“Literacy is the responsibility of all subject area teachers.” (Alberta Education, 2020) Literacy cannot simply be left as the sole responsibility of the English Language Arts teachers. As educators we must all do our parts and share the load, taking part in bringing literacy into all of our classrooms. “Literacy is a shared responsibility. It involves all learning and teaching partners – including students, parents and classroom teachers, early childhood educators, school leaders, professional learning facilitators and system leaders as well as members of the broader community.” (Ontario Education, 2013)
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"Literacy is the responsibility of all subject area teachers." (Alberta Education, 2020) |
"Traditional conceptions of print-based literacy do not apprehend the richness and complexity of actual literacy practices in people's lives enabled by new technologies that both magnify and simplify access to and creation of multimodal texts." (Ontario Education, 2013) |
What is literacy?
In the past, literacy has been defined as been defined as reading and writing but there is no such thing as defining literacy on in the terms of English Language Arts (Swan, 2019). Despite, the importance of reading and writing still being at the forefront of literacy – it expands far beyond that. Alberta Education defines literacy as “...the ability, confidence and willingness to engage with language to acquire, construct and communicate meaning in all aspects of daily living.” (Alberta Education, 2020) Literacy is just as much about being competent academically as it is a social and imperative tool for communications with others in the community. In our modern age, it is also important to recognize that literacy is not limited to just print and written materials – we are fortunate enough to have access to multimodal resources available at our fingertips online. “Traditional conceptions of print-based literacy do not apprehend the richness and complexity of actual literacy practices in people’s lives enabled by new technologies that both magnify and simplify access to and creation of multimodal texts.” (Ontario Education, 2013) |
Why is literacy so important?
“Narrativity is the principal way that human beings order their experience in time. It is also one of the primary ways that humans make coherent sense out of seemingly unrelated sequences of events.” (Worth, 2008, pg. 42) Throughout history, it has been seen time and time again that storytelling has been a primary method of instruction for teaching morals, sharing knowledge and gaining various life skills. Whether that be orally or through written text, storytelling has been a key part of how we can effectively teach content matter and engage our students. According to Alberta Education, “literacy practices are both firmly linked with both thinking and learning.” (Alberta Education, 2020) and in the context of teaching literacy in content areas students use literacy to do the following:
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"Narrativity is the principal way that human beings order their experience in time. It is also one of the primary ways that humans make coherent sense out of seemingly unrelated sequences of events." (Worth, 2008, pg. 42) |
"Content may be WHAT is taught, but we also need to take a look at HOW content is being taught. This is an area where we need to consider literacy instruction." (Swan, 2019) |
How can I bring literacy into my classroom?
Marie Swan asks, “It’s all too easy for teachers to focus solely on the content that they teach. There is a lot of pressure to cover a significant amount of material these days. There’s a lot of knowledge to impart to students before the end of the semester, usually for exams. But are students getting sufficient time in school every day to practice their vital communication skills?” (Swan, 2019) Sometimes, as educators, we can become stressed about not being able to fit all the content or curriculum into the short time that we have with our students, but it is important to consider the following statement: “Content may be what is taught, but we also need to look at how content is being taught. This is an area where we need to consider literacy instruction.” (Swan, 2019) Bringing literacy into all subject area classrooms doesn’t need to be so elaborate, stressful or complicated. Our goal is simply to provide opportunities for our students to engage with multimodal literature in as many ways as possible to increase the ability community, enhance learning and build upon their literacy skills. It can be as simple as bringing in a new book to read to your class for engagement purposes, showing students a new video, or engaging them in a different kind of literacy entirely (e.g. music literacy). “Today’s technological environment allows [students] to draw on sources around the globe and integrate what they discover into their learning using a range of media . . . world wide access to information enables teachers to design, with students, learning opportunities that stimulate them to be independent, reflective, and collaborative learners, challenge their thinking and assumptions and engage them on many levels.” (Ontario Education, 2013) |
How will bringing literacy into my classroom impact my students?
Ultimately, by bringing literacy in the classroom there are four main areas or skills that you can develop in your students – developing speaking skills, developing writing skills, developing reading skills and developing listening skills. (Swan, 2019) Think back to the definition of literacy earlier provided by Alberta Education. Would developing these four skills through teaching literacy make teaching your content area infinitely easier? If students are better prepared and equipped with speaking, writing, reading and listening skills would you be able to teach your content area in a more meaningful way? There is no doubt that this will exponentially increase productivity and learning in your classroom. Literacy is a key part of any student’s education and we must ensure that we are doing our students justice by equipping them with the right skills to thrive in our modern world. “Young children need writing to help them learn about reading, they need reading to help them learn about writing; and they need oral language to help them learn about both.” (Thayer, 2019) |
"Young children need writing to help them learn about reading, they need reading to help them learn about writing; and they need oral language to help them learn about both." (Thayer, 2019) |