Literacy Definition

Anytime I am asked for a “definition” of something I almost always go to dictionary.com and look up the word. This is a habit that stems back to elementary school when we would have to look up words. To this day still whenever I have to define something or before I start writing a paper about a new topic I’ll look up the literal definition to help me as a jumping point. Looking up “literate” in the dictionary, the definition is as follows: “able to read and write.”

Before looking this up of course I already had my own idea of what my definition would be based on all of my experiences in TE classes and working with children in various settings. I would say that overall this definition covers the basics well. When you call someone illiterate you are essentially say that they cannot read or write- very basic. However, I would say that calling someone literate means so much more than just that they can read or write. A five year old can read and write, but not on the level that a twenty five year old can. To some people being able to read a Cosmo and write a grocery list is all they will ever be able to need to do and that is satisfactory. Other people however, say people in grad school, need to be able to read at least 100 pages of complex text at a time and then write a twenty page research paper about it. These are very different instances of literacy. Both examples are examples of literate people, but on different levels.

To me being literate means being as competent in reading and writing as possible for your own self and your own purposes at each stage of your life. In my own placement right now literacy is everywhere. Reading and writing is in every single aspect of the day, starting at the beginning where students fill out the hot or cold lunch slip, through each subject where they are required to read directions, text, questions, etc, and then write out responses. For me I am not exactly sure what my ideal literacy learning environment looks like, but I know that I want it to be as stimulating to students as possible. I know that I hope that in my classroom to have volunteers or workers of some kind who for a small amount of time each day could take students out individually to work with them on their literacy and to help pinpoint any problems they are having so that I might be able to help fix those problems right away and make them a stronger literacy student. In regards to literacy also I want to have a great classroom library. I used to go in for community service hours to my former fifth grade teacher’s class and tutor students. I remember being amazed at her personal classroom library; she had a giant bookshelf from floor to ceiling completely filled with books as well as two freestanding ones that she had organized according to reading level and then into genre. She’s been teaching now for fifteen years, so it makes sense that she’s been able to accumulate a resource such as this, but it’s absolutely a goal that I hope to model in my own class.

Though so far I haven’t seen a literacy lesson in the sense of explicitly teaching reading and writing, I have seen lessons that involve the skills of this. The students have a pretty good strength in their reading and writing, though when I’ve worked with some of them one on one I do see a need for improvement in their comprehension skills. I think that in the case of some of the students they are shy about speaking up for help. My classroom specifically has a lot of “problem” students- students that have moved several times this school year and are brand new to the class, students with parents in jail, students with emotional deficiencies, etc. In the cases of some of these students I think that it makes it even more difficult for them to excel in their studies. This is another thing that I want for an ideal literacy learning environment- I really hope that in my classroom that I can have a good relationship with my students parents so that we can communicate back and forth to help my students as much as possible. Also, I want to make my classroom a safe place for them to learn. I hope that I can help them to feel okay with asking for help when they need it, as well as if they don’t ask for it that I will be able to recognize when they may need it and start in right away about helping them.