Literacy

I had a really hard time creating one definition of literacy because it seems impossible to combine so many ideas and thoughts into one definition. Every time that I think I created a good one, I think of another idea that I want to add and the length of the definition keeps growing. The best definition that I can come up with is that literacy is a compilation of speaking, writing, listening, viewing, and reading. Being able to understand, practice, and teach literacy is also very important. Although I have created this definition, I do believe that it can be altered as I learn more and think of new ideas to add to this. My definition changed after our class discussions because I used to think that literacy was just speaking, reading and writing. I seemed to omit the important elements of literacy such as listening and viewing. I feel that the perfect environment for literacy includes a comfortable place where children are eager to learn and teachers are eager to teach. I liked the video we watched in class with all of the literacy centers. I feel that having these stations in a classroom allows for imagination, creativity, and learning. I plan to provide children with the choice of how they would like to practice and learn literacy whether that means providing them with books they are interested in, puppet shows, or group work. I have seen that children are more responsive and open to learning when they are given choices related to a topic that needs to be taught. Cambourne stresses that teachers should practice underdeveloped skills to prompt other ideas and discussion in order to make sure that students engage and comprehend to their full potential (189). I feel that it is difficult at times to keep children engaged and I enjoyed the chart titled The conditions of learning: the model of learning as it applies to literacy that Cambourne provided in his article. This chart mentions the different ways of learning and how these methods keep students engaged. I see this chart as being helpful in the future in applying learning conditions to teaching literacy to students.