Reading Journal
Brendan Long
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | “James Gee” What Is Literacy? International Reading Association, 1999.“Pg (18-23).” |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | The article was about discourses as a whole. How they are learned throughout life and can be taught as well. I thought the passage was interesting and it made a lot of sense. The passage says that you acquire a lot of habits or discourses by the people you grow up around as well as the people in your family. The passage highlights that acquiring is very different from learning. Acquiring is something that happens the more you are around it, the best example is the language you are taught when you are a child. To learn something it must be taught to you through someone by classes or some sort of scheduled meetings or even virtually. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | “Acquisition is a process of acquiring something subconsciously by exposure to models and a process of trial and error…..it happens in natural settings which are meaningful and functional in the sense that acquirers know that they need to acquire something in order to function.” (Gee 20)
This better shows the difference in acquiring and learning. Acquiring is something that you naturally pick up by being around others who practice the same. “Learning is a process that involves conscious knowledge gained through teaching, though not necessarily from someone designated a teacher, this teaching involves explanation and analysis”(20) This quote explains that learning is different from acquiring because you have to be taught through explaining and not just picking it up. Learning is not something that feels necessary like acquiring certain things is. |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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This shows how much it means to be raised around people with good habits. Even Though you can develop new ones and change. It helps to have good people around you growing up. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | If we moved to a country that had a different language, How long would it take to be able to communicate? |