Literacy Snapshot Captions

There have been some questions about the captions I used on my Literacy Snapshot so I'll take this opportunity to explain them in case you decide you would like to use captions on your own literacy snapshot. I'll document the captions clockwise around the poster, beginning at the very top.

Traditional Texts - My bedside tabel is home to most of the traditional texts I'm currently working through. I read every night for approximately an hour, usually split up between readings for class and non-required reading. As you can see, I have a stack to work through.

Communication - I use my email to keep in touch with friends, events, and news. I check it, on average, twenty-five times a day, sending about twenty emails a day and receiving forty.

Other Forms of Literacy - I am a directionally-challenged individual so when I decided I would start my Saturday morning grocery shopping with Bloomington's Winter Market, my pulse raced a little at the thought of navigating the city. Luckily, I have superior MapQuest skills and only got lost once. I also scoured through the weekly ads to compile my grocery list after referencing cookbooks to plan my menu for the coming week. I tend to make a lot of lists: things to do, books to read, phone calls to return.

News - Throughout the course of the week, I rely on a variety of sources for information about the world. I read the NYT every morning, which is delivered to my email, as well as check an ever-growing list of blogs throughout the day. On the weekend, I catch up on the latest issues of The New Yorker and any extraneous newsprint I've picked up throughout the week.

Hopefully these captions from my own literacy snapshot give you an idea of how to structure your own. See you in class on Monday and, as always, comment with questions.

Literacy Snapshot

As we begin to think about how we think about literacy as teachers, I want us to explore the role literacy plays in our everyday lives. One way to do this is to create a literacy snapshot. Over the course of the next week, I would like you to document your use of literacy, whether it be writing emails to friends, posting to your facebook, reading a textbook for class or attending an art show. While you are documenting these events, I would also like you to collect artifacts that supplement your documentation about your literacy activities. Artifacts could include magazine clippings, photos, or screen shots. Once you have engaged in several days (think about five or so days) of documentation and artifacts, create a visual representation of your learning about your own literacy practices. You will bring this visual representation to class and we engage in a gallery walk to observe our similarities and differences as literate beings.

This is my visual representation of my own literacy practice last spring. Note the variety of artifacts I chose to include, including the admission that I regularly read perezhilton.com. I'm okay with it.

To make your documentation process easier, I have created a template for you to use. It is a Google doc, which you can use here. It is my hope that this activity will help you think about beginning your Beliefs and Understandings paper.

Literacy Snapshots are due in class Monday, September 15. Please email me with questions or concerns - or, even better yet, leave a comment!