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As the world continues to evolve and technology becomes a new avenue for learning have we lost the need for the common day teacher? In my opinion we have not lost the need for this person. In the book written by Patrick Finn, Literacy with an Attitude, he describes the middle class teacher as an “allies of their working-class students [that] can help their students see that literacy and school knowledge could be a potent weapon” (pg xi). Teachers are the doors for many students into many facets of literacy. Teachers are not only teaching students common day grammar rules, but they are teaching concepts that technology cannot grasp. They are teaching to effectively assist every individual in the classroom as well as how to integrate their own …show more content…
It encompasses the basic human “abstract principles that describe and explain how reading, writing, and oral language develop” (Handsfield, 2016, pg 13) and how people use “the real world experiences of teachers and students” (Handsfield, 2016, pg 13). Literacy is the driving force behind every action that we take throughout the day. Literacy determines who we vote for, who we befriend, where we interact and many other, seemingly human activities. We use this as a driving force to alter our life and to ultimately accomplish our goals. Since the creation of our country citizens has fought for what the constitution deems as unalienable rights. The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, many of those rights were taken away by person’s who felt that they were more superior than people that were different. Those who thought they were more superiors prevented the people that were different from learning, because they believed that once you had the knowledge you would be able to overreach those in power and overturn them. However, this is only the first instance of literacy playing an important role in our past, present, and future lives. Even to this day literacy plays a major role in voting. Kaplan and Venezky reported that researchers Kirsch and Jungeblut found that “reading was found to relate positively to vote as well as was literacy levels” (pg 354). Therefore, the more knowledge and understanding you have of the different aspects of language, reading, writing, and oral language the better life one is able to
Literacy gives courage and provides a positive influence in times of crisis.
In order to make it in life, one must have experience and has to be well educated. It is difficult to get through life not knowing how to present oneself appropriately, or even have a fluent conversation. One’s beliefs, values, morals, and behavior can influence how he or she will make it to the top of the ladder. However, in many cases, it is not only the individuals fault for not being as educated or experience he or she should be. Many outside factors such as the community, resources availability, and one’s class can affect someone from being able to reach their high potential. Patrick J. Finn, author of Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest, speaks on how language, the education system, and
In “In Defense of Literacy,” Wendell Berry explains literacy is a requirement, not an embellishment. Literacy is more than the ability to just read and write; it's also the ability to understand what a person is reading and make sense in what a person is writing. While some people may think that achieving literacy requires hard work and gets little outcome, I think that literacy makes people more ambitious, confident, more attentive, and more prosperous in life than those who are not literate. Joining in on conversations and voicing ones philosophies is easier if people are literate and educated, and people feel worthy of themselves when they have the ability to do so. People are more determined in life, whether it is with their professions
Finding a definition of literacy is not as easy as it sounds. The Webster definition says that to be literate is to be” able to read and write.” But to some researchers, this definition is too simplistic, leading to multiple models of literacy. Most Americans adhere to the autonomous model, which falls closest to the standard, dictionary definition. Believers in this form say that literacy is a cognitive activity that students learn like any other basic skill. It has a set of proficiencies that one must master in order to be capable of decoding and encoding text (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). A competing theory is the ideological model, which claims literacy is intrinsically linked to culture, and therefore what constitutes a “literate” individual is ever-changing. Society is the largest influence on literacy, according to this thought, and it is affected by politics, religion, philosophy and more (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). These two are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, some studies recognize “literacy as competence,” which is a “measure of competence to do a given task or work in a given field,” (SIL International, 1999) such as being computer literate. Although more researchers are recognizing and exploring multiple literacies, the one that most influences American schools is the autonomous, cognitive model – the ability to read and write. For many, it seems a simple task, but millions of adolescents are struggling or reluctant readers, and there are many reasons why young readers have difficulty with reading. XXXXXX------NEED HELP WITH THESIS STATEMENT HERE PLEASE—(This paper will focus on the effects of low reading skills, some of the possible causes of reluctant and struggling readership...
Life is like a tree, it grows and develops branches and leaves that come and go as we progress. The environments we live in determine which branches wither and fade and which prosper. Every branch holds some form of learned literacy from the end of the roots to the trunk and highest branch. Literacy encompasses many aspects of life.
