What it Means to be Literate - A reflection

“What it Means to be Literate”

            When one hears the word literacy, it is often assumed to mean reading and writing related to Education. However, that is not the only meaning of literacy. According to the articles we have read for CS322, literacy can mean so much more. Students today are immersed in the world of writing and reading and they don’t even know it. To me, after reading these articles, literacy does mean reading and writing in the classroom, but it also means being able to develop socially, and the ability to use technology in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool.     

            I feel it is vital for teachers to be literate in their content area. Literacy in content area not only means understanding what they will be teaching, but being able to present it in many ways that students can understand. Teachers can use media such as power point presentations, pictures and video to reach visual learners. They can also write on the board and have discussions to help students who learn better by hearing and reading the information. Another way teachers are literate in content area is being prepared. Teachers must have lesson plans ready daily and avoid winging a lesson because they are unprepared. For teachers who are teaching a particular subject, they also must have a passion for their subject and the desire to continue learning even though they have a responsibility to impart knowledge to their students.

 I understand that using technology in the classroom can be challenging especially because it is constantly changing. I feel having a basic knowledge of computers and media is important in being literate in today’s society. Even people in other professions need to know how to use computers. Now more than ever, daily tasks such as banking, managing money and shopping are done online. Another form of literacy is internet safety. It is important for adults and children alike to know what is safe to do online and what is dangerous. Identity and credit card theft is a major issue that affects many people today. Everyone should know how to protect their information online. Also, online dating can be appealing however; kids need to know that talking to strangers and potentially meeting them in person without the knowledge of parents can be dangerous and have dire consequences. Take for instance a young boy on Staten Island who agreed to meet an internet “friend” one day in person. That “friend” turned out to be a much older pedophile who left him in his boxer shorts and chained to a tree in the woods. This boy was lucky he was not seriously hurt or killed and was found a few hours later by the police. This occurred when I was a freshman in high school and they actually put my school under lockdown in case the perpetrator was prowling for another victim. Not every child or adult who falls prey to these online predators are as lucky as this boy from Staten Island. Some end up murdered, raped or seriously injured.

Along with internet safety, computer games and blogs can be considered literacy. Students can be unaware that computer games, especially role playing games, can be literate activities. One summer I actually played a role playing game. I never really realized myself how much writing can be involved. I remember carefully creating my character with structured, descriptive paragraphs and interacting with my friends via posting on a website. We even edited each other’s posts for grammatical and spelling errors. Looking back on it now, the posts that my friends and I created could have been collected and made into a book. It was creative and mind stimulating fun. Blogs can also be a creative place for writing and reading. There are thousands of blogs on the internet with many educational topics such as ideas for science fair experiments, book lists, book reviews and even restaurant reviews. Blogs can be a wealth of information and many people can share their opinions freely.

Literacy can be viewed as social and emotional interactions and development. There is an increasing concern with today’s young people and how they use technology. It has been said that kids use technology such as cell phones and computers for communication and don’t know how to hold a conversation in person, lack eye contact and talk on the phone. I agree with this to some extent. A lot of young adults prefer to use their phone for texting and computers for emailing and chatting and some do have that lack of personal conversation skills. However, the majority do not. I feel that because of school and extracurricular activities students receive the human contact necessary to form social bonds and develop socially and emotionally.

Literacy has many meanings. It not only means reading literature and writing essays for school but also means being able to develop socially, and the ability to use technology in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool. Literacy is often regarded as boring and dry, however, in many cases it is not. Blogs, online games and even reading for enjoyment can be examples of fun things you can learn from. It is important to bring these fun learning tools into the classroom and incorporate them into the lesson.