Ecuador, the militant student union FEUE, who explained why his members where out in the street with red banners, Marxist slogans and rocks. I was able to understand the police's threats to jail, rape, murder or deport me when I was briefly kidnapped and held in an armored car during the fighting. Had I not been literate to some degree in history, in Spanish, in politics, and in basic international and domestic economics, I would have thought hell had suddenly erupted in front of the Universidad Central in Quito, and that everyone had suddenly gone mad and started fighting. It occurs to me that this is what most Americans do think when they read about third world or even inner city violence.

Literacy Sprouting

Over the past few years, my boyfriend and I have taken up gardening not only as a healthy hobby, but also as a way of decreasing our ecological footprint and enhancing our sustainability as members of our community. By growing as much produce as possible by seed, we rarely have to buy vegetables at the market between the months of May and September. Through our endeavor, we have discovered that success in gardening involves precision and incredible attention to detail, just like success in mathematics involves precision in language and procedure. Successful growing is also dependant upon the gardeners’ ability to adjust to the unpredictability of the elements in nature. Similarly, successful math learning hinges upon the students’ ability to be flexible with procedures and to critically analyze problem solving situations in order to determine an appropriate strategy for any given situation.

These parallels between math and gardening can be used to summarize some of my conclusions about the successful development of math literacy among secondary students. The acquisition of math literacy is a necessary component of success in the study of mathematics that should be stressed during earlier years of education for appropriate mathematical development through grades 2-12. As the gardener must till the soil before planting seeds, the teacher must stress mathematical literacy before productive problem solving skills can be developed. Introducing the basics of math literacy (reading, writing, listening to, talking about, and watching procedures) is not enough for the true development of literacy. Rather, some conditions must be met for students to be mathematically literate, just like specific conditions must be met for the planted seeds to flourish.

The primary element needed for seed growth is water, comparable to the math language (from content vocabulary to number proficiency) needed before applied and meaningful learning can occur. Next, the seedling takes in sunlight and nutrients, which parallels the students’ intake of teacher provided tools that enhance the development of reading, writing, listening, viewing, and speaking skills. Such tools include procedural development in conjunction with guided and practiced templates for written, spoken, and drawn communication. To advance literacy development even further, the teacher must create a respectful, safe community environment whereby students are able to practice their tools as they learn new math concepts. This is the time when teachers have the ability to enhance literacy development, rather than allow it to plateau. Similarly, the gardener has the power to encourage plant growth even further through proper fertilization and nurturing of the environment. Translating back to math, once literacy has sprouted, it must be fostered daily and yearly for meaningful math learning to take place.

The picture above depicts a variety of lettuce plants, all of which started from tiny seeds. The nature of the photograph relays another interesting parallel between math and gardening. Notice how the plants are spaced—not too far apart but not too close so that growth is hindered. In a similar manner, student development of math literacy must be balanced between guided teaching, collaborative exploration, and self-discovery. Excellence in math literacy does not occur in an isolated bubble. Students need each other to gain confidence in conjecture-making and reasoning, which correlate to the process standards intricately tied to literacy development—those of communication and problem solving. Fostering a warm environment where student voice is always valued is an essential component of teacher development of student literacy.

Gardening is not only a great metaphor for mathematical literacy development, it is also an awesome mathematical model. In fact, my friend who tutors an Algebra I class at Humbolt High School helped her students begin a gardening project last week as an application to their study of rate of change. In doing math through gardening, the retention and meaningful understanding of concepts is maximized. Relevant concepts of growth rate, dependence relations, variance, mixing, area, and perimeter can be applied to gardening. As a teacher, I will use similar projects accompanied by academic papers incorporating math concepts with the physical doing of math. This is the perfect example of how we as teachers can stimulate the development of literacy in our students while incorporating practical life lessons that promote a healthy community.

Literacy in Politics

This weekend I attended a march and rally in support of the rights of immigrants where I observed many different examples of literacy.

I was impressed, and a little overwhelmed, with the variety of political interests and organizations present. Organizers carried signs, chanted, sang songs, passed out literature, and gave soap box speeches on the street. There were signs in English, Spanish, and various Asian characters. Literacy was everywhere.

It made me think about the role of literacy in democracy. In the U.S. we no longer are required to take literacy tests in order to vote -- some were in the past. However, can you imagine participating without your literacy skills? Many of us read about various political opinions and candidates every day in newspapers, on blogs and bumper stickers, etc. Certain times of the year it may feel like we can't escape it. It can be difficult to sort fact from fiction.

