Comments on: Literacy in Context

By: karen

karen — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:29:45 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Kelly. Your notion of core principles resonates with me. There really are some basics, fundamentals, that all students must master in order to be able to communicate across different media.

By: karen

karen — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:28:22 +0000

I like the inclusion of listening and can’t help but think what an “old” literacy that is. Technology, however, helps combat the temporal nature of the spoken word. It has become easier to record and store everything so we can re-listen and hear things we didn’t the first time. And the ease of conversion to text means that if I prefer to read, I can thus be able to choose which literacy is my strongest one.

By: Linda704

Linda704 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:58:13 +0000

Michigan’s English Language Arts Grade Level Content Expectations include listening and presenting along with reading, writing and speaking. Listening and presenting look different in the media of 21st century. What does listening look like in these media, and how it is (or is it?) different from traditional means. As far as presentation goes–students are only limited by their imagination (and access!). Beth did an outstanding job of outlining the historical context and urgency of teaching these skills in her blog http://21stcenturion.blogspot.com/ and I like how you wove an even deeper historical perspective in this post, going back to the founders of our country.

By: Kelly Hines

Kelly Hines — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:00:36 +0000

Thank you for bringing attention to your post for me on Twitter today. I agree with many of your points. For me, literacy is about reading, writing, and speaking. It has always been about adapting these core principles for different audiences and purposes. Now we are adapting them for different mediums; the core principles haven’t changed. I look forward to a time that we, as a unified group of passionate educators, can decide on a definition that will move us into the stages of creating practical change for kids!

By: KarenR

KarenR — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:15:03 +0000

Thanks! I’m witchyrichy on Twitter.