“Guiding Question: How do contemporary definitions of literacy liberate educators to empower students’ inventive thinking?”
One of the greatest things about literacy in the digital age is its diversity. It is more readily accepted that literacy is not simply the ability to read and write. It is the ability to communicate in meaningful ways. And yes, a huge part of that is digital literacy. Everything is online now. Finding information can take mere seconds. It’s understanding what information is relevant and useful, what sources you can use and what should be looked out for, that is so important when false information can come flying at us at the speed of information.
However, that isn’t the only side to this new, more modern, way of looking at literacy.
Something I have been continually struck by (and I’m not sure why because I’ve always thought it was one of the better ways to approach education) was the relevance of contemporary literary practices to the real world. I don’t just mean Twitter and YouTube and millenials leading the charge in this new literacy revolution. What I’ve found is just how much is still relevant to even my personal learning. How much has been relevant to working with employees at the store. How much has been relevant to working with fellow board members for USA Dance.
It’s not just knowing how to communicate, and I think that’s important. It’s knowing when, why, what. Knowing that it isn’t just about filling our airwaves and internet blogs with whatever gobbledegook we can find or think. It’s about creating something with meaning.
Meaning can take so many different forms. Something can have meaning by being something that is useful to us in some way. It can have meaning because it expresses our deepest desires. It can have meaning because it is helpful or kind to someone else. It can have meaning by expressing the feelings and fears of an entire nation. Sometimes it is hard for someone on the outside to perceive the meaning that we ourselves created in that moment. (The video below is the base footage before subtitles for my dance literacy project. Without those subtitles and the understanding that I use open studio time – like the time recorded – for a version of “dance journaling”, the meaning behind the movement can be lost or misunderstood by an outside perspective.) But if we create something with meaning, we inevitably tie meaning to that creation for ourselves that we are hard pressed to forget.
The one thing this semester that I really had a hard time coming to terms with (and I think it’s because it’s a skill I myself have never really struggled with and therefore am having a hard time laying out a legitimate plan for) is vocabulary. It makes sense that vocabulary needs to be covered and done in a way that the students learn the words. Constant use is key, and all these tools like word walls are key too. But it should be woven in the way quotes are woven into an essay.
How do modern definitions of literacy help educators to empower their students inventive thinking? By giving students more power to be more expressive more places more easily. By giving them the tool sets they need. By allowing them to be creative about how they can contribute to the world. By making learning more real.