Definition of Literacy

My small groups definition of literacy is very similar to the one I previously had. We said that literacy is more than just reading and writing it is the ability to understand the world around you. It is the gateway for citizens to continuously develop and grow. I thought it was important to think of literacy as more than just reading and writing, in the traditional sense. To me, literacy involves a variety of aspects that assist in a person obtaining and achieving thier goals. I agree with the group that included the more technical definition of what literacy was, becuase I believe those are aspects that make up the basic knowledge that literacy involves; however, I feel that it also encompasses more than just reading, writing, comprehension, etc.

I realized that the conditions Cambourne discusses are extremely important in order to see good literacy in your classroom. I began to observe many of these conditions in my field placement this past Wednesday and felt that some were more prominant than others. For example, I think my classroom is the definition of immersion. On every wall and in every corner there is either a poster, book, or active literacy activities for students to be engaged with. There is an extreme amount of print in the room, especially in the form of literature. Students not only have a classroom library but they also have shelves with books on them that are the appropriate level for them to read. They keep books in their desks at all times and when they are finished with assignments early, they know to grab a book of their choice and read, either to themselves or with a partner. I find, therefore, that this group of first graders is indeed immersed with literacy by result of the classroom setup. I thus find immersion to be an aspect of literacy that I think is extremely important to enforce in my classroom because when students are surrounded by and saturated with literacy, it makes it known that the emphasis of my pedagogy revolves around being well rounded literacy learners.

In addition to immersion, I feel that in field I have seen employment used often as a condition of literacy. I realized that I saw this often with one specific activity students completed. They read a play in small groups, each taking on the role of a different character. They practiced these lines for several days in order to practice what they were learning about the format of plays (not say the name before your lines, following along so you know when to speak, speak loudly in front of the group when performing, influx in your voice, etc.) After practicing these skills with their small groups, students performed their version of the play in front of the class. Students were able to apply the skills they learned the last several days, for their performances. This created an application of knowledge for students and excersized employment as a form of literacy learning.

The one condition that I would like to see more of in my field is engagement. This is not to say that students are not engaged in literacy learning, because in fact they are mostly active participants. However, I would like to see more engagement occur during centers. I do not feel that students understand the purpose of most of the centers and therefore I do not feel that they are fully engaged in them. They understand that centers are to work on specific skills such as listening, spelling, writing, etc in "fun" ways, however, I do not feel that students fully understand the purpose beyond the obvious skills. Because they are not believing in what they are doing, I find that centers are not run very effectively. Students often become off task and lose interest of what they are doing. I think if they had a purpose and believed in that purpose it would create better literacy centers.

This aspect of engagement is one that I find myself wanting to incorporate into my own classroom and is the condition that I think aligns with my personal literacy pedagogy most. After reading the Cambourne article and discussing literacy in class, I realized that although I felt strongly about engagement, it was not a word that I used when describing literacy. However, now that I have been exposed to this concept formally through the Cambourne article, I feel that it is the center of my literacy definition. This is because without engagement of students in literacy, I feel that the skills they need to develop in order to become literate will not be achieved as effectively. Therefore my definition of literacy would be slightly altered to incorporate the importance of engagement. My ideal literacy environment would look like a combination of immersion and engagement, meaning students would be surrounded by literacy while believing they can and understanding why literacy is important in their lives. Students would be models of active learners in my ideal environment and all of the conditions Cambourne explains would be incorporated into my teaching of literacy throughout the year.