Research Portfolio
Table of Content
Project Title
Acknowledgment
Abstract
Artifacts
Field Notes
Translation Project/Poster
Conceptual Memos
Final Double-Entry Fieldnote/Conceptual Memos on each Participant
Interpretive Memos
Oral Interviews/Videos/Signature Authorization Forms
Annotated Bibliography
Code Sheet
Reflective memo
McNair Scholar Program: Childhood/Advance Literacy
Acknowledgement
My sincere thanks go to Professor Shannon Carter for her oral and written comments that served as a guide for the completion of this project. I am also grateful to Sunchai Hamcump who helped with all the YouTube video downloads. Also, my sincere thanks go to Derryle Peace, the Alumni Center Director, for his assistance during the translation project. Many thanks to all my interview participants like Veronica Reed, the Director of Trio Programs, Bellows Marvin, Mr. and Mrs. Ivory Moore, and Brittany Edwards.
I say thank you to Mount Moriah Church and Commerce City public library for allowing me to take pictures of their artifacts.
I am also grateful to all my classmates; Hmoud, Baker, Sean, and Debbie for their wonderful comments on my blog. This project would not have been possible without all of you. Thank you all.
Abstract
This study examines how student’s scholars from low income background, first generation, and African-Americans students perceive graduate school. Historically, literacy acquisition had been a challenge to these groups of people especially during the slavery era when the blacks were exempted from school. And when schools were established and the blacks were considered, it was not equally distributed because education was based on regions, and some regions were favored over the other to borrow Deborah Brandt words. But with the advent of time, attending graduate school was encouraged with the advent of McNair Scholars Program that is designed to recruit undergraduate students to help develop and cultivate research opportunities for interested student’s scholars.
Using various data compiled from oral interviews of two potential participants in Ronald E. McNair post Baccalaureate Achievement program at Texas A&M university-Commerce, and two Master’s degrees holders participants, this project has two objectives. First and foremost, it will compare the experiences of literacy acquisition of the McNair Scholars Program participants from childhood progressively to undergraduate level as opposed to the Master’s degree holders. Secondly, the lesson learnt from this investigation will serve as guide to future low income, first generation and African-American students in quest for advance literacy.
Interpretive Memo
Having gone through conceptual memos (CM), fieldnotes (FN), Translation project (TP), reflective memo (RM), childhood literacy acquisition (CLA), advance literacy (AL), personal reading (PR), language acquisition by comic books (LATCB), language acquisition by the bible (LATB), language acquisition by children magazine (LACM), oral interview (OI) McNair scholars programs (MSP) etc, I discovered that all of the inquiries and readings I have done both in the primary sources and secondary sources has one re-occurring theme; LITERACY: reading and writing. This is depicted in all the oral interviews which were noted in the fieldnotes and conceptual memos. The only thing that is a bit different is the translation projects because, that was done as a short story posted on my blog, and an excerpt posted on the poster that was displayed during the library week of celebration.
Childhood literacy acquisition for the two young potential McNair scholars were made available via children magazines and comic books, and for the other two master’s degree holders, were through the bible and the dictionary, but their experiences differ in their various advance literacy educational levels. However, all of this information was made possible through oral interview.
Even though bringing these participants together was not an easy task, but at the end, I was able to get hold of only four out of six people, and the other two people did not show up till now. And those I got, accepted to sign the signature authorization forms for either their video or audio to be used. But above all, it has been a very wonderful experience so far.
A Translation Project: A Short Story Project on Derryle G Peace
Mr. and Mrs. Peace were so happy on May 3rd 1952 when they brought another baby boy into the world. It was a boy! "We have another baby boy again after a long time" Mrs. Peace said to her husband. Maybe they did not think of having another child after the first male child of the family was born, no one was sure of that. His parents lived in a small house very close to the airport. Anytime a plane was coming, it felt as if it was going to land on top of their house because of its proximity to the airport. But anyway, this new baby came and they named him Derryle Glen Peace. Derryle was born into a poor family. The family was considered poor because they could not afford the good things of life but at the same time, they were never hungry. They never had their lights cut, or their water disconnected. The bills were paid on time.
His mother loved him so much and up till now he can still remember all the good things his mother taught him how to do when he was a child. His mother taught him how to tie his shoes at the age of three. Derrlye was a happy child and everything went on well. But his happy peaceful life with his mother was cut short. Death robbed him of his mother’s attention, love, and care. It happened so fast that when Derryle was four years old, he was already a motherless child. It was so devastating for every member of his family. No one expected Mrs. Peace as young as she was to die at that age. It was said that she died two days to her 29th birthday. And the death of his mother made everyone miserable for a long time. Derryle practically watched his mother die. He could still remember even though he was a child of four. He knew his mother was dying because every night he watched her cry helplessly from the excruciating pain of the terminal disease she had. There was nothing he could do than to watch his mother go through the sleepless nights of pain and sorrow. When his mother died, his grandparents rescued him by taking the responsibility to care for him and his elder brother who was six years and eleven months older than him. Derryle did not know what it meant to have the love of a mother because death did not allow him to enjoy one. But his grandmother was always there for him. In fact, she was a God sent into his life.
Derryle was growing very fast and strong that all the members of his family were happy including his grandparents, who were very fond of him. But his grandfather was a man who had no soft side. He was a hard working man and very caring that he never allowed Derryle and his elder brother to go to the corner shops to get anything. Instead, he always provided soda for everyone. He would also visit the farmers market to buy fresh fruits for the family. He understood what it meant to eat healthy. His grandparents were retired and they were living on social security, and so, Derryle was able to have a normal upbringing.
As a child, he saw his grandpa always carry pocket knife and a handkerchief in his pockets. And so, as Derryle grew, he began to do that too. Not that his grandpa ever attacked anyone with it, but that was one of the things he loved to do. Derryle learnt it from him and still do that as an adult. Another good thing he learnt from his grandpa was how to dress well and shine his shoes. In fact, his grandpa was a very fashionable man who was always conscious of his looks. While Derryle was growing up, he also learnt from him how to be a hard working man like plumbing and artwork. He emulated his grandpa in some many ways and in so many things that he never regretted he did so.
As for his grandma, she was a seamstress. She would bring out the sewing machine and pretend she couldn’t pass a thread through the needle, and she would ask Derryle to help her do it. Of course, at a point, he understood that she was teaching him how to sew.
As he was growing up in North Park Dallas, he started to see his elder brother read in the house. Even though his grandmother also read the bible in the house, yet Derryle’s acquisition of literacy started with his elder brother who taught him how to read and write. They had a dictionary, newspapers, and the Bible. And his grandmother was always asking him to look up the meaning of words for her in the dictionary. In fact, newspapers and the bible were major things that his grandma read. Derryle was a unique child who was very serious in acquiring literacy to the extent that when he was in first grade, he already had a library card.
Among other things that he loved to read were Comic Magazine and Dallas Express newspaper. Not only that, TV show was one of his favorite stuff he used to watch then even though at a point, all that his family had was one television, but he still managed to watch his own programs when his grandma was not doing that. He loved to watch TV show like Jeopardy, and movies like Green pastures and Imitation of Life. Green pastures was the first black movie made at that time. This movie was their own because it had all black casts and he loved it. However, Imitation of Life was about a black girl who was so fair skinned that she passed for white. And for that reason, she denied her own mother because she was black, and out of sorrow, grief, and disappointment, her mother died. And so, each time Derryle watched that movie, he was heartbroken. He would wonder why a girl should treat her mother like that. He would wonder why she was not proud of herself and her mother. He would wonder why she thought she lived in her own kind of world; a world of denial, a world of deceit, and a world of imitation.
However, two weeks to his 16th birthday, he went in search of a job in a grocery store in order to support himself. When he got to the store, he met the manager of the store whose name was Pat Abel, a white man.
“Good day, I am here to find out if you are hiring”. He inquired.
“Of cause we have positions” responded the manager.
“Please may I have the application?” Derryle asked.
The manager looked at him searching his face for what Derryle could not understand. He went in, brought the application and handed it to him. Derryle filled out the application, and when he got to the line where he was to indicate his age, he wrote that he was already sixteen. He lied.
“I have to lie to get this job. I just need to survive and so I have to lie right now”. He thought to himself.
“Are you done?” asked the manager.
“Yes “.
He took the application from Derryle and later offered him the job. So he got his first employment in April 3rd 1968. But as a boy who never lied before, he started to feel guilty. He became very uncomfortable. He was scared because his instincts told him the manager would find out one day and that would be a criminal offence. He was restless because telling lies had never been a part of his life. Not because he was a pastor or anything near that, but because he had a good upbringing and was an honest boy. He made up his mind that to tell the truth about himself. So Derryle had to fight his subconscious mind, or even suppress it, but it didn’t work.