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
My literacy journey commenced at a young age. My story begins with the typical bed time stories and slowly progresses into complex novels. Some points in my literacy journey have made me admire the written word but other times literacy frustrated me. These ups and downs within my story have made me the person I am today. My parents noticed that my reading was not up to par with other children in kindergarten and I was diagnosed with mild dyslexia at the age of five. My parents provided me a reading mentor named Mrs. Mandeville who has shaped my literacy journey in many ways. Events in my childhood have shaped my literacy in various ways.
Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.
Growing up in working class family, my mom worked all the time for the living of a big family with five kids, and my dad was in re-education camp because of his association with U.S. government before 1975. My grandma was my primary guardian. “Go to study, go to read your books, read anything you like to read if you want to have a better life,” my grandma kept bouncing that phrase in my childhood. It becomes the sole rule for me to have better future. I become curious and wonder what the inside of reading and write can make my life difference. In my old days, there was no computer, no laptop, no phone…etc, to play or to spend time with, other than books. I had no other choice than read, and read and tended to dig deep in science books, math books, and chemistry books. I tended to interest in how the problem was solved. I even used my saving money to buy my own math books to read more problems and how to solve the problem. I remembered that I ended up reading the same math book as my seventh grade teacher. She used to throw the challenge questions on every quiz to pick out the brighter student. There was few students know how to solve those challenge questions. I was the one who fortunately nailed it every single time. My passion and my logic for reading and writing came to me through that experience, and also through my grandma and my mom who plant the seed in me, who want their kids to have happy and better life than they were. In my own dictionary, literacy is not just the ability to read and write, it is a strong foundation to build up the knowledge to have better life, to become who I am today.
In today’s society, a vast number of people are well educated. They have the equal opportunity to choose their own path in life by getting an education. A primary educational aspect of every human being is to learn to read. Being able to read is a primary goal of people in human society, as well as important in itself to society; it takes people far beyond their wildest dreams. A person who is literate has few limitations on what they can do; the world is an open playing field, because a person that is literate has the ability to become very successful in life.
My relationship with literacy began when I started elementary school and that was the first starting point of my positive relationship with literacy. I really started to grow as a reader and writer throughout my middle school and high school years. Throughout my years of going to school I had many positive experiences that shaped my view of literacy today. My literacy skills have also enhanced throughout my educational years.
Their shock was a result of the common belief that literacy is solely the ability to read and write. According to the dominant culture, if one cannot read or write at an expected level, he or she is considered illiterate and thus must be caught up to speed with the rest of society. Consequently, when the majority of students failed the entrance test, they were viewed as illiterate and unable to communicate properly because they did not have adequate language skills, as explained by the “skills discourse” (Barton 160). However, a newer perspective on literacy is that it is not just based upon one’s ability to read and write in the dominant language. Instead, it is based upon people’s abilities to communicate in a variety of ways; these multiple methods of communicating with the world manifest themselves further and change as people experience more and change themselves. In the context of education and this new perspective on literacy, written works are not the only form of literacy in the classroom. Instead, teachers consider other forms of literacy familiar to students and use those forms to mold well-informed and self-sufficient students (Barton 206-208). Perhaps if Harvard had not labeled their prospective students as literate or illiterate based on writing and reading skills, the entire issue of abolishing versus
Although I consider Digital Security a detrimental part of the nine elements of Digital Citizenship surrounding the entertainment, film and media industry–many other elements come to mind that are just as important, specifically Digital Communication, and Digital Literacy.
There are some theoreticians who view literacy in a form of social practice. In their view, social issues are also important components, as well as linguistic competence and understanding cognitive processes in language studies. Freire (1974) views literacy not only as a process of knowledge transformation, but also as a relationship of learners to the world. Vygotsky (1978) suggests two stages of development at social and individual level. In his view, literacy is a phenomenon that is created, shared, and changed by the members of a society. Gee (1996) similarly argues that becoming literate means apprenticeship with texts and apprenticeships in particular ways of being. In summary, literacy practices are not just about language, but about their interrelation with social practices.
The question people are asking themselves today is, Is digital literacy just as important as daily subjects such as reading, writing, and math for our students today? To prepare for this paper I was given three excerpts to read. Right away I was drawn to how much time we spend on the internet daily and what types of things we do while we are on the internet. I realized that today’s society is dependent on the internet for most things like doing homework, researching information, shopping, and getting on social media websites. While reading a fact sheet named Fact Sheet: Digital Literacy, “We live in an internet economy I came across interesting facts such as 96% of Americans use technology and internet at their jobs and 28% of American don’t