For courses in Freshman Composition and other undergraduate courses in language and learning
Featuring side-by-side selections of both student writing and published writers, this anthology is a place where students can read about others experiences with literacy and compare them to their ownillustrating the validity, value, and usefulness of personal experience in pursuing and pondering questions about global issues concerning language, literacy, and education. Readings from a variety of disciplines makes this text well-rounded and well-suited for students of multiple and diverse experiences.
1. Introduction: Why Literacy Narratives?
2. Literacy and Family.
Mother Tongue, Amy Tan. Poor English, Kareem Rizk. How did I ever get through
school Roxzanna. Excerpt from Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison.
Schools not supposed to fun, Samantha. Excerpt from Annie John, Jamaica
Kincaid. Determination and the Person Who Almost Wasnt, Cole Gill. Family
Literacy: Respecting Family Ways, Bettina Lankard Brown. Excerpt from
Fatherhood, Bill Cosby. the drama bug, David Sedaris.
3. Literacy and Culture.
Language and Literacy in American and Alaskan Native Communities, Teresa
McCarty and Lucille J. Watahomigie. Communication, Eric Davis. Your call
cannot be completed as dialed, Clint Dillon. Excerpt from Loving in the War
years, Cherrie Moraga. A Troubled Language, Kareem Rizt. Language Learning,
Donna Alesich. The Native Voice in American Literature, N. Scott Momaday.
White Tigers, Excerpt from Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston. At the Top
of Their Game, Noreen OLeary. Football and Writing, Dave Viegut. Discourse
Fiasco, Katherine Helm.
4. Literacy and School.
Excerpt from Ways with Words, Shirley Brice Heath. Excerpt from Just Girls:
Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High, New York: Teachers College Press,
1997, Margaret Finders. Each child has a different language, Sara Edman.
Excerpt from The Achievement of Desire, Richard Rodriguez. Overcoming
Difficulty, John Trunek. Excerpt from Lives on the Boundary, Mike Rose.
Reading should be fun, not painful, Katie Ahles. Little Girl, Tia Hug.
Excerpt from Accumulating Literacy, Deborah Brandt. Going to school, Katy.
5. Literacy and Work.
Repair Orders, Mike Warren. Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment of
Popular Views on Literacy and Work, Glynda Hull. A Blue Collar Simmer, Glen
Ledet. Communication and Language, Andy Kieck. Literacy Narrative, Melissa
Scioneaux. The Inheritance of Tools, Scott Russell Sanders. Excerpt from
Ordering Work: Blue-Collar Literacy and the Political Nature of Genre,
Written Communication 17.2 April
2000. Excerpt from The Jungle, Upton
Sinclair. Technology in the Workplace, Lynda Ginsburg and Jennifer Elmore.
Internet Literacy for Unionists. Futurework: Trends and Challenges for Work
in the 21st Century, U.S. Department of Labor. Working with the Public,
Marisa Blackledge.
6. Literacy and Science.
Excerpt from A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical
Student, 1987, Perri Klass. A Quest for Language Skills, Teri. Ecological
Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, David W. Orr.
Excerpt from Women in Science: Meeting Career Challenges, Angela Pattatucci.
Excerpt from Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating a Professional Identity
in Post-World War II America, Margaret A.M. Murray. The Day Nature Struck
Back, Matthew Sanders. Excerpt from Ecology, Alienation, and Literacy:
Constraints and Possibilities in Ecocomposition, M. Jimmie Killingsworth and
John Krajicek. Autobiographical Sketch, Kelly Rusch. Mathematics Education,
Jeremy.
7. Literacy and History.
Declaration of Independence. Excerpt from Old Books, Rare Friends, 1997,
Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg. Excerpt from Possession, A.S. Byatt.
Excerpts from War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars,
Scriber 2001, Andrew Carroll.
8. Literacy and Politics.
Examples from her press conferences, Condoleezza Rice. Beth Stuckey. Letter
from a Birmingham Kail, Martin Luther King, Jr. How to Tell a True War
Story, in The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien. Excerpts from The Three
Marias: New Portuguese Letters, Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and
Maria Fatima Velho da Costa.
9. Literacy and Art.
Gary Smith. Rasheedah Jenkins. AN Angel at My Table, Janet Frame. Excerpt
from Push, New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1996, Sapphire.
