Fabian is entering the world of book reading

Last week, Fabian figured out how to climb on to our armchair. Since then, it has become one of his favourite places. He does two things in the armchair: read a book (as in the photos) or jumb up and down. When he wants to read a book, the first thing he does is put the book on the seat. Then he follows. Because it's quite an effort for him to get up the chair, he usually lands with his bottom right on the book. Which then means he has to drag it out from underneath his bum. Another big effort! Once he's managed to do all this, he's happy to read for a while and recover from the exercise. Not for too long though, and he's up on his feet again, turning his reading place into a bouncy chair.

What surprises me most in all this is that Fabian has chosen the chair for his reading. We never sit in it, we always sit on the floor when reading and so far, Fabian has always modelled us. But he clearly isn't too impressed by our carpet reading and he's probably wondering why on earth his parents put two lovely armchairs in their room when they never use them!

Uta

reading a bag

At an event promoting Fair Trade I was delighted to be given my goodies in this bag. It's made out of recycled Indian newspapers. The website tells me they are made by former street children. All the newspapers are collected by one man calling at homes asking for newspapers, sometimes therefore the bags feature completed crosswords!

The employment ads on the other side give me the impression Delhi is booming not least in call centres. One says that 'average English' is required.

Julia

Paradigmatic borderlands

DB writes: I had a very interesting time in Norway at the University of Stavanger, where they have developed a postgraduate programme in Literacy Studies. They are using the framework of literacy as a social practice to bring together diverse traditions including medieval dialectology, media studies, early childhood education, expertise research, second language literacy, national writing tests, music in people’s lives and much more. I was struck by how someone working on pre-colonial writing in Madagascar had a common language for talking to someone working on medieval medical prose. They said they are working in the paradigmatic borderlands and I liked the claim that ‘Literacy Studies is one of the few examples of interdisciplinary studies which really works’.

Literacy Log 2 PULP LOG

Pulp log (thanks to Lyn Tett for this one)

Literacy Log 1 YOU ARE ASLEEP

from Luccombe Chine on the Isle of Wight

Mattrealities part 3 final

I'm glad someone else enjoyed the use of paper in the Infolab. So here is a final photo - it was kindly sent to me by Henrik Enquist of Lund University as his Canon was up to capturing this image whereas my phone wasn't.

I am most intrigued as to why in this ultra high tech environment somebody took the time to draw out such a large grid by hand with numbers in it. It reminded me of games that my family used to make during a wet holiday (I'm thinking both of my own children when younger and my siblings with self indeed).

Julia

Yesterday at Quernmore School a huge wind turbine was installed - very exciting for all children, and is the first in Lancashire and possibly the country ... This morning Fabian (age 9) pulled out of his pocket a crumpled piece of paper - "I got the builder's autograph!" Does this use of the established literacy practice of collecting autographs indicate that wind turbine erectors have entered the category of celebrities in the minds of our children? And if so, does this mean that saving the planet really is a priority for them? (or is it just that it's dead exciting to see a massive windmill being erected on your playing field?)
Candice

Passive-aggressive literacy practices

Don't know if others spotted a small selection of entertaining literacy pics in the Guardian yesterday - online version of the article here. Sadly the online version lacks the photos but the original blog to which it refers, a collection of photographs of 'passive-aggressive notes', could provide inspiration for the next set of LRC postcards....


Karin

Matterealities part 2

I went on a fieldtrip to the Infolab. I loved all the bits and bobs around.

Julia

Literacy bog

You may not be able to read this, but it is headed 'Notice to builders'. Strange place to put it you might think ... This is from the LRC away day in Grizedale Forest where there were also many logs containing literacy .
Candice

Diary of Fabian's explorations of the world

Friends keep on telling me that I ought to keep a diary of Fabian's explorations of the world. But I've decided to instead bore anybody who reads this blogs with some of the things he's up to these days. Of course, I'll only describe literacy-related developments. I said 'bore' because in a discussion with a group of undergraduate students yesterday, they showed very little enthusiasm for blogs. Not interesting, they said, and people can write anything they want on their blogs, so why shouldn't anybody get excited about this? Interesting comments, I thought. But not good for my seminar (the discussion was part of a seminar), because my question about blogs did not get much of a reaction. Making me, as always in these situations, feeling stupid. But back to Fabian! I've been trying since quite a while to get him interested in books. Usually, he likes them, but not for reading. For him they are for playing. He does, however, have a wonderful habit of copying me and Kay when we sit in the living room with him reading the Guardian. When he sees us, he picks up a book, opens it and holds it high, as if he was reading.

When I try to read a book with him, we always sit in the same corner of the room. This is also the corner I sit in when I read on my own, while he is playing. A few days ago, I sat in a different spot and I wasn't reading. Fabian picked upone of his picture books and he went over to the corner I usually sit in. He sat down on the pillows I normally use. I thought he would now start to 'read' his book. But instead he looked at me, held the book out towards me and invited me to come over and sit with him. Which I promptly did!

Uta

Matterealities part 1

On Monday I went to Karen Barad's lecture at the matterealities conference. She discussed Niels Bohr's realisation in quantum physics that the behaviour of electrons depends upon the way they are measured. The very act of perception disrupts notions of cause and effect.

I need now to read Karen's book to understand why adding 'delayed cause' then completely disrupts linear notions of past present and future. Stingrays evidence this by altering their behaviour in anticipation of a message that has not yet been sent. (A promise to this blog: if no comment clarifies this I will come back to it when I've read the book.) Meanwhile, here's Brian Hackett's photo of a stingray from his fabulous underwater photography collection.

I find Karen Barad's philosophy a profound underpinning of ethnography, locating the global in the local and the local in the global. She argues that the very act of perception is profoundly ethical.

Julia