“What if he finds out I lied about my age? What would he think of me?” he asked no one. “No, I must tell him the truth about myself right now before he finds out later”. He cautioned himself. All he wanted was to confess and free his conscience. A stitch in time saves nine. On that same day before he started work, he walked up to the manager and demanded he would like to talk with him. “Look I am not sixteen but will be in few weeks time. I lied”. He confessed. The manager on the other hand told him not to worry about it.
It is not as if Derryle did not have relatives who could help him if he had approached them, but he wanted to learn how to be independent. He had three uncles and two aunts but still, he had to work to fend for himself. The fact that his manager did not deny him the job made him conclude that not all white people are bad. He got that conviction that there were some good ones anyway.
One thing that Derryle did not like at that time period was that he was called "nigger". This happened each time he went to the bus stop to take a bus to somewhere. A white person would shout at him “Nigger!” and that really upset him. That made him angry any time he was called that name. But there was nothing he could do. He would look at the person and look away. He hated that name. Another thing that was very obvious then was that, each time crime was committed and it was being published in the papers, it was always different. If the report had crime and picture or pictures, it was a black person or people depending on the number of people who committed the crime that week. But if the page of the newspaper had crime and no picture, then the crime was committed by a white person. The blacks always had their faces published on the crime pages of the newspapers. Those were the two things he never liked.
When he was done with his high school, he got admitted into East Texas State University which is now called Texas A&M University-Commerce. In the summer of 1972, another tragedy struck again, he got a message that his grandmother, his only confidant and companion died, and his world came crumbling right in front of him. His world started collapsing and life began to make no meaning to him anymore. His only source of hope for tomorrow was gone.
In the university, he joined a fraternity group where he felt like home especially when he got a fraternity brother who was always there for him. Derryle came to school with student loan which of cause he would be made to pay back when he graduate. On the campus, he became an active student. He was always going to the post office to get mails and distribute to his fraternity members. One day, he brought mails and began to distribute as usual. And so he gave a mail to one of his fraternity brothers who became very upset. He asked Derrlye a question he could not understand.
“What is that?” asked his fraternity brother.
“Your mail of course I got it from the post office”
“Throw it away” said his fraternity brother.
“Why would I throw it away?”
“Because they knew it was a credit card before they gave me. They want to put me completely in debt”. He responded with anger.
His fraternity brother was angry because he was in a way deceived by the credit card company. He did not realize what it meant to take a credit card. And because of that, he did not even want to see any mail from them. He continues
“Look Derryle, I am going to tell you something today and now that will help you to go through the university without taking a loan”.
“What is that?” Derryle was eager to know.
“You need to get a job. Just get a job instead of student loan”. He advised. And that did the magic. Derryle got a job, and that was how he was able to pay his tuition and took care of himself. That was how he was saved from taking student loans that he would have paid through his nose after graduation. However, as a student, he became popular on campus. He loved to read and write because he had already developed reading culture with the help of his elder brother. He read and wrote poetry. But one thing he never liked to read was novels. He hated English and history with passion, and it was one of the reasons why he never read Shakespeare all his life.
Derrlye’s life in East Texas State University Commerce was mixed with good and bad feelings. But his good days were more than his bad days. He experienced at that time when the blacks and the whites were put in the same dormitory to live together for one day and after that, they were separated again. Among his experiences was the woman he met on the campus whom he dated and married. But unfortunately, the marriage crashed, and so he was single again for another eighteen years.
After living for a long time without a wife, he felt that his life was not complete. In fact, he needed a woman to call his own. He needed a wife, a life companion. And so, he met another woman who was married and divorced with a daughter. They became best of friends and they finally got married. Marrying this woman was the best thing that ever happened in Derryle’s life. He loved her so much that he can’t do without her. All that he lost in his mother and grandmother were found in his dear wife. Two in one!
Today Derrlye Glen Peace is a man who is always happy and very hard working. He is one of the most well dressed employees in Texas A&M University -Commerce today. He carries a pocket knife and handkerchief in his pocket anywhere he goes, and shines his shoes just like his grandfather did. He is very energetic and agile. He talks and walks with confidence. Some years ago, he got a wonderful job in Texas A&M University-Commerce, and he is currently the Director of the Alumni Relations! What a journey of life!!!
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Project Artifacts
Blacks during the slavery era
Students, faculty and staff at the Commerce public library during the Black History Month
Invited guests and student during the Black History month at Commerce public library
Commerce Square in 1908
Translation Project Poster displayed during the Library Week in Texas A&M university-Commerce
Artifact from Mount Moriah Church in Norris Community
Lebanon Cemetery in Norris Community
One of the head stones at the cemetery in Norris Community
Students listening Hugh Bunns during the library week
Dr Bunns discusses literacy in Texas A&M University-Commerce Library
Final Double-Entry Fieldnote/Conceptual Memos on Each Participants
Getting to talk with the Trio Director, Ms Veronica Reed was not too much of a hassle because I work in the same office with her. We scheduled an appointment and she kept to it. But one thing that really interests me is that, she is really much interested in my project topic because, McNair Scholars Program is part of TRIO and she is actively involved in getting people into graduate school. Before and during the interview, she was enthusiastic in responding to all my questions.
She talked a lot about how she acquired literacy by reading the bible and getting meanings of bible words from the dictionary as child living with her grandmother. Reading and writing according to her started the same time. As she learnt how to read from her grandma, so also she learnt how to read. She started reading and writing from home. At the advance level of her education, she had no access to scholarships. In fact she did not know such things existed anyway. It was only student loans that that she thought were available to her. When I asked her question about McNair scholar program because it has existed for a long time, she told me, she didn’t know they had free grants during her time. And so, she was not able to make use of the opportunity.
On her response to how she is contributing to the Norris Community as a member of the Mount Moriah church, she told me that she helps the kids in the Sunday schools by teaching them how to read the word of God, and the aim is to make them better citizens. She is not only concerned with the church alone, but also concerned about her own immediate family members. She does that by contributing to their education; she buys books for some, and pays the tuition of others.
As far as education of the black people are concerned, Reed says, it is like a dream, and many African-Americans are still not a interested in going to school because it is a generational thing. She mentioned that any body interested in school would like to make sure that pages of the text books are missing. She compared the unequal educational system in South Dallas to that of North Dallas. She said it is never the same but did not provide specific differences. But her experience in graduate was awesome.
The Moore’s meeting was a memorable one for that matter. Like I mentioned in my first field notes and conceptual memo on them, I learnt a lot interacting with them. One of the things I learnt is that, they are ever ready to answers questions from as far back as 1949 when they were still very young couples. Secondly, he helped to establish the TRIO programs in Texas A&M University-Commerce to help the African-Americans and the low income/underrepresented in both upward bound and students support services to prepare high school kids for college.
Also as the first black Mayor of Commerce, he was able to collaborate with the government to provide light, water, road etc to the Norris Community.
Brittany Edwards is another African-American I interviewed. She is an undergraduate student whose long term goal is to become a medical doctor. It took me more than two weeks to get her to talk to me. We had to schedule appointment to meet at the library on the 5th floor. As a matter of fact, she started her childhood literacy with the help of her mother. Throughout the interview period, she did not mention her father’s contribution to her acquisition of literacy. Her mother read to her comic books and children magazines. She told me that she did not learn how to write separately, but reading and writing started together as far as she can remember.
She happens to attend Mount Moriah church here in commerce, and when I asked her how she contributes to the growth of the church, she told me she supports the pastor in the church like “ride on pastor” “Yes Sir” and the rest of them. She loves going there because the pastor’s method of preaching correlates with her own level of social life. She specifically said the young pastor is a “modern guy who knows how to move the spirits of the young people”.
She told me that becoming a McNair Scholar will help her achieve her dreams of becoming a medical Doctor. She would like to attain the level of education that her parents did not get to which is very interesting. She said it is true that many black people don’t go to graduate school, but that she would like to be a different person with different dreams.
Belows Marvin is another undergraduate student in the department of psychology. It was really hard to get him to do an interview with me because of his class schedule. When I approached him on this, he accepted and told me the only problem would be time. Well, we fixed a date for us to meet and talk, and finally we also met on the 5th floor in the library. His childhood literacy acquisition was an interesting one because he had his mother who was very cooperative. She read to him comic books and children magazines. Learning how to write was not easy for Bellows because he had to undergo some special therapy to learn to do that.
Becoming a McNair Scholar is one of the things he would love to achieve so that he could get help to go to graduate school. His long term goal is to help people through is career.
