Critical Literacy, Not Nonsense Literacy
At 59 with almost 40 years experience as an educator (focusing on literacy) and writer, I remain someone who struggles with spelling.
And when I come across an unfamiliar word, I ask around until I find someone who can pronounce it aloud for me; I have never really tried to “sound it out”—even though I have intuited a huge amount of letter/sound patterns in the English language.
Also, as a Southerner, my common pronunciation of many words doesn’t quite align with the so-called “proper” pronunciation of many words; I can make one-syllable words two syllables, and choke two-syllable words into one.
“Hell” is one of my better versions of the former.
More like “hey-uhl.”
None the less, I am a highly literate person with a reading and writing background that outpaces most people in sheer volume significantly. I also love language and the history of the English language.
After fumbling my way earnestly through a decade or more of teaching high school English and honing my craft as a writer, I discovered critical pedagogy and critical literacy in my 30s during my doctoral program. That “discovery” CONTINUE READING: Critical Literacy, Not Nonsense Literacy – radical eyes for equity