Literacy itself is a very important aspect of life! Just as we have multiple intelligences we also have multiple areas of literacy. I think it would be difficult to label one more important than the other also nearly impossible to teach one without addressing another. The most important aspect of 21st century literacy to me is teaching children to "read the world". The video http://faculty.nl.edu/rrevzan/tie512w2010/21centlit.htm has very interesting concepts presented by educators. They speak about social literacy and outdoor literacy, which are really important but rarely taught directly to students.
I doubt that anyone would argue that technology skills must be taught to students to ensure that students will be ready to compete in the world. The definition of literacy can definitely be expanded to include so many different things. However when you really get down to it, the basic definition of literacy can encompass everything we want or need children to do. Being able to read and write are fundamentals that we will never be able do without.
If students are taught to "read the world", they can become successful at every area of literacy. They learn to read cues from people, how to read and use the areas in which they live, and how to meet their own basic needs.
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I like your expanded notion of literacy as "reading the world". It makes for a much more useful understanding of what teaching needs to be. Being able to "read" things we make with technology would be great skills for kids to acquire. We emphasize the "writing" with technology, although I can't say students are consciously literate about what they do. They have so much exposure to media that I think they have a sense of what they want to do or what looks good, but I don't think they really understand the meaning of techniques they might know of or use. So more formal instruction of "reading" media, including computer games and websites would be good.
ReplyDeletejd
Tracey I agree with JD in regards to your definition of literacy including "reading the world". That is an excellent way to put it. When I posted my definition I talked about many of the aspects that you did, only I concentrated more on "media literacy". But in order for students to become productive citizens it is not enough for them to know how to read, write, and analyze *content*. As you stated, they need to be able to read people and surroundings as well. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteNow...the debate becomes how and WHO teaches this? Surely parents should be doing so on a day to day basis within their homes. However, we both know that what parents *should* do, they don't *all* do.
Think of how well rounded a student curriculum could be if they were taught different types of literacy at different grade levels. Hmmmm.....maybe we should become curriculum writers :)