Conceptual Memo on the entire participants and the re-occurring theme
The oral interviews with the participants have recurring theme of reading and writing which is their experiences about their childhood literacy acquisition and advance literacy. While the older people like Reed and the Moores’ talked about how they started reading from their homes with the bible and the help of family members just like both Shirley Brice Heath and Deborah Brandt explained in their books; Ways with Words and Literacy in American Lives. Bellows Marvin and Brittany Edwards have a different view and experience about literacy. What they have in common is that, their mother’s read to them comic books and children magazines and that helped them facilitates their acquisition. While the Moores’ and Reed level of acquisition was more intense because of the time period which was before and during integration when some of the pages of their textbooks were missing, and those that were complete were old and used books from white schools. Edwards and Marvin had theirs in more recent times when the pages of the textbooks are complete and new.
FieldNotes on Ivory Moore
My trip to Mr. and Mrs. Ivory Moore's house is the most exciting so far. As I stated in my earlier field notes on them, I got there at about 3pm on Saturday April 3rd 2010.as we agreed on the phone. I called them at about 12pm that same day to make sure I wasn’t interrupting anything. Mrs. Picked up my call and asked me to come over that they were ready for me. I had to go there with my brother to help cover the video aspect while I conduct the interview. When we got to the door, I knocked and we walked in and met husband and wife in the same position that I met them a day earlier. They were so happy that I was there.
Mr. Moore said he was ready for me and I really saw in his eyes that he was pleased to have me in their house. After we had sat down for about 5-10 minutes discussing general things, I was asked to start. I first of brought out the signature form and read it out loud and clear to him. When I was done, he accepted that he was okay with the terms and conditions of the form. I gave him the form after all, and he signed it before we started. We got the camera ready and I began by asking Mr. Moore if he attended graduate school and his experience as at that time. As soon as he began narrating his story, the house phone rang which Mrs. Moore picked up and began to talk with the person on the other side. Her voice was so loud that at the point, I wasn’t hearing what Mr. Moor was telling me. Mrs. Moore was actually having fun with whosoever she was having the conversation with.
So what I did was to ask my brother to pause the camera and I apologized to Mr. Moore that we have to wait for his wife to finish her conversation before we can begin. I was happy he accepted and told his wife that we were waiting for her to finish before we can start all over again. While, she was on the phone, I played back the video and discovered that her voice on the phone overshadowed that of her husband. So finally, I deleted the video and waited patiently for her to finish.
After 15-20 minutes, she said goodbye to the lady on the other side and apologized to us. “You see, I don’t know why she should go to the grocery store without a car. That was crazy “. She told us looking from one face to another laughing.
Anyway, we started again, and this time, there were no more interruptions except that from time to time, she reminded her husband whatever he forgot. Mr. Moore told me he started taking graduate school classes in 1947. He gave me details of the four colleges he took classes in Oklahoma state. He also told me he was not the only black person in his class but that he had other black students too. The only thing was that all his teachers were whites because then, there were a few well educated blacks who could teach in colleges.
His wife narrated her own part of part of graduate school experience. She told me that she has MBA and later worked in TRIO as a math tutor for so many years.
My experience with the Moore’s was a tremendous one, and I am very grateful to them for having me in their home. We left there at exactly 5.30pm back to the campus.
Code Sheet
Writing/Reading
AL—Advance Literacy
ALA—Advance Literacy Acquisition
LAB—Literacy Acquisition by the Bible
LACB—Literacy Acquisition by Comic Books
LACM—Literacy Acquisition by Children Magazines
ALA—Adult Literacy Acquisition
LAC—Literacy Acquisition by Computer
Personal Work
CM—Conceptual Memo
IM—Interpretive Memo
MSP—McNair Scholars Program
TPP—Translation Project Poster
DMSPF—Distribution of McNair Scholars Program Flyers
LC—Lebanon Cemetery
IGS—Interest in Graduate School
SAF—Signature Authorization Form
VR—Video Recording
AR—Audio Recording
CWCH--Country Without Childhood
Oral Literacy
OR—Oral Interview
OH—Oral History
Literacy/ Education Sponsorship
NCC—Norris Community Church
NCT—Norris Community Tour
MMSS—Mount Moriah Sunday school
MSTP—McNair Scholar Trio Programs
GS—Graduate School
HWFMLA—Helping With Family Members Literacy Acquisition
SS—Self Support
STL—Students Tuition Loan
PR—Personal Reading
Artifacts
PIMMC—Pictures and Images from Mount Moriah Church: Faith Grows Daily
LCHSP—Lebanon Cemetery Head Stone Pictures
CPLA--Commerce Public Library Artifacts
Annotated Bibliography
Based on the fact that my project topic is basically on McNair TRIO program which I love to call ADVANCE LITERACY, I decided to do my secondary bibliographical research on the general topic of both adolescent, children, and advance literacy to help the future researchers whether undergraduate English research students or their instructors who might be interested in any of the topics to read. I am connecting my project to the general topic of this course: LITERACY and that is what I have been able to do in all my video interviews.
As for my primary working bibliography, Professor Shannon advised me in the library during the library week, that I should look at the texts we are reading for the course and annotate them before moving further into the secondary sources. Therefore, I decided to select about five of those texts with a few oral interviews I have done with the participants I found.
My research topic has to do with not just African-Americans alone, but also with Latinos, people from Samoa, Alaskan natives, Native Americans, and Hawaiians’. So that is the reason why my secondary sources will cut across if not all, then some of these groups of people. Many of you might be surprised that I never mentioned these names before, yes, but it is one of the requirements to qualify to become a McNair Scholar. In my previous notes, I mentioned that candidate of McNair Scholar has to be a low income person or first generation student/underrepresented. But I feel I should add all other requirements as the class project gets to advanced stage.
I hope people find these sources useful.
Annotated Bibliography:
Primary Research
Brandt, Deborah. Literacy in American Lives, Cambridge university press, New York, 2001.
Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brand focuses on how Americans acquired and still acquire literacy. According to her, American’s literacy took different dimensions depending on who you were in terms of race, class, and gender, and where you lived. People were not accorded equal educational opportunities, and it is also interesting to know that at the turn of events and time, like other Americans, African-Americans have been under pressures of waves of social, economic, and communication changes associated with migrations from farms to cities and shifts from industrial manufacturing to information-based work (109). So reading and writing became very vital in order to blend with the advent of change as those who were literate were chosen over those who were not. Brandt says that, sponsorship of literacy among the blacks basically was the church and family members. And among the whites and Latino families, mothers contributed a lot by reading to their children at home.
In The Sacred and the Profane, Brandt asserts that by the 1830’s in England, unlike reading, with its direct and traditional connection to piety and Bible study, writing was considered too secular, worldly, and vocational and too strongly associated with upward mobility (a process that conservative church leaders wanted no part in encouraging) (146). In other words, writing was seen as something that should not be tempered with to avoid corruption of any kind I guess. But Bandit quoting Thomas Longueur recounts that, an anti-writing movement was afoot to stop it. However, it is ironical to note that while in America, church sponsored literacy at the early stage especially among the blacks. But in England, in the nineteenth-century, church kicked against writing. The question is: how would people read without writing? Brandt did not only discuss acquisition of literacy in American lives, but also illustrated the nature of literacy in England.
Brittany, Edwards. "Childhood Literacy acquisition and Becoming a potential McNair Scholar". Personal Interview. April 7. 2010.
This review explains how Brittany Edwards acquired literacy as a child growing up with her mother. She learnt how to read and write with the help of her mother who read to her children comic books and children Magazines.
Edwards is interested in becoming a Medical doctor with the help of McNair scholar program. She is very passionate about going to graduate school to serve as a role model to her generation.
Gold, David. Rhetoric at the Margins: Public Speaking and Public Life. p93, 1873-1947. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2008.
David Gold discusses the method by which both blacks and white’s students developed their rhetoric and pedagogy at the University level. He explains that the department of English at Texas Women University encouraged their students to take classes in pubic speaking. He also says that, at the time of discrimination in UT when women were not allowed to participate in public debate, students in TWU were already encouraged by their instructors to take classes in public speaking and performance. And as a result of that, students became competent as public speakers to meet the demand of social life and face challenges in academics (93).
Hirsch, Jerrold. Portrait of America “A Cultural History of the Federal Writer’s Project”. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Portrait of America by Jerrold Hirsch basically focuses on the redefinition and rediscovery of America from Inherited questions. In the early 1930s, group of writers, intellectuals, and concerned individuals tried to re-define, re-discover America and Americans, and to find out who and what America was because there was a general believe that America had no definite root (18-19). In other words, it was defined by the term cultural pluralism which basically means when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and whose values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. America as a multi diverse society has no definite root and this is evident in Van Wyck Brooks, a romantic nationalist argument, that America had no past and no way of creating a national culture. He went on to say that “unlike any other race, we were founded by the full-grown, modern, self-conscious men”, and I suppose that the men Brooks was describing were Europeans. It is also very interesting to know that Brooks believed and regretted that America is without a childhood (21). To him, cultural and mythological development must start from childhood.
