Literacy Essay Essay, Research Paper
Literacy Exam Essay
The complications that arise when seeking a individual definition of literacy are many. The argument over what is literacy and what International Relations and Security Network T is one that is of critical importance to the instruction of our state s pupils. When originally asked at the beginning of this class about what literacy is, my initial response was the ability to read and compose. While I suppose my reply wasn T incorrect, it surely wasn T wholly right either. Reading and composing are surely of import facets of any individuals literacy and are hence one of the grounds why schools trial in these countries often. However, as the class progressed I came to understand that there possibly more to what I originally thought about what literacy is. I came to recognize that coming up with a individual definition would turn out to be a boring undertaking since at that place now appeared to be so many things that can be considered literacy. Through reading articles refering to literacy and detecting assorted scenes where literacy is used, I have been able to come to a better apprehension of what literacy is.
Elliot Eisner, in his book Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered, talks about signifiers of representation. He defines signifiers of representation as the devices that worlds use to do public constructs that are in private held. ( Eisner, p. 39 ) He says that these can take multiple signifiers runing from unwritten address to music to images. Eisner gives the illustration of a painter who comes across a little mid-west town. Eisner suggests that if the painter were to desire to show his private constructs about the town to the populace, he would most likely do so through the signifier of a picture. This is of import because how a individual expresses their egos is founded in their ain personal literacy. What if the painter was asked to state person about the town and he was non allowed to utilize picture as a signifier of representation? How would the painter so be able to make so to the best of his ability? What this proves is that multiple signifiers of representation are needed because every individual is different in their literary penchants. Indeed, Eisner states that to be refrained from utilizing a signifier of representation would finally non merely limit look, but put the brakes on construct as good. ( Eisner, p. 42 )
Eisner makes an of import point when he states that Every signifier of representation disregards some facet of the universe Not everything can be said through anything. ( Eisner, p. 41 ) This is an of import point because a signifier of representation that might win in depicting one thing could be deficient in depicting another. Additionally, Eisner makes an interesting averment that the signifiers of representation kids have entree to or are encouraged to utilize will determine the mental accomplishments or signifiers of intelligence they will be able to develop. ( Eisner, p. 44 ) These multiple signifiers of representation Eisner speaks of are of import because they all relate to a given individual s literacies.
Having now identified the importance of possessing multiple signifiers of representation of literacy, one can now take the following measure towards finding how literacy is conceptualized. One of the jobs that arise when trying to make so is finding who/what it is that society considers being literate. Bernardo M. Ferdman, in Ethnic and Minority Issues in Literacy, focuses on literacy acquisition among members of cultural minorities. Ferdman looks at three positions that can be used to gestate how it is that cultural minorities gain literacy in the U.S. The first attack is known as the functional attack. This involves chiefly an individual-level position and focuses on the development of the simple accomplishments and activities involved in reading and authorship by persons. ( Ferdman, p. 96 ) This attack looks at literacy as being either present or absent within an single or group and can be seen as a fixed and discernible quality. It frequently leads to word pictures of cultural minorities as deficient or underachieving comparative to dominant group members in ways that are focused on single differences. ( Ferdman, p. 96 )
The 2nd type of conceptualisation of literacy is called the sociocultural attack. This attack views literacy as a cultural building that has intending oly in a specified cultural context. In this sense, it may be more appropriate to talk of literacies, or even multiliteracies. ( Ferdman, p. 97 ) To be considered literate through this attack a individual must be able to construe cultural symbols and utilize them in a culturally appropriate manner. This is where one of the great arguments on literacy takes topographic point, because this method implies that a member of an cultural minority group may be seen as missing literacy accomplishments in footings of the dominant group s linguistic communication and civilization but may be rather literate in the context of his or her ain group. ( Ferdman, p. 97 ) For cultural minorities, the cultural differences between school and place service to be more frequently than non as roadblocks to the acquisition of literacy. Jennifer E. Obidah provides an first-class illustration of this. She proposes that every individual has their ain literate currency made up from everything a individual takes in from their place, school, and other environing environments. She provides the illustration of a instructor who is non able to understand the inquiries asked by her minority pupils and as a consequence discourages them. The ground for the misinterpretation is due to a deficiency of apprehension of the pupils literacies on the portion of the instructor.
The 3rd attack to the conceptualisation of literacy as outlined by Ferdman is known as the power attack. Here the focal point is on the relationship between literacy and power. From this position, literacy can be seen as the grade to which a individual possesses and shows those accomplishments that are valued by the dominant group and/or the vitamin E
lite. ( Ferdman, p. 97 ) The attack to boot suggests that cultural minorities may ne’er be considered to the full literate because they are non a member of the dominant group. In this sense, literacy plants to keep and widen societal control and cultural laterality. ( Ferdman, p. 97 ) Therefore, since literacy is a key to power, it may be in the dominant groups best involvement to find what is considered literacy and what should be suppressed and as a consequence the educational system is constructed to follow these guidelines.
