Literacy/ Learning Timeline

-         Learning to talk

-         Changing primary school after Kindergarten to a lower socio-economic area.

-         Learning to read and write in a low SES community.

-         Continuing my schooling in a low SES area.

-         Not being taught the 4 resources model way of learning in high school.

-         Changing schools into a higher SES area for senior years.

-         Finally being taught to analyse and be critically literate.

-         Workplace. Life experience, cultural and personal literacy.

-         University. Shouldn't you know Grammar by now???

"Say Wot?" My Narrative.

Every person has certain memorable moments in their learning lives, some more damaging or encouraging than others. Throughout my entire schooling life it has been my experience that with literacy and numeracy learning once you fell behind anyone in your class you continued to fall behind in following weeks, months, years, life. I was always under the impression that you’re supposed to know certain levels of literacy by the time you’re in high school, ‘that is the primary school teacher’s job’. You’re definitely supposed to be literate in all areas by the time you get to university. I was always the student in the middle, not excelling and not failing; these students are often forgotten in the world of schooling. When considering literacy; I remember one literary moment in my schooling life like standing on a piece of glass hidden in the sand at the beach.

I handed in my first university academic English paper. The question for the essay went along the lines of: “Society, class and gender have changed over time”, explore and discuss this in relation to “Howards End”.
I worked so hard and for so long to try and reach what I thought were university standards. I was then ready to hand over a little piece of myself, I wish that I had of been able to attach a post-it note that said “handle with care”.                    
            

     After 3 long weeks I finally received it back. Much to my dismay my beautiful little piece of critical writing had THOUSANDS of red circles, crosses and lines through every sentence. Oh My Gosh! What had this woman done to my expressive essay? The comments I received read along the lines of something like this: BLA BLA BLA, Grammar, Grammar, and Grammar.

                                                                                       
  
Her comments focused entirely on functional literacy with no regard whatsoever for literacy as a whole. Through acknowledging Luke and Freebody’s “Four Resource Model” and as it happens, the marking criteria for that assignment, then we learn that functional literacy is not the only thing that matters when writing an academic essay. A student should use the four practices; code breaking, text participant, text user and text analyst: “All of these practices are needed over time to engage successfully with texts. The resources to support and facilitate each of these practices are therefore necessary for effective literacy learning” (Freebody & Luke, 1992, p. n/a) She didn’t take into account my level of critical, cultural or personal literacy when marking my paper and perhaps if she had I would not have been so utterly disturbed at my ruined essay. It was not the mark so much that affected me as I still passed but it was that big huge RED pen!   

To my amusement there has been articles and research surrounding this matter; the affects that red pen can have on a student and their future learning, some schools have even banned them as a result, marking must now be done in another colour. I at first believed this to be a little excessive and protective of Australia’s children but after having the traumatic experience myself I have a deeper understanding.

See links for Articles:
 http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/the-terror-of-the-red-pen/26120

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3964683/Marking-in-red-ink-banned-in-case-it-upsets-schoolchildren.html

This entire experience has had a significant influence on my own life and that of a future teacher. I constantly remind myself that I will mark using “The Four Resources Model” and “The Literacy Learning Triptych” as a guide and not focus purely on one literacy (unless, in some unlikely circumstance, the criteria demands it) and engage fully with my students to understand their own level of literacy and meaning. After all as teachers it is our job to create informed fully functional citizens and this cannot be achieved without incorporating all areas and levels of literacy. I will always continually assess my student’s level of understanding so that I can ensure everyone has the opportunity to learn and excel, not just ‘going with the flow’ in the middle.

   

Literacy

 Defining Literacy and ‘The Four Resources Model’.

Literacy is the ability to read and write; this is the general response when asking for a definition of literacy. Of course, it is incorrect and reading and writing are only one part of literacy, functional literacy. Literacy as a whole delves into areas much deeper than reading and writing:

There are competing and conflicting views about what literacy involves, and at times one approach is valued more highly by sectors of the community. What counts as literacy, and therefore what are appropriate educational responses to literacy questions, is disputed territory (DECS, 1996, p.1).

Students and therefore citizens need to be taught to be multi-literate which incorporates the social, cultural, personal, analytical, critical and functional aspects of literacy: “Literacy education has always been about difference and power, about teaching members of communities and nations to ‘be’ different kinds of literate citizens …  rather than erase, Australian social class difference and culture diversity” (Green, Hodgens & Luke 1997, p.12).

One might argue that one of the most effective approaches to teaching Literacy is Luke and Freebody’s “The Four Resource model”. An in depth, simply written guide to “The Four Resources Model” can be found at the following link:

http://www.kingstonprimary.tased.edu.au/e-Learning/four_resources_model_of_literacy.htm

“The Four Resources Model” comprises of four levels of literacy practice; Code Breaker, Text participant(meaning maker), text user and text analyst. All of these levels integrate to create fully informed functional citizens. I will personally employ these strategies into my own teaching so I can ensure my students don’t receive their first university paper back full of red pen. Luke and Freebody developed this model as a teaching tool to assist in teacher’s pedagogical approach to literacy: Teachers needed to…identify pedagogies that teach students to analyse tasks, problem-solve, identify resources and self-monitor” (Bull & Anstey, 2005, p. 125).

The four resources model

STUDENTS OF TODAY