If this website is focused on a literacy plan for high school students, it is probably helpful for those visiting to know what my personal definition of literacy is. In order to define my evolution of understanding in this area, it is necessary for me to make a somewhat embarrassing admission. When I began my "Literacy in Early Adolescence/Adolescence" course, I still defined literacy as the basic mechanics of being able to read various written genres. Although I had a sense that literacy could differ from textbooks to newspapers to websites, I still defined that literacy as the mechanics of reading the word on the page. To be honest, I was expecting the course to be a survey of various texts, primary and secondary source documents that were appropriate for use in the middle and high school settings. This misunderstanding may have been lack of information on my part or lack of true open-mindedness about what literacy could be. Within the first class session, and certainly as the class progressed, my definition of literacy quickly changed. I became much more excited about the topic of literacy as I continued to learn more!
In one of our first class sessions, we were presented with the following representation of the modes of communication that make up literacy:
In one of our first class sessions, we were presented with the following representation of the modes of communication that make up literacy:
Input Communication Reading Listening Viewing | Output Communication Writing Speaking Representing |
This representation is simple, but carries a great deal of significance for how I have now come to define literacy. I have come to see literacy as a "give and take" skill that students must learn and practice just like any other skill. If students can take information in, but not reproduce that information in return, there is not true literacy. For example, a student who can read a primary source document such as the Constitution, but cannot articulate a paraphrased version of that document may not be truly literate in their understanding of that document. It is our responsibility as teachers to hold them true to that relationship between input and output modes of communication. Our classroom lesson designs must require that they complete all three modes in both the input and output columns.
The understanding of this reciprocal relationship has changed how I consider integration of literacy into my own discipline - social studies. By nature, the content is very heavy on reading texts and listening to teacher lecture. For me personally, this is what is appealing about the subject. However, as a teacher, I must reflect on what is necessary for my students and their learning. My own definition of literacy now involves the creation of an ongoing "conversation" between my students and their material. I will no longer design lessons that include simply input of material without true output along the way. This output cannot be in the form of tests; it must be more meaningful in a communication sense.
My definition of literacy has evolved rapidly in a short period of time. It has gone from viewing literacy as a mechanistic action to viewing literacy as an ongoing relationship between the consumer and text in many forms. I must find the forms of that relationship that will resonate with my students given their cultural experiences and life circumstances. Although I can still use "traditional" texts and documents, I must make sure to create learning experiences for students that help them turn the input into an output mode of communication that has value and meaning for them. Only this will help them to retain the ideas and concepts that I am hoping to teach them in my discipline.
The understanding of this reciprocal relationship has changed how I consider integration of literacy into my own discipline - social studies. By nature, the content is very heavy on reading texts and listening to teacher lecture. For me personally, this is what is appealing about the subject. However, as a teacher, I must reflect on what is necessary for my students and their learning. My own definition of literacy now involves the creation of an ongoing "conversation" between my students and their material. I will no longer design lessons that include simply input of material without true output along the way. This output cannot be in the form of tests; it must be more meaningful in a communication sense.
My definition of literacy has evolved rapidly in a short period of time. It has gone from viewing literacy as a mechanistic action to viewing literacy as an ongoing relationship between the consumer and text in many forms. I must find the forms of that relationship that will resonate with my students given their cultural experiences and life circumstances. Although I can still use "traditional" texts and documents, I must make sure to create learning experiences for students that help them turn the input into an output mode of communication that has value and meaning for them. Only this will help them to retain the ideas and concepts that I am hoping to teach them in my discipline.