A10.4: Participation Memo

Ashley Pence

October 26, 2007

Aims and Objectives:

For this weeks assignments I set out the goal to revise my project prospectus and continue research on digital literacy and it’s branches.  I set these goals to complete an assignment but also to gear my focus toward completing the overall assignment of my research project.  Both of week 10’s assignments helped me do that.

Declarative Knowledge: 

This week I researched further into digital literacy and its branch of reproduction literacy.  I was also able to find more information about my research question and bookmarked those for future use for myself as well as any other person who may want to use them.  While revising my project prospectus I learned that there are many different directions that I can take with my research question and that it is important to narrow it down, otherwise my research would go on for a long time.  I began looking through a few books in the library and was really successful in narrowing down the avenue that I want to take with my project.

Procedural Knowledge:

As I reviewed articles about Reproduction Literacy for my assignment this week I ran into the same articles that I had used the previous week for Photo-Visual Literacy.  I felt that it was appropriate to use those same articles because they all talk about each individual branch of literacy as well as the literacies as a whole.  The articles were very informative and helped me gain a better understanding of reprodcution literacy.  The article that I read about digitally, highly connected children has a quote from author John Kao that sums up how reproduction literacy is viewed, “taking a topic, a question, an idea, disseminate it, break it, manipulate it, and reassemble it creating something new.” I thought that by reading this quote I was able to understand and appreciate the work that reproduction literate scholars perform.

As I revised my project prospectus this week I realized that the library had some really great sources.  I located information on the changes in literacy, family literacy and literacy definitions.  The information on changes in literacy discusses how views on literacy are changing as the world views change.  The things we needed before are no longer enough to sustain the demands of today’s literacy needs.  The family literacy information discussed a lot about the role parent’s play in a child’s development of literacy.  This information also discusses intergenerational literacy or two-generation literacy programs which has now been termed family literacy.  This information focuses on two parent related factors, parental education and home literacy practices.  The information I found on literacy definitions describes other’s views on what literacy is and how the terms and their meanings have changed over time.

Conditional Knowledge:

The skills and knowledge I acquired this week have prepared me for a better ground to stand on when the time comes to complete my research project.   I have a better understanding of where I want to go with my research and can use that knowledge to complete my work.  As a future speech language pathologist I have realized that careful research and consideration is important.  To effectively create a good research project, you must take time and put forth a lot of effort.

A10.1: Reproduction Literacy

Ashley Pence

October 25, 2007

How often is it that we see things that have been reproduced to make them better, funnier or just better all together?  I like to think of things such as pop art.  This type of art takes a pre-existing piece of work that could include music, media, text and other things such as that and compiles them all to reproduce a new work of art.  This type of literacy skill also helps us in writing in the sense that we can take preexisting words, reorganize them and create new sentence meanings.  The artist Drako Maver (fictional character) is another example of how reproduction literacy works.  This character takes audio or visual pieces , edits them and manipulates them in order to create new art works. (2004)(www.kapelica.org/maver/main.htm)

Alkali and Hamburger also describe in their article about experiments in digital literacy the type of person it takes to be effective at this specific type of literacy.  They feel that it takes someone who have good synthetical, and multidimensional thinking that helps them in discovering new combinations for arranging information in new and meaningful ways. (2004)  I’ll admit that I have tried to create things like this before, but never to such a level as the “artist” Drako Maver has.  My skills are limited and I have never experimented any further than creating collages with pictures on my computer. 

The article that I read about digitally, highly connected children has a quote from author John Kao that sums up how reproduction literacy is viewed, “taking a topic, a question, an idea, disseminate it, break it, manipulate it, and reassemble it creating something new.” 

When I first began this search I thought about what I knew about reproduction literacy and I thought back to my Art History class that I had a few years ago.  We looked at several Andy Warhol productions.  I immediately thought of his Marilyn Monroe reproductions.  By taking one photo and reproducing it multiple times then putting it all together he produced a great piece of art which I’m sure would sell for millions.  Here is a link to a few of Andy Warhol’s pieces of art.  http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/IPHS/Projects/pop.up/art.htm

How does reproduction literacy effect education today?  I found it very interesting that in another one of Alkali’s articles he mentioned the huge effect that reproducing another’s work, mainly research, is a pretty big problem these days.  He mentioned one site that actually has ready-made academic work available for the taking.  I find it very hard in the school systems today to appropriately and legally use reproduction literacy skills as a way of effective learning.  It’s obvious that there are cases where students “reproduce” something and claim it as their’s, but until we can find a better way to teach these types of skills in a way that makes it legitimate, it will be a lost cause.

