Class February 1

Today we talked about a new literacies approach to theorizing writing; in this discussion we talked about social constructivism => an approach where language, knowledge, and social structures are viewed as products of human interactions. Mostly, we talked about stories - cultural stories => especially mainstream stories associated American identities: stories about independence, freedom, equality and success through hard work. We also talked about typical stories associated with literacies: stories about being a "hero", a 'rebel hero," a prodigy, or a struggling student. We also listed literacies and genres of writing that are valued/not valued in these stories and by our culture. This discussion was both to provide a basis for talking about social - as opposed to biological- theories of writing, and as a way for you to start thinking about how you might identify and reflect on a group of stories for your literacy narrative.

We then took a look at the assignment sheet for the literacy narrative (again) and talked about the criteria. Your first draft will be due a week from today, so at this point you should be generating lots of stories - and then looking at them for themes and thinking about what cultural stories your representations of your self connect to. As you notice how your stories reflect cultural identities/values/stories - you might ask your self how or why you "fell into" or chose the particular representations or impressions that are the basis for your talk about writing.

For Wednesday:
Read: Walter Ong's "Writing is a technology" on p 19 in Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook.

Blog 3: Sum up your understanding of Ong's main points.

I will be reading your blogs over the weekend and giving you some feedback on how you are doing with your posts. If you have not yet posted to the first two prompts - do so before Thursday and we will start from there.

See you next class.