Literacy Defined

My ideas of literacy are continuing to change throughout my education, as we are continually learning new aspects that can be put into the definition of "literacy." We have learned about concepts of print, vocabulary, motivation and so many other factors that go in to the main category of literacy, but those are more like elements of the overall topic than part of the definition itself. I had originally just thought that literacy consisted of reading and writing, and that is also how it was defined in the Tompkins textbook, but after class last week my views and definitions are changing. I'm still not sure if I have a set definition that I can apply to the term, but for now I believe that literacy is the ability to comprehend and effectively use reading, writing, listening and speaking. These tasks are important when trying to convey and understand messages, as well as for communication and learning information.

I think a good literacy environment would welcome students to the ideas of the elements presented in the definition above. One idea that would encourage this would be to have a comfortable reading area set up in the classroom, with books that not only enhance students learning but also their interest in reading books of all different types and genres. Fostering student writing is also beneficial, as students should feel comfortable and excited about expressing ideas in a written fashion. My mentor teacher provides this for the students in her classroom by giving each student a journal to write in. When they finish with an assignment, they are given free time to write whatever they feel like in their journals, allowing them to practice expression as well as their writing skills. Since the students are in kindergarten, this expression is sometimes brought out in drawing instead of writing, but the concepts are still being learned and practiced. In my placement, the students are often given multiple options to practice speaking with their peers in conversation as well as in front of the class. My MT wants her students to be literate individuals, and believes that reading, writing, speaking and listening are all crucial tools in order for this to occur.

Literacy Definition

In class on Monday when we were asked to write down our own definition of literacy I kind of blanked, so, of course, I turned to Wikipedia. Although this site is not the best resource I found the first few sentences about literacy really helpful in forming my own definition. Wikipedia says,

"Literacy has been described as the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word. Literacy can also include the ability to understand all forms of communication, be it body language, pictures, video & sound (reading, speaking, listening and viewing)."

The first sentence describes the literal acts of literacy: reading, writing and thinking. But it also includes HOW to use those acts to be fully literate. Many people can read, write and think, but the qualifiers in the definition above, for knowledge, coherently and critically make literacy more academic. The next sentence focuses a little more on the social aspect of literacy, and I think in order to have a complete definition of literacy you have to include both parts of it, they are equally important to every literate person.

I think an ideal literacy environment includes too many things to name, but at the beginning of the year I would have said that my MT did not have a good literacy environment. Now that I know the students and have seen them mature, and learn more about reading and writing I would say he actually does a pretty great job. He models writing for them, encourages them to sound out words and the many posters of words all over the classroom give students the help they need when stuck. 

So far I have not come up with my own final definition of literacy, but I think I am on my way to developing a working and complete definition.

What is Literacy?

Literacy is a term that is thrown around a lot in the teacher preparation program along with in the classroom. But does anyone really have a good definition for the word? I think that literacy encompasses so much that it can be difficult to form a concrete definition. In TE 301 we did a lot of work with literacy and defining terms that fall under the "literacy" category. I always had difficulty creating a definition for literacy but working on the definition in class helped shape my understanding. The definition that my table group created to define literacy was "literacy is the ability to read, write, understand, and think critically about texts in a variety of formats. It allows one to explore the world and new ideas in personal, academic, and professional contexts." I really liked this definition that we came up with. I think that this definition is broad enough to incorporate all the sub categories of literacy. It also discusses the different contexts that literacy is used. Many get stuck thinking literacy is only in the classroom, when in fact it is used in all environments. Defining literacy is a tricky task and there isn't one clear cut answer. I think that any literacy definition needs to be flexible to be able to fit to the given environment.

In the classroom that I am working at I feel like the task of reading and writing has a negative connotation . Most of the students do not enjoy to read or write and that makes it difficult to encourage literacy. My classroom set up however is conducive to literacy. There are couches and comfortable chairs to help make reading more comfortable and enjoyable. My MT tries her best to include writing tasks that the students will enjoy but that seems to still be a challenge. When I have a classroom I want to put emphasis on the enjoyment of reading and writing and try to create an environment that stimulates the students literacy development. One thing that I have observed in my classroom that I feel takes away from literacy is when the students must write as a form of punishment. Sometimes my MT uses writing as a way to correct a behavior and this makes the students feel that writing is a negative thing. Literacy is an important concept both in the classroom and outside the classroom. It is important to recognize this as a teacher and enhance the concept.

Defining "Literacy"

My current working definition of literacy is that it "is the ability to read, write, comprehend, and think critically about texts in a variety of formats. It allows one to explore the world and new ideas in personal, academic, and professional contexts." Since TE 301 focused a great deal on literacy and its components, my defintion was more influenced by that course more than our last class session and its corresponding readings. My ideal literacy environment in my classroom would consist of a well-organized, labeled by difficulty level, library full of a variety of books, along with a special area of the room designated for reading that has pillows/beanbags, lamps and is overall cozy. Students would engage in free-writing in their journals, structured writing with meaningful prompts, and frequent poetry writing in their poetry notebooks. We would discuss the mechanics used, such as punctuation, capitalization, etc. As a class we would read stories and engage in critical discussions that allow them to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences with each other. I wholeheartedly believe that young students are capable of such discussions, as demonstrated in Leland's article "Out of the Box: Critical Literacy in a First-Grade Classroom," if they are given the opportunity to do so. I would explicity teach and model reading strategies, both regarding phonics and comprehension. Reading and writing and speaking would be incoporated into all other subject areas, not just skills used during a scheduled time of the day.

