City Literacies: Learning to Read Across Generations and Cultures

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Product Description

City Literacies explores the lives and literacies of different generations of people living in two contrasting areas of London at the end of the 20th century: Spitalfields and the City. This contrast outwardly symbolizes the huge difference between poverty and wealth existing in Britain at this time. The book presents a study of living, learning and reading as it has taken place in public settings, including the school classroom, clubs, places of worship, theatres, and in the home. Over fifty people recount their memories of learning to read in different contexts and circumstances.

City Literacies: Learning to Read Across Generations and Cultures Review

Eva Gregory and Ann Williams takes every reader on a historical adventure through the lives of fifty people across generations showing the differences in the way each generation learned. The book was divided into three parts; part 1 Living and learning east of the Aldgate pump, part 2 Childhood memories of literacy and learning, and then part 3 Looking ahead: young literacies, lives and learning. The people interview were separated into three groups as well; pre-war, post-war, and present day.
The main question brought up in by the authors of this book deals with the effects of class, race and time in history on the education of children in Spitalfields, area in London. The questions are answered by the interviews they performed on three sets generations. This book deals with all areas of education not just the structured classroom but also at home, church, clubs, religious class, language classes, and any independent reading activities anything from books to comics. Majority of the people interview were from bilingual households. The second question addressed in this book dealt with how parent involvement affected the literacy levels of students.
In writing this book the authors spent a great deal of time describing the area in which they studied and the established ethnic groups that live there. For readers who are not from England this was excellent and quite necessary. I could imagine for people from England the amount of time they spent describing the area and the people could be rather boring.
When writing this book the number one assumption the writers made, as stated above was that the readers of this book did not know anything about the area or people in which they were writing about. Eve Gregory and Ann Williams also spent a great deal of each section explaining what the interviewees said. At times it did seem a little redundant but overall the reader walks away with a clear understanding of the experiences of each person interviewed.
After reading this book three things became very apparent to me. First I noticed with time the involvement of the parents became increasingly a part of the child's education. A great example of this is with Nina and her two sons Wasak and Wasif. Nina's parents hardly new English so their interactions with her and her learning were limited. Nina on the other had is very active with her sons and their learning where she will go as far as to type up comprehension sheets for the books her children read. The second observation I made was after the first group interviewed money was not a factor in their lives as far as how much schooling available to them. The final observation was product of the first two observations, that is the level of education kept increasing, it became easier to attend a university.
The authors did a thorough job showing a community evolving into a more literate community. This book was very well written and the language easy to understand, you won`t be needing your dictionary here! Throughout the book there are diagrams, graphs, tables and pictures of the people they interviewed. In reading this book not only do you understand better the development of literacy in Spitalfields, but you can transfer that do any area in the United States and fine common ground. This book is excellent for any parent and educator. As a whole this book is very helpful in showing all the pieces in learned literacy and the importance of each pieces. This book is should be read by many!

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