#literacy crisis

[darlingofdots]

It seems that a lot of people genuinely do not have an awareness of prose/writing style as a feature by itself and only know how to engage with a text on a content level, so let's talk about it! I personally care about prose and composition so much that it's probably my number 1 reason for not reading any given book, so realising that lots of folks don't actually pay attention to it was a bit of a revelation for me.

Let's look at this sentence: Red blood fell on the snow. I think we can all agree that that's a pretty shit sentence. It describes what happens, but it's so boring! But I can replace two words and make it way more interesting: Crimson blood spattered on the snow. Content-wise, nothing has changed, but the effect is different because I've used more expressive and evocative words to describe the same thing. One factor here is that "red" is a very commonplace word that we don't think about that much, but "crimson" is not only much more unusual but also (at least to me) sounds somehow more red because I usually encounter it when it's used to specifically describe something really, strikingly red. Likewise, "spattered" is not only much more specific than "fell" because it includes both "many drops of liquid" and "messy" but also has an almost onomatopoeic quality when you say it out loud. And I could have used "dripped" instead and given you a completely different image!

Even before we get into aspects like rhythm, seemingly simple word choice has a huge impact on how we read and experience any given text. Of course we process the content of a story, the what, but don't discount how important the how is! In narratology, the study of narratives, we call this the discourse level, the way that a story is transmitted. The discourse level also includes things like the narrative mode and the temporal structure, but even if we're just thinking about word choice, we can also expand these concepts to different kinds of texts like new stories and social media posts. Why are journalists or influencers or trolls using these specific words? What message are they trying to impart? Are they saying "died" when they really mean "was murdered"? Are they using buzzwords to catch your interest? Are they avoiding certain words so they can't be sued for false advertising? This, too, is literacy!

[goodgrammaritan]

There was an episode of Arthur where Buster was struggling to do a book report and finish any books, so they gave him a 10-page children's book and he got so bored he couldn't even finish that, but then he found Robin Hood and loved it. He didn't need anything dumbed down, he just needed something that interested him. So way to go Arthur.

Ok, real quick, speaking as a librarian, you absolutely cannot despair about the adult literacy crisis and shame adults for reading fiction books you do not personally care for or think are "challenging" at the same time. It doesn't work with kids, and it doesn't work with adults.

Here's how to increase someone's reading level:

1) Let them read whatever they choose without shame or judgment. Maybe get them talking about it using open-ended, non-leading questions to encourage critical thinking and comprehension.

2) Let them get bored after a while and seek out different books.

3) Repeat.

[visenyaism]

do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

what did I miss.

[hawnks]

If you have not read a book yet this year you still have 26 days left to help bring up the average

[soggy-fishsticks]

there's a lot of reasons why I don't like sefikura as a genuine ship (have mercy on me) but why does every sefikura fanart/fic read like this:

[yelenasbraid]

i need to delete tiktok for a few days this is ridiculous

and i am NOT putting this in the tag because we’re going to CLEANSE that hoe

but still these theories are getting out of hand

[mari-monsta]

I just saw someone in a comment section call seasons 4 and 5 "boring" when thats when the show actually got a linear plot and things became more complicated... it was among a bunch of comments from people saying they didn't understand representation... I really do be wondering about peoples media literacy for real

[nonconstories]

Someone pissed me off a couple of days ago

So! Below are several links to programs and foundations that promote adult literacy! Hundreds of millions of adults world wide were failed by their education system and now must fend for themselves while trying to read contracts and hospital bills and infographics from the CDC. But they don't have to be alone, and it is never too late to learn!

ProLiteracy: A network of educators, researchers, and advocates which provides research reports, learning materials, and other support to adult education programs. They assist with connecting volunteers to local programs and provide guidance and support to community leaders trying to use their programs' findings to advocate for social and political change.

Adult Literacy League: An adult education program in Central Florida, which aims to provide students with one on one attention to foster growth and confidence. It also offers English Second Language courses and job skills training, and each new student receives a comprehensive assessment to determine the best plan for them.

Saint Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center's Foundational Skills Program: A 100% free adult education program aimed at adults reading below a fifth grade level. It operates year round and is either in person or remote, and they now have a GED testing center that is open to students and the public alike.

