Deep Meaning Of Literacy Essay

Literacy impacts everyone’s lives in various ways. Such as, someone and their career, the ability to read literature in general, one’s comprehension of reading and writing, or the ability to write a book. Each person takes his or her own path with literacy and consequently are formed by the sponsors of literacy present in his or her life. Being new to the term or not, sponsors come in various forms and can be positive or negative to someone and his or her literacy. The sponsors of whom I am going highlight are my parents, The Sesame Street Show, and my elementary and middle school St. Mary’s all of whom have been positive sponsors to my literacy by setting high expectations and providing quality teaching, which still impacts my literacy today.

“The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This is how Dr. Seuss thought of reading, and I think of it in much the same way. Literacy is everywhere and influences us every day, therefore, it plays a major part in each of our lives. I believe that reading is an interactive activity in which learning happens, or as Clay (2001) defines it, “…a message-getting, problem-solving activity” (p. 1). Reading is the process through which one reads information and from doing so, constructs meaning about the material. The more exposure and practice one has with reading, the more knowledge one gains. In this paper, I will begin by discussing my own personal educational philosophy, then continue by stating and explaining four of my beliefs about the reading process and the research that is found to support each of them before sharing the remaining questions I have about literacy. I am an existentialist, and a strong supporter of a balanced literacy approach. My beliefs about literacy come from these foundations and perspectives that I embrace. For students to be successful in their literacy development, I believe that identity acceptance in the classroom is crucial, instruction for all students must be differentiated, direct and explicit instruction is at times necessary, and vocabulary is a significant component in the ‘Big Five’ of children’s literacy development.

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

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.

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.

I define literacy as being able to express my thoughts and emotions. I know everyone has different opinions and emotions. Therefore, everyone will write differently and read in a different pace. Also, everyone likes different types of books, for example fiction or nonfiction. As a result, everyone’s literacy journey is unique. Everyone has a different definition when it comes to literacy which is what makes it special. Some prefer to read and others prefer to write. It all depends on personal preference.

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.

If you were to ask me what literacy meant to me when I was younger I would tell you, that it represented reading a book, and simply writing. The first thing that would come to my mind is English, reading and writing is what I do when it comes to that subject. Being young I was never taught the true meaning of literacy, and if you’re anything like me, you would eventually have to just learn on your own. Growing up I rarely thought what literacy truly meant, yet growing up it was a question I was always curious about, because this is when my writing became more serious. The more I began to write essays, the more it seemed to bother me. I asked myself, how could I truly write a good paper without knowing the basic true meaning of it all?

As a product of South Central Los Angeles the expectations bestowed upon me were less than remarkable. I grew up in a system of public schools where textbooks and classrooms where infested with graffiti and marker lines by students with no intention to learn. As a child growing up this kind of environment I did what I saw around me. Ignored my education and focused on making friends. Both my parents worked full time jobs so time spent with them was limited, I never cared much for reading or writing as a child, books where never a gift; more of a chore that was taking up time from my true interested. It was by these guidelines that I never saw the true magic behind literature until now a grown up.

Literacy comes in all different shapes and sizes, and is not always something as simple as a book or literary element. In my case, I consider my high school, Council Rock High School South, to be a very large literacy sponsor for me. I was lucky to have grown up in a middle-to-high class area with a great education system in place. Although Council Rock had great funding and personnel, I did not consider the level of education that I received to be the staple of my literacy. When it came to literacy, there were different types of students who revolved around me during my four years of high school: the overachievers, the underachievers, and the average achievers. The crowd which I associated myself with were the average students and the overachieving students. To myself these groups of people, agreement with a mentor named Malcolm X is very pertinent: “Where else but in a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day” (X 116). Because of the harshness of some courses, my fellow students and I sometimes felt trapped in the building until the end of the school day.

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.

Over the past month, we have been studying the concept of reading and writing in different communities. To assess this, we have read two different texts. Richard Rodriguez’s the achievement of desire”, from his autobiography “Hunger of Memory”; and Lucille McCarthy’s “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum” from “Research in the Teaching of English”. Both answer key questions regarding what it takes to become a great reader and writer, however, from the reading that I have done, each one only answers one part of the question. Rodriguez’s main focus is in the aspect of reading, whereas McCarthy mainly focuses on the writing portion. Both do a decent job of analyzing and putting forth a view of how they believe a person can best perform in these environments. This then allows us to use their concepts and create our own version, based on their points of view. But why should we care? Most people at this level of academia will have developed a system of writing that works for them, and will have a difficult time breaking from it if they’re process doesn’t meet the criteria that Rodriguez, and McCarthy put forth. The reason it’s so important is because of implications these ideas have. Both authors put forth concepts that are indirectly related to one another and that are highly beneficial to all who will apply them. They will force you to conform to new environments in order to succeed, this in turn will make you more

Since the 1980s, Scholars have continued to argue that there is more to ‘LITERACY’ than just the ability to read and write they pushed that there is also a cultural and social approach to literacy. The most prevalent understanding of literacy to all is that, it is a set of tangible skills of reading and writing that are independent of the context in which they are acquired and the background of the person who acquires them. This essay explains in detail the critique of the Traditional view of literacy by Scholars, the merits and downfalls of redefining the traditional view of literacy and why LITERACY is indeed more than just the ability to read and write.

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?

There is an old Chinese Proverb that says, “Teach me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” When it comes to literacy, we want our students to dig a little deeper; not just into written text or language but also their minds. I believe the teaching of literacy needs to be more than just reading and writing. It needs to be able to expand the minds of our students and offer a different perspective. Literacy is a variety of strategies that need to be used to capture the diversity amongst our students. When I look at literacy, I see it as an aspect of collaboration and social engagement, a form of freedom and expression, and the intensity behind questioning. Literacy allows students to become more than just a reader or a writer. It allows them to be able to interact with and interpret the world around them.