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.