Eshet-Alkai, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August). Experiments in digital literacy. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429.

Eshet-Alkai, Y. (2004).  Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era.  JI. of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106. 

Aphek, E.  (2005) Digital, “highly connected” children: Implications for education.  Retrieved October 19, 2007 from www.phil-inst.hu/mobil/2005/Aphek.pdf

A10.3: Revised Project Prospectus

Project Prospectus Revised

Research Question:

How does family culture play a role in the development of literacy?

Foundation Questions:

1.  What are literacy events/practices?

2.  How have views on literacy changed through family generations?

3.  Does socio-econimic status play a role in the family’s view on literacy?

Tentative Point:  What point do you plan to make (recognizing that as you complete your research this may change significantly)?

The point that I intend to get across with my research project is that family culture plays a major role in the development of literacy.  There are differing opinions among every family and depending on what those opinions or views are can help or hinder the develoopment of a persons literacy skills.

Discussion:

My first foundation question came about after talking with my teacher and discussing ways in which we practice literacy on a daily basis.  This could be anything from writing a note to reading a newspaper and even more related to digital literacy, emailing or reading on the internet.  I didn’t realize how much I actually practice literacy on a daily basis and how much others do as well and probably don’t realize it.  The thing that I have learned is that many families put an emphasis on things such as reading and writing in the home while other families place emphasis on other aspects that do not contribute to literacy as much.  The reasons for where a family place emphasis vary, but I would like to focus my research on the changes through the generations and socio-economic status of the family.

I came up with my second question based on my own family experience.  I did a small interview with my grandparents and realized that times have definitely changed and the way families view literacy have changed with that.  Based on their experiences they did not need literacy skills as much as we do today.  The need for literacy was small compared to the need for manual labor when they were a child.  So with the change in generation, so did the change in the views on literacy.  Adding to that is the fact that every parent wants better for their child than what they had.  My grandparents did not graduate high school, they wanted my mom to have better so she graduated from high school and went on to vocational school to become a secratary.  My parents wanted better for me and my sisters so we graduated high school and continued onto college where my oldest sister obtained a bachelor’s degree in business mathematics and is employed by Toyota Motor Plant.  My other sister graduated with a degree in environmental science and is now obtaining her masters is education to become a science teacher.  Then there is me who will be graduating in the spring and continue on to obtain my masters in Communication Disorders.  This just shows the progression through the generations on the levels of education each generation obtained.

My third question takes a look at socio-economic status and the role it plays on the family’s view of literacy.  Based on what I have seen throughout my years as a student I can see a difference in how the home life of someone can effect their educational success.  When someone has trouble providing enough food for their child it is not likely that they will have the money to buy books or even the time to spend reading to their child simply because they are doing everything they can to ensure that their child is healthy.  It’s hard to think about fitting in story time with your child when you have the burden of work and where the money will come from for next weeks bills.  On the same note I would like to take a look at the use of libraries among families that are less fortunate.  This is a great resource and costs no money and should be used to the fullest extent.

Resources:

Blake, B.E., & Blake, R. W. (2002).  Literacy and Reading (p.18). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Guzzetti, B.J. (Ed.). (2002).  Literacy in America (Vol. 1).  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Commons, M. L., Galaz-Fontes, J. F., & Morse, S. J. (2006). Leadership, cross-cultural contact, socio-economic status and formal operational reasoning about moral dilemmas among Mexican non-literate adults and high school students. Journal of Moral Education, 35(2), 247-267. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from the ERIC database.

Cooter, K.S. (2006). When mama can’t read: Counteracting intergenerational literacy.  Reading Teacher, 59(7), 698-702.  Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

Puckett, A. (1992). Let the girls do the spelling and Dan will do the shooting; Literacy, the division of labor and identity in a rural appalachian community.  Anthropological Quarterly, 65(3). Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

 

A9.4: Participation Memo

Ashley Pence

October 19, 2007

Aims and Objectives:

This week my goal was to begin reflecting on the work I have done up to this point.  I wanted to focus in on what I had done, sort it out and make sense of it in order to prepare myself for my final project.  I am looking toward making connections to my reseach questions that will help me answer those for my final project. 