Washtenaw Literacy: A free network of trained tutors for adults in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

Adult Learning Program (Las Vegas/Clark County): Free education classes to those lacking a high school diploma, those seeking to learn ESL, and adults who read below an eighth grade level. Also assists in students' search for gainful employment. Nevada got so fucked by COVID and the education/literacy numbers in the South West are grim. Please help these guys.

Hawaii Literacy: In addition to helping adult residents of Hawaii Island learn to read and write AND bridging the education gap in Hawaii's underserved children, they offer computer literacy classes, ESL classes, and a bookmobile. 1 in 6 Hawaiian adults struggle to read and write.

[lavenderleahy]

hey I wrote a blog post about this

learning that apparently several hundred people have been pronouncing 'miette' as 'mighty' has actively worsened my day

[alpaca-clouds]

Is There Actually A Media Literacy Crisis?

Something I am thinking about a lot is that supposed "media literacy crisis" that people talk about a lot online. Some people say it is real, some people say it isn't.

Of course I am in the strange condition of not being American and this discussion focusing mostly on America. Talking to some of my bald eagle loving friends, I know that most Americans get way less media analysis taught in schools than us Germans. Like, I kid you not: All I did in German and English and history class between 7th and 13th grade was analyse texts and pictures. NOTHING ELSE. And how that was very dependent on the teacher in terms of how much media literacy I actually learned would be a topic for another day. But I know that a lot of my US friends did some analysis, yes, but comparatively little.

I will openly say one thing: Despite being pushed through so much literary analysis in school, I probably learned more about media analysis thanks to the internet than I ever learned in school. Because while we did it a lot. Well, it was basically the quality of content that the Japanese schools have when it comes to learning English. Do they start in primary school? Yes. Do they then absolutely fail on building on the vocabulary and all? Absolutely.

In history class we did a lot of analysis of historical propaganda. But do you think we ever spoke about framing? Just as a very accute example.

I would however not quite argue that we have a media literacy crisis really. More... Well, I would say we have four other problems that are seperate from one another - but that will contribute to it appearing as if people are media illeterate.

People do generally not think about or inform themselves how the media they consume is created. They are not really aware of what goes into the production of a piece of media, that has more complex behind-the-scenes scenarios than a book. Movies, TV shows and games are the most notable example here. As such, folks are often not quite able to see how the influence of several different people working on a project can be felt - let alone be able to analyse how that might have influenced the end product.

A lot of the most widely marketed media is very much created by coorporations to extract money. While some of the people involved might have had something to say, the studio producing it just wanted to make something that they can sell, which often results in some watering down of more complex themes. Through this people have kinda forgotten to even expect themes in their media. (Yes, this is very much about the MCU and most of AAA gaming.)

Because half of the discussion of any piece of media now takes place in the arena of the culture war, people often just reduce themes - if they are there - to very superficial culture war readings. And this happens on both sides of the isle. While the on the right we have idiots going "they hate white men", because a movie does not have a white male protagonist, the other side will go "this is sexist" because in a show of mostly female characters, a female character died.

People just do not have the time currently to actually sit with a piece of media and everyone in the industry knows it. A lot of media is created to be "second screen content", aka, something that you watch on your TV while you are in home office and working on that stupid powerpoint. And of course you cannot really interact with that media the same, you would, if you watched it on a first screen basis, right?

And of course, then there is the fandom side of things. Because yes, the entire proshipping and antishipping thing is also very much a media literacy problem, that mostly originates with, well... How should I say?

It originates with the same stuff like the rightwing leftwing culture war: From people not touch grass. From people not being aware that the folks that scream so loud online are actually a minority. And most people who will ever engage with a given piece of media will just never write something on tumblr, reddit or twitter about this piece of media. They will just consume it... and move on.

