Literacy for the Family: A Family that Reads and Writes Together, Learns Together!

This week I just finished reading Monaghan's really interesting article, Family Literacy in Early 18th-Century Boston: Cotton Mather and His Children. This particular study focused on how the Mather family valued literacy and writing, which was rather rare at the time. In fact, even the slaves in the household were encouraged to develop their reading and writing abilities. Historically, it seems that the teaching of reading and writing were left up to the schools when the children were old enough to attend, especially because some scholars thought that there was a particular age when reading should be introduced. However, interestingly enough, a person was considered literate if he or she could sign a document. Monaghan (1991) also points out that there really is "no standard history of American writing instruction" (p. 344-345).

Mather, "a major figure in the development of American theology," was very adamant about teaching his children reading comprehension and how reading and writing were related (Monaghan, 1991, p. 347). He also owned the largest library in America at the time which consisted of 3,000 volumes. It was reported that when major events (both good and bad) fell upon Mather, he would turn to writing. Mather left behind a vast amount of diaries that tell his families' literary history. Mather's entries included the joyous occasions of the birth of each of his SIXTEEN! children and also wrote to get through the difficult times of the untimely deaths of his first two wives (and several of his children) who fell to smallpox and measles.

I was moved by the previously mentioned fact that Mather could use his diary almost in a therapeutic and consoling way. I wish I was so talented! I think I begin to shut down and obtain writer's block when stress piles on-hence end of the semester!!! Cotton Mather's diaries are an exemplary way to show the "cohesiveness between reading and writing, and the relationship between literacy and life" (Monaghan, 1991, p. 367).

The Art of Presenting

I think it would only be fair this week to begin this week's blog by writing about how well the first presentations went. Congratulations to a job well done by both Petra and Rachel. Both presentations were very informative. Petra's unique take on our inference group's (Dr. Bintz, Lisa, Liz, Petra, Rochelle and myself) study we have been working on for a class that was in the Spring of 2009 was awesome!! (It's afforded some really great opportunities already with more to come in the following weeks, namely IRA in April!!) Petra's presentation, "Inference and Implication" that integrated inference and writing allowed me to see our inference study through a different lens that I had not thought of before. Sometimes we are so involved in our own projects and studies that we need to just step back (at the recommendation of Clifford Geertz) to become an outsider for a moment (or longer) to see what we may be missing!! This is where we can begin to create thick descriptions for our studies.

Rachel's presentation on adult literacy, "Using New Literacies to Teach Old Literacies and Writing" was really interesting. I love hearing stories about teaching experiences in England and how they compare to our adult literacy classes here in the United States. It seems that there actually are more similarities than I originally imagined. Both adult education programs seem to have the same basic goals in mind-to have the adult students achieve basic literacy and math skills in order to improve as functioning adults in today's society.

I was somewhat surprised about how excited adult learners seem to be in England. As an adult education teacher, I have taught enthusiastic learners who are very goal oriented and determined to earn their General Educational Development diploma. On the other hand, I have taught a good number of students here in the United States who are required to come to adult education classes in order to fulfill community service, or for court ordered reasons, etc. These students are generally not nearly as enthusiastic to be in class as other students-I wonder why???

We here in the United States also have a problem with retention of students. The students come and go. Sometimes we see the same students for a few months and then we don't see them again. Others may leave and return in a few months or a couple of years when they say things have "settled down a bit" in their lives. (When do things ever "settle down"-I guess if that was me I'd be waiting a VERY long time??!!)

I hope that my own presentation will be as interesting as both of these two presenters have been, as the "bar has been set very high"!!! As these presentations continue I think we will discover the benefits of how writing can and definitely NEEDS to be incorporated across all areas of the curriculum. Writing needs to be addressed in all content areas not just the language arts classes.

Reflections on Effective Writing with Adult Literacy Students

As I began to delve a little deeper into the focus of my writing paper, I took another step backward to see if I could figure out why my adult students may have been so reluctant to use a form of new literacy to discuss a book. Perhaps, it was not the blogging itself after all. (I am still not sure of that.) What I do know is that while I was doing research about family literacy and teaching adults who are working to improve their basic math and literacy skills (many of which are in hopes of earning a General Educational Development diploma), I found some interesting things about the writing process itself. I was reading part one of five of an article published by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education, entitled The Five Features of Effective Writing: 1 Teaching the Features of Effective Writing. (This particular article was written by Cali and Bowen.) These researchers have determined that the five features of effective writing are “focus, organization, support and elaboration, style and conventions” (Cali & Bowen, p. 1).

Focus here refers to the topic chosen by the writer in response to a writing assignment/task. Organization is the “progression, relatedness, and completeness of ideas” (Cali & Bowen, p. 1). Support and elaboration refer to how the topic is developed through the writing. The writer’s style depends on the audience, purpose and is portrayed through their word choice. Lastly, are the writing conventions, which involve “correctness in sentence formation, usage and mechanics” (Cali & Bowen, p. 1).

Perhaps, it was the last two (style and conventions) of these features that “scared” my students the most. Although I gave them a general topic to write about-anything related to what we were just reading about in our book, maybe they worried about the grammatical issues that their unknown audience may be reading. Because it was a blog they were using, anyone could view it if they knew the particular blog’s web address. I wonder if they were worried about how their ideas would be conveyed. I thought the students would like a little freedom in their writing, but maybe the topic I gave should have had some more guidelines.

In addition to these five features about writing, I am seeing many articles about writing that proclaim how important it is to have students and teachers reflect on their writing. Reflecting about the process of writing is beneficial to both the reader and writer. I am not sure I will ever find out the exact reason why, but I am going to continue reflecting on my teaching until I reach what seems like a reasonable explanation.