Declarative Knowledge:

This week began with a face to face class which is something we hadn’t experienced in this class for several weeks.  It was refreshing to catch up with our teacher and discuss things freely and actually see eachother while we were doing so.  We began this class by discussing any questions we had and our thoughts about the class.  After several questions were answered, mainly dealing with our mailing lists, we moved on to discuss the layout of our final project.  We were given information about the “I-Search Paper”.  After that was discussed we talked about a topic from our previous online discussion that concerned copyrighting and using creative commons to do so.  Outside of class this week I met with my instructor and we discussed my research questions so far and found a whole new perspective on it.  I also performed further research on one of the branches of digital literacy, photo-visual literacy.

Procedural Knowledge:

From this weeks class discussion I learned that my research paper will be in an I-Search format.  I realized that means there are quirks to writing a paper like this and a couple of those are, it can be in first person.  I can use the word “I”.  However the paper will still be formal.  I tend to think that when papers are in first person they are informal.  I’ll figure it out the more I learn and when I begin working on this paper it will become more clear to me.  I learned that an I-Search paper has four components; a summary of what the student knows, a statement explaining why the student chose the topic along with questions to be answered by the research, a record of research activities and concluding remarks about what was discovered as a result of the process.  During the class session I was also informed of due dates and how my final project will be laid out.  We were not given much information about that just that we will be using Movie Maker and will learn more about that in the next few weeks.  By exploring creative commons we are to come up with an idea of how we want our projects to be licensed.  When we choose our license it will be done so in three ways.  The first way is commons deed.  The next two are legal code and digital code.  We were provided with a website that when finished we can go there and they will do the licensing for us, symbols and all!  http://creativecommons.org/about/license 

When researching further into photo-visual skills I came across several articles that all led back to the first article that I read dealing with experiements in digital literacy.  One of the articles I found had one of the same authors as the first and the preceeding articles all quoted the first article by Eshet-Alkai and Amichai-Hamburger.  I assumed that they have done a lot of work with digital literacy and are good sources to gain more information from.  I gained an interesting view of how communication has transformed over time and is making its way back to the original form of graphics that the “cavemen” used.

Conditional Knowledge:

The knowledge that I gained from this weeks class has prepared me to complete my final project.  I am lacking a few things such as how to display my project using Movie Maker, but that will come later.  The skills I acquired this week are imperative to the completion of this class.  The articles I read on photo-visual literacy gave me a better understanding of what today’s society expects of us when it comes to digital literacy.  I learned that I must embrace this “new” literacy and use it on a daily basis to not only gain for myself but to gain for my future clients as a Speech Language Pathologist. 

A9.1: Photo-Visual Literacy

Ashley Pence

October 19, 2007 

What do I know or what can I find out about photo-visual literacy skills?

   My first experience with photo-visual literacy began in middle school.  I do remember some experience in elementary school, but my real memories stem from 7th grade.  I never considered what I was doing at the time to be practicing photo-visual literacy skills, but now that I read about them, I know that that was exactly what I was doing.  Although my purposes for using these skills was a social aspect, I used them all the same.  By doing so I have created a base to stand on that will guide me in new and more useful things which in this case includes my class work.  From my previous reading of Experiments in Digital Literacy I have gained a fairly strong grasp on what photo-visual literacy skills entail.  Photo-visual skills are reading instructions from graphical displays.  This includes advancing from text based digital environments to a more graphic based environment.  In this sense it requires us to use our vision to think. (2004)  When I was younger and first began using photo-visual skills I may have began with a computer game that required me to understand symbols and icons and left me no choice to read the game with text.

   While searching for other resources about photo-visual literacy skills I stumbled upon another journal article by Alkalai, who is a co-author of the article on Experiments in Digital Literacy.  This article provided me with information that I had not previously known or obtained from the first article.  The article brought up an interesting point that I felt was relevant to address.  Alkalai discusses the history of writing as a means of communication which is exactly what photo-visual skills are.The author explains that writing is a means of communication that uses symbols.  Those symbols throughtout history have changed from an alphabet of pictures, which used symbols with associative visual meanings to represent words, consonants, or letters.  These required a low level of cognitive mediation and were used in very early times by what we now know them as, Cavemen.  The next historical change was to the modern alphabet which includes meaningless symbols/letters, and therefore requires a higher level of cognitive medation. (2004, Alkalai) What I found most interesting is that we have somewhat reverted back to the early signs and symbols when referring to modern photo-visual skills.

What are your reactions to the idea that there are such skills?