Derryle, Peace G. Oral history Interview. Texas A&M Library Archive Collection. 2007.
This interview is based on Peace's personal life from childhood to adulthood. He tells in detail how his elder brother who was very much older than him taught him how to read and write. He started reading newspapers and checked words in the dictionary. His grandmother also assisted him by letting him read the bible. Dictionary and bible were basically the two books his grandmother had in their house at that time.
As an undergraduate and graduate student at the then East State Texas University, Peace was one of the first African-American who experienced integration first hand.
Sitton, Thad. and Conrad, James H. Freedom Colonies: “Independent Black Texas in the Time of Jim Crow”. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
This review is on the black Americans at the time of Jim Crow when they had started to own lands and live their own lives. Their experiences include when they began to acquire literacy, and own their own farms. Schools began to spread and more people started to getting educated.
Street, Brain V. and Shirly Brice Heath. On Ethnography: The Ethnographer's Field Entry and Tools of Practice. P27-47. Routledge, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-8077-4866-4.
On these pages, Street and Heath focus on the experiences of Ethnographers as their duties are to study the languages and behaviors of people for a certain period of time. They explain that at this point, Ethnographers would be called betrayals. Betrayal in the sense that all the information they gathered during their field work of observation and recording, or writing would be made known to the public. But the interesting thing is that most of the people will always give their consent before such information would be let out to the public.
Sustein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. The Researching Portfolio: Reflecting on
Your FieldNotes. p112. 3rd Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. Print.
This topic in the text focuses on the final collection of whatever one has been doing throughout the project period. In fact, it is a time of reflection, and Sustein and Chiseri-Strater refer to it as "behind-the-scene account of the story of your research". This has four activities: collecting materials, selecting according to your emerging focus, reflecting on the overall date and themes, and projecting as you look forward toward further progress and continue to form your plans (112).
Wright, Richard. “12 Million Black Voices” New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1941. Print.
12 million Black Voices focuses on degradation of the blacks in America during slavery. It depicts in both graphic and words the extent of humiliation that the slaves were subjected to at that time period. One thing that stand out in the text is the use of language; the breath taking poetic language/expression of Richard Wright in the text. His expression sounds more like a song than a narration in a way. Objectification of the human body was repeatedly emphasized like “free trade in our bodies”, “…the seven seas in search of our bodies”, “…traders brought rum and swapped it to corrupt chiefs for our bodies” , “…the new England Puritans and the imperialists of Europe erected the traffic in our bodies into the big business” (13). “Our black bodies were good tools that had to be kept efficient for toil” (25), “the Lords of the Land rose and threatened to resort to a wholesale breeding of slaves in order not to be deprived of our living bodies (26). “In their withered bodies” (36). “…it does not matter who, the innocent or guilty-and, as a token, a naked and bleeding body will be dragged through the dusty streets”, “our bodies will be swung by ropes from the limbs of trees, will be shot at and mutilated” (43).
The image of the body could be seen in almost all the pages of the text. However, Wright discusses in detail the great concern of the paradoxical birth of the black people in America whose ancestors were Africans. He states thus: We millions of black folk who live in this land were born into Western civilization of a weird and paradoxical birth. He goes to explain that literacy was not a part of the life that the slaves lived. They were preoccupied with cotton plantation, and other menial jobs so as to make ends meet.
Reed, Veronica. “Acquisition of Literacy and Personal Experience in Graduate School”. April 14, 2010. Personal Interview.
This review focuses on the oral interview with the Trio Director, Veronica Reed. She explains in detail how she acquired literacy at a very tender age while she was living with her grandmother. The grandmother who is now eighty six years old according to Reed is a well read woman. When she lost her husband, Reed was asked to go and live with her. And so, every morning, she would bring out her bible for the morning devotion and would place it on Reed’s laps and asked her to read. While she read from the bible, there was a dictionary by her side to check the meaning of every strange word before reading the next sentence or word. And by doing that, Reed developed a unique reading culture that she grew up with.
While in graduate school, she always made sure four to five people proofread her paper before she turned it in. She was never satisfied with whatever she wrote and still writes. Dictionary in a way became her companion.
Literacy in many and among African-Americans started from their family members and church with reading the bible as the primary reading material.
Moore, Ivory. "Personal Experience in Graduate School in the 70's." April 03. 2010.
Oral interview with Ivory Moore focuses on his life and experiences as a black person going to school in the 40s and 50s. He explains that his life as a graduate student at that time period was a bit fair because he had to combine school and work to take care of himself and his wife. As a graduate student, funds like tuition loans and financial aid were not available. Those who went to school had to pay from their pockets as he did.
Trio program is one of the things he helped to establish in Texas A&M University-Commerce to help black people acquire literacy through student support services and upward bounds programs.
As the first black Mayor of Commerce, he made his impact to the Norris Community with the help of the government by providing the necessary amenities like light, road, and water. And not only that, members of the Mount Moriah church in the community especially the children, acquire literacy through their various Sunday school sessions. According to him, Literacy had been a huge concern among the blacks in the Norris community.
As a man who attended graduate school and knows the value of education, he still encourages black folks to embrace literacy to live a better and fulfilled life because the higher the degree, the better the job.
Marvin, Bellows. "Childhood Literacy Acquisition and Becoming a Potential McNairScholar." Personal interview. April 04. 2010.
Bellows Marvin is a young potential McNair scholar and a first generation student who is very enthusiastic about going to graduate school to obtain a degree that his both parents could not have. His literacy acquisition started as a little boy of four. He said his mother read to him story books and comic magazines. His father could not contribute to that because he was always working. And so his mother taught him how to read. As for writing, he had to do a special writing program to learn how to write because writing was a concern as he could not use his hands for some reasons he did not disclose. As a psychology major, he hopes to help people for the rest of his life when he graduates. With McNair grants, he hopes to achieve his goals in life.
Annotated Bibliography:
Secondary Resouces.
Alcock, K. J.; Ngorosho, D.; Deus, C.; Jukes, M. C. H. “We don’t have language at our house:
Disentangling the relationship between phonological awareness, schooling, and
Literacy". British Journal of Educational Psychology, Mar2010, Vol. 80 Issue 1, p55-76,
22p; (49036256).
This essay explains how phonology and literacy is linked but the difficulty is that the origin of the phonological awareness is not unknown. This article is based on the report gotten from the survey carried on rural Eastern part of Africa.
Cew, Cassie. Training for the PhD.D. Black Issues in Higher Education, 4/8/2004, Vol.21 Issue 4, p10-10, 1p, 1 Color photograph; (AN 12929143).
This review shows the achievement of some undergraduates African-Americans McNair Scholars at the university of Maryland conference. At the conference in March 2004, it was announced of the first African-American McNair Scholar that earned a doctoral degree.
De la Piedraia, Maria Teresa. “Adolescent Worlds and Literacy Practices on the United States- Mexican Border”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, P575-584, 10p; (48996463).
This article discusses Latinos adolescent literacy. In other for these group of people to learn better, it is advised that their languages should be Incorporated into the school curriculum. Many of them read and write in their native language before translating it into English because it is believed that they feel more comfortable doing that then writing directly in English.
Gambrell, Linda B. Exploring the connection between oral language and early reading. Reading Teacher, feb2004, Vol. 57 Issue 5, p490-492, 3p; (AN 121447941).
This article focuses on how well children in American have good command of their language before they come to speak. They speak fluently with no hassle but the where the problem sets is how when it comes to reading. This article tends to explain the difficulty in connecting oral language to early reading.
Gibson, Simone. Critical Readings: “African American Girls and Urban Fiction”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p565-574, 10p; (AN 48996465).
This essay discusses the rate at which African-American girls love to read sexual fictions than the recommended textbooks used in the classroom. And by doing that, they will tend to struggle with literacy because the languages used in such fictional books are different from those used in the classrooms. And that contributes to their inability to write good composition.
Ishiyama, John. Expectations and perception of undergraduate research mentoring: Comparing first generation, low income, white/Caucasian and African American students. College Student Journal, Sep2007, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p540-549, 10p; (AN 26885988).
This review is basically on what it means for African-Americans to have academic research mentors as McNair Scholars. It emphasis that those who are into research studies with the help of mentors ten to do better than others. McNair academic mentors guide and supervise their students from their undergraduate levels up to doctoral programs.
Love, Emily. A Simple Step: Integrating Library Reference and Instruction into Previously Established Academic Programs for Minority Students. Reference Librarian, Jan-Mar2009, Vol. 50 Issue 1, p4-13, 10p; DOI: 10. 1080/02763870802546357; (AN 36438692).
