Rethinking Literacy: An Introduction to EDUC 4P28

Hey guys! After a nice and relaxing Christmas break, I am back! It is exciting to note that I am beginning my final semester of my undergraduate program at Brock and next year I will start at Brock’s Hamilton Campus for teacher’s college. It is even more exciting to be starting this course on 21^st-Century Literacy. I think it is important that I learn about this stream of education so I can help my future students become critically literate. It is important that our students are critically literate so that they can make informed decisions, communicate effectively and succeed in the ever-changing world! This blog will touch upon what I already know about 21^st-Century Literacy and briefly what I learned in our introductory class!

What I Know About 21^st-Century Literacy

21^st-Century Literacy simply goes beyond the 3 R’s (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic)! Since the beginning of history, the concept of “literacy” has meant having the skill to interpret letters on a piece of paper that form a word that conveys meaning. Teaching young children to put the words together to understand more complex ideas became the main goal for teachers over the centuries. With this being said, 21^st-Century Literacy has transferred this to helping us understanding information about our world not only through printer words on a piece of paper but also through powerful images and sounds in our multi-media society.

A great example of this was presented by Dr. Laura Lane in our introductory lecture. As a class we discussed how a good chunk of newly learned information about the world we live in comes from media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Buzzfeed.

The Newest Literacies 

Critical Literacy - Media Literacy - Moral Literacy - Character Literacy - Environmental Literacy - Financial Literacy - Global Literacy - Multicultural Literacy - Technological Literacy - Mental Health Literacy - Discipline based Literacy 

It is amazing to see how many different types of literacy have developed over the years! I am excited to learn about each of these literacies in class throughout the semester so I can implement them into my future classroom. Using these different types of literacy will help students stay engaged in the classroom and will help them be successful in our overwhelming changing world.

Everyone Loves a Video!!

The video below is a quick recap of what I briefly mentioned in this introductory blog today! I am excited to share with you what I will be learning throughout this education course based on 21st-Century Literacy. Stay tuned!