My first reaction to the fact that there are such skills is one that is not surprised.  As a matter of fact I didn’t see why there weren’t mandatory classes that educate people on such skills.  Then I realized that as a student I did have those classes and was exposed to photo-visual literacy every day thousands of times a day.  The thing that shocks me the most is how skills such as these are now hard to get by without having them.  I think about today’s society and how it has been hammered with new and modern technology and think how on earth could someone survive without having the ability to read the “new” means of communication.

How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?

As I mentioned above I am surprised at the increase in neccessity of this skill.  I can see that in the school system things are being done to enhance our skills and have been since my elementary days.  Schools are now using computers on a daily basis multiple times in a day even and this is building the basic information that children in schools today will need for their future.  Some may argue that this “new” literacy is not useful in teaching children and that we should stick to the old ways because it worked for them, it should work for the children today.  However, in todays society we can’t expect students to be satisfied with pre-determined content material and subject matter.  To gain the interest of today’s generation we must move away from the concepts of learning that many current educators grew up with.  Everything we knew as a child is undergoing major shifts and we must embrace that. (2005) Although I grew up with an introduction to the “new” literacy I can still see major changes and should prepare myself for even more.

Resources:

Eshet-Alkai, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August). Experiments in digital literacy. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429.

Eshet-Alkai, Y. (2004).  Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era.  JI. of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106. 

Aphek, E.  (2005) Digital, “highly connected” children: Implications for education.  Retrieved October 19, 2007 from www.phil-inst.hu/mobil/2005/Aphek.pdf

A8.6: Participation Memo

Ashley Pence

October 11, 2007

Aims & Objectives

My goal for this week was to continue the searching and selecting of resources that are pertinent to my research question.  This was done through a class meeting reading the assigned article, revising my resources by reviewing the APA manual and completing my project prospectus.  I also accomplished updating my listserv in order to obtain research information from a more reliable source.  I learned that APA can be hard and you must be careful when using this type of citation.  This week I also succeeded in learning how to do a project prospectus that will prepare me for revisions and questions when I meet with Mrs. McComas to discuss my project so far. 

Declarative Knowledge

This week I learned about creating offices in our Tapped-In classroom, copyright issues that we have questions about and APA formatting.  I also reviewed digital literacy and read about a study that had been performed to obtain information about what age groups perform the best in the 5 different types of literacy, photo-visual literacy, reproduction literacy, branching literacy, information literacy and socio-emotional literacy.

Procedural Knowledge

In this weeks assignments I successfully created my own office in the Tapped-In chat room.  My office was created because I was chosen to be the group leader for this weeks discussion.  Once in my office my group members joined me and we began discussing copyright issues and the questions we had about them.  We discovered within our group that we do not understand who, what, when where and how to obtain permission to use  copyrighted material.  We also agreed that creative commons was a better way to go about copyrighting things over all rights reserved so we can put a limit on our information but still allow others to use it without so much struggle.  We had other questions but they all relate to how to obtain permission for copyrighted material.

This week I also realized that I needed to find a new mailing list in order to receive information.  I found out that the one that I had subscribed to previously did not regularly send out emails and I was not going to be getting much from them.  I did another search for what seemed like forever and finally came across an interesting one dealing with women, poverty and literacy.  I thought this was an appropriate mailing list that could give me insight on my research project.  This week also taught me that correctly citing information in the APA format can be harder than it appears.  I went about citing my information as usual and when I looked back over some things I realized that I had made several capitalization mistakes as well as using “from the (insert database of your choice here)”.

By doing my project prospectus I was doing an outline that will prepare me to answer questions about why I chose the research question, supporting questions, sources and also why I am interested in the topic that I chose. 

When reviewing digital literacy I was refreshed on what the Experiments in Digital Literacy had performed their study on and the results that came from that study.  I learned that this study concluded that younger high school and college students performed better on the photo-visual and branching literacy skills and the adult group performed better on the reproduction and information literacy skills.  Reading this article was a review but at the time of my first reading of it I had just began this class on literacy.  Now that I have had 8 weeks in this class learning about the importance of literacy skills across all things, I came out with a better understanding of the study and the importance of it.

Conditional Knowledge

The knowledge that I obtained this week has prepared me for the remainder of this class by really letting me focus in on what sources I want to use and why I chose the questions that I did.  This came mostly from doing my project prospectus.  I am now prepared to obtain information from my mailing list and can be assured that my sources are correctly cited in APA format.  Those same things apply to me as a pre-professional who will be continuing research in my field as well as a citizen who wants to obtain information for my own use.