Having described the mistakes that can originate in instruction as a consequence of different conceptualisations of literacy, it is now possible to look at how schools can better based on this information. Sonia Nieto suggests that in order to make so our state must first challenge bing school policies that hinder the instruction of many of our pupils, particularly those belonging to cultural minorities. Educators may see pupils hard to learn merely because they come from households that do non suit neatly into what has been defined as the mainstream. ( Nieto, p. 27 ) Nieto states that in recent surveies, it has been found that school features that yield a positive result on pupils include an enriched and more demanding course of study [ and ] regard for pupils linguistic communications and civilizations to call merely a few. ( Nieto, p. 27 ) It is imperative that instructors affirm pupils linguistic communications and civilizations in order to promoter a better acquisition environment for all pupils. Nieto gives the illustration of a little group of Spanish speech production pupils in a schoolroom. The instructor labeled them as deaf-and-dumb person because they ne’er participated in schoolroom treatments. Nieto maintains that these kids, while talking a linguistic communication that held no significance in the schoolroom they were in, came to school with a linguistic communication, civilization, and experiences that could hold been of import in their acquisition. Therefore, we need to look non merely at the single failings or strengths of peculiar pupils, but besides at the manner in which schools assign position to full groups of pupils based on the sociopolitical and lingual context in which they live. ( Nieto, p. 49 )
In add-on to holding read texts about literacy, I have been able to detect its usage firsthand in a battalion of scenes. First, I have been detecting an 8th class category for the past month. What I have noticed about the literacy patterns in the schoolroom is that for the most portion, reading and composing take on the major signifier. Every twenty-four hours in category the instructor assigns in category reading assignments accompanied by worksheets about the readings. At times the category will read a text together, with each pupil taking his or her bend to read. While reading and composing are of import and stand for the nucleus of literacy, as an draw a bead oning instructor I find it upseting that the instructor conducts every category in the exact same manner. This restricts his pupils in their literary patterns and signifiers of representation.
In add-on to detecting a schoolroom scene, I have besides paid attending to the manner in which literacy is used among my roomies and myself. In this scene, it is chiefly through unwritten discourse that literacy is practiced. With the exclusion of informal, brief notes left for one another, the primary agencies of communicating is through address. One thing that I noticed when I began to pay more attending to our conversations is that if and outsider where to sit in, they may hold problem at times following our conversation for a figure of grounds. For illustration, we all have monikers for one another and in add-on, the usage of inside gags would curtail a individual unfamiliar with us in their ability to understand us. Just like the earlier illustration of pupils and instructors non being able to pass on, the same would keep true hear excessively.
Possibly more than any other topographic point, a library can bear informant to the widest scope of signifiers of representation. In one trip to the library I observed pupils prosecuting in conversation, composing texts, reading, pulling, and working on group undertakings together that encompassed all of the aforesaid signifiers. Detecting pupils in library truly helped me to understand the many different ways in which literacy can be practiced.
Having read a broad scope of text sing literacy and in add-on detecting literacy in pattern in a figure of different scenes, I have come to develop my ain definition of what literacy is. I believe that a individual is literate when he or she is capable of reading and composing texts and so possessing the ability to show what the rich person gained from these texts towards pass oning with fellow members of their civilization and society whether it be through address, music, or any other signifier of representation.
Not merely are at that place more urgent grounds for ownership of literacy today than at any clip in the yesteryear, there besides are more socioeconomic force per unit areas that efficaciously work against its realisation. Teachers face a changeless battle seeking to pass on with their pupils who are unable to show what they are seeking to state in a mode in which the instructor understands. The consequence is either the instructor giving up on the pupil or the pupil giving up on the instructor. Either manner, the pupil is the 1 who pays the ultimate monetary value. More than anything else, this undertaking has broadened my apprehension of what literacy is and how it plays a critical function in the mundane lives of each of us.
Bibliography
1. Eisner, Elliot. Forms of Representation. Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered. Teachers College Press. 2nd edition. New York. 1994
2. Ferdman, B.M. Ethnic and Minority Issues in literacy. Literacy: An International Handbook. Westview Publications. Boulder, CO. 1999
3. Nieto, Sonia. Lessons from Students on Making a Opportunity to Dream. Harvard Educational Review. Boston, MA. 1994
