Annotated bibliography on the origins and social development of literacy

Literacy

Annotated Bibliography

THE ORIGIN of LITERACY

Bazerman, Charles (nd) a Reflective Moment in the History of Literacy. University of California, Santa Barbara. Online available at: education.ucsb.edu/bazerman/chapters/37.moment2.doc

Bazerman, C. (2000a). Letters and the Social Grounding of Differentiated Genres. In D. Barton & N. Hall (Eds.), Letter Writing as a Social Practice (pp. 15-29). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bazerman, C. (2000b). Rhetoric for Literate Society: The Tension between Expanding Practices and Restricted Theories. In M. Goggin (Ed.), Inventing a Discipline (pp. 5-28). Urbana: NCTE.

The work of Bazerman (nd) entitled: "A Reflective Moment in the History of Literacy" states that the history of literacy "extends about five thousand years, the history of inscription even longer." Bazerman writes that the conditions of literacy have been changed by "the material technologies that mediate literacy" and as well these technologies have "enabled expanding and creative uses of the written word. Bazerman cites Bazerman (2000a, 2000b) and states: "The earliest clay counters that are believed to be the precursors of literacy early elaborated into business accounting and commercial contracts, both of which took on new forms as they became the heart of the commercial system in early Renaissance Italy. Early letters to agents elaborated into the modern world of corporate and bureaucratic records and files. Inscribed laws and decrees became complex systems of governance and adjudication, with volumes of legislation, regulation, court records, precedent, and commentary. Early letters of useful news lead to newsletters and newspapers, news commentary, and news magazines, and now the entire complex of news media. Scriptures beget commentary, scholarship, and prayer books. Transcriptions of public performances become poetry and drama and narratives and novels and detective potboilers and Harlequin romances. Each of these elaborating documentary forms are part of elaborating social systems, roles and activities. Written law has spawned judges and appellate judges and Supreme Court justices, lawyers and clients and paralegals, law librarians and law professors and law students, and fund-raisers for law schools. Financial records and financial instruments created professions of accountants, bookkeepers, clerks, typists, bankers, middle level managers, and IRS agents. And for each field, complexes of activities and roles become built on the spine of written genres that stabilized and regularized relations within increasingly differentiated and elaborated activity systems (Bazerman 1997).

As literate artifacts grew in complexity and variety, tied to increasingly specialized activities and forms of knowledge, schooling became crucial for the maintenance of social systems and the fates of people whose lives were ever more caught up within those systems. The literacies, literate practices, and literatures of schooling become accordingly extensive and complex in relation to the multiple literacies of societies that they prepared people for."

II. FREDERICK DOUGLASS - IMPACT on LITERACY

4) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (2005) by Frederick Douglass and edited by Robert G. O'Meally. Spark Educational Publishing.

The work entitled: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" which is a story of and in part written by Frederick Douglass relates that Douglass "was an American improviser whose mighty task was to have the courage, simply to be - an achievement that by no means could be taken for granted in a society that defined him as a domestic animal, a piece of property to buy, work, rent, inherit, or sell." (Douglass and O'Meally, 2005) Douglass managed to attain enough literacy to write his story and he wrote "My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes." (p.36) O'Meally writes that Robert Stepto wrote of Douglass's that his "quest can be focused into two specific terms: He sought freedom, and he sought literacy." O'Meally writes that Douglass's "ongoing physical struggle and his flaming determination to learn how to read and write" is fascinating." (Douglass and O'Meally, 2005) Frederick Douglass wrote concerning the words of his new owner, Mr. Auld, as he warned his wife about teaching ABCs to the young slave Frederick as he stated: "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master - to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world...If you would teach that nigger...how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him now good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." (pp. 40-41) as is known now from historical account Douglass did indeed learn to read and read the newspapers and any books he could get his hands on. O'Meally writes that freedom and literacy "tightly bound strands in the fabric of Douglass' mystic quest." (Douglass and O'Meally, 2005) it is stated that the quest of literacy in Douglass's mind did not just involve being able to technically master reading but as well he wanted to "read the people, places, situations and expressive forms around him with deeper understanding. " (Douglass and O'Meally, 2005)

III. THOMAS JEFFERSON - POSITION on LITERACY

5) Sparagana, Jeff (2002) the Educational Theory of Thomas Jefferson. New Foundations 2002. Online available at http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Jefferson.html

The work of Sparagana (2002) entitled: "The Educational Theory of Thomas Jefferson" states that Jefferson "cited embraced education as the equalizer for all children. Goals and objectives of elementary education as written and presented by Jefferson in the "Rockfish Gap Report of 1818 (D: p, 120): - to give every citizen information he needs for the transaction of his own business - to enable him to calculate for himself, express and preserve his own ideas, contracts and accounts in writing. - to improve by reading, his morals and faculties. - to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either. - to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment. - and, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed." (Sparagana, 2002) Sparagana additionally stated of Thomas Jefferson that Jefferson believed that things seen, heard and read -- above all read -- became part of a man and in the early stage of his life grew with him." (2002)

V. LITERACY TODAY

8) Mann, John G. (1989) Literacy Today: A Realtime Technology Transformation. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. Abstract Online available at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED331475&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED331475

As noted in the work of John G. Mann entitled: "Literacy Today: A Realtime Technology Transformation" the meaning of literacy in today's world has expanded as it now includes literacy in regards to technology. Mann states: "Computer assisted instruction programs for adult literacy are becoming more prevalent in learning centers, community organizations, and in schools across the country. Computers are also being used to curb illiteracy at the source, in elementary and secondary schools, in an effort to reduce dropout rates"

9) Washington, Julie a. (2006) Emergent Literacy, Language, and African-American Preschoolers at Risk. RTLL Fall Conference 20 Oct 2006. Online available at http://www.cpb.org/grants/leadinliteracy/2006fallconferencepresentations/EmergentLiteracyLanguageAfricanAmericanPreschoolersJulieWashington.pdf

Julie a. Washington (2006) writes that literacy development "...begins long before a child ever enters a formal preschool or elementary classroom setting, or receives conventional reading instruction!!!" In fact small babies learn "the sound structure, rhythms and tones of the language in their environment. They are also learning to associate these wounds with words and meanings." (Washington, 2006) Washington states that when African-American children from low income families enter preschool "they are motivated, bright and eager to learn..." (2006) Unfortunately "Children who are poor, African-American or Hispanic and educated in urban schools are at high risk for reading difficulties." (2006)