Lab 030: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

 
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About this episode

This episode came to life as we followed conversation building up on our timelines over the past few months. People are photographing themselves buying stamps, sending packages, and one of our favorites - mailing letters. We started to think more about it - the handwritten letter just feels so elevated. It conveys importance, formality, intentionality. It’s a lot different when you receive a text message compared to a postcard or letter, and we started asking ourselves why.

THE United States Postal Service

More background on the United States Postal Service’s latest woes:

Post Office Appreciation

  • Do you remember PostSecret? It’s a website where people can send anonymous postcards or letters. They’re shared with the world, but no one knows who you are.

  • Did you know people in rural areas used to have to travel to the post office to get mail? Read about the invention of Rural Free Delivery and its permanence in the early 1900s.

  • Are you looking for a pen pal? Start with these services, but remember - safety first!

Written Language

We started by asking Dr. Wiley where letters come from. Once he told us the connection between the letter A and alep, the word for ox, we couldn’t unsee it. Learn more about why letters look the way they do.

Learn more about the alphabetic principle

Reading involves multiple systems - We mentioned ortholographic and phonological in the lab, but there are others

The FUisform GyrUS x 2

Learn more about the anatomy, function, and interesting history of the fusiform gyrus

A region of the left fusiform gyrus is involved in letter recognition

Words and faces and the fusiform gyrus

Literacy as Freedom

Fun References

  • Beanie Babies - Apparently there are some of the stuffed toys that are still of value!

  • Complaining Clothes from Issa Rae - When fans of Insecure suggested Issa Rae film the next season of the show on Zoom because of COVID-19, she said absolutely not, because they would just complain, in their complaining clothes, like they always do! The tweet has been deleted, so you had to be there!

  • Did you know there’s a national K-8 handwriting competition? Pass it along if you know a kid who should enter!

Guest Expert

Our guest expert on written language is Dr. Bob Wiley. He is the Director of the Cognitive and Neural Science of Learning Lab at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His work focuses on improving learning outcomes in the area of written language.

Transcript for lab 030