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I agree with Resnick’s statement that school isn’t the only source of  literary competence. When I think of a literacy history I imagine something that starts with children when they are very young and begin to have bedtime stories read to them. As children grow up their parents stop having to read to them because the children are learning to read themselves. From my own experiences school doesn’t necessarily make you read even more. Most times children and everyone else would rather read something that they find interesting and entertaining rather than read an assignment from school.

I think that Resnick makes a very good point. Some of the examples she uses are very familiar to me. For example, the part where she is explaining the reasons why school readings often take away pleasures of the readings.

Apprenticeship to me is an opportunity for a learning experience with the guidance of someone else. In today’s society there are many forms of apprenticeship. One form that I see quite frequently is tutoring. A tutor and their student work on a specific topic in order to increase the students knowledge of that particular subject. Both the tutor and student get rewards from this experience.

The passage from Resnick’s essay as I interpret it means that rather than literacy just be something seen as learning and working on skills we should change it into something that goes along with the culture and our society. I agree with this, because if literacty is just another part of society than people will be more likely to pick it up and work with it rather than if is forced upon them in schools. For the kids and adults who have trouble with literacy in schools they might not feel intelligent enough to keep working on their skills but if they were able to be part of an apprenticeship then they might be able to, and be more willing to, pick up on their literacy skills. As a way to get apprenticeships in the schools we could have something like a big brother/big sister reading program in which an older kid would read to or listen to and help a younger child read.

Two examples of useful literacy that Resnick gives us are job applications and instruction manuals that we have to read. I can’t reallly seem to come up with three other examples that she doesn’t use in her essay. This just goes to show that I agree with her stating that things like these belong in the useful literacy category. If we didn’t have things like these to give us instructions on then we would be in trouble because something as simple as putting a baby’s crib or playing  a game wouldn’t be as easy for us, let alone filling out a sheet with a bunch of blank spots in it.

Resnick’s examples for informational reading are “how-to” texts and newspapers and magazines. She says that these are used to keep a person updated with what is going on in the world, and just keep them informed. Some other examples of informational literacy are textbooks, which are used everyday in schools for the purpose of teaching children something, and something as simple as the bible which is used in order to inform people of different religions how they are supposed to live their lives in order to spend eternity in heaven. I would say that I agree with Resnick on her view of what informational reading is. What i get out of these different examples is overall a learning experience with different types of information.

Pleasurable literacy is a completey different topic in its own, but not really at the same time. Pleasurable literacy can be reading or writing anything, it all depends on the reader. Resnick uses examples like a narrative or an expository essay. The expository essay could also go into a different category of literacy, but if the reader enjoys reading it then it also belongs under the category of pleasurable reading. I definitely stand by what Resnick is saying about the definition of pleasurable literacy because it truly is about what the reader thinks is enjoyable.

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