Ferguson 1

Sabrina Ferguson
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
12 December 2014
The Literacy Theory: A System for Self Reflection
Literacy Practices, a chapter from the book Situated Literacies by David Barton and
Mary Hamilton discusses their social theory of literacy. Their theory is comprised of six literacy
practices; these are described in detail to offer a better understanding of the theory. These
literacy practices are important statements about an individual and the things that make them
who they are. They also include soft hints and suggestions to make the reader aware that
understanding their theory can better their skills of communicating. In whole, they discuss the
import factors that make a person unique and individual. Barton and Hamilton use their social
literacy theory to help a reader gain a better understanding of themselves and their own literacy
discourse.
Barton and Hamilton use their six practices of literacy to convey upon the reader their
theory about literacy. They discuss how each of these six literaices influence a person, their
writing and their communication. As they go into detail about each one individually, they explain
how each one is found, used, and influence a persons communication skills. A persons
practices can also be located in their own history of literacy. (Barton and Hamilton, 13) This
adds to the profile created with the six practices to give an overall view of a persons own
literacy and discourse. In their closing paragraph, they talk about how essential it is to
understand the literacies and how they apply to you as an individual. They offer a way to not
only better yourself, but also the other people in your life. With their theory you can watch as

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literacy practices change and evolve throughout a persons life. It becomes clear that profiling a
person with these literacy practices is what makes up Barton and Hamiltons social literacy
theory.
According to Barton and Hamilton, once the reader understands the theory in full, they
can apply it to their own lives giving them a better understanding of their actions. Expanding on
this, it also allows the reader to better understand their writing and other communication skills
and where they come from. They offer this advice along with several other subtle hints for the
reader. Once on begins to think in terms of literacy events there are certain things about the
nature of reading and writing which become apparent. (Barton and Hamilton, 9) In this sentence
they offer a small bit of advice that could easily be over looked, but beneficial if applied. The
paper as a whole focuses mostly on understanding their theory and the reason behind each
separate practice. They offer a unique way to learn more about yourself as a both a person and a
communicator.
Barton and Hamilton use this chapter to create a gateway for the reader to reflect upon
themselves. They express interest in the theory of learning and how education influences
personal literacies. Using this interest they have created a very interesting theory about people
and literacy. It offers up a way to stop and reflect upon others and better understand and
communicate with others. They use a very modern approach making the content easier for the
reader to relate to. The reliability makes it easier to read and is less dense when critically read.
All the points discussed in this chapter are found in every persons life and comprise and
interesting picture about the literacy practices used by every one of us.

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Works Cited
Barton, David, Mary Hamilton, and Roz Ivanic, eds. Situated Learning: Reading and Writing in
Context. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print. Literacies.