This article focuses on how minority students like African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans do not really have a place in the university libraries. In other words, many universities in America have more of white students than these minorities. And so, in other to help these groups of students upgrade their educational careers, such programs like McNair Scholars Program, Student supports Services, and Upward bound are established with libraries to help them academically.
Miller, M.. “Teaching For A New World”. Education Digest, Apr2010, Vol. 75 Issue 8, p13-20, 8p; (48921372).
This review focuses on the new methods of equipping teachers before they go into the classrooms because, education is different from how it used to be especially before and integration. Today, classrooms are a combination of both African-Americans, Latinos, Natives Americans, Whites etc. Therefore, modern education is more diversified than what it used to be, and so teachers require among other, in-service training.
O’ Brien, David; Scharber, Cassandra. Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Luxury of Digital Abundance. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53
Issue 7, p600-603, 4p; (AN 48996475).
This article explains how technology came to be involved in literacy acquisition and development. Before the advent of computers, print media had upper hand and that slowed down so many things, but since the advent of computer, education at all levels has been improved tremendously. Now people use podcast, e-books, databases, etc. And so people learn better than forty years when technology had not reached this advance stage.
Schneider, Dean. “Why Read Books Anymore?” Book Links, Mar2010, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p17-17, 1p; (48538681).
Books are not read as much as before. In the contemporary times, students sometimes decide what books to read and what not to read. Many students do most of their readings now online because everything has been digitalized. It is now a world of technology and books are being refered to as outdated.
Smilanich, Brad; Lafreniere, Nicole. “Reel Teaching= Real Learning: Motivating Reluctant Studies Through Film Studies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p604-606, 3p; (AN 48996476).
This article begins by telling a story of Mathew; a student who was always challenging his teachers in the class of reading too much meanings into a discourse. But as time went on, he started learning how to use metaphors from his readings to add meaning to his sentences. And this was realized and made possible through films. So in other words, children and students get more motivation from what they see or watch than what they read.
Tarasiuk, Tracy. “Combining Traditional and Contemporary Texts: Moving My English Class to the Computer Lab". Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p543-552, 10; (AN).
This essay talks about childhood literacy where reading, writing and technology enhance learning. With technology, children's literacy acquisition move faster because they are navigate through the web until and discover things for themselves untill they become used to it. The same apply to adults also.
Vasquez, Vivian. “Critical Literacy Isn’t Just for Books Anymore”. Reading Teacher, Apr2010, Vol. 63 Issue 7, p614-616, 3p; (AN 49036019).
Literacy is gradually moving away from books to how podcasting can help improve learning. Children discovered that using digital equipment make learning much easier and quicker for them.
Wesley, Charles H. In Freedom’s Footsteps: From the African Background to the civil war. International Library of Afro-American Life and History. Cornwells Height, Pennsylvania; 1968.
This book was gotten from Texas A&M University-Commerce TRIO archive. It discusses the black people’s experiences as slaves carried from Africa to America. The historical origin of Africa-Americans in America today is fully explained, and their involvement in the war of 1812, and how they got their freedom from the slave masters and become free people
Monday, May 3, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Final Annotated Bibliography
Based on the fact that my project topic is basically on McNair TRIO program which I love to call ADVANCE LITERACY, I decided to do my secondary bibliographical research on the general topic of both adolescent, children, and advance literacy to help the future researchers whether undergraduate English research students or their instructors who might be interested in any of the topics to read. I am connecting my project to the general topic of this course: LITERACY and that is what I have been able to do in all my video interviews.
As for my primary working bibliography, Professor Shannon advised me in the library during the library week, that I should look at the texts we are reading for the course and annotate them before moving further into the secondary sources. Therefore, I decided to select about five of those texts with a few oral interviews I have done with the participants I found.
My research topic has to do with not just African-Americans alone, but also with Latinos, people from Samoa, Alaskan natives, Native Americans, and Hawaiians’. So that is the reason why my secondary sources will cut across if not all, then some of these groups of people. Many of you might be surprised that I never mentioned these names before, yes, but it is one of the requirements to qualify to become a McNair Scholar. In my previous notes, I mentioned that candidate of McNair Scholar has to be a low income person or first generation student/underrepresented. But I feel I should add all other requirements as the class project gets to advanced stage.
I hope people find these sources useful.
Annotated Bibliography:
Primary Research
Brandt, Deborah. Literacy in American Lives, Cambridge university press, New York, 2001.
Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brand focuses on how Americans acquired and still acquire literacy. According to her, American’s literacy took different dimensions depending on who you were in terms of race, class, and gender, and where you lived. People were not accorded equal educational opportunities, and it is also interesting to know that at the turn of events and time, like other Americans, African-Americans have been under pressures of waves of social, economic, and communication changes associated with migrations from farms to cities and shifts from industrial manufacturing to information-based work (109). So reading and writing became very vital in order to blend with the advent of change as those who were literate were chosen over those who were not. Brandt says that, sponsorship of literacy among the blacks basically was the church and family members. And among the whites and Latino families, mothers contributed a lot by reading to their children at home.
In The Sacred and the Profane, Brandt asserts that by the 1830’s in England, unlike reading, with its direct and traditional connection to piety and Bible study, writing was considered too secular, worldly, and vocational and too strongly associated with upward mobility (a process that conservative church leaders wanted no part in encouraging) (146). In other words, writing was seen as something that should not be tempered with to avoid corruption of any kind I guess. But Bandit quoting Thomas Longueur recounts that, an anti-writing movement was afoot to stop it. However, it is ironical to note that while in America, church sponsored literacy at the early stage especially among the blacks. But in England, in the nineteenth-century, church kicked against writing. The question is: how would people read without writing? Brandt did not only discuss acquisition of literacy in American lives, but also illustrated the nature of literacy in England.
Brittany, Edwards. "Childhood Literacy acquisition and Becoming a potential McNair Scholar". Personal Interview. April 7. 2010.
This review explains how Brittany Edwards acquired literacy as a child growing up with her mother. She learnt how to read and write with the help of her mother who read to her children comic books and children Magazines.
Edwards is interested in becoming a Medical doctor with the help of McNair scholar program. She is very passionate about going to graduate school to serve as a role model to her generation.
Gold, David. Rhetoric at the Margins: Public Speaking and Public Life. p93, 1873-1947. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2008.
David Gold discusses the method by which both blacks and white’s students developed their rhetoric and pedagogy at the University level. He explains that the department of English at Texas Women University encouraged their students to take classes in pubic speaking. He also says that, at the time of discrimination in UT when women were not allowed to participate in public debate, students in TWU were already encouraged by their instructors to take classes in public speaking and performance. And as a result of that, students became competent as public speakers to meet the demand of social life and face challenges in academics (93).
Hirsch, Jerrold. Portrait of America “A Cultural History of the Federal Writer’s Project”. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Portrait of America by Jerrold Hirsch basically focuses on the redefinition and rediscovery of America from Inherited questions. In the early 1930s, group of writers, intellectuals, and concerned individuals tried to re-define, re-discover America and Americans, and to find out who and what America was because there was a general believe that America had no definite root (18-19). In other words, it was defined by the term cultural pluralism which basically means when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and whose values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. America as a multi diverse society has no definite root and this is evident in Van Wyck Brooks, a romantic nationalist argument, that America had no past and no way of creating a national culture. He went on to say that “unlike any other race, we were founded by the full-grown, modern, self-conscious men”, and I suppose that the men Brooks was describing were Europeans. It is also very interesting to know that Brooks believed and regretted that America is without a childhood (21). To him, cultural and mythological development must start from childhood.
Derryle, Peace G. Oral history Interview. Texas A&M Library Archive Collection. 2007.
This interview is based on Peace's personal life from childhood to adulthood. He tells in detail how his elder brother who was very much older than him taught him how to read and write. He started reading newspapers and checked words in the dictionary. His grandmother also assisted him by letting him read the bible. Dictionary and bible were basically the two books his grandmother had in their house at that time.
As an undergraduate and graduate student at the then East State Texas University, Peace was one of the first African-American who experienced integration first hand.
Sitton, Thad. and Conrad, James H. Freedom Colonies: “Independent Black Texas in the Time of Jim Crow”. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
This review is on the black Americans at the time of Jim Crow when they had started to own lands and live their own lives. Their experiences include when they began to acquire literacy, and own their own farms. Schools began to spread and more people started to getting educated.
Street, Brain V. and Shirly Brice Heath. On Ethnography: The Ethnographer's Field Entry and Tools of Practice. P27-47. Routledge, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-8077-4866-4.
On these pages, Street and Heath focus on the experiences of Ethnographers as their duties are to study the languages and behaviors of people for a certain period of time. They explain that at this point, Ethnographers would be called betrayals. Betrayal in the sense that all the information they gathered during their field work of observation and recording, or writing would be made known to the public. But the interesting thing is that most of the people will always give their consent before such information would be let out to the public.