Most of us are equipped with the knowledge to think critically and analytically. We are educated on how to read for signs of biases. At political events and in daily life it is important to think critically about the information you're exposed and decide what you support and what you may not. A responsible citizen is informed about the issues and doesn't blindly follow based merely on ideology.

It is important to pass that information along to future generations, so they can be responsible citizens. In the future I hope to teach students how to find information about the many different sides of controversial issues and think critically about their world so they can get out and support the causes that may be important to them.

Lyrical Literacy

Ok, so this doesn't necessarily have to do with lyrics, but I liked the alliteration. This is me and my friend, Ashley. The picture above is of her boyfriend, Troy's band, JackLaugh. (They're pretty good! You should check them out at http://www.myspace.com/jacklaugh or http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49545262001.) The other night I went out to see JackLaugh playing at a local bar. I thought they sounded pretty good, but it was kind of hard to understand the lyrics over the music. When the band was done with their first set, Troy came over to talk to Ashley. Naturally, one of the first things he asked her was "how did we sound?" Despite the fact that I have gone to shows for friends and I know it is of no help, my response would have been something along the lines of "you sounded good!" Ashley however started talking to Troy in a much more technical way, detailing how the quality wasn't very good in the corner where we were sitting, but it was better towards the back of the room. They went on to discuss how they had sounded much better at the bar where the band performed last weekend. While Ashley and Troy were talking, I just sat and listened to them with nothing to contribute myself.

Last week I went to visit the ELL classroom at Highland Park to talk to the ELL teacher, Mr. Farstad. We talked about his students and how quickly they end up being mainstreamed after only 4 years in the ELL program. I asked him how well they did in the mainstreamed classes and we talked a little about how ELL students tend to be more quiet in the classroom because they don't always feel comfortable talking around native speakers. It can be hard to jump into a discussion with people when you are not confident that you can keep up in the conversation. Whether it has to do with fluency in the language or knowledge of the content, literacy is important to having confidence in any conversation.

Literacy in anything whether a school subject, a new language, or even understanding how differences in settings can effect how music sounds, is something that takes time and experience to gain. Just as ELL students should have around 7 years before they are mainstreamed, I just need to get more experience by going to more shows so that I can some day join in a conversation about how a band sounds in a particular venue. I'm sure JackLaugh would appreciate more fans, too, so maybe the next time I go to a show some of you can join me and we can all expand our musical literacy! 

Literacy is Everywhere

These are a couple pictures from my vocabulary lesson. While you did the activity, if you were to walk into my gym class and see this on the wall, you would know that the kids are learning vocabulary of various sports. The way I went about teaching the vocabulary incorporated literacy as well because the students would have to read the word and then work together by communicating about where the vocabulary word fit. I have been viewing literacy in physical education more about demonstration and physical doing, but reading and writing is also very important in the physical education class. Students need to be able to read about a sport to help them learn the rules and strategies of the game. It is also important that they can write about what they are doing and use the vocabulary from the unit to have success during the game. One of the tools I plan to use on a regular basis in my classroom will be a study guide that students will be required to read and understand.

When I started this class, I was one of those physical education people who was bothered by the idea that I would have to teach literacy in the my gym class. I have really changed my opinion because of my understanding of literacy. Literacy is everywhere including physical education class. There is a time and place for reading and writing in phy ed but I think that finding a way to balance everything is going to be the key to a quality classroom. I never realize how much I can incorporate literacy into my classroom while being in motion. After doing this lesson, I know that in my gym I want lots on the walls that encourages students to read without even realizing they are reading. I plan on having not only word walls, but inspirational sayings and rules of various activities posted so there is never any question as to what the expectation in my class is.

City Streets

This is a picture of my adorable little house, here in St. Paul. As I was walking home from class today, it occurred to me how different city streets look here versus city streets in Paris or France in general. In both situations, I lived in a metropolitan city. Paris, however, has a larger population in a smaller area. Despite it's large population, Paris is a small city.
Anyway, when teaching a foreign language, almost everything has to do with literacy. In most foreign language settings, students will learn vocabulary having to do with cities. They will not only learn words for specific things, like grocery stores and towers and houses and school, etc. But they will also learn how to describe the city: the closeness of the houses or buildings, the traffic, the business of the streets. Students also learn vocabulary to give directions: north, south, east, west, right, left, etc. This also seems like a clear way to incorporate culture into the vocabulary. One of the ACTFL national standards is about Comparisons. Why not use the new vocabulary that you're teaching your students to discuss how an American city is organized versus how a French (or even just European) cities are organized? This would make the vocabulary have a real life purpose. In foreign languages, teaching the vocabulary doesn't mean that the students will remember it. If you give them a real life situation or a connection to their own lives, your students are much more likely to remember what they learned. This can also help with getting your students to talk in class and use the speaking part of language learning. Plus, such comparisons are fun.

