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DOCUMENT RESUME CS 215 162 ED 390 061 Myers, Miles AUTHOR Changing Our Minds: Negotiating English and TITLE Literacy. National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, INSTITUTION ISBN-0-8141-3304-5 REPORT NO PUB DATE 96 NOTE 375p. of English, 1111 W. National Council of Teacher! AVAILABLE FROM Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 33045-0015: $19.95 members, $28.95 nonmembers). Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) PUB TYPE Books (010) Historical Materials (060) (120) MF01/PC15 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Critical Reading; *Educational History; Elementary DESCRIPTORS Secondary Education; *English Instruction; *Literacy; *Public Schools *Educational Issues; Historical Background IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT Suggesting that the United States' dominant form of literacy is contingent and historical, not permanent and absolute, this book asserts that when a society changes its definition of it also changes its models of mind and its models for literacy, teaching English. The book challenges the assumption that the public thools are a failure, arguing instead that public school teachers ,iave met every literacy challenge put to them by parents and government. The book introduces a new standard of literacy ("translation/critical literacy"), and discusses how the new standard affects the English and language arts curriculum, the tools and methods of learning, and the conceptualization of assessment of (1) Shifting Social Needs: From knowledge. Chapters in the book are: (2) From Oracy (or Face-to-Face Literacy) to Clocks to Thermostats; (3) Signature and Recording Literacy: Signature Literacy: 1660-1776; (5) A (4) Recitation and Report Literacy: 1864-1916; 1776-1864; (6) The Literacy of Decoding, Defining, and Analyzing: 1916-1983; (7) The Transition to a New Standard of Literacy: 1960-1983; (8) Embodied Event-Based Features of Translation/Critical Literacy; (9) Distributed Knowledge: The Knowledge: Self-Fashioning and Agency; (10) Negotiated and Technology of Translation/Critical Literacy; (11) Negotiated Situated Knowledge: Translating among Sign Systems; and Situated Knowledge: Translating among Speech Events; (12) Negoti;.ted, Situated, and Embodied Knowledge: Translating among the (13) Negotiated and Situated Knowledge: Translating between Modes; Stances; (14) Style and Worldviews in Literature and Public Discourse; and (15) Conclusion: "I Think It Happened Again." (RS) *A************************** ***************************:.A 1) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION 10 REPRODUCE oot ,ovr,,000tt (-P .0 .!I THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) E/Tois document has heen reproduced as received from Me person or importation originating a 0 Motor Crtangor, have been made I. lop! rtrtroduilton TO THE EDUCATIONAL Points of view or opinions tadod in this RESOURCES document do not necessarily roprasont 10. INFORMATION CEN I ER IERICI 1110-01 OE Ill po.Alion or policy BEST COPY AVAILABLE Changing Our Minds i e% NCTE Editorial Board: Colette Daiute, Hazel Davis, Bobbi Fisher, Keith Gilvard, Gail Hawisher, Ronald Jobe, Richard Luckert, Victor Villanueva Jr., Karen Smith, Chair, ex officio, Mar lo Welshons, ex officio Changing Our Minds Negotiating English and Literacy Miles Myers Executive Director, NCTE National Council of Teachers of Fnglish 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 6180 I -10% the artifacts pic- made to those who provided Grateful acknowledgment is Nicholaides, the collec- M. Nicholaides, Elizabeth tured on the cover: Gwynne and Ray Sanden, Karen Jessie Owens Myers, Nancy tion of Hugh W. and University of Illinois College of Agriculture of the Smith, Doug Bauling and the of and the National Museum the Library of Congress, at UrbanaChampaign, also thanks the Early Smithsonian Institution. NCTE American History at the Cheryl Kennedy, for Illinois, and its director, American Museum in Mahomet, assistance in preparing the cover. Associates Heister/Humani ties & Sciences Manuscript Editor: Robert A. Ryan Sanden Joh las, Michael G. Production Editors: Michelle for 'MK Design Interior Design: Torn Kovacs Cover Design: Doug Burnett NCTE Stock Number: 33045-3050 English. All rights reserved. Council of Teachers of 1q96 by the National of America. Printed in the United States other publications to provide a in its journals and It is the policy of NCTE and the teaching of ideas concerning the content forum for the open discussion of to any particular point arts. Publicity accorded of English and the language Committee, the Board of endorsement by the Executive view does not imply of policy, large, except in announcements Directors, or the membership at clearly specified. where such endorsement is Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Myers, Miles. Myers. English a»d literacy/Miles Changing our minds : negotiating cm. p. ) and index. references (p. Includes bibliographical ISBN O-8141-3304-5 and teachingUnited States. I. English languageStudy States. and teaching--Standard,-.United 2. Engli,-.h languages-- Study I. Title. 3. Literacy---United State's. I 996 576.Mq45 '45-35855 372.6'044dc20 6 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introductic:2 xi 1. Shifting Social Needs: From Clocks to Thermostats 1 2. From Oracy (or Face-to-Face Literacy) to Signature Literacy: 1660-1776 20 3. Signature and Recording Literacy: 1776-1864 39 4. Recitation and Report Literacy: 1864-1916 63 5. A Literacy of Decoding, Defining, and Analyzing: 1916-1983 83 6. The Transition to a New Standard of Literacy: 1960-1983 7. The Event-Based Features of Translation/Critical Literacy 9 11)6 8. Embodied Knowledge: Self-Fashioning and Agency 140 Distributed Knowledge: The Technology of Translation/Critical Literacy 157 10. Negotiated and Situated Knowledge: Translating among Sign Systems 170 I I. Negotiated and Situated Knowledge: Translating among Speech Events 193 12. Negotiated, Situated, and Embodied Knowledge: 110 Translating among the Modes 13. Negotiated and Situated Knowledge: Translating between Stances 243 14. Style and Worldviews in Literature and l'ublic Discourse 262 15. Conclusion: "I Think It Happened Again" 280 Contents vi 303 Works Cite(' 339 Subject Index 349 Author Inth'x 357 Author List of Illustrations Figures 1. Children's drawings 3 2. Chart from Jim Jackson's team 14 3. Literacy development of children 41 4. Personal marks 4-) 5. Jameel's singing fish 43 6. Copying book, James French, 1840-1842 50 7. Movement exercises 51 8. Patterns of employment in literacy periods 59 9. Schemata for processing speed 132 10. Cognitivc resources 135 11. Three diagrams 166 12. First solution 177 13. Second solution 177 14. Third solution 177 15. Results summary 178 16. Physics students' problem 183 17. Example of sign shifting 187 18. Mapping 1he letter 188 19. Visuals as research tools 181) 20. Samples of speech events 205 21. Letter trom the NRA 24L) 22. Poetic or transactional? Ts-1- List of Illustrations viii 23. Calendar form of document 257 24. The five styles of lamps-mirrors, personal-impersonal, ornamented-developed 267 25. A language model for translation/critical literacy 286 The structure of literacy in context 300 26. Tables 1. Literacy rates 46 Literacy periods 56 2. 3. Novices and experts 160 4. Sign shifting 190 5. From body experiences to verbs 228 6. The genres: Modes x speech events 240 7. Using the modes to organize poetic and transactional read ings 250 8. Contrast of two forms of literacy 290