Sustein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. The Researching Portfolio: Reflecting on
Your FieldNotes. p112. 3rd Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. Print.
This topic in the text focuses on the final collection of whatever one has been doing throughout the project period. In fact, it is a time of reflection, and Sustein and Chiseri-Strater refer to it as "behind-the-scene account of the story of your research". This has four activities: collecting materials, selecting according to your emerging focus, reflecting on the overall date and themes, and projecting as you look forward toward further progress and continue to form your plans (112).
Wright, Richard. “12 Million Black Voices” New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1941. Print.
12 million Black Voices focuses on degradation of the blacks in America during slavery. It depicts in both graphic and words the extent of humiliation that the slaves were subjected to at that time period. One thing that stand out in the text is the use of language; the breath taking poetic language/expression of Richard Wright in the text. His expression sounds more like a song than a narration in a way. Objectification of the human body was repeatedly emphasized like “free trade in our bodies”, “…the seven seas in search of our bodies”, “…traders brought rum and swapped it to corrupt chiefs for our bodies” , “…the new England Puritans and the imperialists of Europe erected the traffic in our bodies into the big business” (13). “Our black bodies were good tools that had to be kept efficient for toil” (25), “the Lords of the Land rose and threatened to resort to a wholesale breeding of slaves in order not to be deprived of our living bodies (26). “In their withered bodies” (36). “…it does not matter who, the innocent or guilty-and, as a token, a naked and bleeding body will be dragged through the dusty streets”, “our bodies will be swung by ropes from the limbs of trees, will be shot at and mutilated” (43).
The image of the body could be seen in almost all the pages of the text. However, Wright discusses in detail the great concern of the paradoxical birth of the black people in America whose ancestors were Africans. He states thus: We millions of black folk who live in this land were born into Western civilization of a weird and paradoxical birth. He goes to explain that literacy was not a part of the life that the slaves lived. They were preoccupied with cotton plantation, and other menial jobs so as to make ends meet.
Reed, Veronica. “Acquisition of Literacy and Personal Experience in Graduate School”. April 14, 2010. Personal Interview.
This review focuses on the oral interview with the Trio Director, Veronica Reed. She explains in detail how she acquired literacy at a very tender age while she was living with her grandmother. The grandmother who is now eighty six years old according to Reed is a well read woman. When she lost her husband, Reed was asked to go and live with her. And so, every morning, she would bring out her bible for the morning devotion and would place it on Reed’s laps and asked her to read. While she read from the bible, there was a dictionary by her side to check the meaning of every strange word before reading the next sentence or word. And by doing that, Reed developed a unique reading culture that she grew up with.
While in graduate school, she always made sure four to five people proofread her paper before she turned it in. She was never satisfied with whatever she wrote and still writes. Dictionary in a way became her companion.
Literacy in many and among African-Americans started from their family members and church with reading the bible as the primary reading material.
Moore, Ivory. "Personal Experience in Graduate School in the 70's." April 03. 2010.
Oral interview with Ivory Moore focuses on his life and experiences as a black person going to school in the 40s and 50s. He explains that his life as a graduate student at that time period was a bit fair because he had to combine school and work to take care of himself and his wife. As a graduate student, funds like tuition loans and financial aid were not available. Those who went to school had to pay from their pockets as he did.
Trio program is one of the things he helped to establish in Texas A&M University-Commerce to help black people acquire literacy through student support services and upward bounds programs.
As the first black Mayor of Commerce, he made his impact to the Norris Community with the help of the government by providing the necessary amenities like light, road, and water. And not only that, members of the Mount Moriah church in the community especially the children, acquire literacy through their various Sunday school sessions. According to him, Literacy had been a huge concern among the blacks in the Norris community.
As a man who attended graduate school and knows the value of education, he still encourages black folks to embrace literacy to live a better and fulfilled life because the higher the degree, the better the job.
Marvin, Bellows. "Childhood Literacy Acquisition and Becoming a Potential McNairScholar." Personal interview. April 04. 2010.
Bellows Marvin is a young potential McNair scholar and a first generation student who is very enthusiastic about going to graduate school to obtain a degree that his both parents could not have. His literacy acquisition started as a little boy of four. He said his mother read to him story books and comic magazines. His father could not contribute to that because he was always working. And so his mother taught him how to read. As for writing, he had to do a special writing program to learn how to write because writing was a concern as he could not use his hands for some reasons he did not disclose. As a psychology major, he hopes to help people for the rest of his life when he graduates. With McNair grants, he hopes to achieve his goals in life.
Annotated Bibliography:
Secondary Resouces.
Alcock, K. J.; Ngorosho, D.; Deus, C.; Jukes, M. C. H. “We don’t have language at our house:
Disentangling the relationship between phonological awareness, schooling, and
Literacy". British Journal of Educational Psychology, Mar2010, Vol. 80 Issue 1, p55-76,
22p; (49036256).
This essay explains how phonology and literacy is linked but the difficulty is that the origin of the phonological awareness is not unknown. This article is based on the report gotten from the survey carried on rural Eastern part of Africa.
Cew, Cassie. Training for the PhD.D. Black Issues in Higher Education, 4/8/2004, Vol.21 Issue 4, p10-10, 1p, 1 Color photograph; (AN 12929143).
This review shows the achievement of some undergraduates African-Americans McNair Scholars at the university of Maryland conference. At the conference in March 2004, it was announced of the first African-American McNair Scholar that earned a doctoral degree.
De la Piedraia, Maria Teresa. “Adolescent Worlds and Literacy Practices on the United States- Mexican Border”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, P575-584, 10p; (48996463).
This article discusses Latinos adolescent literacy. In other for these group of people to learn better, it is advised that their languages should be Incorporated into the school curriculum. Many of them read and write in their native language before translating it into English because it is believed that they feel more comfortable doing that then writing directly in English.
Gambrell, Linda B. Exploring the connection between oral language and early reading. Reading Teacher, feb2004, Vol. 57 Issue 5, p490-492, 3p; (AN 121447941).
This article focuses on how well children in American have good command of their language before they come to speak. They speak fluently with no hassle but the where the problem sets is how when it comes to reading. This article tends to explain the difficulty in connecting oral language to early reading.
Gibson, Simone. Critical Readings: “African American Girls and Urban Fiction”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p565-574, 10p; (AN 48996465).
This essay discusses the rate at which African-American girls love to read sexual fictions than the recommended textbooks used in the classroom. And by doing that, they will tend to struggle with literacy because the languages used in such fictional books are different from those used in the classrooms. And that contributes to their inability to write good composition.
Ishiyama, John. Expectations and perception of undergraduate research mentoring: Comparing first generation, low income, white/Caucasian and African American students. College Student Journal, Sep2007, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p540-549, 10p; (AN 26885988).
This review is basically on what it means for African-Americans to have academic research mentors as McNair Scholars. It emphasis that those who are into research studies with the help of mentors ten to do better than others. McNair academic mentors guide and supervise their students from their undergraduate levels up to doctoral programs.
Love, Emily. A Simple Step: Integrating Library Reference and Instruction into Previously Established Academic Programs for Minority Students. Reference Librarian, Jan-Mar2009, Vol. 50 Issue 1, p4-13, 10p; DOI: 10. 1080/02763870802546357; (AN 36438692).
This article focuses on how minority students like African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans do not really have a place in the university libraries. In other words, many universities in America have more of white students than these minorities. And so, in other to help these groups of students upgrade their educational careers, such programs like McNair Scholars Program, Student supports Services, and Upward bound are established with libraries to help them academically.
Miller, M.. “Teaching For A New World”. Education Digest, Apr2010, Vol. 75 Issue 8, p13-20, 8p; (48921372).
This review focuses on the new methods of equipping teachers before they go into the classrooms because, education is different from how it used to be especially before and integration. Today, classrooms are a combination of both African-Americans, Latinos, Natives Americans, Whites etc. Therefore, modern education is more diversified than what it used to be, and so teachers require among other, in-service training.
O’ Brien, David; Scharber, Cassandra. Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Luxury of Digital Abundance. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53
Issue 7, p600-603, 4p; (AN 48996475).
This article explains how technology came to be involved in literacy acquisition and development. Before the advent of computers, print media had upper hand and that slowed down so many things, but since the advent of computer, education at all levels has been improved tremendously. Now people use podcast, e-books, databases, etc. And so people learn better than forty years when technology had not reached this advance stage.
Schneider, Dean. “Why Read Books Anymore?” Book Links, Mar2010, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p17-17, 1p; (48538681).
Books are not read as much as before. In the contemporary times, students sometimes decide what books to read and what not to read. Many students do most of their readings now online because everything has been digitalized. It is now a world of technology and books are being refered to as outdated.
