Showing the important connection between education and Literacy, this collection of writing assignments and readings encourage readers to think about their experiences in college.

Writing Assignments provide a flexible structure and help students practice writing strategies and make connections between familiar and new writing strategies. Readings provide a variety of approaches to literacy and encourage students to think creatively and innovatively about how they and others define “education” and “literacy.” Included are narratives, analytical pieces, and essays.

College students wanting to improve their writing skills.

Introduction for Instructors

About This Book: Approaches and Assignments

“Reading: Words and Images”

“Getting” reading

Reading questions

Strategic reading

Reading images

Assignments

“Learning from Self” Assignments

            Expectations and Experiences

            Influencing Your Literacy Development

            The Purposes of Schooling

            Why Are You Here?

            “Your” Campus

            Your Literacy History and Its Significance

            Your Literacy Development

“Learning from Others” Assignments       

            What’s the Purpose of Education and Literacy

            Literacy Practices and Schooling

            Testing Definitions: Dominant and Vernacular Literacies

            What Counts as “Learning” and for Whom?

            How Is Literacy/Education Defined by You and by Others?

            Community Literacies

“Learning Through Research” Assignments

            Debating the Purpose of School

            Representing the College Experience

            Designing Assessments

            What Counts, for What, and Who Says?

            Analyzing Literacy Experiences

            Positive Learning Experiences

            What’s Taught and Why

            What Counts, for What, and Who Says?

            Observing Literacy Practices

“Speaking Out, Joining In, Talk Back” Assignment

Readings About Uses of Learning:

David Barton and Mary Hamilton. “Literacy Practices” 

bell hooks. “Engaged Pedagogy”

Paolo Freire. “The Banking Concept of Education”

Theodore Sizer. “What High School Is”

Readings About Learners:

David Barton and Mary Hamilton. “How They’ve Fared in Education: Harry’s Literacy Practices”

Lorene Cary. From Black Ice.

Mark Edmundson. “On the Uses of a Liberal Education I: As lite entertainment for bored college students.”

Andrea Fishman. “Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish”

June Jordan. “Don’t Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan.” 

Robert Louthan. “Heavy Machinery”

Mike Rose. “I Just Wanna Be Average”

Michael Ryan, “The Ditch”

Earl Shorris. “On the Uses of a Liberal Education II: As a weapon in the hands of the restless poor.”

Ron Suskind. “Fierce Intimacies”

Readings About Learning (in and out of school):

W.E.B. DuBois “On Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others”

Kate Daniels. “Self-Portrait with Politics.”

Frederick Douglass. From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Darcy Frey. “The Last Shot.” 

Stanley Kaplan. “My 54-Year Love Affair with the SAT”

Nicholas Lemann. “The President’s Big Test.”

Teresa McCarty. “Classroom and Community”

Michael Moffatt. “What College Is REALLY Like”

Executive Summary of the “No Child Left Behind” Act.

“Wendy Darling”. “What ‘No Child Left Behind’ Left Behind.”

Gary Orfield and Johanna Wald. “Testing, Testing”

Peter Sacks. “Do No Harm: Stopping the Damage to American Schools”

James Traub. “The Test Mess”

Booker T. Washington “The Atlanta Exposition Address”

Photographs:

(list of photos to be added to Contents)

Credits

Index