Literacy in American Lives by Monica Longoria

Marissa: Equitable literacy practices ties into the many themes of Literacy in American Lives. One of the themes discussed is discrimination and literacy acquisition. Chapter 4 says, “The history of African American literacy in some ways confirms the thesis of this study but in other ways complicates it. On the one hand, gaps between white and black literacy have been as persistent a social fact in the twentieth century as gaps between white and black income… on the other hand, however, there are parts of the story of African American literacy that elude the argument; basic literacy rates among African Americans rose from 30% in 1910 to more the 80% by 1930 to over 95% by 1970.” The idea that literacy learning for African Americans rose, but that they were still discriminated against is crazy to me because they were making huge advances in literacy but it didn’t reflect in other areas. There’s a link between race and access, achievement, and reward for literacy. This affects students and all of society when talking about the education system. Factors such as race and socioeconomic status influence the equitable literacy practices that teachers have. Being aware that students are seen as having an advantage or disadvantage in the world means that we need to give our students the best education we can, with or without resources provided by the school or district. We need to continue to teach marginalized students that they can be successful and guide them to be invested in their literacy growth and education. We have to fight for the rights of our students.
Monica: Equitable literacy is more than using culture or being aware of diversity in our classrooms. It prepares us to see how opportunity and success is different because of someone’s race, gender, class, language, disabilities, and more. Since the theme of the book focuses on the economic, political, and sociocultural effects and how it influenced literacy on the American society, it gave us a better understanding how some people were affected because of their class. The quote “Blum’s grandmother, not untypical of Jewish women of her time and station, could neither read nor write in either language.” This reflects on the lack of literacy Blum’s grandmother received because of her gender, and because of this Blum had a strive to read the newspaper because she wanted to be more informed on what was happening around her and for the purpose of “social distinction”. Chapter four of the book had a quote that caught me attention, “the nation has given little consideration to the human development, including literacy development, of African Americans”, this quote stood out to me because even today we see students from low-income areas or areas who have predominantly African American’s being “neglected” with their resources. I thought of Lebron James when I read this quote, he is someone who gave back to his community and built a school for the low income students and made school tuition free, had every resource they need, and you can see how the students have strived through that. The practice of literacy shouldn’t be taken out on these students because of where they come from, they didn’t choose to live where they do, or be raised how they are, as teachers It is our duty to advocate for these students in every way possible so they can be successful in society.
Carolina: One quote that reminded me of equitable literacy practices was the following: “But, as a matter of fact, the advantage of literate skill is helping to aggravate social inequity. Just, as it seems, the rich get richer, the literate get more literate” (p. 169). During one of the chapters Brandt talks about the inequalities of funding throughout schools across America. Brandt points out that coincidentally; schools that are struggling with trying to teach students how to read and write receive the least funding while schools that strive for students to become literate receive the most funding. People who are born in the low economic class have different resources in the education field where as students that were born in the middle-high class since their parents want them to attend to schools that strive for the most success and receive the most government funding. The quote in particular that I mentioned above reminded me of equitable literacy practices because unfortunately there are children in the world who do not receive the same education as other children. It is a social inequity that we as teachers need to try to change to give our students the best resources we can offer in order for them to become successful. Therefore, the equitable practices I will do are to gain knowledge from my students and their families “funds of knowledge and respond to the adequate resources they need. I will be proactive in creating lesson plans differentiating based of student exceptionalities. I will provide extra opportunities for technology access and push toward digital literacy. I will also advocate for resources within the school and district.