Myers Discussion Questions (Chapters 4-6)

Miles Myers: Changing our Minds: Negotiating English and Literacy (1996)
Chapter Responses: Chap. 4, 5, & 6
Chapter 4
1) The shift toward recitation and record literacy was a result of the end of the Civil War. Society was shifting toward an industrial economy and the boom of immigration caused for schools to teach more than signature literacy. Society had a need for students to learn social skills such as responsibility and self-discipline. Urbanization also led to the shift in literacy toward recitation. Individuals were moving further away from one another and the nation was determined to instill a unified culture in citizens. Schools were now held accountability for teaching students morals and nationalistic values. Also, students needed to have new skills and new knowledge in order to succeed in a changing society post-Civil War. Students needed exposure to many texts and extensive reading skills.
2) The definition of intelligence experienced a great shift between the signature and recitation literacy eras. Intelligence during the signature era meant being able to sign one’s name and possibly read and write. However with the change toward industrialization, the recitation era called for skills such as memorization, oral pronunciation, and extensive reading. A student’s ability to give a memorized oral report and a literal reading of a text were considered intelligence. This new definition influenced education because schools were forced to adapt their educational pedagogies to the needs of society. More information-filled texts were needed in the classrooms and composition studied was now a part of learning.
3) Following the Civil War, society began to develop a definition of literacy that met the need of the changing times. Memorization of texts, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, was signs of literacy and proficiency in the language. Literal understandings of texts were also thought of as literacy during this time. College students were required to give speeches and oral presentations. Also, an emphasis on writing occurred during the recitation literacy era. Socialization was a major objective for schools.
4) The Committee of Ten established the study of English as a main subject in secondary schools. It consisted of the study of English grammar, composition, literature and rhetoric. The Committee of Ten also emphasized college preparation in secondary schools.
Chapter 5
1) The new period, decoding and analytic literacy, called for students to understand materials they were exposed to, as opposed to memorization and recitation. Deconstruction of texts was now emphasized and students were now responsible for self-teaching (e.g. silent reading). 1916 marked the middle of a shift in curriculum for tracking students that reflected the need for individuals to understand and analyze the world in order to achieve goals after school (either college or the workforce). 1983 is the year of the publication of A Nation at Risk, once again, changing the path of what education and literacy in the U.S. should be.
2) This new definition of literacy required students to analyze and interpret information, parts of a whole text, and language. The nature of lessons about literature also changed; students began rewriting classics by summarizing rather than strict recitation. Language was also looked at as objectives pieces, a separate entity worthy of study. The decoding literacy era led to a major shift in the place of schools in society. Schools became highly centralized institutes that had prescribed grade levels, textbooks, and methods of evaluation. The use of multiple-choice tests was also formulated during this literacy era. Thus schools began shifting toward a standard method of educating.
3) Florida has become a conglomeration of languages. Many public schools in Florida have a high number of Spanish-speaking students, thus the idea of literacy is not entirely uniform with the rest of the nation. Students are not ‘thrown’ into an English only classroom, they are steadily transitioned. Students still receive instruction in their native tongue (if available) and also receive instruction in English. Functional literacy does change with time and place because it is dependent on the needs of the students. Literacy in schools is ever-shifting because it must reflect the culture of the school and what is best for the students.
Chapter 6
1) The decoding and analytic literacy was successful in achieving an overall increase in analytic skills in young adults. More children were in school with the change in the literacy era thus more students were receiving instruction in understanding and interpreting information. More students were graduating high school and showing average to above-average scores on standardized tests. In terms of the workplace, the decoding literacy era increased understanding of multi-tasking and in-depth job descriptions and requirements.
2) I have only a vague understanding of what Myers’s means by “cognitive apprenticeship,” but I believe that this type of learning entails involving the student directly in their learning process, like a hands-on type of education. This could be reflective in a unit plan focused on the classic work, The Color Purple, and its depiction as a movie. Beyond reading the work and watching the movie, the best way for students to understand literature and media would be to ‘create’ their own screenplay from a particular short story or novel. They would have free-range to interpret the text literally or not. Students would understand that a direct translation from print to picture is not always possible, since there are not enough images to depict the language of a text.