Smilanich, Brad; Lafreniere, Nicole. “Reel Teaching= Real Learning: Motivating Reluctant Studies Through Film Studies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p604-606, 3p; (AN 48996476).
This article begins by telling a story of Mathew; a student who was always challenging his teachers in the class of reading too much meanings into a discourse. But as time went on, he started learning how to use metaphors from his readings to add meaning to his sentences. And this was realized and made possible through films. So in other words, children and students get more motivation from what they see or watch than what they read.
Tarasiuk, Tracy. “Combining Traditional and Contemporary Texts: Moving My English Class to the Computer Lab". Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p543-552, 10; (AN).
This essay talks about childhood literacy where reading, writing and technology enhance learning. With technology, children's literacy acquisition move faster because they are navigate through the web until and discover things for themselves untill they become used to it. The same apply to adults also.
Vasquez, Vivian. “Critical Literacy Isn’t Just for Books Anymore”. Reading Teacher, Apr2010, Vol. 63 Issue 7, p614-616, 3p; (AN 49036019).
Literacy is gradually moving away from books to how podcasting can help improve learning. Children discovered that using digital equipment make learning much easier and quicker for them.
Wesley, Charles H. In Freedom’s Footsteps: From the African Background to the civil war. International Library of Afro-American Life and History. Cornwells Height, Pennsylvania; 1968.
This book was gotten from Texas A&M University-Commerce TRIO archive. It discusses the black people’s experiences as slaves carried from Africa to America. The historical origin of Africa-Americans in America today is fully explained, and their involvement in the war of 1812, and how they got their freedom from the slave masters and become free people.
As for my primary working bibliography, Professor Shannon advised me in the library during the library week, that I should look at the texts we are reading for the course and annotate them before moving further into the secondary sources. Therefore, I decided to select about five of those texts with a few oral interviews I have done with the participants I found.
My research topic has to do with not just African-Americans alone, but also with Latinos, people from Samoa, Alaskan natives, Native Americans, and Hawaiians’. So that is the reason why my secondary sources will cut across if not all, then some of these groups of people. Many of you might be surprised that I never mentioned these names before, yes, but it is one of the requirements to qualify to become a McNair Scholar. In my previous notes, I mentioned that candidate of McNair Scholar has to be a low income person or first generation student/underrepresented. But I feel I should add all other requirements as the class project gets to advanced stage.
I hope people find these sources useful.
Annotated Bibliography:
Primary Research
Brandt, Deborah. Literacy in American Lives, Cambridge university press, New York, 2001.
Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brand focuses on how Americans acquired and still acquire literacy. According to her, American’s literacy took different dimensions depending on who you were in terms of race, class, and gender, and where you lived. People were not accorded equal educational opportunities, and it is also interesting to know that at the turn of events and time, like other Americans, African-Americans have been under pressures of waves of social, economic, and communication changes associated with migrations from farms to cities and shifts from industrial manufacturing to information-based work (109). So reading and writing became very vital in order to blend with the advent of change as those who were literate were chosen over those who were not. Brandt says that, sponsorship of literacy among the blacks basically was the church and family members. And among the whites and Latino families, mothers contributed a lot by reading to their children at home.
In The Sacred and the Profane, Brandt asserts that by the 1830’s in England, unlike reading, with its direct and traditional connection to piety and Bible study, writing was considered too secular, worldly, and vocational and too strongly associated with upward mobility (a process that conservative church leaders wanted no part in encouraging) (146). In other words, writing was seen as something that should not be tempered with to avoid corruption of any kind I guess. But Bandit quoting Thomas Longueur recounts that, an anti-writing movement was afoot to stop it. However, it is ironical to note that while in America, church sponsored literacy at the early stage especially among the blacks. But in England, in the nineteenth-century, church kicked against writing. The question is: how would people read without writing? Brandt did not only discuss acquisition of literacy in American lives, but also illustrated the nature of literacy in England.
Brittany, Edwards. "Childhood Literacy acquisition and Becoming a potential McNair Scholar". Personal Interview. April 7. 2010.
This review explains how Brittany Edwards acquired literacy as a child growing up with her mother. She learnt how to read and write with the help of her mother who read to her children comic books and children Magazines.
Edwards is interested in becoming a Medical doctor with the help of McNair scholar program. She is very passionate about going to graduate school to serve as a role model to her generation.
Gold, David. Rhetoric at the Margins: Public Speaking and Public Life. p93, 1873-1947. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2008.
David Gold discusses the method by which both blacks and white’s students developed their rhetoric and pedagogy at the University level. He explains that the department of English at Texas Women University encouraged their students to take classes in pubic speaking. He also says that, at the time of discrimination in UT when women were not allowed to participate in public debate, students in TWU were already encouraged by their instructors to take classes in public speaking and performance. And as a result of that, students became competent as public speakers to meet the demand of social life and face challenges in academics (93).
Hirsch, Jerrold. Portrait of America “A Cultural History of the Federal Writer’s Project”. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Portrait of America by Jerrold Hirsch basically focuses on the redefinition and rediscovery of America from Inherited questions. In the early 1930s, group of writers, intellectuals, and concerned individuals tried to re-define, re-discover America and Americans, and to find out who and what America was because there was a general believe that America had no definite root (18-19). In other words, it was defined by the term cultural pluralism which basically means when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and whose values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. America as a multi diverse society has no definite root and this is evident in Van Wyck Brooks, a romantic nationalist argument, that America had no past and no way of creating a national culture. He went on to say that “unlike any other race, we were founded by the full-grown, modern, self-conscious men”, and I suppose that the men Brooks was describing were Europeans. It is also very interesting to know that Brooks believed and regretted that America is without a childhood (21). To him, cultural and mythological development must start from childhood.
Derryle, Peace G. Oral history Interview. Texas A&M Library Archive Collection. 2007.
This interview is based on Peace's personal life from childhood to adulthood. He tells in detail how his elder brother who was very much older than him taught him how to read and write. He started reading newspapers and checked words in the dictionary. His grandmother also assisted him by letting him read the bible. Dictionary and bible were basically the two books his grandmother had in their house at that time.
As an undergraduate and graduate student at the then East State Texas University, Peace was one of the first African-American who experienced integration first hand.
Sitton, Thad. and Conrad, James H. Freedom Colonies: “Independent Black Texas in the Time of Jim Crow”. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
This review is on the black Americans at the time of Jim Crow when they had started to own lands and live their own lives. Their experiences include when they began to acquire literacy, and own their own farms. Schools began to spread and more people started to getting educated.
Street, Brain V. and Shirly Brice Heath. On Ethnography: The Ethnographer's Field Entry and Tools of Practice. P27-47. Routledge, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-8077-4866-4.
On these pages, Street and Heath focus on the experiences of Ethnographers as their duties are to study the languages and behaviors of people for a certain period of time. They explain that at this point, Ethnographers would be called betrayals. Betrayal in the sense that all the information they gathered during their field work of observation and recording, or writing would be made known to the public. But the interesting thing is that most of the people will always give their consent before such information would be let out to the public.
Sustein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. The Researching Portfolio: Reflecting on
Your FieldNotes. p112. 3rd Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. Print.
This topic in the text focuses on the final collection of whatever one has been doing throughout the project period. In fact, it is a time of reflection, and Sustein and Chiseri-Strater refer to it as "behind-the-scene account of the story of your research". This has four activities: collecting materials, selecting according to your emerging focus, reflecting on the overall date and themes, and projecting as you look forward toward further progress and continue to form your plans (112).
Wright, Richard. “12 Million Black Voices” New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1941. Print.
12 million Black Voices focuses on degradation of the blacks in America during slavery. It depicts in both graphic and words the extent of humiliation that the slaves were subjected to at that time period. One thing that stand out in the text is the use of language; the breath taking poetic language/expression of Richard Wright in the text. His expression sounds more like a song than a narration in a way. Objectification of the human body was repeatedly emphasized like “free trade in our bodies”, “…the seven seas in search of our bodies”, “…traders brought rum and swapped it to corrupt chiefs for our bodies” , “…the new England Puritans and the imperialists of Europe erected the traffic in our bodies into the big business” (13). “Our black bodies were good tools that had to be kept efficient for toil” (25), “the Lords of the Land rose and threatened to resort to a wholesale breeding of slaves in order not to be deprived of our living bodies (26). “In their withered bodies” (36). “…it does not matter who, the innocent or guilty-and, as a token, a naked and bleeding body will be dragged through the dusty streets”, “our bodies will be swung by ropes from the limbs of trees, will be shot at and mutilated” (43).
The image of the body could be seen in almost all the pages of the text. However, Wright discusses in detail the great concern of the paradoxical birth of the black people in America whose ancestors were Africans. He states thus: We millions of black folk who live in this land were born into Western civilization of a weird and paradoxical birth. He goes to explain that literacy was not a part of the life that the slaves lived. They were preoccupied with cotton plantation, and other menial jobs so as to make ends meet.
