Reflection About Literacy

Literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write. It can also be defined as the capacity to identify, understand, create, interpret, communicate and compute, using written and printed materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy includes the capability to read, comprehend, and critically appreciate various forms of communication, including spoken language, written text, broadcast media, and digital media. The contemporary meaning has been expanded to include the knowledge to use language, numbers, images, computers, and other essential means to understand and communicate useful knowledge and use the dominant symbol systems of culture. Additionally, literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their objectives, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate sufficiently in their communities and wider society. The growth of literacy skills is a vital part of a child’s overall development. It is the foundation for doing well at school, socialising with others, developing independence, managing money and working. However, before a child learns to read and write, he or she needs to develop the building blocks for literacy, which are the ability to speak, listen, understand, watch and draw. With time and his or her teachers’ support, the child understands the connection between letters on a sheet and spoken sounds. Eventually, he or she will need lots of experience with objects, words, and sounds. The child learns how

Learning to read and write as a child is an experience that all can relate to. The average child learns to read and write at the early ages of three and four. Developing literacy at an early age is crucial to academic development as well as to performance in life. Early development can be just what a child needs to stimulate their minds, which in turn is assisting in the evolution of their future. The early and latter stages of development in a child’s literacy journey are the makings for their reading and writing skills. It also plays part in their analysis of obstacles as well as their developed or problematic literacy future. A child

My placement, at Alexander Goode Elementary School, is in Kindergarten and does not have a Science curriculum. While talking to my cooperating teacher, Ms. Gifford, she informed me they are so focused on getting behavior under control in the beginning of the year. Also, students enter the classroom with little phonemic awareness and prior knowledge to literacy concepts.

My chosen concentration in Literacy stems from my love of reading. However, I have not studied literacy until enrolling in this course. My orientation toward literacy theory and practice is beginning to take some form of shape. Learning the new theories and models as well as reading the post of my peers is very intriguing and interesting. In this proposal, I will expand on my personal ‘lens on literacy” in reference to readings throughout the course while answering the question, “How does this lens influence, to paraphrase Paulo Freire's words, "how you read your world and the words in it?"

After taking the literacy survey I asked my dad why he thought reading was important. He gave me a look that said I’ve told you this a million times and said, “Reading is the key to success.” This is a common truth. However, the real question is, if reading is so necessary, then what can I do to master it. After twenty-one years of life I cannot say that I know all there is to know about reading and writing, but I can say that through my experiences I have learned to love reading and it has made all the difference.

Through these analysis experiences, students are able to develop a personal voice as active citizens of the world, where critical literacies see’s the growing individual as the agents of change for the future (Dyson, 2001; Kalantzis et al., 2016).

The room arrangement should encourage repeated opportunities to interact with literacy materials and activities to practice skills that students are learning. Through repeated practice assist in building and enhancing skills.

Literacy, the ability of reading and writing plays a very crucial role in an individual’s life and society. A literate individual can make the positive changes in society with his ability. I believe literacy is not only being able to read and write but to make the positive impacts by his understandings. It enables us on how we perceive what is and understand things around us. My experience of reading and writing over the years has developed and enhanced my perception and thinking ability whether it’s academically or creatively. Academically, I get to learn more and more whereas creatively, indulging in some reading and trying some writing has definitely made some changes in my reading and writing experience. I believe there are no boundaries in reading and writing. The more you learn the more you want to know or more you want to get into it.

According to the Children’s Literacy Foundation, one out of six children who do not read at their respective age level by the end of third grade will not graduate from high school. This reality is not only disturbing but also highlights the undisputable relationship between reading and further learning. Without the proper foundation that reading lays, children will simply fall through the shaky structure below them towards a life of poverty and, surprisingly often, crime. Furthermore, in my not so humble opinion reading, along with general literacy, is the bridge between the schoolyard and the “real” world. Unfortunately, kids, tweens, teens, and adults often burn that bridge in favor of other activities, such

One of the first things children learn in school is how to read and write. These are integral literacy skills that students will build their whole lives. The question is, how do we properly teach these necessary skills to our students? As a teacher, we must understand all the learning theories to better address the literacy development of our students. Students need to have interesting, engaging, proper-leveled books to learn how to read. Writing made fun by teaching lessons such as writer’s workshops, creating their own books, and writing to pen pals, keeps students interest in developing their skills. When student learn the basic foundations of literacy they can develop their skills further and reach a high level of thinking. Literacy

As a child, I never had books read to me. It was not really part of the middle-class lifestyle in Punjab, where I was born and lived for 5 years. In Punjab, I completed two years of early education known as LKG (lower kindergarten) and UKG (upper kindergarten). The school I went to, although a high SES school, did not have a library where we would go to read picture books. Moreover, the books we did have for ‘English’ were a compilation of poems and stories, with very few pictures. Poems or story was read by the teacher, and then told the ‘moral’ of the story. Nothing more. Neither was there any extrapolation nor exploration of character or plots.

If there is one person I have to thank for helping me learn to appreciate literature it is Benjamin Cutler. I took honors English every year throughout high school. At the beginning of senior year, I was enrolled in the AP Literature course, and I thought that I would try something a little different that could better prepare me for college. I knew that my English skills were lacking, and this course would be rather difficult compared to what I was used to. I did the summer reading and wrote the required essay and after the second day of class, along with failing the essay, I decided that it was not for me. I dropped the course and enrolled in honors English IV. I knew the teacher and had heard raving reviews from his previous students, so I was excited to be in his class. His class was a big learning experience for me and is still with me today. To me, being literate is being able to appreciate different types of literature, even if you do not prefer it; Mr. Cutler helped me discover this by opening my mind to different genres and authors through books and explanations.

After reading and learning about literacy for the past month, I have come to understand a bit more about how I was brought up as a student. For a majority of my high school career, there were not many teachers that seemed to bring literacy into their content areas; however, there was one particular teacher that I took in my senior year for a Film Literature class that was significantly different than the others at my school. To begin with, his classroom setup extraordinarily different than any regular teacher’s classroom. It was broken down into three sections, also known as “families”. There was a section with regular desks, a section of couches and bean bag chairs, and a section with stools and podiums. Throughout the school year, we would rotate “families” and spend about a month in a different section. From my teacher’s point view, this was to exhibit different learning styles as we would be sitting in different areas of the room as well as on a different seat in various orientations. It allowed the workspace to remain adaptable and the orientation of the “families” left opportunities for easier group discussion and activities. In addition to the “families”, from basic bookshelves, to plastic containers, cardboard boxes, and even a tree stump, there was a plethora of books stored in various areas of the room. Furthermore, the entire room was covered in a wide variety of posters and had mobiles dangling from the ceiling. There was almost no wall to be seen.

Literacy is a term that when thought about by the masses, it tends to be solely focusing on reading and writing. Trust me, when we first started this project in the beginning of the semester, I was one of the ignorant that didn’t quite understand that there is a lot more to literacy than just those two components. During the three-part project, I have read and annotated three articles, two that were given to me and one article that relays back to my content area, which is physical education. Each article vastly different with each having different writing styles and content, but all relating back to the main idea of literacy and teaching practices. The articles were uniquely impactful in my understanding of literacy and made me think about

Throughout life, there are many developmental skills that one must learn to be successful. Literacy is one of them. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and without either one of them our world would fail. It’s the overall structure of communication, and communication is something that dominates our lifestyle today. Literacy can be met through other things besides reading and authorship. It can be found in newspapers, books, television sources and so much more. It is vital to understand literacy and how resources are related.