Literacy: What is it?

I would define literacy as the all-inclusive performance and understanding of language. Literacy does not only apply to reading and writing, although this is how literacy has often been presented to us. However, literacy encompasses so much more. There is the oral part of literacy, that is being able to hear the sounds of language and understand them. Speaking is also an aspect of oral literacy. I think in the past literacy has been seen as specific to reading and writing because the complexity of the two actions were not considered. To be able to read and write requires a person to hear the language in their head. They have to recognize letters of the alphabet and how those letters sound when they are put in different combinations. Reading and writing includes oral language, however sometimes the oral aspect is hidden.

My definition hasn't changed much from how I originally viewed literacy. The readings and our class discussions outlined the idea that there is more to literacy than many give credit. In class, each of our groups pointed out that literacy included all aspects of language and this is something I have thought for a couple years. It was my instruction in TESOL that lead me to this understanding of literacy because we focused so much on how students learn and use a language. However, one thing that I can say is that through our exploration on the subject of literacy I have come to realize the importance of the oral aspects to native English speakers. Before I overlooked this aspect and thought it important to only ELL students but now I see that it is important for any student learning how to read and write.

In a perfect world students would have hundreds of books at all different reading levels to help them improve their reading skills. They would also writing booklets and journals to keep tract of their writings, even if it is a couple sentences. I would like my students to have an opportunity to communicate about literacy with their peers. It shouldn't be just teachers and students interacting but students should be interacting with each other. In my class I would hope that you would see groups of students engaging in book talks, writing stories and sharing with each other, using computers to make writing drafts more professional. Book talks are important because each student reads in different ways. There is not one way to read a book and I think it is important for students to realize this. Also, an important part of literacy is to be able to articulate ideas to other people. This is why it is important for students to share their work with peers because they need to be able to write so that others can comprehend the ideas they want to share. It is also important for students to have the opportunity to type their written work so that they can feel their writing contributions are important. Especially in the technology age that we are in, students need to be literate with computers because of the huge role technology will play in their future education experiences.