Spring 2022  |  ENGL 3741 Section 001: Literacy and American Cultural Diversity (53703)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Field Work
Credits:
4 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
Community Engaged Learning
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/18/2022 - 05/02/2022
Mon, Wed 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Burton Hall 123
Enrollment Status:
Open (19 of 20 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Literacy and American Cultural Diversity combines academic study with experiential learning in order to collectively build more engaged, more complex understandings of literacy, educational institutions, counter-institutional literacy programs, the grassroots and nonprofit sectors, and the struggles of a multicultural civil society in a putative democracy. We will ground our inquiry in government studies, as well as sociological, historical, and educational writings. Standard literature, such as a memoir, a selection of poems, some short fiction, and a novel will further open up our twin themes of literacy and multiculturalism - as will less "official" literature, such as manifestos and the transcribed stories of immigrants, refugees, and other marginalized communities. We begin with the basic understanding of literacy as reading and writing, noting that, according to the National Survey of Adult Literacy, 46% of Americans scored in the lowest two levels of a five-tiered literacy test. What does this mean? Are such tests accurate or otherwise helpful? What about your basic literacy? As you read this syllabus, you're making use of basic abilities that you've likely been practicing most of your life through formal schooling, daily routines, recreational pursuits, and work-related duties. But there's more. On another level, you bring knowledge to your reading (some conscious, some unconscious), and the ideological field supplies you with assumptions about the role of literacy in your development, the role of a university course in your plans for your personal and professional life, and your position in a society that constantly raises the standards of literacy, basing success on your ability to keep up. Thus the very word "literacy" calls into play many beliefs we have about our class system, our cultural life, economic and political structures, and educational institutions. Accordingly, our analysis will move beyond basic "reading and writing" to wider concepts of
Class Notes:
Students will complete a Practicum as literacy workers, working two hours a week outside of regularly scheduled classes, and an orientation and training seminar to assist them in this work.
Class Description:
Do you care about public schools and adult basic education? Are you worried that excessive standardized testing is turning students into zombies while turning testing company CEOs into billionaires? Not convinced that "multiculturalism" is the best response to institutional racism? Tired of too much reading and too little taking action? Want to meet other students and community members who care? You'll be in good company in this class. "Literacy and American Cultural Diversity" combines academic study with experiential learning in order to build more engaged and more critical understandings of literacy, education, multiculturalism, and social justice. Our readings --not only literature, but government studies, as well as sociological, philosophical, and educational writings -- will provide a theoretical basis for our inquiries by contrasting institutionally dominant discourses of functional literacy (education as meritocracy training) with alternative literacies that seek to dismantle social injustices. As we explore the convergence and divergence between theory and practice, students will work for two hours a week at a participating community organization (K-12 or adult English Language Learning programs).
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/53703/1223
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
1 September 2017

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