My original definition of literacy that I had before our discussion was that literacy meant comprehension in a given language. I had not thought about encompassing everything else that one needs to do in order to comprehend. After some small group talk at my table I do think that my definition of literacy is a bit more general, but includes every aspect that a person would need in order for comprehension to take place. My final small group definition was that literacy is the ability to read, write, communicate, and comprehend through a given language. It is affected by one's own experiences.
My definition of literacy has changed after our discussion in class. It has not changed much, however, instead it is a bit more refined. I agreed with Katie that literacy should be a skill set: reading, writing, speaking, listening and comprehension skills in order to communicate thoughts and ideas. But to add to that not everyone agreed with the last part of our original definition: It is affected by one's own experiences. Many in our class wanted to leave that part of the definition out of the term literacy because it makes it too general. I on the other hand believe that it is needed because I feel that it is an important aspect.
After some more thought, I came to the conclusion that genuine learning can only occur within a context that is meaningful and relevant to the learner. In order to fulfill the definition of literacy, I believe that it needs to be in the context that is meaningful to the learner, that one's own personal experiences affects how one becomes "literate". In the end, I feel that both the skill sets and the life experiences need to be combined in order to have a complete definition of literacy.
My ideal literacy learning environment would have a variety of the methods we covered and read in the Cambourne article. Even if we did specifically go over each and every one of them today in class, my ideal literacy learning environment would have had some sort of goal as those terms do. The ones in which I would specifically want to use in my teaching would be clear classroom expectations in literacy that are modeled from me the teacher to the student and responsibility where the students will take ownership of their learning and make it applicable to their lives. I also would like to read books to the class that would get them thinking about the world around them and challenge their thoughts. That is one thing that I do not see enough of and have not seen at all in my classroom observations in Lansing the past two years.
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When reading Melissa's response this week to what is literacy, the end of her last paragraph really struck me. I strongly agree with her want to read books to the class that would get them "thinking about the world around them and challenge their thoughts." I think this is an aspect of literacy that is often overlooked because of so many different aspects, including fear of diverse or possibly even controversial topics and a strict curriculum teachers are required to follow. I think it is sad that in Melissa's last two years of placement she has not seen much of this type of literacy learning. I have seen some in my classroom this year, but not nearly as much as I would like to incorporate into my own someday. My CT read a Dr. Seuss book that dealt with the environment and how as people we affect how it looks. This was an awesome example of how she was trying to use literature to change and challenge student's ideas about how to treat our earth. I think it would be great if Melissa tried to teach a literacy lesson where she brought in a book that dealt with either diversity or somehow challenged student's thoughts. If she did, then her CT might recognize the lack of this type of literature in her classroom. It might also engage students more because it would be something different from what they usually do regarding literature. In addition, I think that multicultural literature is a missing part in my own field placement. Diversity and multiculturalism are a constant part of our lives and the lives of students. I think this is an aspect that I might want to tackle when teaching my own literacy lesson to students. It is these books that serve purposes to allow to think about the world around them.
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