Book+Review

Literacy has the power to impact lives. Many people, including Frederick Douglass, Helen Keller and Malcolm X, have written about their experiences with learning to read and write and how this knowledge helped shape who they became. Examining these personal accounts helps inform us about the power of literacy, providing us with clues on how to approach these skills in the classroom.

Before beginning this paper, build upon the ideas we’ve discussed in class and develop your own definition of literacy. You will use this definition to guide you throughout the rest of the paper. What does it mean to be literate? Where do literacy practices occur and for what purposes? Does literacy look the same outside of school as it does inside school? All of these questions should be kept in mind as you develop your definition and as you observe the literacy events in your selected location. Once you have defined literacy, read a book (or return to one you have already read) that examines how literacy impacted someone else’s life and analyze the role literacy played. In your review of the book, you should do the following:

· summarize some of the most important or compelling ideas in the text, · relate the ideas in the book to your teaching or plans/goals as a future educator, and · pose and discuss some critical questions* (2-3) the book aroused in you.

Your final paper should be 3-5 pages long. It should also include your definition of literacy, which should be referenced throughout your paper as you explore the literacy events within the book. Give credit to the resources you use to develop your definition and use APA to cite your resources. Include a reference list at the end of your paper, also in APA. Make sure to provide detailed descriptions of the literacy activities and to reference how these experiences will influence your future teaching practices.

This project is due in Dropbox by December 4th.

*A critical question serves at least one of the following purposes: It delves into multiple possible meanings that can be made of a text; it examines the author’s assumptions and purposes; it connects to other parts of the text or other texts; and/or it examines your knowledge and experience in relationship to the text’s messages. A good critical question is also one you are interested in discussing.