[educatinggenocide]

In Sudan, It Is a War on Women

by Reem Abbas on WILPF

"Formally, estimates from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project put civilian deaths at over 10,400 people and this is a modest figure due to inaccessibility. Moreover, over 5 million have been displaced with the majority of them being women and children and over one million fled to neighbouring countries. UNICEF estimated that at least 435 children including girls have been killed in the war with scarce information on rising infant mortality as well as maternal mortality. "

Essay excerpts from, “War on Women in Sudan: Sharing Experiences of Displacement, Violence and Personal Struggles” from The African Middle Eastern Leadership Project

[visenyaism]

3 episodes into arcane s2 and i gotta say. We have GOT to do something about this soundtrack

[luckybyler]

OH MY GOD YES.

It’s great that you guys read YA literature as adults, I do too. Children’s books too, for that matter. What’s not acceptable is reading ONLY YA literature as an adult.

“But mah ADHD/TikTok brain” - there is adult literature for TikTok brains. It’s called short stories. Most, if not all, biggest authors (classic and modern) have a collection of short stories that you can start with. Hemingway, Allan Poe, García Márquez, Borges, Wilde, etc. all of them have bite-sized stories so you can try before you buy. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is actually a novella (shorter than a novel). Jules Verne, Agatha Christie, literally every book your favourite adult tv shows or movies are based on, etc.

You don’t have to read War and Peace right away. But if you’re old enough to be on Tumblr, you’re old enough that you should start reading more grown-up stuff alongside your YA literature.

turning up to your first day of english lit class at uni and saying your favourite book is percy jackson is the same thing as turning up to your first day of high school and saying your favourite book is the very hungry caterpillar. by the way

[letyukisayfuck]

in semi-related news i watched a haruhi video the other day and the guy making it was like, "in both the anime and the light novels, haruhi has feelings for kyon, but it's unclear if kyon reciprocates"

so, how do you tell if one character likes another character?

well, if they jump out a window for them with zero thoughts or hesitation, or if they watch them when they think they're not looking, or repeatedly compare them to celestial bodies, those are all good signs. but you really can't tell.

[zenobiaseptimia]

"i like your name what is it Zynbob?" No ❤️

[hislittleraincloud]

You're talking about 2 different things. It's not the same as the "based on episodes written by" preface. The writers have been added as authors of the book on amazon. They're credited as "The Wednesday TV Show Writers" and are now co-authors of the novelization there.

You must be a child to have this level of comprehension.

I believe @psychic-refugee won't mind if I steal those screencaps:

This is what it's always looked like. They haven't "been added", it's always looked like that. I've had the digital copy since early the fuck on (I bought it by accident, remember) and this is what it looks like in digital format:

The episodes were written by the official writing team. This POS novelization was written based on the episodes.

You will have to look up what "based on" means to understand its twice application on the back cover because I can't hold your fucking hand for everything.

MILLAR, GOUGH, AND THE REST ARE NOT AUTHORS, CO- OR OTHERWISE, OF THIS BOOK, nor does having their credits on the book as they are printed above make them "co-authors of the book". That's not how it fucking works.

If you're talking about this:

then it STILL doesn't mean that they co-wrote the book. It's there because the bulk of the material covered in the YA adaptation is their property, not Mejia's. Like how "The Wednesday TV Show Writers" are also listed on the kid's book underneath it:

How else can we fucking help you understand that Hollywood scriptwriters as busy as the Wednesday writing troupe are going to have nothing to do with the creation this Young Adult novelization? Are you really that desperate to legitimize that stinking pile of anti-canon JUST because it gave you your perceptible Wenclair moments? You really don't give a flying fuck about Jenna Ortega and her work. You don't love her Wednesday, you love your fantasy!Jenna in whatever role you stick onto her at the moment. Just be honest and admit that you don't respect her work just like Mejia doesn't, I'm tired of arguing with you kids.

Gawd damn. I'm just thinking back to when Ortega caught all that flack for saying that she changed lines and was bordering on unprofessional. She changed Alpert's lines because she didn't think that's what Wednesday would say, and I believe it was Gough who said on the other podcast I recently posted that the main actor (in those situations) becomes sort of a writer themselves; Ortega owns the character just as much.

And what does Mejia do? Does to her performance exactly what she would not want to have had done, i.e. changed lines — wholesale — to the daft cuntery that Wednesday would never fucking say or do.

Tagging appropriately because Wenclair come get your child.