Focus questions for

Edelsky's - With Literacy and Justice for All: Rethinking the Social in Language and Education. third ed.
Last edit - May 21, 2009

> Redefining Literacy article Phi Delta Kappan
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Chapter 1
How does this chapter provide ideas on why children in school don’t have difficulty learning the school’s curriculum, have difficulty learning learning the school’s curriculum, or reject learning the school’s curriculum?

Chapter 2
Discuss the information in chapter 2 or review the following information and answer the question that follows.
Many children that will enter school in the fall were placed in front of educational videos often before they could sit. A recent study concluded Baby Einstein and other children shows purchased by parents to provide their children an educational advantage have found the expected gains did not materialize. The only significant edge attained by these children is an increase in their ability to recognize characters and other images. This talent can then be used by children for character and brand recognition used as hooks in marketing campaigns to make all sorts of products attractive to these children. For example Shrek is used in a national campaign for exercise and wellness. He is also used to market a number of foods a majority of which are not healthy. Another example of the power of this type of marketing was shown in a study that found children preferred vegetables and fruit offered to them packaged in Mac Donald's containers over those offered without the containers. It is unfair and naive to think that parents even with the best of intentions are able to guide any young child through a learning experience on how to become a smart consumer. Instead family relationships are stressed and children begin to think it possible to live healthy through fast foods. It is hypocritical for both the national government or any of the corporations to think otherwise. The marketing and business communities get what they want shop-o-holics and materialistic future consumers who believe you are valued by what you have.
How does the information in this chapter relate to this scenario and what implications does it have for schooling, teaching, and literacy?

Chapter 3
Review the principled procedures created for this class and literacy. Which were reviewed and changed by the class in the summer of 2005. Find ones that might be in need of change with respect to the information in this chapter. Make suggestions for changes along with a rational for those changes. Also create one that would be used to guide an advocate of literacy to promote literacy for ALL children no matter their backgrounds.

Chapter 4
Edelsky while critiquing the writings of Cummins is in my opinion critiquing the practice in schools today. Select one or two of her ideas in this chapter and tell why you agree or disagree with her ideas.

Chapter 5
Give an example of a class activity, not included in the book, that would facilitate literature literacy through reading, writing... that would not be considered an exercise. Include a discussion that would convince others that it is: literature literacy, reading/ not reading, not exercises/ exercises, and literates as-subjects/ not literates as objects. That its purpose is important. Literates as subjects relates to the social political not individual. With a look at who else is involved and how their role and power relates to the role and power of the literate and from where the print cues originate. Also include what goals/ outcomes might be possible for students to facilitate for their literacy development.

Chapter 6
Is becoming literate like learning to speak? Or is becoming literate more like learning a second language. Create a scenario for becoming literate. Present evidence to support its implementation and describe what is lost if it were not implemented. Evidence should include a rationale to support it which would encourage others to share with peers and the public to support change in yours and their school district.

Chapter 7
Whole language could have been undermined by the social political agenda of the elite or it could have theoretical flaws, or it there could be other reasons for its demise. Take a stand and provide a rationale for it.

Chapter 8
Review chapter 8 and 9. Reflect on the principled procedures and their consistency with respect to the ideas in the chapter. Select and identify principled procedures that might fit or need adaptation with respect to the ideas in the chapter. For example: goals, values, rules, and roles. Or create your own goals, values, rules and roles for your classrooms.

Chapter 9
Select an activity, describe it, how it might be implemented based on the four alternatives in chapter 9 and describe how each is applied or not.

Chapter 10
Reading to make sense with print has an 'essential' nature; it is - or requires - predicting based on cultural/ linguistic knowledge in the service of making meaning. We can not make sense of print without first identifying its key social features embedded in it and locating ourselves in relation to it. Find an example, analogy, or explanation that illustrates this idea in a manner that might help people that haven't read this book begin to think about the importance of the cultural social connections of literacy.

Chapter 11 and 12
If there isn't a time and place for literature in public schools, then why isn't this class irrelevant and a waste of time? Write a procedure or argument for professional action to attempt to increase the use of literature in the curriculum. Include a description on how you believe this relates to this chapter or information in the book.

Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©