A8.3: Response to Eshet-Alkali & Amichai-Hamburger

Ashley Pence

October 10, 2007

Eshet-Alkai, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August).  Experiments in digital literacy. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429.

When taking a second look at this article I found myself with a better understanding of the exact study that had taken place.  That just goes to show you it always makes more sense the second time around.  I credit my understanding to more experience in digital literacy as well.  When I read this article the first time I had not been exposed to all the types of digital literacy.  Now that I have had 8 weeks of class based on it, I can now understand what the article is talking about.

To quote the article, “digital literacy is envolves situtations that deal with the utilization of an ever-growing assortment of technical, cognitive, and sociological skills that are necessary in order to perform and solve problems in digital environments.” (2004)  The major digital skills include photo visual skills, reporduction skills, branching skills, information skills and socio-emotional skills.  This study clearly proves that in this digital literacy age the younger of those tested performed much better then the older ones with photo-visual and branching literacy skills.  In response to that the older ones performed better in the reproduction and information literacy skills.  Based on that information we can suspect that the reasoning behind those results are evident.  In today’s society we are filled with a storm of graphics in computer based games as well as symbols and icons that the younger one’s in the study have grown up around.  The younger group is also bombarded with multi-tasking which shows why they would be more effiecient with branching skills.  Branching skills require us to have good spatial skills, that help us avoid getting lost in the digital world while jumping from site to site at the same time.  Based on the results of the older group in the study we can see that information literacy skills fall in line with what that generation is accustomed to.  This population has grown up in an information age where everything came from figuring it out on your own and without the help of any thing other than the information given.  The same goes for reproduction literacy skills and why the older group performed better on this task.  This is the type of media that they are used to.

A8.4: Reflection on Discussion of 10/8/07

Ashley Pence

October 9, 2007

I would first like to say that I had a great time in my discussion group again!  Online classes have really opened my eyes to how informative they can be as well as useful later on by obtaining the transcript from that session.  (Once you decifer the informative from the fun)  However, without the fun it might not be as…for lack of a better word, fun!

The primary contribution that I made to this weeks discussion was to be the group leader.  I was responsible for conveying the group, ensuring that everyone was doing the correct role and posting the discussion questions within my office.  This job was not too stressful, but did make me feel important and allowed me to set the example for my other group members who will be taking a turn at being a group leader themselves.  We all contributed as a whole and were very successful at each of our jobs.

The questions that emerged from our group discussion dealt a lot with when, where and how to ask permission from the owner of information found on a particular website.  The question was answered by Mrs. McComas letting us know that many sites, graphics in particular, will let you know if it is all rights reserved or creative commons.  All rights reserved = big no, no.  You have to ask permission from the owner before you can use the graphic, otherwise you can get in big trouble with lawsuits.  She also informed us that the owner most likely will warn you to remove their material from whatever you have used it on before they take action.  The creative commons idea is that other’s can use your work under certain circumstances.  Creative commons allows the owner to set limits on their work and give specific instructions on how you can use their work, such as citing the owner and site that you obtained it from.

The things that I have learned through this discussion are that copyright laws are very intimidating and confusing.  It is imperative to double check your work and be 100% sure that you are not using someone else’s work without proper permission. 

A8.2: Project Prospectus

Ashley Pence

October 9, 2007

1.  Research Question/Foundation Questions: 

Question:  What factors are essential in the development of adult literacy?

Foundation Questions: 

1.  Does higher education (high school graduate, college graduate, masters degree) lead to adult literacy?

2.  Do things such as socioeconomic status, gender and other environmental factors play a role in adult literacy?

3.  Does the time in which the adult grew up in play a role in their literacy?

2.  Tentative Point:  What point do you plan to make (recognizing that as you complete your research this may change significantly)?

The point that I intend to get across with my project is that adult literacy is completely dependent on other factors.  There are essential steps from childhood and up that help shape the person’s literacy skills.  These include anything from SES, educational background, vocational background, gender and any other environmental factors.  I am most interested in focusing on the affect that poverty and living in an appalachian area has on a person and their literacy.

3.  Discussion:

When coming up with the questions that I did I thought about ways in which to “answer” my research question by looking at other questions to help build from.  The first question that I asked was about higher education leading to adult literacy.  I obviously knew the answer to this one.  This question will be more of a basis in which to explain the importance of higher education rather than answering it.  It’s easy to see that someone with a master’s degree when compared to someone who didn’t go past 5th grade would be different.  This however leads back to the argument of what you think literacy envelops.  If you consider intelligence as a descriptor of literacy you may get into some arguements.  Intelligence can be described as being intelligent in any area, not just book smarts. 

