Essay on The Importance of Literacy in Canada

Carole Bourdais shares the memories when she cannot read the pain-killers pills and mistook child-size .she also share the memories of those days when she had to buy food without knowing what she was buying. She cannot read what was written in the package of the food.

Literacy has the power to transform us. By reading we learn new things and we are more likely to express ourselves to others. We can understand another’s language, other cultures, and know the way others way of thought.

Literacy plays a huge role in many people’s lives everyday, whether it is learning how to read and write for the first time or writing a five-page essay for the hundredth time. We experience literacy differently and have our very own unique stories on how it has impacted our lives and had made us who we are today. It is an essential aspect that I use in my everyday life, such as in relationships, daily interactions with others, and learning. It has become such a powerful aspect and human right in which it allows one to speak his/her mind and in some cases express their opinion to the world. My personal literacy history has shaped me into who I am today because without my experiences I would not have been able to gain the confidence and

As I think what literacy means to me, the most important thought that comes to mind is my understanding of it: the ability to read and write, I feel that without the ability to read and write, mankind is unable to properly function because there is no foundation for adequate communication. So literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Everyone has some moment which have the potential to influence the craft of understanding that directly has the undying impression for the lifetime. As for learning process which comprises the reading and writing aspect, there comes events that helps people to grasp the authenticity of learning which turn out to be moments of learning for some people in a very inspiring and motivating manner. In this essay I will talk about my literacy history and how it has been developed throughout portions of my life.

Since a child going up, literacy was not my strong suit. Literacy throughout my life seem not to cope with me. Later as I grew up, literacy meant to me that it is one’s ability to read, write, and speak. More importantly there is a more meaning of literacy, meaning that not only writing, reading, and speaking, but able to understand, analyze, and communicate with other peoples’ ideas. Soon enough literacy has made an impact on my life, it has been and will be a lifelong process. Literacy will always be with me, starting from my past and ending in my future.

Literacy plays a huge role in my daily life. Every single day I read and write. Whether it’s writing an email or reading a text message, class assignment, discussion board, etc. My literacy journey is unique because I have had different experiences. As a result, this is how my literacy journey has let me to be the reader that I am.

Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning from an early age, as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum. Being literate increases opportunities for pupils in all aspects of life and lays the foundations for lifelong learning and work.

Lifestyle choices and behaviours are amongst the factors that are most easily controlled by the individual themselves. It is our choice to smoke, eat foods that are high in sugar and fat and not exercise. These are three of the leading factors that can cause coronary heart disease (N.Gledhill, personal communication, 2004) and yet thousands of people continue to do it because they are not aware, nor have they been informed, of the negative effects simple lifestyle behaviours can have on ones body. If one is not educated about certain facts and insights, how are they expected to make an informed, or even a wise, decision? Therefore, a lack of education has a strong influence on the health of an individual for the reason that they are unable to make proper and healthy lifestyle choices. A study conducted on the association between educational attainment and other determinants of health on the elderly yielded results that showed:

The aims and importance of learning provisions for literacy development is to give children the opportunities and possibilities open to them and benefit from more effective teaching of reading and to marrow the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. The importance of reading is at the heart of this insight as pupils that can read are more likely to have a more positive future. They will be more likely to do well in school and get good qualifications and have a rewarding career later on. Compared to those who are constantly at a disadvantage.

In society today, people are judged by their level of education. Education is the key in society today. According to begintoread.com, today in the United States 1 out of 4 children grow up without learning how to read. Also at early stage of life the brain start developing and adjusting to the environment that they were raised in. In addition, books and education helps develop the brain especially in early age. According to the National Center for Education, Statistics shows that the majority of people who don’t complete high school have basic or below-basic literacy skills. 26% of prison inmates nationwide had parents who had not completed high school, and 37% of inmates had not completed high school themselves. Literacy is powerful in times of development because it leads to success in life and helps with solving a problem.

Our view of literacy upon commencing this course, was that it is the ability to read and write. Our understanding of it however was partially true because, reading and writing are essential of any person’s literacy, but reading and

Lack of literacy in those of young age could end up leading to lacking of people skills, brain development and mental skills. Dana tells us about the ones that use literacy to their advantage and how they end up markedly more civically engaged when reading and that they are more likely to “perform charity work, visit a museum or attend a sporting event.” The author persuades us with evidence that is likely true, she proves to us that the knowledge that comes along with literacy reading, is not one that is up for grabs in a lot of places. A single person's lack of not wanting to read changes in to many thousands quickly, it spreads like wildfire and that's only because of the high advantage of technology now a days, this causes tremendos declining rates on society which leads to “ serious long term social

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.

Is it important to be a literate person in today’s society? The ability to function well depends on whether or not a person is literate and can comprehend what is going on around them. If a person doesn’t have the basic ability to read, they will feel the stress and dependency on others because of their illiteracy. Illiteracy is a big problem because without the knowledge of reading, illiterate people can’t perform daily tasks and responsibilities in daily life. When all it would take is a mere two minutes out of your day, don’t you think illiteracy can be helped or even extinguished?