Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
An essay on literacy
Literacy through everyday life
An essay on literacy
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: An essay on literacy
Literacy between the Past and the Present
Name:
Institution:
Literacy between the Past and the Present
Introduction
The nature of literacy learning encompasses instructional techniques and pedagogy of literacy. These applications create a legacy of literacy and technology use in learning. They dominated the 20th century prompting the introduction inter-disciplinary work at the juncture created by scholarly projects and education. Over time the literacy evolved to building communication, impaction of critical thinking, and initiating creativity. The basics of literacy attract diverse educators and scholars from different fields. There is a need to capture the past ideologies that shaped literacy and the present state of the field. Therefore, this research paper explores the past and present aspects of literacy education.
Past literacy
Literacy education itself presents a contextual diversity in learning and cultural environments. When one views literacy from this point, the origin of the practice must reflect on the mind. It began back in the...
Jones Diaz, C. (2007). Literacy as social practice. In L. Makin, C. Jones Diaz & L. McLachlan (Eds.), Literacies in childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. (pp. 203-216).Marrickville, NSW: Elsevier.
Cope, Bill, and Mary Kalantzis. Multiliteracies,Literacy learning and the design of social futures. New London Group: London and New York, 1997.
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...
Literacy in the 21st century is multidimensional with Giroux arguing “Teaching and learning the culture of the book is no longer the staple of what it means to be literate” (Arthur, 2001, p.183).
Throughout my childhood I was never very good at reading. It was something I always struggled with and I grew to not like reading because of this. As a child my mom and dad would read books to me before I went to bed and I always enjoyed looking at the pictures and listening. Then, as I got older my mom would have me begin to read with her out loud. I did not like this because I was not a good reader and I would get so frustrated. During this time I would struggle greatly with reading the pages fluently, I also would mix up some of the letters at times. I also struggled with comprehension, as I got older. My mom would make me read the Junie B. Jones books by myself and then I would have to tell her what happened. Most
Literature is a key component when speaking of literacy. Teachers need to provide students with endless amounts of practice experiences in reading to build their fluency rate. This should be done with different genres of texts and different levels. Reading a wide variety of literature help children develop rich vocabularies.
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.
Literacy is defined as “the ability to use available symbol systems that are fundamental to learning and teaching for the purposes of comprehending and composing, for the purposes of making and communicating meaning and knowledge” (Stock, 2012), and it is one of the most essential skills that an early year student will learn. Literacy serves to provide the building blocks for the continued knowledge acquisition and general education of individuals of all ages; by working to understand and identify how and why literacy is taught using the structured literacy block format in Australian schools, and in identifying the benefits of utilizing this type of tool for teaching literacy in student’s early years, it will be possible to gain a better understanding of the organization, planning, and teaching approaches that are used in a literacy block approach. A sample standard literacy block will be provided, offering the means of understanding the applications of the tool, which will serve to further stress the necessity of this tool’s usage.
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.
My classes centered around student production; however, it soon became clear to me that a culture that values talking above doing is going to struggle with creative expression through devalued mediums. At what point do our working definitions of literacy need to progress as the technologies we use progress? Is access to technology a human right? As immersive technologies make concrete the once abstract, will we change the ways we assess?
Winch, G., & Ross Johnston, R., & March, P., & Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literacy (4th ed.). South Melbourne VIC: Oxford university press.
An decline has occurred in the amount of time young people spend reading. The loss of interest in teenagers for reading has resulted from the invention of the moving picture. No longer do teenagers open their imaginations to create a vision of stories portrayed in books. The visions have already been provided for them in the forms of movies, video games, and television.
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?
Literacy and literature are interdependently linked in society as individuals engaging in quality literature can help build effective literacy skills and knowledge. Literature is everywhere and are a large part of most cultures. Engaging with this literature aids with understanding cultural values in society. For an individual to function fully in society, solid literacy skills are crucial. Due to the importance of literacy in society, many theorist have developed theories to how humans acquire language. Literacy, literature and language acquisition are all important in understanding learning.
I have learned to rely on the Internet for my researches and I knew that I could write creatively, or express my own opinion, in a manner more persuasive than working on it using the traditional literacy methods. Using the computer before was introduced to me as a tool for learning by educational games and computer programs, but as times passed the use of the computer for learning became the available tool for me that have cultivated my love for reading and writing. Blogging is writing which is a fun and great way to encourage creativity without any binding rules for a contemporary student like me that is full of emotions, arguments and ideas that I cannot express in formal academic writing. Integrating new literacy particularly technologically into the classroom is a smart move to implement a positive interaction with much gusto. At first, I thought that this major development would lead to my education’s trend towards reading and writing even less, but the new approach to literacy keeps me happy and comfortable, and even make me do logical and cohesive writing. Blogging is a useful tool for my inability to think critically and write persuasively. I do believe though that there is value in the traditional as well as the new literacy...