My second question involves the role of SES, gender and other envioronmental factors and how they affect adult literacy.  These can actually all be broken down.  The role that SES plays is major in my opinion.  From personal experience in my own high school I noticed several differences between the SES groups.  It was always typical for the higher SES to have good grades, good behavior and be involved in extracurricular activities.  This is a stereotype in some cases, but in my past experiences this has been true in nearly every case.  I feel as if i’m being judgmental, but it’s hard not to be when considering the facts.  This factor of a lower SES contributing to the things listed above appears to be a never ending cycle.  It is not the persons fault, but it is a hard cycle to get out of.  When you do live in an impoverished area, your schools will most likely not be the greatest either, which leads to poorer resources in which to educate.  Since the student does come from a background of poverty, their main goal is to get out of school and get a job to support their family.  Every bit of income is crucial and a higher education costs money and time that you could be contributing elsewhere.  

My third question deals with the time in which the person grew up in an the affect that it has on that persons literacy.  I came up with this question by thinking about my grandparents and other people in their generation.  I did a little interview tonight while thinking about this question.  I called my granny and papaw who are 73 and 77.  I asked them when they quit school, why and what they did after they quit.  It all seemed logical, they quit in 9th and 10th grade, to work and that is what they did until they retired.  They are both very happy people and always have been.  They worked hard and were very intelligent in their profession.  My granny started as a seamstress and worked her way to a supervisor before she retired.  My papaw was a highly respected sewing machine mechanic.  That was good enough for them in the time in which they grew up in.  The same goes for all other people that grew up in that time.  It wasn’t relevant to go to school and if you lived in an appalachian area like my grandparents did, there were no jobs that necessarily required a high school degree let alone a college degree.  As I was talking to my granny she made the comment, “I got by and was happy with the education I got, but I wouldn’t know how to even turn on a computer.”  This just shows the difference in the times we grow up in.  Computers were not even invented when she was in school.  Now they are almost the sole source of communication.  Another bit of information that I would like to add is about what I have witnessed at my previous job.  I worked at an Electric Co-Op and took peoples payments for their electric bills.  It seems as if every person over the age of 80 had me write out their checks for them and they would sign them either with a scribble or an X.  To end this section I would like to add a comment that my papaw said when I asked him why he quit school in the 10th grade, “I guess I thought I knew everything.”  If only he had known what was to come 50 years later.

4.  Resources:

Commons, M. L., Galaz-Fontes, J. F., & Morse, S. J. (2006). Leadership, cross-cultural contact, socio-economic status and formal operational reasoning about moral dilemmas among Mexican non-literate adults and high school students. Journal of Moral Education, 35(2), 247-267. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from the ERIC database.

Kazemek, F. E. (2004). Living a literate life. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 47(6), 448-452. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

 

Cooter, K. S. (2006). When mama can’t read: Counteracting intergenerational literacy. Reading Teacher, 59(7), 698-702. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

Wood, R. L. (1993). Our golden road to illiteracy. National Review, 45(20), 54-58. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

Puckett, A. (1992). Let the girls do the spelling and Dan will do the shooting; Literacy, the division of labor and identity in a rural appalachian community. Anthropological Quarterly, 65(3). Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

Fratt, L. (2003). Early literacy intervention. District Administration, 39(7), 16-17. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

A8.1: APA Review

Ashley Pence

October 9, 2007

When I reviewed my Library Searches I and II I caught a few errors that did not comply with correct APA formatting.  I first looked over my references and then thumbed through my APA handbook in order to double check what I had done so far.  I noticed my first mistake was with capitalization.  This was noted on page 226 in section 4.10 Title of Article or Chapter.  I knew that only the first word of the title  and any proper nouns were to be capitalized, but my mistake was in the subtitle.  I had not capitalized the first word after the colon.  I only had a few that had subtitles so this was easy to fix.

The second thing I noticed was a mistake I made on everyone of my citations.  This consisted of using “the” when giving my retrieval information.  On page 231, section 4.15, Retrieval Information: Electronic Sources instructed me that when listing the database in which you received your journal from you must put “the” before the database.  It should look like this: from the ERIC database.

By reviewing these citation errors I realized that I should not be so quick to assume that I cited my information correctly.  It is always good to double check your work especially when using APA formatting.