Proust and the Squid, Posting #2

So far this book is very interesting, it gives you the theories behind reading as well as the science and history too.  The history of reading and writing dates back to thousands of years ago. Then, the system of writing that was used was to keep track of livestock and other goods that where being sold. They would have clay envelopes filled with small “coins” that had symbols representing one goat or one chicken ext. With this system they could keep track of what they where selling without actually having the goats or other items present. Even though this does not sound very complex, it was one of our first examples of how reading and writing developed through time.

People still to this day are arguing what language was the first of mankind. It will probably be one of those topics that will be solved. Due to years of research and many findings scientists and linguists, found that earlier symbols of the Sumerians are one of the written languages of mankind. Just like the Egyptian and Chinese, they used symbols as their written language.  The Sumerian system was a “true system”, as Maryanne Wolf would say, “that implies emerging cognitive skills in the writer, reader and teacher” (Wolf, pg.33).  The symbols that they used represented visually what they actually meant. This is a common characteristic of languages similar the Sumerian system. Soon after this system originated it started to become more sophisticated (pg.34). “The symbols started to become more logographic, conveys concepts in the oral language such as syllables, instead of being pictographic” (Wolf, pg.34).  In simpler terms, it was not as easy to read as before. This is when they started to develop a teaching system so that it would be easier for others to learn the language. Their system was not that hard, it just took many years to master. The way that this Sumerian system was taught was the students had a clay palate with symbols of the language written on one side by the teacher.  They would then copy the symbols over and over again. The teachers would also give them different ways to remember what the symbols mean. One can relate this to what we use today, a mnemonic device, or some creative way to remember the meaning of the word. This learning process was not exciting and as I said before took MANY years to learn. A more modern language that Wolf compares it to is Chinese.

With the way the Sumerians taught their language system, they where writing to learn and to communicate. Writing to learn means that they where writing the symbols over and over again to learn how to write the language. Once they had mastered writing the language, many years later, they where able to write to communicate proficiently. They are both important because one cannot exist without the other. If you do not write to learn the language system, you are most likely not going to be able to write to communicate because you do not understand the system. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!

Proust and the Squid, Posting #1

I never thought that there was so much to learning how to read. I always thought that it was just learning how to pronounce some words and learn their meaning. Well, I was way off on this thought. After finishing up the first chapter in my book, “Proust and the Squid, The Story and Science Behind Reading “, I now know that learning how to read is much more than what one normally thinks. Learning how to read and becoming literate has to deal with what language you are trying to learn and what kind of learning environment you live in. These factors can contribute to different understanding of words and also how much a person understand when they are fist trying to learn how to read a certain language. In this chapter they first start talking about reading, or being literate. Maryanne Wolf, the author, “says that being literate is something that must be learned because it is not pre-programmed” (Wolf, pg. 4). So the question was, if it is not pre-programmed, how do we learn to read or become literate? Well, it has to do with many influencing factors. One facto that influences this, as I mentioned before, is what kind of language you are trying to learn how to read. It is different from Chinese to English and from Portuguese to Spanish. It all has to do with the different pathways our brain uses to interpret different forms of language. As stated in the book, Proust and the Squid, The Story and Science Behind Reading, “ When Chinese readers first try to read in English, their brains attempt to use Chinese-based neuronal pathways. The act of learning to read Chinese characters has literally shaped the Chinese reading brain. Similarly, much of how we think and what we think about is based on insights and associations generated from what we read” (Wolf, pg. 5).  This is why learning a new language is easier when we are younger, our brains are not fully developed and we still have easy access to the neuronal pathways of other languages.

The second factor that influences literacy and how people become literate is what kind of learning environment you live in. Reading is something that can be taught to a child at a young age, only if it is presented to them.  As Steve Pinker said, “Children are wired for sound, but print is an optional accessory that must be painstakingly bolted on.” For children to gain access to this, they must be exposed to the information that needs “bolting on”. When children being kindergarten, there is usually a huge variety between levels of reading. There was a study done that showed, “a gap of 32 million words that already separate some children in linguistically impoverished homes from their more stimulated peers” (Wolf pg. 20).  This is a huge gap that needs to be filled for the good of the children’s education. This is a great example that shows a way that some students become more literate than others. As this has shown, it usually starts of with the type of learning environment you have at home.  Both of these factors show us how one becomes literate and describes what literacy is and what it can do when learned early on in childhood. Thanks for reading! Now tell me what you think!

Blogging about blogging

Over the years I have had a pretty decent amount of experience with blogs.  Most of my experience comes from my Jr. High and High School English and history classes.  The way this whole process would work, would be my teacher would have blog already created on the topic we where learning about, or a book we where currently reading. We would then have to log onto our school website and responded to the blog at least three times per week. The topics ranged from specific questions to more open-ended question such as how do you feel about what is currently going on in Oliver Twist. These blogs help me gain a better understanding of what was being covered in class. It also desensitized me from other classmates. Meaning that I was not afraid to say what I was thinking or what others might think of me, because no one was there to judge me. They made the learning environment much more comfortable for me and I was able to see others views and understanding of what was being covered in class. It helped me more to see it in another classmate’s point of view than only just the teacher’s point of view. After we blogged our teacher would talk the following Monday in class on how the blog went and how he felt about our understanding of the questions being asked. This gave use a brief review of the material learned the previous week. From an educational stand point I felt that these where the best blogs because they helped the students see views of other students in their class. Also, since the teacher monitors this blog and the only students can put information on the blog, the information in there is not any kind of falsified facts. Also, since the teacher is running the blog, they can gauge their students understanding of the topic at hand and modify their lesson to help their students learn the information better.

         The bog that I read recently was very interesting to me. It just asked simple questions, for example this week’s question was if you could write a section of the newspaper what would it be and why. I looked at some of the responses and they where very brief and to the point. This is not what I expected; I expected at least 500 word answers. But then I thought about it, why would you give a complex answer to such a simple question? It just would not make sense. Blogs like he one that I viewed make you think outside the box and kind of give you a chance to image what it would be like to do certain things, like write a section of the newspaper. Blogs like this can strike imagination and reveal your inner self. Blogs can also give you a sense of what everyone is thinking in the would. The newspaper section blog hat I viewed had responses that we written in many different languages. It must be a great thing to be able to relate to someone who is thousands of miles away from you. I feel blogs like this kind of connect the world and give someone the feeling that they can relate or have the same ideas as other people all around the globe. 

Check Out This Blog I found it to be quite interesting:       http://www.livejournal.com/misc/latestqotd.bml?qid=2624