I think this quote is very important and is telling us that in order to understand literacies ourselves, we must be able to understand other people and how others understand literacy. When the quote says “…is half someone elses” I think that we are developing literacy as someone else had already created it. This relates to me personally because I learned how to read, write and perform other literacies based off of what other people had already knew and taught me.
Posted by kareemw on February 6th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Nice job, Kareema. You raise an important point that this quote touches on. You’re right to emphasize the role others play on our literacy development. This can be seen in some cases where children love to read because parents love to read (or the opposite — I always turn to positive examples, but children who don’t see adults reading and liking reading are less likely to like to read too). This can also be seen in the types of literacy we interact in. Children are often influenced by the type of reading their parents do. If your parents read poetry often you’re more likely to read it (since it seems normal), or if parents read religious texts then it’s more expected that the children will mimic what they see. Nice work.
February 8, 2009 @ 7:48 pm