Tag Archives: literacy

What are we teaching when we teach literature?

This week my seminar has been reading Louise Rosenblatt’s The Reader, The Text, The Poem.  After several weeks of analyzing everyday texts, the literature students in the course were happy to finally get to what they saw at the beginning … Continue reading

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A New World of Orality?

In my seminar last night we discussed Walter Ong’s concepts of primary and secondary orality. Primary orality is the state of a society that has never known or developed literacy. The history of the group, lineages, myths, stories, and customs … Continue reading

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Is Literacy a Good Thing?

Our culture associates high levels of literacy with intelligence, civilization, and knowledge.  Much of our educational system is devoted to teaching and developing literacy.  We admire people who read quickly and who have read many books.  We scorn those who … Continue reading

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Hiragana

Last night was the second meeting of the “Pedagogies of Reading” seminar.  The main event was to be the first two sections of Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid, but I had too many lead in activities, so we barely … Continue reading

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Teaching Online

My “Pedagogies of Reading” seminar this quarter is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays from 5:30-9:20.  I have never found four-hour evening seminars to be productive, either as a teacher or a student.  By the time we begin, I have been … Continue reading

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Songwriting versus Teaching

My daughter and I were having a discussion about which changed more lives, songwriting or teaching?  Good teaching has a pyramid-like effect, especially if you teach prospective teachers.  Your students go out and teach others, who may end up teachers … Continue reading

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New Course

For me it’s a new year, a new quarter, and a new course.  I spent much of the break designing a graduate seminar I haven’t taught before, “Pedagogies of Reading.”  These days the campus bookstore insists that you order the … Continue reading

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