Post 9

According to Shirley Brice Heath in her essay “Protean Shapes in Literary Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions,” a literacy event is “a conceptual tool useful in examining within particular communities of modern society the actual forms and functions of oral and literate traditions and co-existing relationships between spoken and written language.” She adds that it is “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes.”

In Trackton, the value of oral and written communications was shown by way of literacy events at church, work and in the community. Literacy events are extremely important to younger children in order to develop an understanding of communication and its function. Heath discusses several examples in Trackton including advertising, voter registration forms and putting toys together.

Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” describes his literacy event in learning how to read by flipping through Superman comics. Another significant literacy event in Alexie’s narrative is the use of powwow songs sang in his Indian culture. These events helped in shaping Alexie’s knowledge and understanding of his community and society as a whole.

Alexie’s literacy event of using comics to learn how to read reminded me of my great aunt’s use of baseball on the radio to learn English. My Aunt Rose was an immigrant from Oritino, Italy who came to the United States without any grasp of the English language. Upon her arrival, she was able to learn the language by listening to broadcasts of Cleveland Indians games. These two literacy events are amazing examples of how pop culture influenced the development of communication skills.