RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

I really enjoyed my reading this time because it was much easier than the 2 previous chapters. I was very interested to read about Hicks childhood and how her socilization and literacies were formed. I remember getting the look from my mother in church that I better behave. I grew up going to church and think a lot of my beginning memories with literacy were created there and in my home before I even went to school. A theme that seemed to run very solid through all of the women's stories were that they used reading to escape the lives that they were living. They used it as a way to get away from the hardships in their lives, and they also learned many of their early literacies from their mothers. It seemed that most of the mothers were the ones sharing the stories and examples of literacies.

I think that are literacy experiences are definately shaped by our communities, families, gender, class, and race. The way we interact with people as we grow up holds a significant role in how we develop our literacies. I was lucky that I was always around people that told stories about family history, and stories about their childhood. I was also lucky to have both parents read to me before bedtime at night. My father played just as big a role as my mother did in introducing literacies in my life. They were both educated and I was lucky that we had all the resources that were needed to do this.

I think that Hicks was very caring with Laurie and the fact that they grew up from similar home situations gave her the ability to connect with Laurie and be able to more closely relate to her and help her. I think that she tried very hard to interest her in texts that she thought would relate to Laurie's dream world and also provide her with the help she needed to pull up her reading and writing. Hicks was trying to help Laurie to understand literacy not just through reading but through her own life. This is important. If a child cannot make personal connections with text and writing then they will not always be interested. I found it interesting though that Laurie in kindergarten loved writing and drawing so much and as she got older and it got harder it became more difficult for her even though she still loved it.

These chapters help to show how much family life does impact not only our literacies but also how it can distract students from being able to focus in school. If there are things going on at home then it is not always going to be easy for these children to be able to get their work done.

Megan Machuga