What is Literacy to Me

I have always thought about literacy as the ability to read and write. I never thought about it as any other way. I came to this conclusion by just hearing people use it in everyday life. I hear about the literacy rate in certain countries being low. I hear about how literacy and how everyone should be able to read and write. I hear the terms illiterate and literate be thrown around in the same context as literacy. I hear the president talk about the literacy rate in America and how it’s on the rise. I have just come to associate literacy with the ability of reading and writing. However as I progress in my college career I come to learn that it’s a little more than just reading and writing, how much more? I don’t know yet what I do know is that it also entails comprehension because it serves no purpose if kids can’t comprehend what they are reading. So not only do children have to have the ability to read and write but only the ability to comprehend what they are reading and apply the lessons learned to everyday life.

I came to this realization after becoming a tutor for autistic children. I realized that these kids can read and write reasonably well but when it came to comprehension the kids were lost. I would have one of my kids, Joseph, who would read a short story all by himself with no problems but when it came to answering some simple questions about the story he would have no idea what to do. It was as if he didn’t read the story at all. I attributed this to the autism and found was to get around this mostly by just rewording the question to a simpler way that he would understand. However later on I began tutoring children with no mental problems and found that after these kids would finish reading a story and try to answer the questions at the end they would come up with their own answer that would be remotely related to the story it was if they read the story a week ago and were trying to recall what happened. These kids were about half right in their answer. When it came down to it, it was all about the kids and their ability to comprehend what they are reading. Not just read the words on the page but to really understand what they are reading.

For these reasons when I become a teacher I will not only hold my students responsible for attaining the ability to read but also to comprehend what they are reading. It really serves no purpose to have a student read a book and not understand what he or she just read. The reason why I would want my students to understand what they are reading is so that we can discuss what we are reading. However, even if they don’t completely understand what we are reading I want them to be thinking about it. By them merely thinking about the reading it shows me that they are trying to comprehend the reading.

A typical day in my English class would start out with a discussion of the assigned reading. I would give them a simple question to prompt them to start to think about what they read. The simplest would be “What do you think about it so far?” Then I would ask if anybody is lost; this would open the room to anybody who doesn’t understand the reading or has just been reading without paying attention to what they are reading. After that I would try and relate the main themes of the story to things they already know and understand, thereby giving them a new way of looking at the story and a new way of trying to understand it. Overall it would be more of a way of trying to tap into each students “channel” of learning to help them better understand what we are reading and by providing a different ways of viewing and relating to the reading I will try and achieve this, because even if they can read that doesn’t mean the understand what they are reading my goal will be for them to comprehend and apply the lesson, if there is one, that the reading provides. If I can’t tap into the students “channel” of learning I will at least give them the tools so that they can figure it out for themselves. I don’t want to leave anybody behind because I myself have been in that situation and that’s when a student gives up and just “rolls with the punches” and merely tries to get along. Instead of them giving up I would want them to ask questions and interact in discussion. I want them to at least try and figure out what we are doing and why we are doing it. I know this is all in a perfect world and in a perfect classroom but we’ll see how it goes.

Defining Literacy in “Literate” Terms

Coming from Hispanic heritage where Spanish is my father’s native language, he often has difficult times phrasing his word choice in English through letters, emails, etc. I help proofread his writing and explain to him the mistakes he is making. Over time I have noticed that these mistakes are minimal, an awkward pause here and a missing comma there seem to be the most dire cases; yet he still claims he is not fully literate in the English language. What is this term literate? We incorporate our literacy of books, common sense, and knowledge into our everyday lives either through one language or multiple. Literacy occurs in all languages and one person may be able to read and write in different languages, but does that mean they are literate in all of them?

A person’s native language represents part of their identity and they associate themselves largely around it. They not only become affixed to their native language through learning new words, but they are able to fully immerse themselves into the language that they have an innate ability to shift their tone depending on their audience and backchannels that represent “cue-phrases” during dialogue—such as yeah and uh-huh. When speaking his native language, my father possesses this innate ability to manipulate his tone depending on the situation; such as when to pause to allow someone to finish their statement or to sound polite. However, it is when
my father tries to adjust his tone when speaking English that he seems to run into difficulties.

There have been countless times where he is having a conversation with someone who’s native language is English and they believe that my father is talking down to them simply because of his Spanish accent. It is not that my father is doing this on purpose; it is simply because he may not feel fully confident when speaking English or his accent is hindering him and making his English sound stern. When I analyze my father’s claim that he is not literate in English I not only look at this statement from his point of view, but from how native English speakers perceive him. My father views himself as not being literate in the English language, but I disagree with him. He is well-knowledgeable of how to read, write, and converse in English. It
is his slight misuse of the language that he believes is evidence for being illiterate. From a native English speaker they may claim that my father is illiterate due to his accent, but once again I disagree because a person’s accent does not need to meet the standard in order for them to be regarded as literate.

When I become an English teacher at the high school level I want to be able to convey to my students that being literate does not mean that a person has to speak the standard of English—the more favored dialect among English speakers. My goal throughout the year would be to create exercises that will allow them to feel confident in reading, writing, and conversing in the language. Public high schools currently contain several different ethnicities in a single class. This could make it difficult to create activities that are suitable for everyone, but I would
acknowledge each culture’s differences and use this as a starting off point.

