The topic of literacy has been continually growing within
the educational field. This idea of 21st century literacy is an increasingly growing concept because literacy today is not the traditional sense of the word. it is much more.
People look at literacy as just the ability to understand
letters that create words, which convey meaning. It is much more than this
though, you must be able to understand or comprehend the words that are put
together. If not reading would be a pretty useless and meaningless skill. A
common misconception when it comes to literacy is that individuals only believe
that there is one form, the traditional sense of the term literacy. Yet, there
is actually many more such as global literacy, technological literacy, moral
literacy, financial literacy, etc. An interesting thing about these literacies
is that some of them can go together with each other in one way or another. For
example global and environmental literacies can ultimately affect financial
literacy. It links together the idea that if events are occurring on a global
or even a more local scale such as the environment around you then that could
effect the financial aspect of things.
Today’s education system incorporates all of the different
kinds of literacy, but emphasizes one the most out of all and that is the
concept of critical literacy. In the elementary schools for the 21st
century it explains what schools need to strive for to support high quality
learning for students and it mentions “ students need to be critically literate
in order to synthesize information, make informed decisions, communicate
effectively, and thrive in an ever changing global community.” So why such an
importance on this specific literacy? What is critical literacy you might ask?
Well, critical literacy focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection,
transformation and action. It examines things from not just one perspective,
rather multiple ones. With its focuses on problems and their complexity it
involves techniques that are dynamic and situational. The concept of literacy
is changing and shifting from a traditional reading context.
Why is it shifting from the traditional reading context of
literacy? This is because there are copious amounts of ways in which someone
today can access information. Through their cell phone, lap top, I pad, etc.
and on all of these different devices there is twitter, Facebook, instagram,
and various other applications and sites. All children these days have all if
not the majority of these devices that allow them to access any sort of
information with a click of the button. The problem with this is that what
sources are they getting their information from, are they reliable? This is a
key reason why all of the different literacies should be taught to the students
because by doing this it is allowing them to grow and become critical thinkers
bettering themselves.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Gladney
