Reading the Word: Literacy Practices as Social Acts

Reflection: 

The process of reading Lewis' text and deconstructing and then reconstructing the meaning as a group was one of my more memorable experiences from the class.  I first read the text on my own interpreting the meaning, reconciling it with my own practice, and trying to find applications for other teachers.  Then, I met with my four other group members and found that they had gone through their own interpretive process and were bringing that along with all of their prior experience to their readings of the text.  What was especially noteworthy about this was that much of the tension and confusion that we were balancing in our desire to create a cohesive and productive professional development experience from this book, was mentioned in the text of Lewis' book itself.  Gee (1991) states, “The practices of such social groups are never just literacy practices. They also involve ways of talking, interacting, thinking, valuing, and believing” (p. 43).  I was aware in my reading of this text that I was juggling many different priorities as a reader.  Here are some of the questions that came up in my processing and the group discussion of this text:

• Do I agree with the way that Julia (the teacher who is the subject of the ethnography) structures her classroom?  
• How does this compare with my classroom?
• If their are differences what does this say about me as a teacher?
• What is the major "takeaway" of Lewis' text?  What can we learn from her?
• If there is not a concrete takeaway then can this book still have value for me?
• Can a takeaway be less concrete and more of a mindset?
• How involved/structured should peer-led book conversations be?  
• What do I believe the "best practices" are for creating completely independently run student clubs?  

These are only a few of the questions that arose in my reading and processing of this text. This is not to say that at the end of the reading I threw up my hands and was content with just generating questions.  I do feel that my group and I were able to come to some shared conclusions.  My biggest learning came from the idea that transformational critical literacy practice starts with reflection.  I will go into more depth about how this idea changed my teaching in the "Implications for Teaching" section.