James Paul Gee’s Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction expands on the ideas introduced in Elizabeth Wardle’s You Can’t Teach Writing in General. The basic premise of Gee’s excerpt is to know the audience with whom you are communicating. However, Gee expands this concept toward certain things such as language, behavior, and values; referring to them under the umbrella term “Discourses”. Discourses are something that I have been acutely aware of despite not knowing the term for them. Gee’s concepts are present when comparing how I interact with my family (more reserved and respectful) and the way I might interact with a group of friends (gung ho and clownish).
The concept of discourse is further explored within Cervetti, Damico, and Pearson’s Multiple Literacies, New Literacies, and Teacher Education. As the title implies the focus of the article is centered on the way Discourses can and should interact within the setting of teacher education. However, I will admit that the structure of this article made reading through it a torturous ordeal. The words “media literacy” or even just “literacy”, although relevant, are used so frequently in between each other with little room for a break, that I found myself nursing a headache. Although despite the repetitive language the article does a good job of expressing how students can involve themselves in literacies through music and other activities they indulge in outside of education. And stresses the importance of molding the future educators of America in understanding and implementing these literacies in their classrooms.
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