My current classroom is far from my ideal literacy environment. Although my students write a Morning Message daily, much of it is copied from the teacher's paper. When they are supposed to generate their own part of the message, they are unsure what to write about or how to do it. They lack strategies for sounding out words and spelling. Also, many of them need more practice with how to correctly form letters and use mechanics. During independent reading, many of them read books that are not at their appropriate reading level and end up goofing around and distracting their peers. I rarely see my teacher read to my students, which is something I would do on a daily basis in my own classroom. To them, reading is a chore and not rewarding experience, which makes me quite sad :(

Abby Markert

One literacy event in my life that stands out to me occurred in the 6^th grade. In the 6^th grade I was living in Sydney, Australia. I was making adjustments with this move, although not my first move, so there were some challenges I was overcoming. School was starting to become more challenging as the workload increased. I noticed that more assignments were requiring more reading and it was harder for me to maintain high grades. I have never been a strong reader or ever really enjoyed reading for fun. My mom became aware of this and noticed that I was struggling in school because of it. My mom than took me to a special reading center where they did all sorts of testing on my to see if I had any learning disabilities. I remember going to this center and going through a series of tests and had high anxiety. I remember feeling like I wasn’t doing a good job on the tests and it was hard for me to articulate what aspects I was struggling with. It turns out I am slightly dyslexic. My mom and my younger sister are both dyslexic as well and that is one of the reasons I was tested. Growing up it was always a challenge for me to read and enjoy reading because it did not come easy to me. As a result I always had a sour taste about literacy. It was something that I knew I was going to have to overcome and really practice at. It took awhile for me to learn the tricks that worked best for me, and also a lot of practice. However, I am about to receive a specialization in language arts, which is something I would have never thought. I had to work really hard to get where I am today. I learned new strategies to reading and constantly need to work harder at it than most people. But I am now a much stronger reader and enjoy reading so I am thankful to those teachers that were able to help me get to where I am today. When I become a teacher I want to make sure I pay close attention to those students who struggle with reading and give them the tools they need to improve. Literacy is one of the most important components to school and I want to make sure that each student feels strongly about it.

I'm not sure if I have one specific moment with literacy that has shaped my views, but I think a lifetime love of reading has helped build the way I think about literacy in the classroom. As a child my parents were always reading to me, my dad and I loved Where The Wild Things Are the best. Most nights throughout my k-12 schooling I would read before bed, and some nights this reading went past my bedtime. This always made my mom feel bad, she didn't want to get me in trouble for reading, but I did need sleep. In 4th grade I asked for a flashlight for Christmas, so I could read in bed without having the big light on, then mom wouldn't know I was still awake. Eventually she caught on, and my Christmas flashlight was taken away. My parents love reading and throughout my childhood this love was instilled in me. I understand not all my students will come from a home like mine, where reading was valued so I hope my love of literature rubs off on my students the same way my parents love of reading rubbed off on me.

Literacy Moment

When I was a child in elementary school, I always excelled in language arts. I read material far above the average for my grade level, and tested far above the rest of my classmates. For this reason, I was always very excited to read a new book or to write a new story for the language arts segments of our classes. For many of my classes throughout elementary school, we were placed into reading groups based on our ability levels. I was always in the highest group with a few other students, and everyone knew what group everyone else was in.

Since I was in the highest group, I was allowed to choose my own books above my levels, and had a little more freedom than some of the students in the lower groups. We would also take time in these groups to read individually aloud to a parent volunteer or teacher in the classroom, and our group always finished first since we were more fluent readers and could understand the material at a much faster pace than other students in the class. After finishing our group work, our teacher would have us pick a book from the designated reading level bin that we were at, and we would be asked to read silently until the other students had finished. I loved being able to choose my own books, and felt very honored to be in such a high group in the class. While I loved being put into the higher group and knowing that I was doing well, there were other students in my class who despised these activities and the groups in general. If a student was in a lower group in the class, all of the other students were aware, and tended to think these students weren't as smart, or that they didn't try.

Looking back now, I do not think that I would use these group strategies in my future classroom. I think it is important for students to read at the correct reading level or just above where they may be, but placing students into physical groups based on reading level may affect the motivational levels and attitudes of the students if they are not comfortable in the level they are placed in. The students in my class who were in the lower groups would shut down when it came time for reading in groups in placement levels, as they felt they were more "stupid" than other students. A lot of time teachers do not think that simply placing a student in a particular group will affect their attitudes and views on a subject, but doing so can either work in favor for a student or in negative ways. Teaching literacy is a very important subject in school, so I want to make sure that I do so in a way that learning is not hindered for any students.

Week 1: Powerful Literacy Moment

When I was in seventh grade, we did a cross-curriculum project about the Holocaust. In our Language Arts class we read the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel, which is a biographical memoir of his journey as a young boy in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. We processed this book in our literature circle groups which made me feel like a sophisticated adult since we were discussing such a serious piece of literature. The reason that this book stands out to me as an impactful literacy moment in my education is that after we finished the book, the author came to our school and gave a speech. Most of our grade and several high school classes gathered in the auditorium and listened to him talk about his experiences, his book, and his words of wisdom. After his speech, I was able to get his autograph, which is under the glasstop of my desk to this day. Meeting the author of such a powerful piece of writing allowed me to form an even more personal relationship with that book and made literacy come alive for me. I had always enjoyed reading but after this experience I realized the the potential it had to change one's life and paradigm. I still get goosebumps to this day when I reminisce about shaking his hand...