Re: Fwd: question about literacy

From: Artin Goncu (goncu@uic.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 13:12:04 PST


Peter,

Christine Pappas has a chapter in my book "Children's engagement in the
world" on new literacy and she cites other relevant work that may be of
help.. Artin

At 01:14 PM 3/12/03 -0500, you wrote:
>I got this inquiry today from someone who attended a talk I gave last fall
>in Atlanta. Can anyone help me recommend books or articles that are
>accessible to a bright high school kid on what we might call new literacy
>studies? thanks,Peter
>
>>Hello Dr. Smagorinsky,
>>
>>I met you at the College Board conference last fall. I'm the son of a
>>former language ed. member and I currently teach at Meadowcreek High School
>>in Norcross.
>>
>> A student of mine just came in here asking some rather sophisticated
>>questions about literacy. He wanted to know how come the letter-writing of
>>the Civil War generation seemed to engender a surge in literacy, but the
>>email craze of the current generation seemed to be leading to a decline in
>>literacy. He cited the story of a girl in England who is supposed to have
>>written an entire school essay in email lingo and was astonished when she
>>got a poor grade.
>>
>>I cautioned him to be careful about assigning cause-effect relationships
>>and started to talk about expanded definitions of literacy, but I assume he
>>can find this stuff for himself. But I need to know where to send him,
>>what names to look for. Can you alert me to some names and/or titles -
>>stuff that would be accessible to a bright high school student - on the
>>theme of literacy?
>>
>>I appreciate your help and I enjoyed your talk last fall. You had some
>>traditionalist heads spinning, but they need to spun. My own view of the
>>effect of technology on literacy is that we should both embrace the changes
>>in literacy and expressive opportunities that new technologies bring, but
>>we should also be careful to recognize what we're losing and try to
>>preserve what is essential from older forms of literacy. A difficult
>>trick to pull off.
>>
>>Thanks again!
>>
>>Jim l
>
>
>
Artin Goncu, Ph.D
Professor
College of Education M/C 147
University of Illinois at Chicago
1040 W. Harrison St.,
Chicago, IL 60607

(312) 996-5259
Fax (312) 996-6400



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