I just can't win.

I went camping this weekend with a few friends. We stayed up near Duluth at Tettegouche State Park, right on the Lake Superior shoreline.

I am currently in a class called, simply, "Color". Being in this class has afforded me a heightened awareness of color and what it is doing to the world around me. It is hard to paint you a picture with words of what I saw while camping...Two colors that I felt flooded my world this weekend were green and violet. What kind of colors are they? Everyone, in unison now: COOL colors. Very calming. My friend pointed out something as we were driving up north. Perhaps this is something that all of you have noted before, but I didn't really realize how we were stepping back in time as we headed north, in a way, to an earlier time in spring. I thought this was a lovely thought. Perhaps if we kept driving, we would never need to say goodbye to the sweet time of spring, when the colors are so fresh and bold. The yellow-green of the birch trees, with their white trunks gave way to a sky filled with chromatic violets...and then you walk near a birch tree, and you see the pealing bark that reveals a soft sunrise of colors. I greedily spent my weekend looking for these bits of bark along the path, the smooth driftwood that washed up on the shore, and memories of the colors that surrounded me. My mind swam with dreams of using these things in my art. Nature is, without a doubt, one of the most important sources of inspiration for my art. I have to admit, however, that sometimes this thing that I am studying (art) seems terribly and absolutely redundant. Art? Why on earth would I think I have any right to speak for nature, to translate, or take ownership of it in my artwork? Doesn't it speak for itself on a level that I will never be able to speak without stumbling terribly over my words?

The picture I have posted was taken by my mother a few days ago. Robin eggs sit nestled in her empty flower pot...their blue not even done justice by Crayola's Robin Egg's Blue. Sigh...

Literature and Music

Like literature I believe music "speaks" to the listener. Music has a profound way of evoking the listeners emotions just as literature does. Music often tells a story sometimes with words - sometimes without. When I saw this violinist serenely strumming his instrument on the streets of Las Vegas, I could not help but stop and see if his music told a story. I did not recognize the song, but what I did realize was that his music carried meaning for him. His facial expression was one of solemnity and grace. How he felt about the music was unclear. What I did perceive from his stature was that this was the way he made his living. Perhaps his song told the story of his life catering to those that love music. Listening to the soft and beautiful sounds of the violin induced memories of a sad time in my life and carried for me, an entirely different meaning. The music told a different story.

In this way music and language arts are delicately intertwined in the sense that the person who receives the message is the one who interprets its meaning. The artist (author, poet, musician etc) often cannot control how their message is perceived. That is part of the beauty and adventure of reading a great work of literature or listening to a breathtaking piece of music. Individual interpretation is key to the experience.

Los chiles

Los chiles--chili peppers. Who knew there were so many kinds? You can learn the general term in Spanish, but then there are all the varieties: mulato, guajillo, chipotle, japones, pasilla...In this case, well-rounded literacy is achieved when the student of Spanish knows not only their names, but also when and how to cook with them.

These chili peppers tell another story as well. Did I go to a specialty shop to find all these chilis? I may have had to twenty years ago, but yesterday I found them at Cub Foods in West Saint Paul. They also had rows and rows of imported salsas and Mexican pastries, and the aisle signs were in both Spanish and English. There were not many people shopping at that hour, but the evidence was clear that this particular grocery store reaches out and caters to a Latino clientele that is significant in size. Literacy in Spanish means not only studying the foreign countries where Spanish is spoken, but also being aware of the Hispanic presence and influence in our midst.

Finally, there is the literacy involved in deciphering the packaging. The label colors are the same as the Mexican flag, and the brand name is "Lindo y Querido," or"Beautiful and Dear," which evokes not only these vibrant chilis, but also the Mexican homeland. As anyone who has lived abroad knows, seeing something that reminds you of home is comforting. For a Mexican living in Minnesota, finding "Lindo y Querido" chilis at the local Cub Foods might make those long, cold winter nights a little more bearable.