Reed, Veronica. “Acquisition of Literacy and Personal Experience in Graduate School”. April 14, 2010. Personal Interview.
This review focuses on the oral interview with the Trio Director, Veronica Reed. She explains in detail how she acquired literacy at a very tender age while she was living with her grandmother. The grandmother who is now eighty six years old according to Reed is a well read woman. When she lost her husband, Reed was asked to go and live with her. And so, every morning, she would bring out her bible for the morning devotion and would place it on Reed’s laps and asked her to read. While she read from the bible, there was a dictionary by her side to check the meaning of every strange word before reading the next sentence or word. And by doing that, Reed developed a unique reading culture that she grew up with.
While in graduate school, she always made sure four to five people proofread her paper before she turned it in. She was never satisfied with whatever she wrote and still writes. Dictionary in a way became her companion.
Literacy in many and among African-Americans started from their family members and church with reading the bible as the primary reading material.
Moore, Ivory. "Personal Experience in Graduate School in the 70's." April 03. 2010.
Oral interview with Ivory Moore focuses on his life and experiences as a black person going to school in the 40s and 50s. He explains that his life as a graduate student at that time period was a bit fair because he had to combine school and work to take care of himself and his wife. As a graduate student, funds like tuition loans and financial aid were not available. Those who went to school had to pay from their pockets as he did.
Trio program is one of the things he helped to establish in Texas A&M University-Commerce to help black people acquire literacy through student support services and upward bounds programs.
As the first black Mayor of Commerce, he made his impact to the Norris Community with the help of the government by providing the necessary amenities like light, road, and water. And not only that, members of the Mount Moriah church in the community especially the children, acquire literacy through their various Sunday school sessions. According to him, Literacy had been a huge concern among the blacks in the Norris community.
As a man who attended graduate school and knows the value of education, he still encourages black folks to embrace literacy to live a better and fulfilled life because the higher the degree, the better the job.
Marvin, Bellows. "Childhood Literacy Acquisition and Becoming a Potential McNairScholar." Personal interview. April 04. 2010.
Bellows Marvin is a young potential McNair scholar and a first generation student who is very enthusiastic about going to graduate school to obtain a degree that his both parents could not have. His literacy acquisition started as a little boy of four. He said his mother read to him story books and comic magazines. His father could not contribute to that because he was always working. And so his mother taught him how to read. As for writing, he had to do a special writing program to learn how to write because writing was a concern as he could not use his hands for some reasons he did not disclose. As a psychology major, he hopes to help people for the rest of his life when he graduates. With McNair grants, he hopes to achieve his goals in life.
Annotated Bibliography:
Secondary Resouces.
Alcock, K. J.; Ngorosho, D.; Deus, C.; Jukes, M. C. H. “We don’t have language at our house:
Disentangling the relationship between phonological awareness, schooling, and
Literacy". British Journal of Educational Psychology, Mar2010, Vol. 80 Issue 1, p55-76,
22p; (49036256).
This essay explains how phonology and literacy is linked but the difficulty is that the origin of the phonological awareness is not unknown. This article is based on the report gotten from the survey carried on rural Eastern part of Africa.
Cew, Cassie. Training for the PhD.D. Black Issues in Higher Education, 4/8/2004, Vol.21 Issue 4, p10-10, 1p, 1 Color photograph; (AN 12929143).
This review shows the achievement of some undergraduates African-Americans McNair Scholars at the university of Maryland conference. At the conference in March 2004, it was announced of the first African-American McNair Scholar that earned a doctoral degree.
De la Piedraia, Maria Teresa. “Adolescent Worlds and Literacy Practices on the United States- Mexican Border”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, P575-584, 10p; (48996463).
This article discusses Latinos adolescent literacy. In other for these group of people to learn better, it is advised that their languages should be Incorporated into the school curriculum. Many of them read and write in their native language before translating it into English because it is believed that they feel more comfortable doing that then writing directly in English.
Gambrell, Linda B. Exploring the connection between oral language and early reading. Reading Teacher, feb2004, Vol. 57 Issue 5, p490-492, 3p; (AN 121447941).
This article focuses on how well children in American have good command of their language before they come to speak. They speak fluently with no hassle but the where the problem sets is how when it comes to reading. This article tends to explain the difficulty in connecting oral language to early reading.
Gibson, Simone. Critical Readings: “African American Girls and Urban Fiction”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p565-574, 10p; (AN 48996465).
This essay discusses the rate at which African-American girls love to read sexual fictions than the recommended textbooks used in the classroom. And by doing that, they will tend to struggle with literacy because the languages used in such fictional books are different from those used in the classrooms. And that contributes to their inability to write good composition.
Ishiyama, John. Expectations and perception of undergraduate research mentoring: Comparing first generation, low income, white/Caucasian and African American students. College Student Journal, Sep2007, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p540-549, 10p; (AN 26885988).
This review is basically on what it means for African-Americans to have academic research mentors as McNair Scholars. It emphasis that those who are into research studies with the help of mentors ten to do better than others. McNair academic mentors guide and supervise their students from their undergraduate levels up to doctoral programs.
Love, Emily. A Simple Step: Integrating Library Reference and Instruction into Previously Established Academic Programs for Minority Students. Reference Librarian, Jan-Mar2009, Vol. 50 Issue 1, p4-13, 10p; DOI: 10. 1080/02763870802546357; (AN 36438692).
This article focuses on how minority students like African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans do not really have a place in the university libraries. In other words, many universities in America have more of white students than these minorities. And so, in other to help these groups of students upgrade their educational careers, such programs like McNair Scholars Program, Student supports Services, and Upward bound are established with libraries to help them academically.
Miller, M.. “Teaching For A New World”. Education Digest, Apr2010, Vol. 75 Issue 8, p13-20, 8p; (48921372).
This review focuses on the new methods of equipping teachers before they go into the classrooms because, education is different from how it used to be especially before and integration. Today, classrooms are a combination of both African-Americans, Latinos, Natives Americans, Whites etc. Therefore, modern education is more diversified than what it used to be, and so teachers require among other, in-service training.
O’ Brien, David; Scharber, Cassandra. Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Luxury of Digital Abundance. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53
Issue 7, p600-603, 4p; (AN 48996475).
This article explains how technology came to be involved in literacy acquisition and development. Before the advent of computers, print media had upper hand and that slowed down so many things, but since the advent of computer, education at all levels has been improved tremendously. Now people use podcast, e-books, databases, etc. And so people learn better than forty years when technology had not reached this advance stage.
Schneider, Dean. “Why Read Books Anymore?” Book Links, Mar2010, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p17-17, 1p; (48538681).
Books are not read as much as before. In the contemporary times, students sometimes decide what books to read and what not to read. Many students do most of their readings now online because everything has been digitalized. It is now a world of technology and books are being refered to as outdated.
Smilanich, Brad; Lafreniere, Nicole. “Reel Teaching= Real Learning: Motivating Reluctant Studies Through Film Studies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p604-606, 3p; (AN 48996476).
This article begins by telling a story of Mathew; a student who was always challenging his teachers in the class of reading too much meanings into a discourse. But as time went on, he started learning how to use metaphors from his readings to add meaning to his sentences. And this was realized and made possible through films. So in other words, children and students get more motivation from what they see or watch than what they read.
Tarasiuk, Tracy. “Combining Traditional and Contemporary Texts: Moving My English Class to the Computer Lab". Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy, Apr2010, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p543-552, 10; (AN).
This essay talks about childhood literacy where reading, writing and technology enhance learning. With technology, children's literacy acquisition move faster because they are navigate through the web until and discover things for themselves untill they become used to it. The same apply to adults also.
Vasquez, Vivian. “Critical Literacy Isn’t Just for Books Anymore”. Reading Teacher, Apr2010, Vol. 63 Issue 7, p614-616, 3p; (AN 49036019).
Literacy is gradually moving away from books to how podcasting can help improve learning. Children discovered that using digital equipment make learning much easier and quicker for them.
Wesley, Charles H. In Freedom’s Footsteps: From the African Background to the civil war. International Library of Afro-American Life and History. Cornwells Height, Pennsylvania; 1968.
This book was gotten from Texas A&M University-Commerce TRIO archive. It discusses the black people’s experiences as slaves carried from Africa to America. The historical origin of Africa-Americans in America today is fully explained, and their involvement in the war of 1812, and how they got their freedom from the slave masters and become free people.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Dr.Hugh Bunns during library week
Dr Bunns discusses literacy in Texas A&M University-Commerce Library.
This is Commerce Square in 1908
Artifact from Commerce Public Library
This Picture was taken during the Black History
Month.
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