Literacy a.
Media Literacy - is the ability to access,
evaluate, and create messages through
What is Literacy?
different types of media. Its purpose is
It is the ability to identify, understand, to turn people from mass consumers
interpret, create, communicate and into thoughtful citizens who aren’t
compute, using printed and written susceptible to propaganda or
materials associated with varying advertising.
contexts.
b. Religious Literacy - is the ability to
Literacy involves a continuum of interpret religious scriptures and
learning in enabling individuals to communicate with different faiths.
achieve their goals, to develop their Religious literacy is important for
knowledge and potential, and to combating fundamentalism (e.g.,
participate fully in their community and religious fanaticism) and prejudice (e.g.,
wider society (UNESCO, 2017). Islamophobia).
Three key features of Literacy c. Financial Literacy – is the ability to
manage finances and make decisions
a. Literacy is about the uses people make about money. Whether you’re a
of it as a means of communication and consumer, a business owner, or a voter,
expression, through a variety of media understanding financial budgets,
b. Literacy is plural, being practiced in interest rates, and savings is an essential
particular contexts for particular life skill
purposes and using specific languages d. Computer Literacy - is the ability to use
c. Literacy involves a continuum of computers. This skill set can range from
learning measured at different basic competency (i.e., using
proficient levels. applications like email and Microsoft
Office) to advanced knowledge (e.g.,
programming and computer science).
1. The Traditional Literacy e. Legal Literacy - is the ability to
Teaching basic literacy comprehend laws so you are able to
follow policies and legal procedures.
- The most basic instruction is instruction
in merely pronouncing the words in f. Scientific Literacy - does not necessarily
text. The difficulty of this process varies mean memorizing facts; rather, it’s
by language according to the writing knowing how to conduct experiments
system used. and identify evidence that supports or
contradicts preconceived beliefs or
2. Functional Literacy hypotheses.
- It refers to the practical skill set needed g. Health Literacy - is the ability to
to read, write, and do math for real-life understand healthcare information,
purposes, so people can function particularly for making medical
effectively in their community. decisions or lifestyle choices about
nutrition, exercise, sleep, and other
Kinds Functional Literacy
factors that affect physical and mental - Referred to the skills of reading, writing
well-being. and numeracy. Basic literacy has been
popularly defined as form of abilities to
h. Civic Literacy (a.k.a. Civics) is awareness
read, write, and do basic arithmetic or
of how government works as well as
numeracy.
your rights and responsibilities as a
citizen and voter. How does the brain acquire basic literacy
skills?
3. Emergent Literacy
a. Phonics
- Is the idea that learning literacy actually
begins at a very early age, long before The ability to understand that there is a
official lessons in school. This term is predictable relationship between phonemes
used to describe the knowledge a child (sounds) and graphemes (the letters that
has of reading and writing before represent those sounds in written language) in
reaching the age where those skills are order to associate written letters with the
taught. Emergent literacy argues that sounds of spoken language.
right after birth, children are already in
Phonics is the crucial link between what
the process of becoming literate.
learners hear and how they read and write.
- Refers to the many literacy-rich Known as “cracking the code” on reading,
activities children participate in prior to phonics instruction is most effective when
formal reading and writing instruction children start around the age of five
from birth to about 5 years of age.
b. Fluency
Specifically, emergent literacy has been
defined as “the reading and writing The ability to read text accurately,
behaviors of young children before they quickly, and expressively, either to oneself or
become readers and writers in the aloud.
conventional sense” (Justice, 2006, p.
3). Fluency is critical to building a child’s
motivation to read in the first place. When the
- Examples of emergent literacy activities brain has to focus on what each word means,
include engaging in shared storybook reading becomes a laborious task that prevents
reading, pretending to write or draw, students from gathering meaning. Once fluency
incorporating literacy themes into play, skills are developed, though, students are able
and engaging in oral wordplay such as to recognize words and comprehend them at
rhyming. Shared storybook reading is the same time.
arguably the most common emergent
literacy activity for many children. c. Vocabulary
Parents read to children who are very It goes without saying that readers
young before they can verbally cannot understand what they are reading
participate. Parents often engage in without knowing what most of the words mean.
scaffolding or supportive behaviors This being the case, direct instruction of
during emergent literacy activities. explicitly taught vocabulary, as well as word-
4. Basic Literacy & Skills learning strategies, can help build a flourishing
vocabulary and improve reading fluency and
comprehension.
d. Comprehension
What has been read—this is the
purpose for reading.
Comprehension puts all the pieces
together to make a student become a proficient
reader. Even before students are reading for
themselves, they can begin practicing
comprehension skills when books are read
aloud to them. Predicting, inferring, making
connections, and analyzing what is read are all
skills that can be modeled and practiced with an
adult and help prepare students to do this work
independently.
Students who have mastered the technique of
comprehension are both purposeful and active
readers. They use metacognitive strategies to
think about the purpose of what they’re reading
and monitor their own understanding as they
read. This allows these students to isolate and
feedback where they have a lack of
understanding, which, in turn, opens doors for
them to apply specific strategies to attain that
understanding.
