RE: [xmca] dynamics of learning and development

From: Peter Smagorinsky <smago who-is-at uga.edu>
Date: Thu Nov 29 2007 - 08:43:14 PST

Philip, we do cover that. Here's the TOC:

 

HANDBOOK OF ADOLESCENT LITERACY RESEARCH

 

 

FOREWORD

 

 

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

 

Leila Christenbury, Randy Bomer, and Peter Smagorinsky: Introduction

Donna Alvermann: Social and cultural contexts of adolescents

Sam Intrator, Rob Kunzman: Who is the adolescent today?

 

PART I: LITERACY IN SCHOOL

Judith Langer: Creating contexts for literacy

Larry Johannessen, Thomas McCann: Adolescents who struggle with literacy

David O'Brien, Roger Stewart, Richard Beach: Strengthening reading skills
among proficient readers

Ruth Schoenbach, Cynthia Greenleaf: The nature and development of academic
literacy

James Marshall: Literacy standards and assessments

Linda Harklau, Rachel Pinnow: Second language writing

Arnetha Ball, Jamal Cooks: AAVE and literacy

Joan Rhodes, Valerie Robnolt: Digital literacies in classrooms

Robert Burroughs, Peter Smagorinsky: Literacy in the secondary English
curriculum

Michelle Zoss: Arts in the language arts

Allan Luke, Annette Woods: Large-scale policies for adolescent literacy

Jo Worthy, Holly Hungerford-Kresser, Angela Hampton: Effects of tracking on
literacy

 

PART II: LITERACY OUT OF SCHOOL

 

Anne Beaufort: The literacy demands of the twenty-first century workplace

Kathleen Yancey: The literacy demands of entering the university

Rebecca W. Black, Constance Steinkuehler: Literacy in virtual communities

David Bruce: Media literacy

 

PART III: LITERACY AND CULTURE

Cynthia Lewis, Antillana del Valle: Literacy and identity

Carmen Martinez-Roldan, Maria Franquiz: Latino/a youth literacy

Yolanda Majors: African American literacy in schools and communities

Michael Smith, Jeff Wilhelm : Literacy issues and young men

Barbara Guzzetti: Literacy issues and young women

Wayne Martino: Literacy issues and GLBTQ adolescents

Danling Fu, Jennifer Graff: Newcomer youth and literacy

Mary Belgarde, Richard Meyer, LoRe: Native American youth literacy

 

 

 

 

Peter Smagorinsky

The University of Georgia

125 Aderhold Hall

Athens, GA 30602

smago@uga.edu/phone:706-542-4507

http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html

 

From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of White, Phillip
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:32 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] dynamics of learning and development

 

this sounds promising - reminds me of Lave's article in MCA some years back
on learning - question: any sections of literacy for adolescents who speak
english as a second language?

 

phillip

 

 

Phillip A. White, Lecturer

University of Colorado at Denver, Health Sciences Center

School of Education, Human Development

Teacher Education

 

  _____

From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Peter Smagorinsky
Sent: Thu 11/29/2007 6:56 AM
To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
Subject: RE: [xmca] dynamics of learning and development

Just one addendum: Two friends and I are editing a Handbook on Adolescent
Literacy (Guilford, 2008). When writing the intro and defining literacy,
when all was said and done and after reviewing much writing on the topic, we
returned to Scribner and Cole's definition from way back in 1981:
This review suggests the importance of Scribner and Cole's (1981) insight
that literacy is a social and cultural practice, i.e.,
a recurrent, goal-directed sequence of activities using a particular
technology and particular systems of knowledge . . . [a set of] socially
developed and patterned ways of using technology and knowledge to accomplish
tasks. . . . [Literacy consists of] a set of socially organized practices
which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and
disseminating it. Literacy is not simply knowing how to read and write a
particular script but applying this knowledge for specific purposes in
specific contexts of use. The nature of these practices, including, of
course, their technological aspects, will determine the kinds of skills
("consequences") associated with literacy. (p. 236)

I haven't found anything better. Peter

Peter Smagorinsky
The University of Georgia
125 Aderhold Hall
Athens, GA 30602
smago@uga.edu/phone:706-542-4507
http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 8:14 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [xmca] dynamics of learning and development

In my personal quest for understanding on this subject I keep returning to
the grand text of the "Psychology of Literacy by Scribner and Cole. I have
the 1999 reprint. The importance this text plays for me is I see it as a
culmination of the many ethnographic studies undertaken to understand
cognition in context. It has help me greatly in my understanding of
working with the students who attend my school with their varying degrees
of disabilities. I submit quotations from Chapter 14 for your
consideration:

"In this book we have made a seemingly relentless descent from the general
to the specific. We began with grand and ancient speculation about the
impact of literacy on history, on philosophy, and on the minds of
individual human beings; we ended with details of experiments on mundane,
everyday activities that would, under other circumstances, probably escape
our notice or our interest. Instead of generalized changes in cognitive
ability, we found localized changes in cognitive skills manifested in
relatively esoteric settings. Instead of qualitative changes in a person's
orientation to language, we found differences in selected features of
speech and communication. . . .we believe it is important that we have
identified skills that are associated literacy learning. . .To give a
satisfactory account of the nature and significance of the differences we
found-and failed to find-we would need to draw on some well-specified
theory of cognition. . .no such theory was at hand. Within anthropology
and sociology, we encounter theories of the "Great Divide" variety. . .a
dominant trend is to consider cultural inventions, such as literacy, as
unrelated to basic processes of intellectual development; literacy may
influence how society does its work but not the structures of mental
operations (piagetian theory). we made progress in finding terms more
suitable for specifying culture-cognition relationships than the antimonies
offered by existing theory. . . We call this framework a "practice account
of literacy" to emphasize that it is neither a formal model nor a grand
theory but a preliminary attempt to bring new question to our enterprises."

any thoughts?
eric

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Received on Thu Nov 29 08:44 PST 2007

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