My Rough Ideas about Literacy

Well, as promised, for good or ill, here is the response I wrote to the given prompt.  Note that I don't think is complete...just a few thoughts for discussion.  Thanks also to the three of you who responded.  Please feel free to put in your two cents.  And if you don't agree, don't worry; I won't rip your limbs off or boil you in your own juices or even un-friend you on Facebook.  I'm just looking for a conversation.  Also note that this was originally written about eight or ten days ago.

What is literacy? What are all of the sub-components of literacy? What is reading? What is writing? How would you characterize or recognize a ‘literate’ person? Please describe a ‘literate’ person that you know.

As a language arts teacher, I didn’t want to botch this since traditionally people think about reading and writing when it comes to literacy.  I’ve honestly been percolating this post for a few days, and I guess I just have to spit it out now.

Literacy, in my humble opinion goes beyond simple readin’ and writin’ at an eighth grade level.  It’s more than just getting through high school written exams, or even doing all the assigned reading in college.  Literacy is about making meaning.  When you read, you take in somebody else’s ideas, add them to your own schema, and create new understanding.  Writing takes your own ideas and communicates them (in some form of media) through careful crafting (at least we hope it’s done well) so that someone else can connect and create understanding in line with our intended message.

However, literacy and being literate goes beyond traditionalist definitions of these concepts.  Literacy also implies being able to navigate a certain set of parameters specific to a given context regardless of the medium in which it is performed.   For example, it seems that more and more in order to survive in this world, you have to be computer (or Internet) literate.  You have to be able to use the system as it was designed with all of its terminologies, etiquettes, and protocols.  Survival requires constant learning and adapting to new developments in this field.  More information is disseminated from online platforms now.  Since I’ve started my graduate work at USU in 2006, I’ve learned three different systems—the first one I don’t remember what it was called, then Blackboard, and now Canvas.  My dad, who is an extremely literate person in certain areas, has come to me and my sister to learn social platforms and video sharing sites because his boss wants his employees to be able to connect to the younger generation.  What does he do?  Plan the logistics of bus and train routes.

With the push for more literacy in various fields, a literate person is more than your typical well-read book nerd or Trivial Pursuit champion.  A person who is well-rounded and can make and interpret multiple modes of communication in multiple settings would be a literate person.  In a real-time example, you need to have someone who has experience with classical and modern literature, politics, art, pop culture, sports, and just about anything else.  A literate person is not only book smart but has practical knowledge.  As I am literate in YA literature, baseball, and grilling steaks, I still need to contact someone who is Hyundai literate when my car acts up.

In a more focused setting, such as my classroom, I focus on literacy through reading and writing; however, I still use multi-modality in my teaching.  Graphic novels, photo essays, online discussions, and other forms of new literacies are starting to come alive.  As fast as I can learn them, I like to incorporate different genres and media with my students so those who may not be strong or comfortable using one form of literacy may be able to create (or understand) in another form of literacy.  I’ve read some of Thomas Newkirk, Ralph Fletcher, and others’ works that emphasize needing to head this direction, especially with boys and nontraditional learners; but I’d like to learn more about this.  I’ve heard of the New London Group and their push for incorporating multiple literacies in learning, but I still have yet to dig in.

And herein lies my problem with multiple literacies.  There are more literacies than can be learned by any one person any more.  In order for me to stay afloat in what I do, I have become a Joe-of-all-trades, Master-of-None so I can keep my fingers in all the pots.   And keeping with my mixed metaphors, there are just too many pots, and I haven’t learned how to grow new fingers yet.

I could probably discuss literacy for days, or at least hours without coming up for air, but I digress.  In summary, literacy is not a simple matter.  It’s a good thing we have a whole semester to discuss it.