What is Literacy to me?

Wikipedia defines literacy as :the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy Wikipedia


For as long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed reading and felt that it came very naturally to me. Reading was a pleasurable and easy experience for me, which I attribute to assisting me to be able to excel in school and other content areas such as science and social studies. As a third grade teacher, I had to begin to understand the points of view of students who were not strong readers, did not enjoy reading and had extreme difficulty reading. It is a challenge to try to explicitly teach something that seemed to teach itself to me.

Literacy, and helping my students become strong readers was and still is a major priority for me as an elementary school teacher. Knowing how to read is such a crucial and powerful skill in our society that students are crippled and unable to perform even the most basic tasks and functions to live a productive life without them.

After third grade, the inability to read will begin affect a student's ability to understand and access content in all other subject areas as well, which is why literacy in elementary school is such a central aspect of the curriculum that it should be at the forefront of instruction and consideration. 

                      Even now that I teach art, literacy is at the core of my curriculum.  I find every possible way to infuse written work about what we are studying or the art projects that we are doing so that my students are being exposed to print and hearing literature as often as possible.  I believe that students have to see that reading and literature are an essential part of everything that we do.  Being a successful reader will enable them to understand and participate in the world in ways that would be impossible without the skill of reading.

I am excited that this course will allow me to understand the latest trends in literacy and how to harness the power of technology to improve literacy in the educational institutions that I am involved with.