To begin with, I want the students to first write about a time they may have experienced a feeling of inferiority. I want them to concentrate on a time where there may have been a language barrier or they did not feel confident to express their ideas because they felt their usage of English was not up to par of those around them. Since I want to utilize this type of activity in the beginning of the school year, students may feel shy and not want to express their thoughts openly for the class to hear. This is fine; at this point of the school year I just the students to start to have a different outlook on the term literacy, one that is created not entirely from the norm. We will defer our thoughts of the standard of English and concentrate on a person’s individual aspects that make them literate.

The next type of activity I would incorporate into my class would be to read short stories by authors of different ethnicities such as Sandra Cisneros and Zora Neale Hurston. This will provide students with the knowledge that others are also facing hardships and putdowns because of the way they speak English. When it comes down to it, all of us have accents. My future students will learn through reading and writing that this statement is true. I will have them keep a journal that they can write in when they experience an incident relating to their manner of speaking and also to write down their thoughts after they have read a short story. Towards the end of the school year, I will have the students compose a poem about their stance on literacy and what it means to them. It will be written on a poster board along with an illustration either hand-drawn or a collage of photos. They will present it to the class and it will be posted on a wall in the classroom.

Though there may be one dictionary definition of the term literacy, every person will create different definitions of this term. I have realized that mostly everyone is literate—they have the ability to read, write, and converse fluently in their native language, but it is when they transition to another language that their confidence level is lowered and they feel that they arehindered by the accent that originates from their native language. This does not prove they are illiterate because a person’s accent should not define them as being illiterate.

Liternation, What a sensation!

Literacy could encompass such a large range of explanations. Although it has a standard, dictionary definition, it can also be defined subjectively based on one’s own attitude towards relative subjects like the degradation or success of the educational system or one’s own need for it in their work field. Used in context to literature or education, it involves the ability to read and write. However, there is no simplicity to just reading and writing. Literacy includes a person’s ability to comprehend what she is reading in order to obtain information and/ or feel entertained. Her knowledge of grammar, punctuations, syntax, and letters are all essential to mastering literacy. It is an effort made by many parts of the body. From your eyes and hands to your infinite brain capabilities, reading and writing can sometimes be exhausting. Control of the eyes is necessary in order to follow one sentence to the next and the hands are scribers for the words floating around in your head. Literacy can be quite a workout.

The human capacity to memorize and categorize the many combinations of letters, words, and sentences are all part of a wonderful cultural relationship. Literacy gives us the opportunity to communicate between one another, express private thoughts, and imagine dynamic worlds apart from our own. Imagining a world without the written word is horrifying because such epic works exist all around the world. Oral tradition has its own magnificent history but some stories would not exist without having been recorded on some sort of written medium. Literacy is also history.

Literacy is inherently linked to language in our society; language defines a culture. Someone who is literate is elevated to a higher standard of living that another who is incapable of reading Dr. Seuss. As a society that claims to value higher education, the United States of America instills a belief that reading and writing is a crucial part of assimilating into the culture. My friend’s young nephews (three and four years old) have already been greatly exposed to the alphabet. Although they may not fully understand the functions of the letters, they are able to remember their sequence and their sounds. Before they are even in kindergarten, they are expected to have a grasp on the alphabet or at least be familiar of what it is. Students are constantly tested on how they can write, what they can write, and what they can understand from what they read. From annual state wide tests to high school exit exams, literacy is a persistent instigator of knowledge and communication.

Planning to be an English teacher is sometimes unnerving for me because of the statistics of children who have a harder time grasping the two abilities. When I was a senior in high school, I encountered in coming freshmen who were literally reading at the third and fourth grade level. As a high school student who was used to being in Advanced Placement classes, I was shocked to hear the truth about low literacy levels actually were at that time. My freshman class was the first to take the High School Exit Exam and I was surprised at the number of students were not able to pass it. As an intended teacher, I would like to address the issues of literacy by going straight to the students. I understand it’s difficult to teach one to one with a student who needs help when thirty others are in trouble also, but it is worth a try to uncover the various levels of difficulty a student has learning or if they are merely slackers or both. Is the educational system just underfunded and understaffed (of course it is)? There are many influences and causes to literacy issues that have to be properly and openly acknowledged.

If I end up teaching young children, I’d want to try and prevent making reading and writing unwanted chores thus letting the students enjoy them as recreational activities. One essay that really influenced my approach towards handling literacy is “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading” by John Holt who is also a teacher. In the essay, he discusses how great a teacher impacts a student’s desire to learn and enjoy reading and writing by their treatment of assignments and grading. Holt states that children are much more open to reading and writing when they are given greater opportunities to write what they want and when are not pressured by receiving a bad grade. After changes in his curriculum such as having some ungraded free writes and reading out loud to his classes, he saw a significant increase in his students’ desire to read different and more challenging books and write more and better because they are not being criticized. I want to adopt Holt’s idea of promoting literacy as something meaningful, entertaining, and rewarding rather that just another statistic to scare the students away.

Because I plan more on teaching college students, it seems like an entirely different aspect of teaching. As a college student right now, it is sometimes difficult for me to value reading novels and textbooks and writing ten page papers simply because they are seen as work. When I am not required to read a book or write a poem is when I can most enjoy it. College is a choice for many students. By the time someone reaches college, they are expected to be able to make their own choices of whether or not they can do what is expected. If and when I reach that level of college professor, I would expect my students to be able to be more competent in literacy. Depending on my teaching subject, I will assign classic literary readings but also try and find something contemporary or popular to expose to the students. One of my past professors used an Eminem rap song to illustrate a point in her lecture which, believe it or not, was a great example. Finding things the students are interested in and relating it to the lecture helps so much and take so little time to research.