Literacy: The Truth is

RevealedBy Megan Lambert

Literacy(n): The ability to read and write

But is that the whole story?

“[…] the y-value”

-Ashley Ross “[…]to comprehend the meaning behind what one reads or

writes”-Skylar

Parkerson

“[…] more than just the written

word. It has more than one

definition”-Rebecca Gilbreath

These are all different definitions of literacy, and they just came from one class in A&M-Commerce.

John F. Swzed says all of the following are important elements of literacy:

Text (what we read and write) Context (under what circumstances we

read/ write) Function (why we read/write) Participants (who reads/ writes) Motivation (why we read/ write)

It’s more than this!

“Text” goes beyond classic novels and textbooks.It also includes: Signs Recipes Cereal Boxes Magazines T-Shirt Logos Street Signs

And how you use your literacy depends on who you are. Did you have positive literacy

sponsorship in your life? Do you have access to text? What are your interests? For what audience are you writing?

We are looking at the words we read and write with different eyes

And to be completely accurate, we must consider ALL of the literacies the English Language contains,

including…

Literacy

Computer

Film

Texan AccentsMedical

SMS Language

HTM

L

Academic

Old English

They are all in English, yet I am not “fluent” in all of them.

Even people who understand all of these literacies don’t look at them the same

way.

I look at SMS as annoying, but my classmate August Williams mentioned completing a final project involving it.

Unfortunately, sometimes we let our own interests influence how we research

“The history I create in my mind is not, and can never be, quite the same as the history you create in yours.”

“I do not do railroad history[…]” “When I went to college there was no women’s

history.” “History is two things; the past itself, and what

happens in the mind of the historian.”-Carol Kammen, On Doing Local History

“By ignoring the total story, by not probing for more than partial answers […] [we get] an incomplete history.”

We owe an open, unbiased view of our subject matter to our audience, whether we are

talking about history, psychology, biology, or

astronomy.

So the next time you hear someone say literacy is nothing but this

You can let them know it is so much more

Works Citedo "literacy." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian.

25 Sep. 2011. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literacy>.

o Ashley Ross. “Chapter 2”. Ecollege. Texas A&M University-Commerce. Web. 6 October 2011

o Skylar Parkerson. “Literacy and Its Varied Meanings”. Ecollege. Texas A&M University- Commerce. Web. 6 October 2011

o Rebecca Gilbreath. “Chapter 2”. Ecollege. Texas A&M University- Commerce. Web. 6 October 2011

o Szwed, John. “The Ethnography of Literacy.” Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing. 1st edition. Tabetha Adkins. Southlake, Texas. Fountainhead Press, 2010. 3-18. Print.

o Brandt, Deborah. “Literacy, Opportunity, and Economic Change.” Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing. 1st edition. Tabetha Adkins. Southlake, Texas. Fountainhead Press, 2010. 54-87. Print.

o Barton, David and Hamilton, Mary. “Literacy Practices.” Ethnographic Inquiries in Writing. 1st edition. Tabetha Adkins. Southlake, Texas. Fountainhead Press, 2010. 21-32. Print.

o August Williams. “My Plans for Research.” ecollege. Texas A&M Unversity- Commerce. Web. 6 October 2011

o Kammen, Carol. On Doing Local History. Walnut Creek, Canada: AltaMira Press. 2003. 47-114. Print.